Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Israel cries,
‘The prophet is a fool,
the man of the spirit is mad!’
Because of your great iniquity,
your hostility is great.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, November 15, 2019
by R. Fergus Moir, Clergy Stuff
Truth hurts. I, for one, am still not very good at taking criticism. Even constructive criticism. I don’t want to hear the truth of where I am falling short. My response, when faced with such feedback, is often to get angry.
I know I’m not unique. This is why it’s so dangerous to do God’s work of speaking truth to power. It was so in the Old Testament, when a prophet’s life came with death threats, and it has been so ever since, as when the prophetic voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was tragically silenced.
Still, we are all called to be prophets, to speak up for the oppressed, to reveal the truth of how our rulers repeatedly violate all that is good and beautiful. We may not proclaim God’s impending punishment of the nation for these sins, as Hosea did, but the truth we proclaim will be just as unwelcome to those who don’t want to hear it.
God, strengthen me to speak your truth trusting in you to sustain me against those who do not want to hear it. Amen.
An
Exceptional
People
Blog Posts
SIGN UP NOW