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The Church and Economic Justice

EasterTrade, Supply Chains and Global Economic Justice Week 22 · Day 6

Scripture References

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Old Testament

Isaiah 58:6-12

⁶ “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
⁷ Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
⁸ Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you, and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard.

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⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from amongst you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly;
¹⁰ and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday;
¹¹ and the LORD will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail.
¹² Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.

New Testament

Acts 2:44-47

⁴⁴ All who believed were together, and had all things in common.
⁴⁵ They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need.
⁴⁶ Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,
⁴⁷ praising God and having favour with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.

Thought for the Day

Isaiah refuses a religion that stays tidy. True fasting, the LORD says, loosens bonds, unties yokes, shares bread, shelters the homeless, and does not hide from ‘your own flesh’. Even the pointing finger and the sharp word are named. Worship is tested not by its intensity but by its mercy.

Acts shows a community shaped by that mercy: believers together, sharing, gladness at table, and praise on their lips. Luke is not offering a new law; he is showing what the Spirit can do with ordinary people when Jesus is taken at his word.

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The Church’s calling in economic justice is not to become a state in miniature, nor to baptise every policy. It is to be a sign: a household where nobody is disposable, where need is noticed, where possessions are held lightly, and where generosity is as normal as prayer.

Lord, let our communion with you train our commerce with one another. Make us quick to share bread, slower to excuse inequality, and willing to be inconvenienced by love. Let our life together become a small lamp of hope in a world that has learned to shrug, and let that light be gentle. Give us the grace to start with our own hands.

Prayer Points

Respond

Father, turn our worship into mercy that can be felt by the hungry and the excluded.
Give your Church joyfully generous hearts and practical attentiveness to need.
Strengthen charities, mutual-aid efforts, and quiet local acts of care.

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Protect those caught in debt, precarity, or exploitation; provide safe shelter and daily bread.
Teach us to hold possessions lightly and neighbours dearly.

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