Old Testament
Nehemiah 2:17-18
17 Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burnt with fire. Come, let’s build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we won’t be disgraced.”
18 I told them about the hand of my God which was good on me, and also about the king’s words that he had spoken to me. They said, “Let’s rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
New Testament
Hebrews 13:1-2
1 Let brotherly love continue.
2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Nehemiah looks at Jerusalem’s ruins and refuses the slow normalisation of shame. “Come, let us rebuild,” he says, so we will not be a reproach. The work begins with honest naming: this is trouble, and it is ours. Then hope becomes public: a shared project of repair.
Hebrews is just as direct about shared life. Let philadelphia continue. Do not neglect hospitality to strangers. Remember those in prison and those mistreated, as though you were in the body with them. Christian love is not a warm feeling; it is a decision to be implicated.
Social housing names that implication in civic form. It says: the vulnerable should not be left to the market’s mercy. It is a shared responsibility, funded and maintained across time, requiring competence, safety, and long patience.
Lord, give us the courage to rebuild what is broken. Bless those who plan, fund, and maintain housing for those in need, and those who listen to tenants with respect. Protect the mistreated and the overlooked, and give your Church the instincts of hospitality: to make room, to remember, to stand with those who are ashamed or excluded. Let our common life become more humane, because brotherly love has not withered among us.