Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Today’s Scripture Reading
Deuteronomy 4:9–14

But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children — how you once stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so”; you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets. And the Lord charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy. (NRSV)

Reflection
This scripture reminds us do not forget the things your eyes have seen nor let them slip from your mind all the days of your life. “What things?” you may ask. The power of the Living God that arose from Horeb, the sacred mountain. They saw fire on the mountain, dark clouds, the voice of God arising from the first, commandments writ on stone tablets, and the lessons of how to live in the land together. In all of this, the paradox is, they did not see God. Nope, the people saw the mountain blazing and the dark shroud, and they heard God speak from the fire. But they saw no form, no likeness, only a voice.

For some odd reason as I read this text I thought of days when as a child some people I knew had a party line on their phones. It was a shared line among a bunch of families so they could keep expenses down. My own family did not have one, but there were times when I was talking with a friend whose family did. Every now and then my friend and I would be chatting, and we would hear a click and then someone trying to make a call, not realizing another party was talking. The disembodied voice might start chatting in the background and then realize another party was on the phone. Though inconvenient at times, there was something quite comforting about having several people sharing the line. It was so counter to our individual cell phones, our disconnected lives, our independent and often hidden lives. And though I never had a visual on those sharing my friend’s line, I certainly knew their voice, their tone.

Is God on the party line? No form, no likeness, just a voice. A word spoken; an interruption to all that distracts us; no moment unnoticed. God’s clicking into our lives, right in the midst of all of our business, our busyness, whatever we figure is a top priority. We can’t see God, but there is no place where God is not. Simply stated: God is calling on the party line. Do you hear it?

Prayer
O God, interrupt our crowded lives with the startling interruption of your word for us, this day. You come in blazing glory, and you come in mystery and solitude. Let us be ready when you speak to us, this day. Though Christ. Amen.

Written by Lucy Forster-Smith, Senior Associate Pastor

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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