Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, July 22, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Nope. Just nope. I feel like I shouldn’t even have to dignify this with a devotion. But here it is and if nothing else I can take it as an opportunity, once again, to struggle with this so often beautiful yet so often jaw-droppingly wrong-headed document I still consider to be the Word of God.
After all, God can’t be contained in a book. All of creation from its inception to now is driven by constant change, and God (though unchanging Godself), dances along with the changes, embracing humanities evolving understanding of who God is and who we are in relationship to God. And while much of scripture is timeless and open to interpretation based on context, some of it is, in my opinion, a snapshot of a much crueler time and place.
Slavery is wrong. It really is that simple. No human being should be considered the property of another. And, by the way, women and children were also considered the property of their husbands/fathers and therefore, though the roles might have been slightly different, also slaves. Just because the context in which this was written accepts slavery doesn’t mean slavery is okay with God.
Yesterday’s devotion was all about living as free people in God, for crying out loud. I believe with all my heart that it is God’s desire that every single human being is a beloved child of God deserving of autonomy and flourishing. If that means I’m “cherry-picking” the Bible, so be it.
How do I make peace with this passage and others like in the Bible?