The original covenantal relationship in the Hebrew Bible (the original original program) went like this: “As I have loved you, so must you have a special, preferential, favored love for the widow, orphan, and stranger.” God knows that these folks know what it’s like to be cut off. And because they know this particular suffering, God finds them trustworthy to lead and guide the rest of us to the birth of a new inclusion, to the exquisite mutuality of kinship: God’s dream come true.
