Here's another piece of 'the obligation to listen and to do justice' that is a part of being the people Israel with their God.
In the hearing tradition of Israel, there are many and differentiated commands: some are conservative in order to maintain social equilibrium , and some are downright reactionary to protect status quo advantage. Without denying any of this, it is evident that Israel's most characteristic and theologically intentional practice is to attend to the needs of those too weak to protect themselves.
it is clear that in these most radical injunctions, understood as Israel's covenantal obligations, the wealth and social resources of Israel are understood not in privatistic or acquisitive ways, but as common resources that are to be managed and deployed for the enhancement of the community by the enhancement of its weakest and the most disadvantaged members.
Common resources - sounds like Acts and the stories of the first communities of the followers of Jesus. Not much changes. We are to embody this life that is at the very core of the heart of the one we call the Most High God. This God does not forget the forgotten and the left out. In fact, this God knows none as left out or forgotten. Our God remembers - each one and all of us. Our God remembers the promise of life that is to be extended to each of us so that this life will quite literally become us - our life in community.
Connection: Though we are each individuals with our own gifts, they are gifts handed to us by the God who would have us use them all for the welfare of others. We are not a people who have a self-centered prosperity story that is afraid to stand as one with all who are counted by our God - all.
O God, who takes us up into the ways of justice, teach us to remember all who are claimed by you. Amen.
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