(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for Coronavirus Mizpah, originally shared on June 22, 2020. It was the twenty-fifth video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
This was our 25th video, not
counting the Introduction and Welcome video on our YouTube Channel! Coincidentally, we moved from DSL to high
speed internet over the weekend, which should improve the visual quality of
these videos. Actually, I should say that we moved to fast-er internet, as
there are still, as they say, a few bugs in the system.
I should have remembered what I learned a
long time ago, that technology doesn’t always make your life better, sometimes
it just allows you to fail at level of sophistication you couldn’t previously
have imagined.
One of the bottlenecks may be my older model
computer. I may need a faster one, with more storage, a faster processor, and a
better graphics card, which I knew was coming. And while the internet uploads
and downloads are faster, our router may not have the same signal strength to
reach my cell phone camera in our backyard, and when we are getting out more we
might need to consider a stand-alone camera so as not to use data.
We’re having a tech person come by this
afternoon to make an assessment. But,
we’re in a situation now that reminds me of the children’s book, “If You Give a
Mouse a Cookie”. You know, if you give a
mouse a cookie, he’s going to want a glass of milk.
When you give him the milk, he'll probably ask you for a straw. When
he's finished, he'll ask you for a napkin. <sigh>
We’re at a point in the coronavirus pandemic
where some areas are spiking again. The governor has ordered that masks be worn
in public, which has been met with varying degrees of compliance. This means
that we may be in isolation for awhile. <sigh>
It was interesting to us that, when our son
came by so that we could celebrate his birthday, his girlfriend came as well,
and all four of us wore masks. When he tried to blow out the birthday candles
on the cake through the mask, he couldn’t do it. And he’s a big guy. Try it. Masks
are quite effective in keeping breath from spreading very far outside the mask.
As I mentioned, today we are presenting our
25th YouTube video, not including the Introduction and Welcome video
on our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water.
So, I thought it would be appropriate to use
the theme that I had planned for our very first video. I decided to take it in
another direction instead, but I have had the idea for 25 weeks.
And, that is the concept of the Mizpah.
Maybe you’ve seen it as jewelry, maybe
you’ve heard or even recited it as a benediction.
It comes from a chapter in the life of
Jacob, whose name changed to Israel after he wrestled with the angel and
survived, and who had 12 sons, who became the 12 patriarchs of ancient Israel.
As a younger man, Jacob had fallen in love
with his cousin, Rachel. This was not a problem at the time. His uncle Laban, his
mother’s brother, who lived in the land north of Palestine, tricked Jacob into
marrying Rachel’s older sister, after working for Laban for 7 years in order to
marry Rachel, and then required Jacob to work for seven more years so that he
could actually marry Rachel. He had unilaterally changed Jacobs wages 10 times
over the years, during which Jacob had worked for Laban’s livestock for 6
years.
After 20 years, Jacob got fed up and left to
return to the land God had promised to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, taking
his two wives, Laban’s two daughters, and their maids, and the livestock that
he had earned working for Laban.
Laban chased him down and his two wives,
Laban’s daughters, but saw that his daughters were intent on going with Jacob,
and this is what happened: Laban says…
*Genesis
31:44-49
Resigned to losing his daughters, Laban
agrees to what is already happening, but makes a covenant with Jacob, that
Jacob is not to mistreat his daughters or take any additional wives (which is
interesting, as it was patriarchy), and as there were no witnesses present
(i.e. no men, because it was patriarchy), God would be their witness.
It has become, since, something else, a
blessing or a prayer. It’s even been given a name, the Mizpah.
When I served at Christ Lutheran Church in
Compton and visited other congregations, I sometimes heard the pastor use it as
the final benediction, or the whole congregation would recite it together.
“The LORD watch between you and me, when we
are absent one from the other”
These words are also found on jewelry, often
in the form of the words of the Mizpah broken in half and each half made into a
pendant. Two people each wear one half, “The LORD watch between you and me,
when we are absent one from the other”, as an expression of a close personal
bond. They are asking that God watch over them while they are apart.
So, the Mizpah has taken on a meaning not
supported by its original context, but draws on the larger Biblical context of
relationship.
It is both a prayer and the answer to that
prayer, both a desire and it’s fulfillment.
It states the desire that God will watch
between Laban and Jacob, and the confidence that God will.
We have now been largely absent from one
another for four months. We are in isolation to help prevent the spread of a
virus. And, we both bless one another with the desire that God would fill the
space between us and watch over us, and have the confidence that God does do
exactly that.
We petition and acknowledge God at the same
time. This is faith. We are broken, but God has made us whole. We are sinners,
but God has made us saints. We were no people, but God has made us God’s people,
the Body of Christ.
Disunity and injustice among the races, as
well as cultures and classes, are a consequence of our separation from God.
But, where God is, there are no such distinctions. They are overcome in Jesus
Christ, God made flesh to suffer and die for all of humanity.
Have you every participated in the worship
of God in another language, or with people of another race, or culture or
class?
There is space between us, but it is not
filled, it is eliminated in our common living relationship with the living God.
Paul
writes in his letter to the church at Ephesus:
*Ephesians
4:1-6
Paul doesn’t just ask us, or suggest to us,
he begs us to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.
There is only one Church and it has lots of
gifts, just as one body has many parts, but Christ is the head of all. We are
called not to ignore our differences, but to allow the Holy Spirit to transcend
them in us and through us.
So we are never truly isolated from one
another. We are united in our common relationship with the living God.
Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black
Power movement in the ‘60’s, spoke at a nearby school when I was in college.
One of the things he said that I still think about is, “If you have something
that’s really good, you don’t have to cram it down people’s throats. They’ll
steal it from you.”
Christianity
is the great good news. So, why aren’t people clamoring for it, demanding it,
stealing it? Because our tendency is to be in isolation, to believe we can be
our own God. We are closed in upon ourselves. Everything in our larger culture
supports this.
I remember a pastor once telling a group of
us that he believed he had done a stellar job of teaching his congregation
about Grace because no one wanted to do anything.
Paul begs us to “maintain the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.
Our world is now desperate for community and even willing to risk their
lives, as well as the lives of others, to get it.
As we approach the day when it is safe to
physically worship together, let us remember that.
The community that God gives and which we
seek always to maintain, is an intensely growing need. Let’s promote the Body
of Christ, the Church, the community that is a gift from God, and let’s remove
every barrier so that people come to take it freely.
Let us be bathed and sustained in the living
waters that are the person of the Holy Spirit, so that, when the time comes, we
have something good to give.
Meanwhile, “The LORD watch between you and
me, when we are absent one from the other”.
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