Text for the Month
'Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.'
Isaiah 1:17
September has a particular feeling to it. The long heat of summer fades. Leaves begin to turn. Children go back to school. There is something in the air that feels like a fresh start - a natural new year, even for those of us who left school long ago. And every September, the nations of the world gather at the United Nations in New York for the General Assembly, the moment when humanity gets together and tries to work out how to share a planet. In theory, at least, as the gap between that aspiration and reality can feel vast.
And yet Isaiah, writing into a world of empires and injustice not so different from our own, does not counsel despair. He counsels action - specific, practical, unglamorous action. Not grand gestures, but the slow, faithful work of showing up for people who have been forgotten. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the orphan. Plead for the widow. These are not abstractions. They are people. They have names and faces and stories. And they are still with us in our city, in our news feeds, in the decisions made by governments in rooms we will never enter.
The International Day of Peace falls on 21 September, a day the UN designates for ceasefire and non-violence across the world. It is very easy to be cynical about such days. Wars do not pause because a date on a calendar
asks them to. But there is something important in the refusal to stop naming what we are working towards. Peace is not naive. It is, in the biblical tradition, shalom, a rich, demanding word that means not merely the absence of conflict but the presence of wholeness: right relationships, shared flourishing, dignity for all.
For us as the German YMCA community, September is a moment of re-gathering after summer. Old friendships are renewed. New people join. The rhythms of community life pick up again. Isaiah's call is a good companion for this season: not to be overwhelmed by the scale of what is broken in the world, but to ask simply: who is in front of me, and what does love require of me today?
Fresh beginnings. Ancient wisdom. Faithful action. September holds all three.
Sabrina Gröschel, Chaplain of the German YMCA in London