Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“How long must I see the standard,
and hear the sound of the trumpet?
‘For my people are foolish,
they do not know me;
they are stupid children,
they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil,
but do not know how to do good.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, June 17, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
It would be easy to take pot-shots at Christian Nationalism here. But I have often fallen into the trap of looking on what is happening in this country with astonished horror and drawing the conclusion that the people who are allowing this to happen must either be profoundly stupid or profoundly evil. And this is a trap. The actions of many people may be hateful and harmful, but I have to step back and ask myself, “Why?” And the truth is that this kind of eye-popping disregard for the Christian values of self-sacrificial love of neighbor, rejection of the accumulation of wealth, and radical welcome didn’t just arise out of nowhere. We—all of us—participated in societal structures that left many people angry and disenfranchised, that allowed those with wealth to accumulate more at the expense of the rest of us, that fed into people’s fears in order to advance destructive policies. What’s happening isn’t new or sudden. It is the natural outcome of the order we created together.
The prophet’s harsh words about the people being stupid or evil apply to all of us equally. I have made choices for my own convenience that have caused harm to people in places I will never see or know. And though I continue to try to do better—I gave up meat a couple years back in protest of our horrific farming practices in this country, I try to only buy clothing from ethical and sustainable sources, and I do my best to participate in the re-use economy—the very water that comes out of my shower-head every morning come with a price for creation.
God, through the prophet, is calling us to be mindful of creation and our impact on it. To change our ways on behalf of others and for the benefit of our own spirits.
What changes can I make in my daily living that will contribute to the wellbeing of all that God has made?
