Living in the Spirit

October 27, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Micah 3:5-12

Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
   and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
   and pervert all equity,
who build Zion with blood
   and Jerusalem with wrong!
Its rulers give judgement for a bribe,
   its priests teach for a price,
   its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
   ‘Surely the Lord is with us!
   No harm shall come upon us.’
Therefore because of you
   Zion shall be ploughed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
   and the mountain of the house a wooded height. –Micah:9-12

Reading the Hebrew prophets is like reading a newspaper today. What Micah cried out against in 700 BC applies today.

Abhor justice and pervert all equity
CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978. Typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time. (Economic Policy Institute) Many of those workers do not earn a living wage.

Rulers give justice for a bribe
January 21, 2020 will mark a decade since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a controversial decision that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections. (The Brenan Center for Justice)

Priests teach for a price. Prophets give oracles for money.
The “prosperity gospel,” an insipid heresy whose popularity among American Christians has boomed in recent years, teaches that God blesses those God favors most with material wealth…Few theological ideas ring more dissonant with the harmony of orthodox Christianity than a focus on storing up treasures on Earth as a primary goal of faithful living. (The Washington Post, The Worst Ideas of the Decade, The prosperity gospel by Cathleen Falsani)

We find ourselves caught in the web of the greed pandemic raging through our land as we invest our time and talent in making money, the Baal of our time.  Also, being ravage by the COVID-19 pandemic, we throw up our hands and say let it run its course while we develop better treatments and a vaccine. Dealing with COVID-19 is hurting our economy.

We do possess the means of controlling both pandemics. The treatment outlined by Jesus in Mark 12:30-31 has two steps, the first is, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  Wearing a mask, physical distancing, testing, tracing, and quarantining as indicated, markedly reduces the spread of COVID-19. Putting God first in our lives over any idol sets us on the path of righteousness.

Prayer: Lord, free us of the burden of worshiping lesser gods, bring us back into your fold, and lead us to higher ground. Grant us the patience and forbearance we need to face the COVID-19 virus head-on and help us find ways of loving our neighbors involved in it, whether as victims or health care workers. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved