2026.03.15 | Protection and Care for the Vulnerable
“Protection and Care for the Vulnerable”
Matthew 19:11-15 & Deuteronomy 24:17-22
Preacher: Rev. Ashley Wai'olu Moore
Eden United Church of Christ, Cherryland, CA
March 15, 2026
Good morning, Beloved!
The good news of God’s love for us continues today with an exploration of God’s protection and care for the vulnerable among us. There is nowhere you can go that God is not, no season you will face on your own, and nothing you can ever do to make God love you less!
Our gracious and loving God wants you to journey with Her/Him and be a partner helping to manifest their unconditional love on earth as it is in heaven.
Will you pray with me.
As you heard a few moments ago, our first scripture this morning is from Matthew 19.
Jesus spent the morning in Galilee sharing a number of parables with the large crowds who had gathered to hear his teachings. At one point, the disciples asked him, “Who is the greatest in the kin-dom of heaven?” He said, “Truly I tell you, whoever becomes humble like (a) child is the greatest in the kin-dom of heaven. 5 Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”
When he was done teaching, he left Galilee and went down to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. The large crowds followed him, and he cured them.
A little later, people began bringing their children to Jesus with the hope that he might lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples bristled and spoke sternly to them, trying to turn them away. They clearly had not absorbed the teaching Jesus had given earlier in the day: that “Whoever welcomes a child in my name welcomes me.” So Jesus rebuked them saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kin-dom of heaven belongs.” Then he laid hands on them, blessed them and went on his way.
As simple as this story seems, there is a lot more going on than we might notice during a casual, cursory reading. In our modern context, we carry a lot of assumptions and beliefs about how idyllic and innocent childhood should be. When we hear this passage, we imagine these children as the same kind of carefree, joyful and innocent souls we envisage in our own time. And it may seem sweet to us that Jesus lovingly welcomed these little children, spent time with them and blessed them.
But in his book, titled True to Our Native Land, Michael Joseph Brown describes how different the reality was for children in first century Israel. He writes: “We should dismiss ideas of childhood bliss when we read this passage. Childhood in antiquity was difficult. Fifty percent of children died before the age of five. They were the weakest members of society. They were fed last and received the smallest and least desirable portions of food. They were the first to suffer from famine, war, disease, and natural disasters. As many as 70 percent would have lost one or more parents before reaching puberty. A minor had the same status as an enslaved person, and it was not until adulthood that they would be considered a free person.”1
So Jesus is once again flipping the script, inverting the hierarchy and power structures of the day. By saying that the kin-dom belongs to those with the humility of children, Jesus is once again asserting that the last shall be first and the least shall be greatest in God’s realm.
But the disciples still do not understand what he is trying to teach them. Their perspective still mirrors the ethos of their day. In fact, just a few chapters earlier, a couple of them asked Jesus if he would grant them the honor of sitting at his right hand and left hand in his future kin-dom. Imagine how confusing and heartbreaking it must have been for them to hear Jesus say that such lowly and humble children would be considered greatest in the kin-dom.
This passage is a powerful metaphor about the love that God has for all those that who lack means, status, agency or power. Jesus loves the little children, and all of those who are most vulnerable. Widows, orphans, foreigners/immigrants, and the poor are groups that the Bible tells us deserve special care and protection. In fact, scripture consistently emphasizes God's compassion and justice towards these vulnerable populations. We see God’s care and concern for them lifted up throughout the Bible.
For example, Deuteronomy 102 tells us:
“For the LORD your God...ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.”
James 1:27 tells us (NLT),
“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”
In our reading today, from Deuteronomy 243, we are admonished: “not (to) deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; (nor) to take a widow’s garment in pledge. 18Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there.”
