| Today we begin to look at 'the obligation to listen and to do justice' that is a part of being the people Israel with their God.
Israel is to "listen' to the command of YAHWEH and to respond in obedience. While the commands in the tradition concerning listening are many and varied, we may say in sum that Israel's obligation is to do justice. Israel is a community put in the world, so the testimony suggests, for the sake of justice.
We again are given a community that is to take on the character of the one they say they follow. When a community pursues justice, it will be a community that is contrary to the ways of life that run the rest of the world. Therefore, they will stick out and be noticed and people will eventually ask why they do what they do. That means the community becomes a witness to something other than the way the powers of the world operate and are seen. To do justice - to honor the worth of the other and to make sure that the power of being within each person is held up and protected and encouraged is to be about a life that is radically refreshing. It is also to be about a life that may be utterly rejected. And yet, because this is the image of God that is to be the image of the people, Israel, (and I would argue the church today) we are hearing of a community that may turn heads and appear quite amazing. So - the obligation is be nothing more than whose we are - beloved children of God who have been given a way of life in and through all times.
Connection: Obliged to be God's beloved - could be a bumper sticker
O God, who takes us up into the ways of justice, we long to be encouraged and strengthened so that we will step into your way and let your light shine among us. Amen. |
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