Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, December 7, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Shame is worse than death. Seriously, I find it fascinating that Daniel’s vision doesn’t say those who are somehow unworthy and unwise will suffer eternal hellfire and torture, but shame. Leaving aside the rambling explanation of how Israel was an honor-shame culture and shame carried different connotations than it does now, I can’t help but look at this in a modern context.
Shame is paralyzing. Demoralizing. Dehumanizing. We live in a new kind of honor-shame culture in which we get constant messages that if we don’t look a certain way, make a certain amount of money, make a certain kind of impact, “succeed” in a narrowly defined manner, we are failures. Less than. Purposeless and pointless. A life lived in shame is a diminished life. Can you imagine living eternally in that state? That would be hell.
God loves us exactly as and how we are. Period. There is not measuring stick. The “meaning of life” that so many find elusive and pursue down rabbit holes that lead to excess, misery, and, often, addiction, is not difficult to understand at all. In fact, it’s laid out succinctly in Micah 6:8. “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” My modern translation? God has told you the meaning of life: to love and serve God and others, while honoring yourself with good self care (okay, I added that last part, but I think it’s implicit.) When I measure everything I do against that measuring stick, I find that my small, simple, unassuming life is filled with meaning, and I am free of shame for what I have not accomplished in the eyes of the world.
What do I think is the meaning of life?
