fences

Sunday August 18^th, Jeremiah 23:  23 "Am I only a God nearby," declares the LORD,  "and not a God far away?  24 Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the LORD. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the LORD. When Jacob crossed the river and wrestled with the messenger of God on the other side, he realized that God was not just the God on his side of the river, but was also the God of the lands beyond the river.  Today we still tend to impart that kind of territorial thinking to God.  The territory is less geographic and more ideological, which to a large degree ends up being geographic.  It is singing “This Land is My Land” without the next phrase “This Land is Your Land”.  In the face of that, God declares that all of heaven and earth is the dwelling place of God.  We get the heaven part, it is the all of earth is God’s and not our’s that we have trouble with. Our responsibility to care does not stop at any border, whether geographic or ideological nor does it include borders or fences or “papers please”  or impossible paths to citizenship.  Our news continues to break along ideological lines with the implicit message to fear the other.   But our Lord is not just a God nearby.  Our Lord is also a God far away.  Our Lord is a God of all the children of creation and would prefer we stop acting like the spoiled one and grow up.