Prayer: Triune God, gather us into your fold and teach us what it is to be members of the human family. Help us right our wrongs and share your love. Amen.
Reading: Isaiah 56: 1, 6-8 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: What must this have meant to the Israelites with no idea of Jesus as the embodiment of this promise? They believed they alone were God’s chosen people. Isaiah telling them to welcome foreigners into their folds seems in conflict with many of the precepts in Deuteronomy, Numbers, and Leviticus. All around, there’s such division among good people who act like affiliations must be restricted to club members, and associations have become mutually exclusive. Are you liberal OR conservative? Do Black Lives Matter, OR does the safety of our police? Should we protect others from a virus that might kill them, or do we allow churches to worship and businesses to operate? Can you admire the accomplishments historical ancestors, OR do you revile any person who ever made a mistake? I don’t know what the answers are to these issues. I see validity in both sides’ arguments. The anger and pain consuming society are the products of centuries of oppression, injustice, and selfishness by some against the other. But exclusion does not fit with God’s plans for us. He created the world in duality: male and female, light and day, land and sea; ANDs not ORs. Until we learn to live in communion, doing what is right, maintaining justice, and remembering that His promise is for all peoples, we are failing God’s desires for His creation. --Heather LeBlanc
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