The Presence of the Lord

Surely, the Presence of the Lord is in this Place

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NRSV)

31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. 

Caroline and Charlotte are here with us while Tass and Jeremy enjoy an overnight away together. At bedtime, Linda reads them a story, and the story has a presence and being of its own, it’s not just Nana sitting there reading from a book, they get into it and respond. A child has a wonderful sense and ability for that. In our Sunday morning worship, Bible lessons are read to us. As lessons are read and we hear them, it is not simply that someone is standing up there reading to us and we are sitting here listening and reading along from a lectionary sheet, it is a Holy Moment of the Divine Presence; God is present in and as God’s Word -- present spiritually, present physically in the very sound that hits our ears and enters our hearts and minds. We are meant to get into it with God.

This was taught to me in seminary, where it became my spiritual practice and holy experience of worship. And it may have been more than thirty years, those seminary days, since I was able to “become as a child” and get into the Scripture in that way. Because unfortunately, or perhaps unblessedly, as clergy my bent is to look at the reading, think about its historical setting, explain when and why and to whom Jeremiah said this, and the prophet’s mood at the time, visualize how it might be taught and discussed in Sunday school class or Bible study, fingers moving back and forth through the Bible and the other books in front of me, even over the computer keys as we look up stuff on line. To a great extent, that wandering mind robs me of the moment of God’s presence in worship. 

Perhaps a Lenten task is to be mindful of that and repent, which is to say, change and reclaim the sacredness of the moment, the holiness that I once knew. Tomorrow morning, perhaps I can for once have a quiet mind as the Lord comes present in and as the Word, enters me, writes on my heart; and perhaps I can be the Lord’s and let the Lord be my God.  

TW+