Great Plains Daily Devotional for 5/22/2022

Dear Christ, our Redeemer and friend,

Someone asked me if we were pronouncing your name correctly. An odd question these days. But this person heard from a scholar who said originally your name was not Jesus, as Hebrew has no j sound, so we’re wrong to call you Jesus. We should say Yeshua.

I thought I should ask then; do you care how we say your name? Does it matter in what language we pray, or in what direction we face, or how we hold our hands? We worry about these things, you know. We want to do it right, to honor you in the way we should.

When you said “as you did to these (the ones we think least), you did it to me” did you mean your name is many? How we treat those around us is how we pray to you? How we love or hate, how we heal or hurt, how we welcome or shun, is how we pray to you? Did you mean that you are George and Breonna, that you are Yevgeny and Olena, that you are Chinua and Aminatta, that you are Liu and Angkhana? You are all those who seek justice and transformation.

We pray to you, Jesus, our brother, Christ, our savior, that we may find our way to beloved community right here and right now. Amen and amen.

-- Derek Weber, May 2022