Monday, August 15, 2016

Today’s Reading  |  Psalm 114

When Israel went out from Egypt,
   the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
Judah became God’s sanctuary,
   Israel his dominion.

The sea looked and fled;
   Jordan turned back.
The mountains skipped like rams,
   the hills like lambs.

Why is it, O sea, that you flee?
   O Jordan, that you turn back?
O mountains, that you skip like rams?
   O hills, like lambs?

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
   at the presence of the God of Jacob,
who turns the rock into a pool of water,
   the flint into a spring of water. (NRSV)

Reflection
I believe, begins our confession of faith. Each Sunday we stand to profess together who our God is, to affirm who and whose we are, to recount how our God is at work in the world.

Remember, scripture calls to us, again and again.

This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.

Remember that the Lord your God has led you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

I believe, proclaims the psalmist. I believe that God brought God’s people up out of Egypt. I remember that God frees us from the bonds of slavery. When the way forward looks impossible, God makes a path for us through the raging sea and across the river. Protects and nourishes us. Leads us into the promised land and dwells among us. In this, creation surely rejoices. The immoveable mountains, the hills that have stood firm through the ages, skip for joy.

And that which is hardened, the rock and the flint—in God’s hands they are transformed into that which sustains us, into that which offers respite in the desert days of our lives: water. Life-giving water.

Remember. “I will see the rainbow and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature,” says God. “I will remember my covenant with you,” says God again and again.

I believe, we believe, in a God who remembers—and who calls us to do the same. In word and image, in ritual and rite, we affirm that we remember. We proclaim the life-giving story of our God at work in the world, creating and claiming, freeing and forgiving, sustaining and saving, calling and leading, remembering and dwelling among us, always.

We proclaim it, and we claim it. We live our lives knit into that story, that story that does not let us forget the promise of living water, now and forever.

Praise be to God, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

Prayer
Our hearts skip for joy, O God, for we do remember. You have woven us into your story and called us your own. May our lives be professions of that which we believe. Amen.

Written by Ann Rehfeldt, Director of Communications

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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