| p2. July 9-16 Tabernacle: July 9. Mahatma Gandhi said it depends on our attitude whether or not we gain something by entering cathedrals or churches. The church�s bad attitude toward us may beget our bad attitude, limiting our receptivity. But God has provided an alternative tabernacle, as Gandhi wrote, �Churches, mosques and temples of worship which cover so much hypocrisy and humbug and shut the poorest out of them seem but a mockery of God and God�s worship when one sees the eternally renewed temple of worship under the vast blue canopy inviting every one of us to real worship� (Mohan-M-al-a [A Gandhian Rosary], compiled by R. K. Prabhv [Ahmedabad, India: Navajivah Publishing, 1949], p. 44). Help me find you in whatever tabernacle I worship, O God. July 10. Again Jesus spoke to them saying, �I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life (John 8:12). Christ Jesus, lead me with your light through this day and through life�s shadows. July 11. Do you not know that you are God�s temple and that God�s Spirit dwells in you (1 Corinthians 3:16)? A gay church member who had housed and fed and supported a homeless gay youth asked their minister why the church had not done anything for the young man. The minister said, �You�re watching out for him. And you�re the church!� When we complain about the church, we are also complaining about ourselves. If the church is homophobic, it may be because not enough of us are doing our part to overcome prejudice. Bless us with your Spirit dwelling within and among us, making us holy. July 12. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19). What we do with our bodies is important because we are a temple for the Spirit. Paul says that he wished that everyone was single like him, but if they aren�t single then couples should not ordinarily refrain from lovemaking. Though his guidance is preceded by what we shouldn�t do, it�s followed by what we should do. In a body-affirming spirituality, to �glorify God in your body� means to enjoy and take care of your body. May we glorify you Lord by taking care of and enjoying our bodies. July 13. How lovely is your dwelling place, O God of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of Yahweh; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God (Palm 84:1-2). Throughout the Bible, Yahweh�s dwelling place was redefined, from the tabernacle to the temple, from creation to the community of believers. However experienced, it may be recognized by certain marks of character found in Psalm 84. It is lovely, causing longing and joy. �Even the sparrow finds a home� where she may lay her young, at your altars� (84:3). A happy place to live, it empowers, and it welcomes prayer. �For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere� (84:10). It offers justice, symbolized by the sun. It offers protection, symbolized in the shield. And �no good thing� is withheld, providing reason to trust. And it is there that God lives. No one alive can say exactly what the afterlife is like as we either can�t remember it (if you believe in reincarnation) or we have not been there yet (as we are still alive) but God�s word tells us that we have something to look forward to in Christ�s love. July 14. Come to Jesus, a living stone, though rejected by mortals (like gays and lesbians in many places) yet chosen and precious in God�s sight (like gay and lesbian people are), and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a body priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4-5). Knowing that a true tabernacle is where God lives, and sensing that God wants us to choose life, many gay men and lesbians have avoided the church as we might a mausoleum. But 1 Peter tells us to come to Jesus as �living stones,� letting ourselves �be built into a spiritual house.� Churches who welcome us realize that we bring resurrection and life. We offer �spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.� Build us into your dwelling place, Holy God. July 15. For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another (Galatians 5 :13). To follow the command to �love your neighbor as yourself,� quoted in verse 14, the Galatians are not to be irresponsible or insensitive to one another in their freedom. Becoming �slaves to one another� means to consider another�s needs as superior to one�s own. Lord, help us to love one another. July 16. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, �Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him (Exodus 32:1). How quickly they forgot! At the base of Mount Sinai, after the ten plaques, the deliverance out of Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea- Moses should have gotten a little more respect, not to mention Yahweh! Insecurity in the wilderness makes us easy targets for false gods, whether of the human or the material variety. Lonely for God, we worship what we have. O God, deliver us from worshipping anything less than you. |
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