Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“For I will restore health to you,
and your wounds I will heal,
says the Lord,
because they have called you an outcast:
‘It is Zion; no one cares for her!’”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, July 4, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I have felt like an outcast at times. In my adolescence, I absolutely did not fit in among my peers. I did not like anything that was popular. I did not wear the right clothes, listen to the right music, like the right people. I was an academic over-achiever who liked fantasy (reading, writing, gaming) and other nerdy pursuits, but found no one in my very small high school who shared those loves with me. At least not anyone I related to in other ways.
I grew into myself in my young adulthood. I found my people (theater-loving, musical “church nerds”) and enjoyed a sense of belonging for a time. But that period of my life was short. It wasn’t until I was 52 that I met someone who absolutely, totally, completely “gets it”, gets me.
There is something beautiful about God’s deep love of Israel and Judah because they are outcasts. There is something comforting and restorative about knowing that God does not love us in spite of our pain, but because of it. God knows life is hard. For every single one of us. And God continues to call us into God’s arms, to love us through our griefs, to be our biggest cheerleader in those moments of accomplishment and joy.
Beyond the individual level, communities can be outcast on the basis of the divisions of social class which give rise to racism, sexism, homophobia, and the like. We should always remember that these communities are precious to God, and let that guide us in our response to their marginalization and oppression. Bullies revel in putting down others—individuals, communities, even nations—in order to make themselves feel justified in their heinous actions and attitudes. Don’t let them. And for heaven’s sake, don’t join them. Work with God to restore health and bind wounds for those who the powers that be would make outcasts.
Who do I know that I could reach out to in love during a challenging time for them?
