Reflections on listening for god essay

Reflections on Listening for GodWhile going through the story, ‘ The Welcome Table’ in Listening for God, the words that echoed through my heart was “ Blessed are the pure at heart for they shall see God”. Though Alice Walker seems to have diluted it by trying to make the old lady a little bit ‘ off-track’, saying that she was singing in her mind all along, it was inevitable that she should see her Lord come to receive her to the ‘ better place’. Somehow Walker has made her point very clear to us in a method that comes naturally to her.  Taking a closer look at the story, I found that often through the rituals and celebration that go on within the church we forget the meaningful words of our Lord that “ God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in Truth”(John 4: 24) (Walker, A). The Very short introduction series on Theology has given a specific view on the Christological values.

Ford is open enough not to limit his views within the scope of Christian theology and in his introduction he states that such is the scope of religion in the world today that more than 4 or 5 billion people are directly or indirectly affected by it in their day to day life.  So the book receives ample scope to interpret the literature of Walker (Worship in Spirit and Truth. (2010).            Whatever explanation about racialism and color may be put forward, the fact is that the congregation did not see the Truth as our Lord would have wanted it.

It is that Christian Theology proclaims a Triune God, who wants to celebrate with his family on his earth, the blessing that he imparts to heaven. So we have the Welcome Table. This means that all men are family on earth, the children of one heavenly father. It was for this that ultimately Christ our Lord died, on a cross- for calling Him, Father.

This Truth seems to have missed the congregation by a mile and a half. Another thought that came to my heart while reading the section was, how ignorant the congregation was about the lucky old woman.  The Lord himself had come to take her home, but they were left out in the open singing praises to the very same Lord, who left with someone they had kicked out.

So, the old lady finds her rest with the Lord, even though it is doubtful if the “ white lady” who gave her the bible would have found the rest.    I have found it very strange that the scripture often doesn’t talk about the wrong doer after the incident.  We have no account of Caiaphas or Herod or even the Bad thief on the left hand side of the Cross.  They are left in the dark with their own consciences to deal with them. I found this to be very interesting. The story was a very enlightening one for me, in the sense that such situations, though not of the same import often seem to rise in congregations in and around the country (Walker, A).                                                          Reference: Walker. A, Listening for God.

Retrieved 12, July 12, 2010. Worship in Spirit and Truth. (2010). Retrieved 12, July 12, 2010. Fromhttp://www. bibletools. org/index. cfm//fuseaction/Topical. show/RTD/CGG/ID/1483/Worship-Spirit-Truth. htm