RBWords

     One of the grand hymns of all time is "Abide With Me."  It is, in a way, the response to the ancient question, "Where is God?" The hymn is meant to be a consoling answer/plea to that question.  The Book of Revelation, written as a consolation to a people enduring what seemed to be unceasing persecution, offers the words quoted above.  I find particularly moving the lines: "[God] will wipe every tear from their eyes...." because it speaks of the kind of tender response a parent or friend will offer in times of trouble.  I think not just of the troubles that come with our relatively peaceful lives here in the USA, but of those who are living as refugees in war-torn areas in the Middle East and Africa.  They must be longing to return to their lives and live in peace with their homes or crops or flocks or shops, and they could quite understandably be asking in the midst of their suffering:  "Where is God?"

     The Book of Revelation tells us that God dwells in our midst!  The gospel scripture for today, also from the Johannine tradition, tells us that we can experience Christ's love from one another.  We may recall from the "Prologue" of the Gospel of John those words: "The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us...."   One of my favorite stories [which I think I have told here before!] is about the little girl who wasn't at her usual waiting place after school when Mom came to pick her up.  Mom, very concerned, goes looking for her and finds her on the school steps with a friend who is holding a broken dolly in her arms and crying.  Mom asks why daughter was not where she usually waited.  The little daughter replies, "My friend's dolly is broken!"  Mom replies, "That's sad but you can't fix her dolly, can you?" Little daughter replies:  "No, I can't fix her dolly, but I can help her cry!"  Wiping away the tears can be a great sign of God's presence among us.  Whether those tears are local, national or international, any way that we can do this will answer the question:  Where is God?"  AMEN