Devotion for January 7 and 8, Year A (ELCA Daily Lectionary)

Above:  Television Sets for Sale

Image in the Public Domain

Responsibility for Others

JANUARY 7 and 8, 2023

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The Collect:

Almighty and ever-living God, you revealed the incarnation

of your Son by the brilliant shining of a star.

Shine the light of your justice always in our hearts and over all lands,

and accept our lives as the treasure we offer in your praise and for your service,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 21

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The Assigned Readings:

1 Kings 10:1-13 (January 7)

1 Kings 10:14-25 (January 8)

Psalm 72 (both days)

Ephesians 3:14-21 (January 7)

Ephesians 4:7, 11-16 (January 8)

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Give the king your justice, O God,

and your righteousness to the king’s son;

that he may rule your people righteously

and the poor with justice;

that the mountains may bring prosperity to the people,

and the little hills bring righteousness.

–Psalm 72:1-3, Book of Common Worship (1993)

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The great power of King Solomon came with great responsibility–to build up the body of the kingdom, to function as an instrument of God, and not to exploit anyone or to consent to the exploitation of anyone.  Sometimes he came close to fulfilling parts of this ideal, but his royal lifestyle depended on high rates of taxation as well as on forced labor; it was inherently exploitative.

I have become increasingly conscious of how much my lifestyle–as simple as it is–depends upon human exploitation.  For example, who made my consumer electronics?  Under what conditions?  How old were they?  And did they earn a living wage?  Although I purchased most of these items at thrift stores and received a flat-screen television as a gift (quite unexpectedly; I was content with the larger set I had purchased from a pawn shop in 2002), I cannot help but ask such questions.  Greater responsibility resides upon the shoulders of corporate leaders, of course, but I am not innocent.

On the other hand, perhaps the only sure way to avoid such ethical issues is to live off the land, make everything myself, and live in a hut or a cave.  I am not willing to do that.

All of us are plugged into certain ways of doing things.  We might not have created such systems, but we are part of them.  And change begins with the consciousness of the need for it.  This change can come through us by grace, for there is available to us divine power which,

working in us, can do infinitely more that we can ask or imagine.

–Ephesians 3:20b, The New Jerusalem Bible

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 COMMON ERA

LABOR DAY (U.S.A.)

THE FEAST OF HANNAH, MOTHER OF SAMUEL

THE FEAST OF DAVID CHARLES, WELSH CALVINISTIC METHODIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF THE MARTYRS OF NEW GUINEA

THE FEAST OF SAINT WILLIAM OF ROSKILDE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/responsibility-for-others-2/

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