Kelsi Vanada

Dear Friends,

Today’s reading from Zechariah 7 and 8 is one of the (many) Biblical passages featuring a prophet telling God’s people how they’ve strayed from his desires and commandments for them. Here, they’ve refused to listen to the call to “Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor, and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another” (v 7:9-10).

These are words we always need to hear, aren’t they? It certainly seems to me that in reference to this commandment, we so often make our “hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit” (v 7:12). Top of mind for me when I read these verses are the guests I work with at the Inn of Southern Arizona here in Tucson, who encounter challenges seeking asylum in the US after facing unspeakable violence, oppression, and poverty in their home countries. And then there’s the violent Israel-Hamas conflict that has taken the lives of untold innocents.

The collect for this week (Advent III) asks God to stir up his power and with great might come among us, because we are sorely hindered by our sins. How we need this saving power! I’m reminded of a brief, untitled poem by Lucille Clifton:

God waits for the wandering world.
he expects us when we enter,
late or soon.
he will not mind my coming after hours.
his patience is his promise.

Thanks be to God. And may we again see the city of Jerusalem full of children—Jewish and Palestinian and of all races and ethnicities and religions—playing in its streets (v 8:5).

Peace,

—Kelsi