Daily Devotional • December 6
A Reading from Isaiah 3:8-15
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,
and Judah has fallen,
because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord,
defying his glorious presence.
9 The look on their faces bears witness against them;
they proclaim their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to them,
for they have brought evil on themselves.
10 Tell the innocent how fortunate they are,
for they shall eat the fruit of their labors.
11 Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are,
for what their hands have done shall be done to them.
12 My people—their oppressors extort them,
and creditors rule over them.
O my people, your leaders mislead you
and confuse the course of your paths.
13 The Lord rises to argue his case;
he stands to judge the peoples.
14 The Lord enters into judgment
with the elders and princes of his people:
It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15 What do you mean by crushing my people,
by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.
Meditation
The “Me Too” movement illuminated egregious sins running rampant in many spheres of society. It brought with it an admirable spirit of bravery as victims continue to bring leaders to account. Although we would all hope that it were, the Church was not, and is not, immune to such things. Abuses of power have been a part of the story of God’s people as long as it has existed, though God clearly stands in judgment.
Our passage in Isaiah speaks of God’s indictment of Judah’s leaders who have confused and crushed God’s people, and led them into arrogant sin. They have “devoured the vineyard” and taken “the spoil of the poor.” Ezekiel 34 speaks similarly to the shepherds of Israel who do not feed the sheep that God has given to them. God judges both sets of leaders. In Ezekiel 34, he promises to administer justice, but he also promises to be the shepherd to the lost sheep and tend and care for them. In Christ’s parable of the vineyard, he shares how again the leaders of his people have mistreated the servants of the vineyard and would even kill him, but he, as the Good Shepherd, did not have his life stolen; he laid it down willingly for his sheep, and he called Peter, representative of his church’s leadership, to show his love for God by feeding and tending his sheep.
For those of us who are sheep, we can trust the Good Shepherd to protect us and judge bad leadership. We can hold them accountable to God’s standard and advocate for God’s other sheep. For those of us in leadership, we must obey God’s commandments with reverence in love and fear of the Lord. Jesus is the true Good Shepherd, and he will bring justice.
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Melissa Amber Patton is a Pittsburgh native, a writer, and an M.Div. student at Trinity Anglican Seminary. She is currently the music leader at Mosaic Anglican Church in Imperial, Pennsylvania and is pursuing ordination with the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Kivu – Eglise Anglicane du Rwanda
The Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande
