Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Leviticus 19:9-10 – When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest.  You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien:  I am the Lord your God. (NRSV)

These two verses from the law in Leviticus are part of a passage that ends with the familiar command to “love your neighbor as yourself.”  It’s not hard to see where Jesus got some of his ideas about who our neighbors are.

What does it mean to be a people who are formed by the idea that our labor should not benefit only ourselves?  What does it mean to have our identity include the commandment to help the poor and the alien to feed themselves?  How do we know who we are when strangers are included as our neighbors?

It seems that most of the world’s problems could be solved if only we could stop seeing people as “others” or “enemies” or “someone else’s problems” and started seeing them as neighbors and family instead.  We all work hard to make sure our families are provided for – fed, sheltered, clothed and more.  What would it look like to do that, remembering that the world is our family?

What is a way you have shared the benefits of your labor with a stranger or neighbor recently?  How does this shape your sense of who you are?  If our first identity marker is that we’re followers of Jesus, then we have to constantly remind ourselves that this choice shifts how we relate to others.  We are no longer living just for ourselves, or our tribe.  We are living for the sake of God’s world.