Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“You will be in the right, O Lord,
when I lay charges against you;
but let me put my case to you.
Why does the way of the guilty prosper?
Why do all who are treacherous thrive?”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, June 19, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Well said, Jeremiah. I, too, would demand of God: Why do billionaires control the bodies that make laws that allow them to accumulate yet more wealth while millions of people are without basic healthcare, clean water, sufficient nutrition, education, or even human dignity? Why does the Bible say over and over that such people will not win, and that those who care for the widow and the orphan are the ones who are following your will, and yet this has been going on as long as human society has existed? Why have you allowed people to effectively weaponize your Word as a means to oppress your children—human, animal, environmental? It just doesn’t square with what I believe about you, what Jeremiah clearly believed about you.
How do you answer, O God? I know how you answered Job—who do we think we are to question you? But I’ll just point out that this is a covenantal relationship between you and creation. Which means we have responsibilities to live as you would have us, which includes centering our spiritual relationship with you (which we have utterly failed to do) but you also have responsibilities to be our God—to hold and keep and protect us. And, quite frankly, as far as most of the world is concerned, you’ve blown it.
I don’t have an answer. I’m not God (and, honestly, thank goodness for that). All I can do is be willing to keep asking the hard questions, not just of God, but of myself, my communities, my government representatives, my country. All I can do is be willing to show up where I can to help the widow and the orphan, the immigrant and the native community, the impoverished and the sick. Then I have to trust that God is there in my work and the work of countless others who are striving for a more just and peaceful world.
How can I reconcile the prospering of the treacherous with God’s call to turn away from wealth and power?
