Acts 28:3-6 “Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire, when a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, ‘This man must be a murderer; though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.’ He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. They were expecting him to swell up or drop dead, but after they had waited a long time and saw that nothing unusual had happened to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.”
Monster!
The headlines tear like shards of glass through ripped reputations and tainted talents, to be heard no more.
Hordes!
Names, stories, lives, compacted into an anonymised mass.
Contempt for care, rejection made righteous.
When will we turn and dare to see the sister in the surge of displaced existence, and the brother in the monster’s shame?
Go and Do (see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo)
Global: Find inspiration from stories of inclusion and overcoming prejudice in India.
Local: How are you as churches working with those on the fringes of society? Find out how you could be supported to do more.
Personal: Take steps to tackle prejudice or exclusion in your life and community.