Of the readings in the
Revised Common Lectionary for 23 January 2014 (Thursday before the Third Sunday after Epiphany), I chose to reflect more broadly on all three readings for today: Psalm 27:1-6; 1 Samuel 1:1-20; and Galatians 1:11-24.
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Psalm 27:4b
What does it mean to dwell in the house of the Lord? One might be tempted to think of such a house to be a physical dwelling as in the days of Samuel. Hannah prayed for a child and promised to dedicate him to the Lord. And when Samuel was three she delivered him up to the house of the Lord at Shiloh in fulfillment of her promise. Yet Samuel did not remain within the physical confines of Shiloh. David sings of wishing to dwell in the house of the Lord yet that was not his physical abode. And Paul ranges wide and far, seldom returning to Jerusalem once he had devoted himself to Christ.
The house of the Lord is therefore no physical building. Just as a church is not a building but the is the people who meet there to worship, so too the house of the Lord is not a building but an ideal. Dwelling there requires a dedication to righteousness that we make central to ourselves. We could just as equally ask that the house of the Lord may dwell in us all the days of our lives even if we live nowhere near Salem. So I close this reflection wishing that each of you will find room for the house of the Lord in the neighborhood of your heart.
