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| Covenant Blessings"Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God." (daughter-in-law Ruth to mother-in-law Naomi) "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you..." (young man Elisha to older mentor Elijah) "If I live, show me the faithful love of the Lord; if I die, never cut off your faithful love from my house..." (Jonathan to David, two close friends of the same gender) "When Jacob (first) saw Rachel, he kissed her and wept aloud..." He worked 14 years so she could become his wife. (Genesis 29) "God has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and secure." (King David, in 2 Samuel 23) "Arise my love, my fair one, and come away..." (love poetry in the Song of Solomon) "I will be their God, and they will be my people." (God speaks through Jeremiah ) "Lord, you know I love you." (Peter the disciple to Jesus his Savior) Dear Friends: From the above examples (all quotations from the Bible) it appears that covenants between all kinds of people, within many different types of relationships, for a variety of purposes, are honored and blessed by God. What God honors and blesses is human steadfast love and faithfulness which, wherever it exists, mirrors the steadfast love and faithfulness of God. Whenever people seek God's blessing (for a pet, for a home, for a new endeavor, for a relationship, or any number of other things) they are recognizing the precious value of what they have been given. They are asking God to help them fulfill their responsibilities and live up to divine standards of justice, integrity, honesty, and commitment. They are asking for the additional gifts of security and happiness and health, which they know cannot be guaranteed, but which they also know cannot be found apart from God. Asking for God's blessing is a way of asking for God to be present in all things. We are living in interesting times, when people on either end of a long spectrum of values and feelings regarding committed (marriage) relationships are striving to live out their understanding of what God wants, and/or what they themselves want, for their lives. Some actions may be inspiring to us; others may be discouraging or horrifying. What brings some of us hope might provoke fear in others. Some celebrate, while others mourn. I continue to pray that the United Methodist Church, as a Christian denomination, will increasingly live into its motto of "open hearts, open minds, open doors." And I find myself humming a chant written by the monks at Taizé: "Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas, Deus ibi est." The monks write their songs in Latin, because nobody speaks it as their first language; everyone is in the position of having to learn it. The words, in this case, mean, "Wherever charity and love is, there is God." Blessings be upon you all, Pastor April |
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