Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, September 1, 2019
by Daniel D. Maurer, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God’s command to forgive debts serves to unify and heal communities.
The sabbath year, or shmita, freed Hebrew slaves after seven years of service; since they could not serve two masters, this release acknowledged God as their only true master. It also released land owners from their ownership, suggesting that the land belonged to God and was only temporarily owned by people.
This forgiveness of debts not only acknowledged God as the master and owner of all things, but it also gave people the chance to start over, and the community a chance to heal. Over time, the distinction between the rich and the poor divides a community. The rich seek to maintain their wealth at the expense of the poor, perhaps believing they deserve to be rich. The poor start to believe they will never do any better, perhaps even believing they deserve to be poor. Value is placed on people in relation to how much money they have, and the divide deepens.
There is enough money, food, and shelter on this earth for everyone. Imagine what the world might look like if the wealth were redistributed every 7 years! But it is divided; in the US, 1% of the population owns 38% of the wealth, while the bottom 98% hold 73% of all the debt. If you are reading this, you are likely among the richest people in the world. By the time a US citizen is 60, “70%...will have experienced at least one year within the top 20th percentile of income.”
From a biblical perspective, then, many of us ought not be wishing Richard Branson would pay off the credit debt we accrued vacationing in Europe or renovating our houses. We might more accurately consider selling our McMansions and redistributing the proceeds to South Sudan, where the average resident lives on $246 a year.
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably angry right now that I’ve shamed you for your spending. And this is exactly the point. The uneven distribution of wealth, no matter where you land on the spectrum, divides, shames, and angers. Maybe we could listen to God’s words as God intended to forgive, unify, and heal.
Lord, how may I become more like you to heal the world in its brokenness?
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