Daily Bread

Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.

The preacher and theologian once said that if you took out all the references to God's justice for the poor out of the Bible, you would end up with a very thin book, and he was right! Consistently, God's concern is for the oppressed, the orphan, and the widow — those who are broken, hurting, lost, and lonely.

We get the word 'sodomy' from the 'sin of Sodom' where (we read in the book of Genesis) people practiced same-sex rape — and here, through the poetic words of the prophet Isaiah, we have God pleading with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Whether these two cities existed in real life is in some debate, but what we do know is that they were most definitely used by writers as symbols representing communities that did not abide by God's laws of justice and mercy.

God longs for humanity to wash ourselves and make ourselves clean — to stop doing evil deeds, learn to do good, and seek justice — and Isaiah gives us three examples. Rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. Rescue. Defend. Plead.

Every day this week, we heave read how the US government (and they are not alone in this, just that the USA are very much in the news) have been rolling back DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) through firing people, closing down organisations, and removing online content. The opposite of DEI is UPE - Uniformity, Prejudice, and Exclusivity. There is nothing new about kingdoms of this world exerting power in this kind of way, but it is not, and never has been God's way.

Sodom and Gomorrah are not two abstract cities that we can point to and say, "God is talking about them!" No, we are Sodom and Gomorrah and God is speaking to us. The question is, are we listening?

Holy God
I come before you today on bended knee,
painfully aware of my own shortcomings,
aware that the problems of this world begin with me.
Help me to seek forgiveness through Christ
and repent of my evil ways.
May I learn to do what is good,
seek justice, rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan, and plead for the widow.
This day and always.