Day 1 - Genesis 2:7-17

⁷then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. ⁸And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. ¹¹The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; ¹²and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. ¹³The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. ¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

Join me on Mondays at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the previous week's readings!

(Begins Monday, June 29th!)

Will you accept the challenge?

Do you find yourself wearied by the changes and chances of this life?  There is a lot happening in the world that is calling us, as Christians, to respond.  If we allow only our feelings to guide us, we will run out of gas before we even get to our destination.  I challenge you to ground yourself in the promises we have made with God.

As Episcopalians, when we think of social justice and our call to it, we often focus on these two promises in our Baptismal Covenant:

Celebrant:  Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

People:  I will, with God's help.

 

Celebrant:  Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

People:  I will, with God's help.

But sometimes just focusing on WHAT we promise to do leaves us short.  Can we explain WHY we believe God has called us to do these things?  Let us not forget a promise we make before the previous two:

Celebrant:  Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?

People:  I will, with God's help.

The Social Justice Bible Challenge is an opportunity to "continue in the apostles' teaching" -- to focus in on what God says to us through our sacred text about how we ought to treat the world -- and why we ought to do so! 

Join me for 40 days of readings and reflections on how social justice is taught in the Bible.  There will be a daily post with the day's reading and we'll get together weekly to discuss what we've read the week prior.  

This is the book that we will use, but if you're not able to purchase it, don't worry!  And if you need help purchasing it, please let Whitney know (wrobinson@dioms.org).

So...will you accept the challenge?