Restoring Our Soul

…and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord     my whole life long.

Psalm 23.6b

Happy Sunday, Middle!

We are back for our 4th official Sunday in the building. We are actively settling in-- still working out the kinks, still marveling at the newness, still finding each other. As I read Psalm 23, the last line really stuck out for me in a fresh way. It honestly surprised me! I'm transient by nature and/or design (the call to digital ministry is STRONG within me), so my relations with physical space is different. When I first came to Middle, the staff was displaced while the social hall and offices were being renovated. I lived on Coach buses and cruise ships, in hotels and cast housing all over the world while trying to find a way to do “church.” I deeply resonated with the line from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple: “Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me.

But the next line resonates in this season, specifically: “And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God.”

I’m curious today, Beloved, what it means for you to have God with you– when the psalmist says “dwell in the house of the Lord,” what if that is you? What if the temple is you?

AND, what happens in the space when we all bring ourselves together? I think we’ve really gotten to feel what happens when we get together in our new physical space as well as in our online spaces. This is why both spaces are so important, Beloved. How we be together is a way that we love God.

May we practice that today in our physical and virtual sanctuary. May we dwell in the house of the Lord. May it be so.

See you at church,

 

Rev. Natalie Renee Perkins