Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, December 28, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Jesus turns everything on its head. With the idea of “Christendom” so established in the western world, Biblical themes and ideas so deeply embedded in our culture that we don’t even realize their origin, being Christian the accepted “norm” in society, we forget that when Jesus came into the world, it wasn’t to uphold the status quo, but to completely uproot it. We can fall into complacency thinking that Jesus accomplished what he came to do on the cross and we’re off the hook. That this—what and how we are living now—is the natural outcome of his work. Not so! Our current systems are set up to enrich the few at the expense of the many, to oppress anyone who doesn’t fit into a white-supremacist, heteronormative worldview, to ignore the needs of those experiencing poverty, sickness, imprisonment, and more. Were Jesus to be born into this world now, Mary could sing the same song, praising God that the current status quo would be upended in favor of the meek and the lowly.
This Christmas season, let us be ever mindful that while we carol the savior and enjoy the trappings of the holiday, the truth is that we are a far cry from the life and the world that God brings to bear in Jesus Christ. See it not as a reason for guilt, but a call to joyful action in gratitude for the gift of God with us!
What things do I think Jesus would speak out against in our modern world? Why?
