Ancestry at the Table.

"Well, I'm Irish so,..."

"No. You aren't," said my mother. The table responded with laughter.

"I thought you said I was, from pop-pop's side."

"Well, in that sense you are but it is so small by the time it gets to you. I suppose I am more Irish than you, but I don't identify it. We are more German than anything else. If you have anything else still in your blood it would be Scottish."

The conversation shifted to a giggle filled talk of ancestry and the mixes that are in us all. Place and people does mean something, but it is not about purity but meaning. It is interesting to think about the meaning of Zion and Mount. Zion is the land of God's people, the place or homeland where God dwells. Mount Zion points to the literal place of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, and also the whole people of Israel. So, when you connect all these things and smoosh them together, we associated Mount Zion with the gathering of God's people in worship and the places where we give glory and praise to God. There (or is it here?) God of the Exodus shifts the massive markers for deliverance into comforting filters for protection and presence.

Most importantly, all belong in God's family. All children are created in God's image and welcomed ancestry at the Table of God!

by Alex Levin

Isaiah 4:2-6

On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel. Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Indeed over all the glory there will be a canopy. It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

Sheltering God,

We praise you for your watchfulness and goodness. While we wait for you, we thank you for your protection over us and those that we love. In you, we know we have nothing to fear. With you, we will never be lost or separated from your love. We are grateful for your help and healing with those that we place into your care,... We lift your name on high. We ascend towards your joy by your life-giving movement. Praise to you Spirit forever! Amen.