Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, November 21, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
For a while, I didn’t go to church. I was very active in a congregation for almost fifteen years, about five of those years as the Director of Children, Youth, and Family Ministry. When I made the decision to leave, it took me a while to be ready to get involved in a new community. For a while I enjoyed sleeping in on Sundays and going nowhere. But it wasn’t long before I felt at loose ends. It wasn’t as though I couldn’t read my Bible or pray or sing hymns on my own. It wasn’t as though I couldn’t read the insights of pastors I particularly enjoyed online, or discuss theology with my then-husband or friends. (Full disclosure: I did none of those things.) I just craved a community of people who would gather together “on the mountain of the Lord” to be taught God’s ways and how to walk in God’s paths.
A pastor friend of mine suggested my current faith community, and when I walked in the door in late August of 2019 I immediately thought, “I’m home.” I love the people, the music, the preaching, the social justice work, the commitment to the neighborhood, the incredible love and grace and compassion that seems to flow incessantly from font to rafters, from pulpit to hospitality center, from classroom to backyard pizza oven.
We are, each of us, on our own journeys, and not everyone belongs to a particular church. But whatever your practice and path, I hope you can experience the joy and wonder of going up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that God might teach you God’s ways and that you might walk in God’s paths.
In what ways do I go up to the mountain of God?
