Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“These he gathered together, with the workers of the same trade, and said, ‘Men, you know that we get our wealth from this business. You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying that gods made with hands are not gods.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, July 17, 2020
by R. Fergus Moir, Clergy Stuff
Here we see corporate greed alive and well in the first century. Demetrius probably had no moral beef with Paul’s religious beliefs. But God’s truth was hitting him where it hurt: in the pocketbook. So it is now. God calls us to turn away from hoarding wealth at the expense of the vast majority of people, people who are victimized and marginalized by our economic system. We don’t want to see that Jesus chose to live the life of a poor, itinerant preacher, that he told his followers not even to take a spare coat with them on long, arduous mission trips, that he told us not to worry about clothes or food but to rely on God to provide these things. That’s just fine for some people, we think, but we need to make sure we have enough to ensure our own security. Driven by fear of not having enough, we conveniently don’t see Jesus’ example or hear his words. Like Demetrius, we don’t take issue with those things per se, but when they get between us and our need for wealth, we come up with all kinds of plausible reasons why those things don’t really apply to us.
Hopefully, unlike Demetrius, we don’t incite violence to try to take down anyone who calls us out. On the other hand, do we willingly take part in systems that do the equivalent, directly or indirectly?
How do I respond when I feel that God’s word calls me out for actions that are not life-giving?
An
Exceptional
People
Blog Posts
SIGN UP NOW