Give rights to slaves, widows, poor, & foreigners?!

About 3000 years ago, someone, apparently in the Royal Court copied some laws down on a broken piece of pottery.  This was the post-it note of the day.  Archaeologists believe that the Royal official (scribe) was copying down laws in an educational exercise, learning the laws.

The pottery shard was found in 2008 about 15 miles south west of Jerusalem.  It is the oldest piece of Hebrew we currently have, a thousand years before Jesus.  The question I had was, what does it say?  What was the people God was calling to Himself thinking about as laws fro their culture? Will Christians today hear God's calling to us?

“Give rights to slaves and to widows! Give rights to orphans and foreigners! Protect the rights of the poor and protect the rights of minors!”

Well, there it is.  The oldest witness of the Hebrew people, that God called to Himself.  Doesn't sound much like regular old human nature to me.  Foreigners? You mean those ILLEGAL ALIENS FROM MEXICO?  Give them RIGHTS? What sort of Liberal claptrap is this?  Poor have RIGHTS?  Even the poorest workers?  Occupy a Widow's house to keep a bank from evicting her?!

How can America survive if we  follow this sort of Liberal Garbage?

Oh... God calls us to this.  It isn't Liberal or Conservative, it is God's way.  God has for centuries called His people to reach out to the downcast, the dispossessed, and the ones not at the top of society.  Not the 1%.

He is Lord of all humanity, and how we treat His people is important. It matters.  There is a man at the gate, his name is Lazarus.  

Bishop Doyle of Texas has this comment "I am convinced that how we live our lives today affects how we live in the kingdom of God today and how we will live in the kingdom of God in the future.

In fact, it may be impossible for us to arrive at God's gate if we are not holding the hands of Lazarus, himself. The blessing of the Cross and the Resurrection is not some kind of free ticket out of jail at the end of our lives, is freedom given to us in order to serve those in need and those in our midst."

Comments

[Harold Stassen]

Suppose you don't believe in god; why should you do any of these things then?
If you say that you should do them "just because they're the right thing to do" you're presupposing that I share your values without your theology-which may very well be incorrect.
And if your values do come from your religion, why are you imposing them on those who don't share your religion? When the Fundiegelicals do that with Creationism, even in places where they're a majority, people cry "Foul! You're imposing your beliefs on us, who don't believe them!" Or if Catholics want to limit abortion, even in places where they're a majority, you cry "Keep your rosaries away from my ovaries!".

[Br. James Patrick]

Deb,
I think Bp. Doyle is saying that 'it matters how we live'. That it is not OK, for us to walk past the Lazarus in our lives. I think he is saying that Jesus is calling us to SEE the person at the gate. For much of my life, I didn't even see 'those' people.

That being said, what does it look like to hold his hand? That is the engaging part, we each have to work out.

But not seeing at all, walking past the person/people at the gate, that part is not OK.

[Deb]

I'm wondering what Bishop Doyle means when he says "... if we are not holding the hands of Lazarus, himself." Can someone help me understand this? Who would Lazarus be in our world today? And what would it look like to hold his hands?

[Br. James Patrick]

yes, it certianly appears to, but then I am no Hebrew Scholar.

However that may also mean 'orphan' in our context.

It was done by Professor of Protestant theology at the University of Münster, Dr. Reinhard Achenbach

[Adam Gonnerman]

It actually says "minors"?