People Matter

Most of you may or may not know, but I am in the discernment process for Diaconal Holy Orders.  That's really fancy talk for, after much prayer (individual and collective) and jumping through many hoops, I will hopefully be ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church.  The role of a deacon in the Episcopal Church is to share the love of Christ and resources of the church to the poor, widowed, orphaned.  You get the point?  The deacon is also a proclamator of the gospel and minister.  Since this is lent, I do have a confession.  I am a hoarder, okay maybe more or less a pack rat.  So it should not come as a surprise that I have four lenten devotions.  Today's blog comes from "2011 Lenten Meditations, "which is published by Episcopal Relief and Development.  This meditation challenged my calling not as an aspiring deacon, but as a child of God and I hope that it will do the same for you.

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, the land that I gave of old to your ancestors for ever and ever.  Jeremiah 7:5-7

The people of Judah like to imagine that the presence of the temple will protect them.  It is all that matters, they believe.  Jeremiah comes along and shatters the illusion.  The truth, he explains, is  that what matters is how you treat those who are weakest and most marginalized in society.

Aliens and immigrants -- matter because they have no support networks in the place where they are settling.  In Jeremiah's society, the fatherless mattered because they lacked the traditional support network for survival; it was the father that provided food and housing.  The widow mattered because she had lost her husband and was alone.

Let us all pause today and think about those in our society who are weak and who lack a voice.  Let us commit afresh to praying for these marginalized ones and doing everything we can to provide support for them.

--Ian Markham

I echo the words of Brother Markham.  NOW is the time.  If not you, who?  If not now, when?  Remember, only what you do for Christ will last.  If you don't stand for something, or (someone), you fall for anything.  People matter, you matter, we matter!

Peace,
Karsten