Defending the Fatherless

Many churches recognize the first Sunday in November as "Adoption Sunday," 

a day for the church to consider the theology of our own adoption ~ 

from weak, broken, enemies of God to chosen, forgiven, children of God. 

It is also an opportunity to think about how we as the church can care for the fatherless. 

One of the most striking things about this focus, for me, is how we all are the needy ones. 

Each and every one of us, fatherless until chosen by God, without a family until brought into the church. 

Oftentimes the call to social action overshadows the greater reality that Christ himself is making his kingdom 

and ultimately fulfilling all of the Old and New Testament admonitions to justice and peace. 

In Luke 6, Jesus reads from Isaiah,

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

and then he announces,

"Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Ultimately, finally, Jesus is the healer, liberator, savior. 

 

We, having been chosen in him, can walk in his way, 

in a manner worthy of our calling as children of God. 

~ welcoming the outcast ~

~ working to free the wrongly imprisoned ~

~ giving to those who have need ~

~ defending the fatherless ~

We are called to the many varied outworkings of loving our neighbor, 

loving our enemies, loving the unlovely. 

Not because we are creating the kingdom, 

but because we are children of the King.