God’s prophets were concerned about the plight of widows, orphans, and immigrants. These people represented economic vulnerability. We need to build resilience to truly do justice.

Do Justice, Week 2

Last week, I started publishing a series of blog posts on the topic: What is justice? This is also the topic of one of our Learning Together units: Do Justice. Today I’m focusing on one of the targets of injustice: people who are vulnerable.

Why Widows, Orphans, Immigrants?

When we hear the call and command to care for others in Scripture, we often hear about some combination of widows, orphans, and immigrants (sometimes translated “aliens”) in our midst. But why? Why focus on these three groups? Well, none of them could own land, which only adult Israelite men could do. And in an agrarian society, land was the primary and most stable source of sustenance and income. So, widows, orphans, and immigrants did not have a stable means of supporting themselves. That means that they would have to do day labor, sex work (widows), or just beg. Even if they had all that they needed at one point, they were not far from poverty.

What Is Vulnerability?

In other words, widows, orphans, and immigrants represented vulnerability. Now, vulnerability is not the same as poverty. Poverty is when someone lacks one or more of the resources needed for survival (moving back a little from the definition of poverty used in last week’s post on shalom). Vulnerability is one step above that.

Vulnerability is the state when someone currently has the resources they need to survive, but it would not take much for them to fall into poverty.

You can think of it as lacking the resources to recover when bad things happen.

If you fall and break your arm, will you become bankrupt from the medical bills? Would you lose your job (or at least lose hours) and be unable to buy food or pay rent? The adverse event (bad thing) can really be anything, not just illness or injury. Auto accident? Layoff? Bad harvest? Pandemic? Natural disaster? This is, of course, a continuum, not a binary. With a sufficiently severe adverse event (or series of them), we can all be vulnerable. But here we’re looking at the more common adversities.

What Is Resilience?

The opposite of vulnerability is resilience. To be resilient does not mean that you are invulnerable to bad things happening.

Resilience means that you have the resources needed to recover from adverse events.

Sometimes, this means having emergency savings. It can also mean a job with sick leave; sufficient education and skills to get another job (and an open job market); access to affordable healthcare so you can get medical treatment without losing your savings; or a healthy body that you can use to provide for yourself and your family.

Resources for resilience can be personal (like the examples above), but they can also be communal and social. You can be resilient if you have family, friends, or neighbors who can help you recover. And we can also provide resources through larger social systems (such as a local, regional, or federal government), as often happens at the onset of a disaster.

Sometimes, all we need is a gift. Some food to get us through this rough patch. A grant to help our business survive (say, a pandemic). Someone to watch our kids while we do whatever we need to do. But gifts are only helpful for short-term, acute needs. For the long term, we need to be empowered to solve our own problems, and we need justice from the systems that oppose us. I’ll address the differences between short-term and long-term love next week.

Justice over Worship

In Scripture, God makes it clear that support and protection of those who are vulnerable is more important in true worship than even the commanded sacrifices in the temple (Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8; Isaiah 58:6-9; James 1:27).

Now, why would this be? Proper worship seems to be pretty important to God, given how much space in the Torah is spent on the tabernacle and worship practices. However, I don’t think this means that worshipping YHWH is not important. Instead, it connects back to the image of God in people and Jesus answering the question about the single greatest commandment with two.

You cannot separate how you treat God with how you treat those who carry God’s image.

As the writer of 1 John says:

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate [their siblings], are liars; for those who do not love a [sibling] whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.

1 John 4:20

Faith Formation

How can you tie the ideas of vulnerability and resilience into your faith formation setting?

1. Teach the concepts of vulnerability and resilience. This would be the most obvious way to tie this information into your context. While you might not be able to go into great depth with our youngest disciples, you can teach them the basics.
2. Build resilience in service. As you decide how to integrate service (love in action) into your group or class, keep in mind the goal of helping vulnerable populations build resilience. Meeting urgent needs is of vital importance, but cooperating with people to build resilience is better for long-term change.
3. Be sensitive as you lead. In our faith formation resources at Spirit & Truth, we try to include a reminder in appropriate places that you may or may not know your participants’ past or present experiences. I think it’s best to assume that at least one of your participants fits the definition of vulnerable (or experiencing poverty) now, has in the past, or knows someone who has. Be cognizant of everyone’s language so that any teaching or conversation doesn’t accidentally move into an “us” (the helpers) and “them” (those needing help).

Blessings to you as you do your ministry,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

In the summer, I am busy finishing up the spring quarters of our 2026-2027 faith formation resources (related to the Revised Common Lectionary and Narrative Lectionary). So, I am taking one series from the past and revising it. That is what I am doing with this Justice series. Brand-new posts will be coming in July and August!

Order Faith Formation Resources

Are you planning for summer and the 2026-2027 faith formation programming? Order an affordable VBS-ready Learning Together unit and program-year curriculum for the Narrative Lectionary (Year 1, 2026-2027), Revised Common Lectionary (Years A & B, 2026-2027), or Key Bible Stories (non-lectionary, PK-2nd, 3rd-6th).

New RCL faith-at-home resource!

I’m excited to announce a new product series for Spirit & Truth Publishing: Taking Faith Home. Taking Faith Home is a set of weekly devotional resources (often distributed as worship bulletin inserts) that follows the Revised Common Lectionary. We offer it as a Church Year (Dec. 2025 to Nov. 2026) and a Program Year (Spring & Summer 2026 and Sept. 2026 to May 2027). You can also purchase by quarter (Spring, Summer, and Fall). Learn more here and read a review!

VBS, Events, Retreats, and More!

Are you looking for resources for VBS, topical Sunday school, family/intergenerational events, retreats, and more?

Learning Together is a series of five-lesson units on a variety of topics. Our faith formation resources are easy to use, theologically sound, and inclusive. Each unit can be used at any time in many different settings, but here are a few suggestions:

+ VBS: Paul’s Adventures (NEW!), Celebrations, Created to Care, God’s Gift of Water, Heroes of the Bible
+ Education, Events, and Retreats: The I AM Statements of Jesus (free!), Travelers (Immigrants and Refugees), Do Justice, Celebrations, Women of the Old Testament, Bible 101

Building Faith has recommended two of our units as VBS curriculum: Paul’s Adventures (reviewed in 2026) and Celebrations (reviewed in 2025)!

You can also read outside reviews on both our Do Justice and Created to Care units.

Our Resources

At Spirit & Truth Publishing, we might have exactly what you are looking for:

• Resources for the Narrative Lectionary (2026-2027): Products for all ages, including mini lessons for PK-6th, if you only have a short time for elementary faith formation.
• Classic Sunday School Curriculum: Key Bible stories for PK-2nd and 3rd-6th, also great for your Christian elementary school!
• Learning Together: Five-lesson, topical units for family events, VBS, Sunday school, children, and intergenerational groups.
• Resources for the Revised Common Lectionary (2026-2027): Intergenerational classroom, mini lessons for children, faith-at-home resource.
• Faith-at-Home for the Revised Common Lectionary (Year A, Summer & Fall 2026 and Years A & B, 2026-2027): A NEW faith-at-home devotional resource for families. Learn more about Taking Faith Home (RCL)!
• Cross+Generational Confirmation
• Worship and Liturgy Education

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