MESSAGE OF THE DAY FROM REV. MARY WHITE
Good Afternoon and Blessings
During this Season of Lent, you will receive daily devotionals with reflective questions.
Keep safe, Keep connected.
Blessings and the strength of Love be with you.
Rev. Mary,
FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS
Excerpt From: Betty Lynn Schwab. “Rising with the Morning Star.”
God has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted.…
– Isaiah 61:1
Hearing these verses from the Isaiah scroll read by Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry must have brought a surge of hope to those gathered in the synagogue at Nazareth that Sabbath, especially those who stood in need of being made whole and free. Who are they in our day? The refugees who yearn for a homeland? The violated in war, even women and children in their own homes? Are we perhaps among them? It is to these who mourn to whom a garland instead of ashes is promised (61:3).
The God who declares readiness to give compensation to the exiles and their descendants is a God who loves justice (61:8)—justice not only in personal relationships but also among our communities and in our global dealings. Restorative justice means voices written out of history are brought in once again, to complete our nation’s records. Distributive justice means the abundance of God’s earth is shared among all. Only when such justice is done will “righteousness and praise…spring up before all the nations” (61:11). God thirsts for all justice to be accomplished.
Reflection Questions
In your life, your faith community’s life, or the life of the world, where do you see hints of emancipation, liberation, and justice happening?
How can you begin treating “difference” as gift in order to exercise a just hospitality, God’s welcome in a world of difference?