Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“I have forsaken my house,
I have abandoned my heritage;
I have given the beloved of my heart
into the hands of her enemies.
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard,
they have trampled down my portion,
they have made my pleasant portion
a desolate wilderness.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, June 20, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
So, wait. God just gave up on Israel? Does that mean God is giving up on us and that’s why we’re in such a sorry state? God points out that “many shepherds”—i.e. the leaders of the people—have destroyed God’s beautiful society. And that sounds like us right about now (and for a long, long time now—the current mess is just the outcome of decades of greedy and incompetent “shepherds” in the U.S.) But still. God is mad that greedy and incompetent leaders have wrecked Israeli society so now God is going to just let it crumble to pieces? What about the widows and the orphans?
Maybe Israel just couldn’t be salvaged, even by a divine intervention. Maybe the corruption was so deep and pervasive there was no way to transform it. Maybe God, the ultimate loving parent, just needed to let Israel experience the natural consequences of its actions and choices.
And maybe that’s where we are now. No matter how “good” we think we are, we are all complicit in some way in “the way things have turned out.” Maybe the only way for us to achieve a complete transformation is for us to feel the utter despair and incredulity of the consequences of years and years of selfishness, self-absorption, greed, and materialism.
Does this mean God has abandoned us? By no means. I can’t tell you how many idiotic choices I watched my kids make over the years of their growing up. I allowed them to have natural consequences. And I grieved with them and held them and love them through all of it. God is here. Right here. Right in the midst of it. God’s heart breaks for us. And God is holding us as we hopefully pick ourselves up and learn from our mistakes.
Where do I see and feel God’s presence in the midst of what feels like chaos?
