Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Wandering God

In reading up on Barack Obama, reading his first book about growing up, Dreams of My Father, there was a verse attributed to Chronicles, which I can only find in the Psalms. I'll go looking again.

But I did find this verse in 1 Chronicles 17:1, 2: I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent. Nathan said to David, "Do all that you have in mind, for God is with you."

Nathan continues: "Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the lord: You shall not build me a house to live in. For i have not lived in a house since the day I brought out Israel to this very day, but I have lived in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people saying Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"

We are a pilgrim people, made for following a Pilgrim God, who moved his people Israel hither and yon, never leaving their side, but moving with them, as they moved with Yahweh.

No wonder pilgrimage is in our very blood as people of faith: the God who created us is a wandering God, the Pilgrim God.

Buen camino!

Pilgrim peace, Brett

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