Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, November 18, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I had an interesting conversation just this morning about entitlement. A friend of mine was talking about how in her family of origin, any time anyone did anything for someone else, there was an understanding that the recipient now owed the giver/doer. Absolutely everything had strings attached. It sounds a lot like God is coming from that place here in Micah. “After all I have done for you, you go and treat me like this?”
But I don’t think it’s really entitlement. I don’t think God believes the people owe God for all that God has done. I think God is just surprised at the people’s ingratitude. And not even just ingratitude—complete forgetfulness. It’s not like God gave the Israelites a gift or some money or took care of a chore for the people. We’re talking an entire nation escaping from centuries of enslavement. Pillars of cloud and fire. Parting the Red Sea. A host of societal laws meant as a gift to engender peace and community. A land to call their own. Strong leaders, Judges, even kings when they wanted them (which is where it really went south). God has given them absolutely everything they have, everything they are. And they seem to have completely put it out of their minds in their pursuit of personal power.
I’ll be honest. I am well aware—when I am thinking and writing about it—that who I am and what I have are entirely gifts from God. I am well aware—when I am thinking and writing about it—that what I do for work and in life are, in general, a gratitude-response to God’s abundance. But when I am not thinking and writing about it, I just go on about my business as if there is no God. I seldom remember, in the moment, to pray. I make decisions, sometimes big ones, based on my own logic and intellect, not remembering to include the source of that logic and intellect in my deliberations. There are times I imagine God rolling God’s eyes and wondering how God has wearied me that I would go on living by self-propulsion. We all have room for improvement in our lives, don’t we?
Do I feel that God is entitled to my devotion? Does God see it that way?
