Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
Psalm 25 verse 6, New Revised Standard version
I’m using a little book by Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann during Advent – Celebrating Abundance. In today’s reading Walter Brueggemann talks about ‘Solidarity in need, acted with transformative strength.’ It’s his way of understanding the phrase so often repeated in the Old Testament – steadfast love.
He writes – ‘What human persons and human community most need is abiding, committed, passionate transformative solidarity.’
I see this as being very much in harmony with another theologian – Sam Wells – who talks about the greatest challenge facing us today being that of isolation.
Walter again – ‘The path is to love neighbour, to love neighbour face-to-face, to love neighbour in community action, to love neighbour in systemic arrangement, in imaginative policies.’
Let’s do it!
Grace and peace.
Five Short Words 