orphans

Wednesday September 5^th, James 1: 26 If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.  When you hear the phrase “orphans and widows” keep in mind that in Jesus day, they were the marginalized.  Today the marginalized go by different names.  The battle seems to be on across this nation to declare in rhetoric or outright statements that everyone except the power elite are  marginalized in one way or another. You often hear the phrase the God helps those who help themselves.  It sounds good, pithy, and biblical, the only trouble is that it is not in the Bible as a phrase or as an idea.  It is the antithesis Jesus’ teaching to care for the least, lost and lonely, and to welcome the sojourner among us.  The call of the Bible is to help those who cannot help themselves.  A living wage, public option in a health care bill, child care, and legalized same sex marriage are things that come to mind.  In the end, a nation will be judged not by how many millionaires and billionaires it has, but how it treats the least, lost and lonely.