From the UCC Network: Devotional for 11/22 "Local"

Local

Excerpt from Revelation 21:5-27

“And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’”

Reflection by Donna Schaper

I remember when “local” was a bad word.  Most of us went to high school in places where the idea was to get out as soon as you could.  Now local is new, glossy, glisteny.  Who knew?

Last Monday I fell in love with New York City all over again.  I found a table in the middle of the street that overlooks the famous Flatiron Building.  I had just been in to the new Eataly store at 23^rd and Fifth and was wearing that cosmopolitan sheen.  I felt bathed in light.  Great food, Italian imports, shopping carts that had design as opposed to the kind they have at Stop and Shop in the burbs. (The place where New Yorkers come from.)  You can imagine my burgeoning conceit.  Status accumulation, according to sociologists, is often more exciting than money accumulation.  Either way I had a table in a great triangle of a great and large world.

I was reminded of what Tony Judt, the historian, said about Jews. To Judt, the question of how best to live as a small people in a big world is to be in permanent Diaspora. When we are without roots, we become better cosmopolitans. The same may be true for the United Church of Christ.  We may make more contributions as a small church than as a large church. Local or cosmopolitan?  New or old?  Large or small?  All matters reserved while seated at the throne of Jesus, who even makes all the questions new.

Prayer

Renew us, O God, over and over, time after time. Amen.

About the Author Donna Schaper is the Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City.  Her most recent book is Sacred Chow: a Guide to Holy Eating.