Living in the Spirit
July 21, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Genesis 29:15-28 

Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?’ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were lovely, and Rachel was graceful and beautiful. Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, ‘I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.’ —Genesis 29:15-18

Marriage rituals differ from culture to culture and have evolved over the centuries. While we may recoil in disgust thinking about a father bartering his daughters for a laborer, the admiration Jacob had for Rachel apparently was mutual.

The value of a human life is one of the great debates of our times. It is interesting how some lives are deemed more important than others and how some are designated as not worth keeping. The value of lives also still vary from culture to culture. In the Middle East and Africa rape is a weapon of war. As I write this, the fate of hundreds of African school girls is still unknown. They were taken as hostages from their classrooms and are most likely being sold into the sex trade industry while their captors release YouTube videos making fun of the girls’ parents protesting the lack of effort to rescue them.

In the United States, we have what I think is a very strange mixture of deep set concern for children before they are born but show little concern for them after they are born. We are one among mostly third world countries who continue the used the death penalty.  And as a nation that literally grew and thrived on the immigration of peoples from all the cultures of the world still have problems welcoming the stranger when they come to us in hope of a better life as they escape death and persecution.

As Christians we are called to welcome the stranger and love our neighbors, learn from the beauty that is in each of their cultures, model the justice of Christ in our interactions with them, and recognize the Christ that is in each of them.  Let it be so.

Prayer: Mother God, Let me abide in your tent for ever, find refuge under the shelter of your wings (Psalm 61:4), and may I stand beside, love, and seek your justice for all of your children as you also shelter them. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.