Final Though for the Day

Again, passing along this time the biblical passage from today's Verse and Voice newsletter, from Ezekiel 16:49

This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

This would seem to suggest that it was not sexual license that brought down God's wrath on Sodom, but instead hubris and greed coupled with an unwillingness to help those who had much less.

Surely, there is a lesson here for the Church. We should focus less on the sexual morality of others and more on our own idolatrous attachment to prosperity and security and our blindness to the needs of others.

And we must recognize that the gospel is not about condemnation; it is joyous good news. As Jesus proclaimed in His first public reading of scriptures

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor