A friend of mine has been flat on his back with back pain for the last
several weeks. It's making him crazy, of course, as he's accustomed to
being up and about. It's part of his very identity to be productive. And
that's hard to do when you can't do much more than make your way to the
kitchen in the morning and then back to bed to sleep again.
We all have ways in which we measure who we are. When we are young we
boast about our age or our place in school. We may speak of our
relationships, our occupations, the degrees after our names, or the number
of grandchildren who claim a place in our hearts. All of these offer a
measure of who we are, to be sure. But what becomes of that when a
relationship is taken away, a job is lost or hours are reduced, or when we
move into a new phase of life, which feels more like loss than gain?
Indeed, what becomes of that when our bodies fail us and we find ourselves
flat on our backs and unable to be who we thought we were meant to be?
Over the last few weeks I've been teaching an overview of the Old
Testament. This week we're moving into that period when the people of
Israel were in exile…. A time when they lost all that they had known and
were, many of them, living in a place far from home, cut off from family,
deprived of the ability to practice their faith as they had before. All
that was familiar was gone and they found themselves 'enslaved' in a way
they had never been.
It's worth noting that the Bible tells us over and over that the exile of
the people was a result of their having turned away from God. We read
this as a kind of punishment for having done so. Even so, I find myself
wondering if maybe they weren't in exile already. For as they turned away
from God they turned away from the only true source of life and hope and
meaning. Only now that their home had been overtaken by war and they were
deported, their experience of exile was so very real they couldn't ignore
it anymore.
I don't believe my friend finds himself flat on his back as a kind of
punishment. At the same time, illness, for all of us, can be a kind of
wake up call to put first what belongs first. What I do believe is that
at all times, you and I are called to tend to the things that matter ---
remembering that our most primary identity is not in what we do, where we
live, how much we own, or even who we love… Rather our primary identity is
in the understanding that we are loved by the one true God. We belong to
God throughout our days and everything else we say and do is merely a
reflection of that. And in those times when we find ourselves in a place
we haven't been before, even a place we don't especially want to be, we
can turn to that, rely on that, depend on that, and seek to find meaning
in that. When we are in 'exile' we are still God's own. For the prophet
Isaiah speaks saying,
"Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God…the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed, and all people shall see it together. He will feed his flock
like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in
his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep." (Isaiah 40:1, 5, 11)
Isaiah's words spoke centuries ago to God's people cut off from all they
had known. May they still speak today, helping us to experience God's
tender care, even when we are far from home.
Peace to you and oh so many blessings.
Pastor Janet
Coming up this week at Salem:
On Sunday at 9:15 a.m. all of Salem is invited to gather in Fellowship
Hall as we kick off our Annual Stewardship Conversation with kids of all
ages. Together we will watch an episode of "Davey and Goliath" and spend
some time together learning about sharing. Be sure to join us!
Salem has kicked off a backpack program with Sycamore Middle School. We
are filling backpacks full of food for especially needy kids to take home
on the week-end. We have plenty of backpacks for now, but are especially
in need of peanut butter and jelly (plastic jars only please), pancake mix
and syrup, pasta and spaghetti sauce and breakfast cereal. If you can
help, please drop your donations off at Salem's food pantry just outside
the main office.
Salem's confirmation class is putting together healthy snack bags for
Jefferson Middle School. Do you want to be a part of it? Drop off your
teddy grahams, raisins, goldfish crackers or pretzels and small zip lock
bags in the box in Salem's Welcome Center!
It's not too late to sign up to study the entire Old Testament in 7 weeks.
The class kicks off on Monday, October 4th at 7 p.m. For a copy of the
book or to sign up, check out the sign up sheet in the Welcome Center.
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