Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“For fools speak folly,
and their minds plot iniquity:
to practice ungodliness,
to utter error concerning the Lord,
to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,
and to deprive the thirsty of drink.”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, April 7, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
God’s reign is a reign of justice for those living in poverty. It’s all over scripture. All the prophets. Hannah. Mary’s Magnificat. Jesus. So what does that tell us?
One, poverty is the result of injustice. Period. It’s not because someone is lazy or doesn’t want to work or isn’t willing to do what is necessary to lift themselves up by their bootstraps. The U.S. system is rigged against large numbers of people—actually designed to perpetuate poverty through unjust laws and practices. It’s nothing new, people. Denying it is denying a fact as old as time.
Two, Isaiah calls a spade a spade here: the injustice of poverty is against God. It’s wrong. It’s “ungodliness.” In God’s righteous rule, there is justice, ergo there is no poverty. If the system is unjust, it is incumbent upon those who seek the inbreaking of God’s reign in the world to speak out for a just system. There are lots of folks doing this—and folks have been doing this for generations. Sometimes there seems to be forward movement toward justice, and other times we take enormous steps backward. I guess the work is never done, but that being said, we can never stop doing the work.
What does justice look like to me in my own country or community?
