Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, March 6, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Notice that Jesus doesn’t indicate that this is a bad idea. He’s not sending them out expecting them to be devoured within moments. So what could this mean? I think it’s just that as followers of Jesus, we ought to be peace-loving creatures who rely on God to care for us, so that we are then free to trustingly speak truth in places where conventional wisdom tells us we ought not to open our mouths.
The realm of politics is ruthless. Despite the original idea that the everyday Joe would go serve in congress for a few years and then go home and let someone else have a whack at it, this has never been the case. Those who go into politics do it as a lifelong undertaking, getting re-elected over and over and over again until they move up the ladder into more powerful positions, die in office, or are forcibly removed by a change in ideology. The open-minded, idealistic newcomer to D.C. is quickly stripped of their optimism about changing the system. Lambs just don’t cut it in the “real world” of power and politics. How can Jesus expect otherwise?
Yet he does. As followers of Jesus, we have to believe that when we speak the truth, it makes a difference. Community organizers will tell you that the real work of creating real change happens one person at a time at the grassroots level. The level of lambs moving among potentially hostile folks (I don’t want to use the word “wolves” because it perpetuates negative stereotypes of one of God’s creatures). Jesus doesn’t expect us to get devoured—so no matter how we’re received, we don’t need to see it in that negative light. We can just move on to another person who might be open to a new way of thinking and acting. We’re responsible for the footwork, and God is responsible for the outcome. We just need to fleece up and get busy.
Have I ever felt nervous about speaking truth in a potentially hostile environment?
