14 Clearly, the Lord owns the sky, the highest heavens, the earth, and everything in it. 15 But the Lord adored your ancestors, loving them and choosing the descendants that followed them—you!—from all other people. That’s how things still stand now. 16 So circumcise your hearts and stop being so stubborn, 17 because the Lord your God is the God of all gods and Lord of all lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who doesn’t play favorites and doesn’t take bribes. 18 He enacts justice for orphans and widows, and he loves immigrants, giving them food and clothing. 19 That means you must also love immigrants because you were immigrants in Egypt.
Reflection
At least once a year, I have some occasion to speak with new clergy in the UMC about the practice of preaching. It’s always a joy for me to be able to share thoughts about a topic I’m so passionate about.
One of the key takeaways I hope to impart is this: be clear. Preach a single idea. I stress that we need to start with a one sentence summary that arises directly out of the scripture. For students who struggle with that, I offer a simple formula: “because God is / says / does _____, so do we.” Now that may sound simplistic. But if the whole idea of practicing faith is to become more godly, then it stands to reason that we can move in that direction by doing the things God does.
This scripture might be one of the clearest illustrations of my ideas – both about preaching and faith – in the whole Bible.
Deuteronomy 10 makes a very clear claim on our lives: because God enacts justice for orphans and widows, so do we. Because God loves & cares for immigrants, so do we. In case there was any doubt, though, God throws in a reminder to Israel, by way of emotional appeal: don’t forget what it was like when YOU were strangers in Egypt.
It’s no more complicated than that. Like children who learn by watching a parent and imitating their actions, that’s how we are called to be in the world. If we want to be more godly, we can begin by caring about the people God cares about – the most vulnerable. In just the same way that steadfast love and faithfulness go together to describe God’s character throughout the Hebrew scriptures, just as justice and righteousness are what God demands of leaders, this triplet of the widow, orphan and immigrant show up over and over as those God is most concerned for.* It’s not that God isn’t concerned for ALL people- of course God is. Even this scripture says that God doesn’t play favorites and God doesn’t take bribes!
But the message seems to be this: you can tell how godly a society is by looking at how it cares for these most vulnerable of humans: the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant.
Because God does, so do we.
by Joe Monahan
For Pondering and Prayer
Prayer: God, we thank you for the opportunity for transformation that comes when we care for the most vulnerable. Remind us that when we care for the least of these, we care for Jesus. When we find ourselves in debates over the place of compassion and empathy versus law and order, keep these scriptures ever before us. Bless us with a willingness to labor for those things we pray for, and grant us the courage of our convictions. Because you do, we want to too. Amen.
*List of scriptures naming God’s concern for the orphan, widow, and alien/immigrant:
- Deuteronomy 10:18
- Deuteronomy 14:29
- Deuteronomy 16:11
- Deuteronomy 16:14
- Deuteronomy 24:17
- Deuteronomy 24:19
- Deuteronomy 24:20
- Deuteronomy 24:21
- Deuteronomy 26:12–13
- Deuteronomy 27:19
- Jeremiah 7:6
- Jeremiah 22:3
- Ezekiel 22:7
- Zechariah 7:10
- Malachi 3:5
