Essential
In an emergency shutdown, it’s interesting how people on both the “essential personnel” list and on the “non-essential personnel” list can feel expendable.
Important reminder for everyone: You are loved. You are strong. You are essential.
Often when Jesus talked about the Kingdom of Heaven, he wasn’t talking about the afterlife; he was teaching a way of living on earth — a way that would upend our unjust social-political-economic-religious hierarchies by uplifting the putdown.
Tonight’s biblical grounding, Luke 6 adapted:
‘Essential are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
‘Essential are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Essential are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
‘Essential are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you while misusing Christ’s name as an excuse for their anti-science white supremacy. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
‘But woe to you who profit off of suffering,
for you have received your consolation.
‘Woe to you who hoard supplies you don’t need,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who aren’t taking this seriously,
for you will mourn and weep.
‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
