Today, we look at a Day 4 text from this year’s summer curriculum, “Transformed Community: God’s Agent of C.H.A.N.G.E.”
Prayer: Dear Lord, your love is radical and crosses boundaries. You don’t even seem to recognize the same lines that we highlight and paint. Help us, blessed Jesus to treat foreigners and those who are poor or in need with compassion and consideration. Teach us to freely share from your abundance. Amen. Reading: Deuteronomy 24:14-15 You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. 15 You must pay his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Yes, following Jesus is political. That is, people are political. You might not like the twisted double-speak of politics, but the reality is that caring for the poor, the foreigners, and the needy of all lands means advocating for them to the government. God wants us to speak out and stand up, to step out or sleep on the road. We should not lose the meaning of the church that is sanctuary, as in a safe place or a refuge from danger for all. The church is not just walls, but is a people who form a protective barrier for those who need our protection. We should hear the words of Jesus ringing in our minds, “what you did to the least of these you did to me.” Singing the song, “Sanctuary,” is not only spiritual in meaning. May our lives be proved pure and holy, tried and true…for you, Jesus. --Andrew Fitch
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