February 25, 2020

Scripture Reading: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12

Is not this the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
   and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
   the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
   you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. –Isaiah 58:6-9

I am blessed or cursed with a gut-level need for justice. Sometimes I do not know which. I, in general, come quickly to discernment on what I deem to be just; the greater challenge is to hold that which I deem to be just up to the scrutiny of what Christ defines as just. For example, we are all bigots in one way or another including me and that is a boulder-sized stumbling block to justice. A woman was shown on the news following the Iowa caucus trying to recall her vote for Pete Buttigieg when she discovered after she voted that he was gay. If she had determined that he was the best person for the job of president, why would his sexual preference matter? My mother would have call that cutting off your nose to spite your face.

In my career I routinely watched men with less experience and education than I promoted over me, many politically supported. Some I thought were good at their jobs; some were not. Most were dependent on female staff, paid less, to teach them their job. I also noted a few of those men recognizing the discrimination and doing what they could to address it. At one point I was assigned the task of completing a study to determine if there was discrimination in our workplace against women. Even I was shocked when I discovered that the woman who basically oversaw all the work of the agency made $20,000 a year less than the lowest paid male in her job class. She had worked longer than most of them and I do not think anyone questioned her being the right person for the job.

The Hebrew Bible is filled with the wisdom of the prophets as in Isaiah quoted above telling us that we bring about our own destruction by not practicing God’s justice. We the people need to keep that in mind as we consider who we chose to lead us.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see more clearly your justice and align our view of justice with yours. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.