God Drop-Outs
Morning Devotion: Isaiah 1
Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.
Let’s Argue This Out
18-20 “Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.”
This is God’s Message:
“If your sins are blood-red,
they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson,
they’ll be like wool.
If you’ll willingly obey,
you’ll feast like kings.
But if you’re willful and stubborn,
you’ll die like dogs.”
That’s right. God says so.
Those Who Walk Out on God
21-23 Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city
has become a whore!
She was once all justice,
everyone living as good neighbors,
And now they’re all
at one another’s throats.
Your coins are all counterfeits.
Your wine is watered down.
Your leaders are turncoats
who keep company with crooks.
They sell themselves to the highest bidder
and grab anything not nailed down.
They never stand up for the homeless,
never stick up for the defenseless.
What are you reading?
Karen Spears Zacharias is author of CHRISTIAN BEND: A novel (Mercer University Press).
2 Comments
AFRoger
about 6 years agoJust finished British economic historian R. H. Tawney's 1926 book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. If we think the economic see-saw of today is in turmoil, we should see what went before in the 15-, 16- and 1700's. When Calvinism was followed by Puritanism, it was widely accepted that one way to deal with homeless and destitute people was to further reduce wages so that the poor would be forced to work harder and be more industrious. Catholic charity was regarded by many Protestants as corrosive to the moral fiber of humanity. Almost sounds like today. Now re-reading Joe Bageant's 2007 book Deer Hunting With Jesus--Dispatches From America's Class War. The Intro, looking at the shock of the 2004 election results, describes perfectly the disbelief of many Americans after the 2016 elections. If you wanna know how and why, read this book. The cultural divides Bageant describes have only widened and deepened. Humorous, tragic and very instructive all at once.
ReplyKaren Spears Zacharias
about 6 years agoI have read enough of Dorothy Day's writings to know what a radical idea it was to care for the poor and homeless.This notion that we should carry the burdens of another was seen as entry into Communism. My how corrupt we continue to be .
Reply