The Presence

Ezekiel 48:23 - 35
and
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Shug and Celie talking about God:

Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit.

It? I ast.

Yeah, It. God ain't a he or a she, but a It.

But what do it look like? I ast.

Don't look like nothing, she say. It ain't a picture show. It ain't something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found It.

Shug a beautiful something, let me tell you. She frown a little, look out cross the yard, lean back in her chair, look like a big rose.

She say, My first step from the old white man was trees. Then air. Then birds. Then other people. But one day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed. And I laughed and I cried and I run all around the house. I knew just what it was. In fact, when it happen, you can't miss it.

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I walk around talking to squirrels and birds. I put my hand inside bushes and trees to feel them - not to feel their leaves and their bark, but to feel their life. I reach out to buildings, bridges, and furniture to connect with those who made them. I talk to people that I don't know and try to look at people as I pass them on the street or stand with them in an elevator. I see life all around me. I want to feel it. I want to touch it. I want to embrace it.

There is a heartbeat to this world that is pounding out life continuously. I believe it connects us to each other and to every other living thing. I believe it connects us to our past and to our future. I can't always feel it - but sometimes I can.

This life that I feel and sometimes don't feel but believe is there anyway - this life that connects us and sustains us - this heartbeat, I believe, is The Holy ... Our Creator.

Jesus said crazy things like, "I am the Life" and "I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly." Jesus also talks about abiding with us, even to the end of the age, and that he will send us a Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit that will live with us forever. Our sacred writing promises that there will always be a holy presence living with us and living within us.

At the end of Ezekiel, after all the strange visions and prophesies and bloodshed; after God makes it clear that exploitation and oppression of the weak, the sick, and the scattered is reprehensible; Israel is promised a city that will be divided equally among all the people. It is a city whose name is, "The Lord is There."

There is another city mentioned in our sacred writing. It is in the book of the Revelation. The one seeing the vision and narrating the story describes this city.

Revelation 21:1-8
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them; they will be God's peoples, and God's self will be with them; God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also the one seated on the throne said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Then I was told, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

There's a lot in this section. I read more of it than I needed to because I don't want to avoid the ugly stuff, but I don't want to spend a lot of time on it either. First I want say that this is someone's vision - someone's dream maybe. I don't believe this is something to be taken literally. I know that many have though, and it has brought pain and condemnation to people who don't deserve to be hurt and condemned. Second, I don't believe our Divine Beloved will torture people eternally. I don't believe our Divine Beloved tortures people ever. I do believe that the author of this book had a vision and framed it in a way that made sense to them.

What I see as the focal point of this passage is that "the home of God is among mortals." The Holy dwells with us! I see this as being the same city that Ezekiel talked about. It's a brand new city. The old systems of oppression and hierarchy have no place here. If you live in this city, you must agree with the ground rules - all who thirst get water, and all who cry get their tears wiped away. This is not a place that The Holy visits or manages from afar. It is the very dwelling place of the one who is Love.

Alice Walker pushes the point even more, saying through the voices of Shug and Celie that we are connected not only to each other but to all of creation. This connection isn't theoretical, but it is the energy of the Creator itself. Shug says, "it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed." This is a form of solidarity that most people are frightened to imagine. She says that "God is everything." If we can believe, or even imagine believing, that God is everything and that we are connected to all of creation, that means that The Holy is present everywhere, or, in other words, that The Presence is.

Think about the Creator, our Divine Beloved, The Holy, God ... whatever name you use ... Think about using the name, The Presence. One Old Testament name for God is "I Am." Another is "The Lord Who Sees." Yet another is, "The Lord Who Provides." All these types of names insinuate a loving and involved Entity ... an Entity that is integrated into life. I want us to imagine this Entity as Presence. The one who sees is able to see because it is present. The one who provides is able to provide because it is present. The one who is ... who simply is ... is present.

That would mean that we are accompanied by the one who has loved, who continues to love and who will always love us. There is a power to accompanying someone. There is a peace that we can offer someone when we accompany them. When you walk a journey with someone and you share their pains and their joys, you are a witness to their life and they are a witness to yours. It goes both ways. So if The Presence is walking with us then we are also walking with The Presence. Our Creator is a witness to our life and we are a witness to the Creator's.

The Presence is the heartbeat of life. It is what I want to feel; what I want to touch; what I want to embrace. The Presence transcends time connecting us to the past and future. This week try living consciously accompanied by The Presence. See if there is a comfort there and a strength. We are the city. We are the dwelling place. We are accompanied by The Presence and at the same time we are to accompany others with our presence. Through us tears are wiped away and the thirsty are offered living water.