Dear Friends,

 We hope that you are safe and well.

 Today's Meditation presents Vince Amlin reflecting on "Living up to the Hype."

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In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.

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Ron and Jean

MEDITATION 631: "Living Up to the Hype" Vince Amlin

March 29, 2022

Living Up to the Hype

Vince Amlin

The people quarreled with Moses and said… “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place? There is no water to drink.” The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Take the staff … and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water.” - Numbers 20:3-8, excerpted (NRSV)

In his poem, “Security,” William Stafford uses the metaphor of islands that appear each day to give us solid ground on which to venture further into the unknown. The trick, he says, is, “you have to know they are there before they exist.”

As a pastor, I sometimes feel like a tour guide for one of those islands.

Describing the congregation to itself, I tell the story of a church that I know is there, even if it doesn’t yet exist. It’s a church that reliably shows up when we step forward in faith. But at other moments, we lose sight of it completely and wonder if we made it up.

Like the Israelites in the desert, that can be painful for the people I lead.

“You said you were taking us to a land of milk and honey, but all we see is rocks!”

“You said this was a community of love, but no one has even learned my name!”

They’re not wrong. It’s never the paradise that we promised (that God promised!). Or it is, but it doesn’t exist yet. Looking at all those rocks, we have to know there are unquenchable springs inside them. Looking at all those imperfect strangers, we have to know it is the actual Body of Christ.

And then, through the cracks, it comes streaming forth.

Prayer

Our Rock and Our Security, make us into the people of love you know we are.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vince Amlin is co-pastor of Bethany UCC, Chicago, and co-planter of Gilead Church Chicago, forming now.

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William Stafford:

"Security"

Tomorrow will have an island. Before night

I always find it. Then on to the next island.

These places hidden in the day separate

and come forward if you beckon.

But you have to know they are there before they exist.

Some time there will be a tomorrow without any island.

So far, I haven't let that happen, but after

I'm gone others may become faithless and careless.

Before them will tumble the wide unbroken sea,

and without any hope they will stare at the horizon.

So to you, Friend, I confide my secret:

to be a discoverer you hold close whatever

you find, and after a while you decide

what it is. Then, secure in where you have been,

you turn to the open sea and let go.