God of God, Lord of Lords
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. – Deuteronomy 10:17-18 (NRSV)
I almost wept when I read today’s text. After months of political campaigns filled with greed and lies, and with one week until the midterms, I needed Moses’s reminder to his people of who their God truly was—and is.
I needed his insistence that the God of gods and Lord of lords doesn’t play favorites and takes no bribe. That God Almighty uses that power and might to execute justice for the most vulnerable. That God’s great love extends to strangers and aliens, no matter what some politicians may say about people who don’t look like “us,” talk like “us,” or come from the same place as “us.”
And I definitely needed Moses’s avowal that God makes such love tangible with food and clothing, regardless of what our government does or doesn’t do.
Perhaps you need that reminder, too.
Years ago, as a young associate minister, I called often on an older woman living in a housing project. On one wall of her tiny apartment hung a black and white picture of a little girl clinging to a cross embedded in a rock as an ocean storm raged around her. Fresh out of seminary, I dismissed it as a reprint from some 19th century evangelistic tract. Fast forward to our time, I find myself clinging to Moses’s description of God just as that little girl clung to her cross.
Prayer
God of gods, Lord of Lords, thank you for your steadfast Word—and for being the One who loves the strangers, seeks justices, and takes no bribes. Amen.
About the AuthorTalitha Arnold is Senior Minister of the United Church of Santa Fe (UCC), Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is the author of Mark Parts 1 and 2 of the Listen Up! Bible Study series and Worship for Vital Congregations.