Exodus 22 goes further, saying:
“You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 22 You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. 23 If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry;4 24 My anger will blaze against you, and I will kill you with the sword. Then your wives will be widows and your children fatherless.”5
While God asserts that there will be consequences for neglecting or mistreating the most vulnerable, God calls on us to respond to their need. God wants us to intervene on their behalf. For, as Theresa of Avilla said, God has no body on earth but ours. We are the hands and feet though which God acts, called by Jesus to love one another as he loved us. This is the radical welcome we are called to emulate and embody. The treatment of the most vulnerable is a measure of a society's righteousness and faithfulness to God's commandments
In the second part of our reading from Deuteronomy 24 today, we are instructed not to take every last part of what we harvest, but to leave something for the vulnerable among us.
• “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it;
• When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left;
• When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what (remains);
21Instead, leave them for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings. 22Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this.”
Now during the last year, we have explored what it would mean for God’s shalom to be restored. As you remember, Shalom appears throughout scripture as God's ultimate intention for creation: wholeness, completeness, harmony, and blessedness. And we have talked about how, in God’s economy, God’s abundance for available for all.
In this passage from Deuteronomy, we can see how the small, everyday choices we make can contribute to the care of others. By not selfishly extracting every morsel of a crop and hording it for our own benefit, but instead allowing something to remain, we can support the well-being of others. How often do our work, hobby or home projects leave us with perfectly useable remnants that we store away or toss in the trash? We throw away so much trash in this country and that “garbage” often includes perfectly useable items that wind up in landfills just because we no longer want them. In my neighborhood, we free cycle, putting things we no longer want or need on the curb letting others know that it’s available. This provides with things that need but cannot afford.
Americans throw away nearly 60 million tons of food every year. With some intentionality, we could do far better about getting such unwanted food into the hands of the poor and hungry.
Last week, Pastor Marvin explored the story of the feeding of the 5000. When the people shared their food, low and behold there was enough for all. Pastor Marvin also shared how this community responded to the food scarcity brought on by the 2020 shelter-in place and made a huge difference in this area, preparing 5,000 meals in the first month alone. And Eden went on to respond to the COVID pandemic by offering free testing and then vaccines. For those of you who were here and watched it unfold in real time, it may have seemed like an unfolding, natural progression. But to someone like myself who has only read the story of how it manifested, it seems like a miracle. You are the miracle workers!
It shows what a significant difference we can make when we act together. Each person taking on a small task, but making a huge difference collectively. The sum becoming greater than the individual parts. That is the agency and power we have when we are able to respond together.
Our God does not want us to build up a store of our provisions and hoard them. We cannot manifest God’s kin-dom on earth by hoarding and guarding resources like some capitalist dragon. God’s economy requires us to give and “be rich toward God,” his people and to share with others out of what we have, even if it is just 5 loaves and 2 fishes. It’s a start! We have to walk in faith remembering that something that begins as small as a mustard seed can grow large and abundant, providing for many!
Thus, we can make a difference every day of our lives. No action is too small. No kindness insignificant. By helping those who are vulnerable and in need, we assist our creator in caring for our neighbors, increase God’s abundance, and manifest shalom in the world. God has no hands, no feet and no face but ours.
And so beloved, remember that the goodness of God is running after you all of your days. God loves you and wants you to thrive. The abundance of God abounds all around us. And we are called to extend that blessing to others through the radical table fellowship of communion and though care for our neighbors. That is how we build God’s kin-dom on earth together.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, thank You for your unwavering love and compassion. Help us to reflect Your heart, caring deeply about justice and kindness for others, especially those in need. Open our eyes to see the struggles of the poor and oppressed around us, and give us hearts that are moved to act. Lord, guide us to be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves, and to use our hands and feet to serve those who need help.
May our lives reflect your love and Your commitment to justice, showing the world what it means to walk in Your ways. Grant us wisdom and courage to stand up for what is right, and to honor You in all our actions. Fill us with Your Spirit so that we may seek not only our own good, but the good of others, bringing light and hope where there is darkness.
Amen
1 True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary, edited by Brian K. Blount, Gay L. Byron, and Emerson B. Powery, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2024). 120.
2 Deuteronomy 10:17-19, New Living Translation
3 Deuteronomy 24:17-18, NRSVUE
4 NRSVUE
5 NLT