Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods, or worship them, or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, July 5, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
It’s hard to read this violent, xenophobic language, but what is it really all about? If we strip away the war-like language, God is calling the Israelites to stand firm in their own identity. Know who you are, and know whose you are. If you follow after other gods, which are not God, you will inevitably be let down, and left wondering about everything.
Knowing your own identity is important. Not necessarily your genealogy or other worldly markers of legal identity, but actually who you are. For example, I am a cisgender straight woman, an introvert, a writer, a mom, a Christian, a musician, and someone who needs 9 hours of sleep a night. This is just a sliver of the whole of who I am, my full personhood, which all adds up to being a beloved child of God, full stop. Knowing who I am (and whose I am) lays the foundation for everything I do.
There was a time in my life when I had no idea who I was. I thought I did. I acted as if I did. But my life was an unmanageable mess and a lot of it came down to the fact that I wasn’t being true to myself and therefore wasn’t meeting my actual needs. Changing this required figuring out who I was and what my needs were in the first place and that took a lot of time and effort, all well worth it.
Today I am comfortable in my own skin. And as a result, I am comfortable with you in whatever skin you inhabit. I honor your full personhood wherever you are in your life, whether you know who you are or not. This is the love and grace God gives each of us, and why God is so insistent that we come to know who we are. No violent conquest required.
Who am I? Am I comfortable in my own skin?