Elements from this morning’s gathering

Psalm Reading

A Reading from Psalm 84

What a beautiful home, God!
My soul has always longed to live in a place like this,
Always dreamed of a room in your house,
where I could sing for joy to God-alive!

Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,
sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young,
singing their songs in the place where we worship…
How blessed they are to live and sing there!

And how blessed all those in whom you live,
whose lives become roads you travel;
When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,
it will become a place of refreshing springs.

They go from strength to strength, their roads curve up the mountain,
and at the last turn – Zion! God in full view!

Better is a single day in your courtyards
than a thousand days anywhere else!
I would prefer to stand outside the entrance of my God’s house
than live comfortably in the tents of the wicked!

The Lord is a sun and shield;
God is favor and glory.
The Lord gives—doesn’t withhold!—good things
to those who walk with integrity.

Scripture Reading

A Reading from Hebrews 11

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen… By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out without knowing where he was going.

By faith he lived in the land he had been promised as a stranger. He lived in tents along with Isaac and Jacob, who were coheirs of the same promise. He was looking forward to a city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God…

All these people died in faith without receiving the promises, but they saw the promises from a distance and welcomed them. They confessed that they were strangers and immigrants on earth. People who say this kind of thing make it clear that they are looking for a homeland.

If they had been thinking about the land that they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return to it. But at this point in time, they are longing for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God isn’t ashamed to be called their God—he has prepared a city for them.