Tag Archives: God’s Righteousness

Living Justly

Advent

December 3, 2021

Scripture Reading: Philippians 1:3-11

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

In the above scripture, the word translated as love from the Greek, agape, means properly, love which centers in moral preference*. What is moral is just. Does this type of love drive all our decisions to determine what is best what is right in the world for ourselves and others?

In the compiling of the English language, I do wish the word “love” would not have been designated to cover such a vast expanse of meaning. For example, 1 Timothy 6:10 is translated For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. The Greek word translated as “love” is philarguria, which means love of money, avarice, covetousness**. Indeed, this Greek word starts with “phil” which might refer back to what we call sibling love, but would, I believe, more correctly in today’s world means greed which overcomes people to the point that they care less for their siblings or anyone else then they care for money.

I ask again, is moral love, just love the driving force of all our decisions to determine what is best what is right in the world for ourselves and others?

Prayer: Lord, open our awareness to the injustice we do not see in our world today. Lead us toward loving for what you consider best. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/26.htm

**https://biblehub.com/greek/5365.htm

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.

Righteousness becoming Self-Righteousness

Living in the Spirit

September 1, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 125

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
   which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
   so the Lord surrounds his people,
   from this time on and for evermore.
For the sceptre of wickedness shall not rest
   on the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous may not stretch out
   their hands to do wrong.
Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,
   and to those who are upright in their hearts.
But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways.
   the Lord will lead away with evildoers.
   Peace be upon Israel!

I do not think anyone, including children, should have to leave their homeland to escape starvation, being taken as slaves, trained as criminals or terrorists, or exploited into the sex industry. Our world is full of people caught in these situations. These people fleeing from such circumstances are called refugees. Most citizens of the USA stem from families coming here as refugees.

As I read the above Psalm, I was struck by the phrase For the sceptre of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous.  Who determines what is righteous? I am confident my ancestors who came to the USA to escape religious persecution believed they were righteous, as did those who fled famine. They were saving their lives and the lives of their children. But when does righteousness morph into self-righteousness, bringing the scepter of wickedness to our land?

Our ancestors called it Manifest Destiny. God gave this land to us without regard to who was already living here.

I was not surprised when I read the will of one of my southern relatives who left his slaves to his children along with horses and cattle. However, I was taken aback when I read an ancestor’s will who lived in Massachusetts in the 1600s. He gave his “negro man” to one of his children. I was unaware slavery was pervasive across most of the territory inhabited by whites along the eastern coast.

The more I observe human behavior, the more I understand that God calls us to live in God’s intentional righteousness all the time. That requires us to dig deeper into scriptures than just picking and choosing from antiquated language that agrees with our philosophies. It makes it even more important to observe and follow the words Jesus said and his ways of being. Such study will force us to realize that when we ask what’s in it for us about anything, we must understand that the only appropriate answer is God’s love and righteousness and act accordingly.

Prayer: God of the Ages, strengthen our intentionality living in your righteousness. 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.

Plumbline of Righteousness

Living in the Spirit

July 6, 2021

Scripture Reading: Amos 7:7-15
This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumbline.’ Then the Lord said,
‘See, I am setting a plumbline
   in the midst of my people Israel;
   I will never again pass them by;
the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
   and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
   and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.’

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,
“Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
   and Israel must go into exile
   away from his land.”‘
And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.’

Then Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

Amos’s description of the plumbline to illustrate how God sets the standards for our wholeness and well-being is very meaningful. Since early childhood, I have understood that if I did not stack my blocks in correct alignment, they would eventually fall. Common sense readily perceived by a child, however, often differs from our desires. Humans tend to what to have their cake and eat it, too. Amos was expelled from Israel because his warnings went against the leaders’ wishes.

When we read about idol worship in the Hebrew Bible, we envision people bowing down to statutes they have created, like the golden calf the Israelites built because Moses stayed on the mountain too long. I was shocked when I saw an actual golden calf made for a political rally on TV last year. I never knew what its purpose was. Unfortunately, the idols of our time are not usually that easy to identify. The more I search for the roots of evil in our world today, the more I see the truth in 1 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. They indeed may pierce themselves with pain, but the worst part of greed is it cannot exist without hurting others, too. Greed is the root of slavery and our unwillingness to increase the minimum wage to a living wage. Each time we ignore the plumbline of God’s righteousness, we move out of sync with it, and it will eventually suffer the consequences.

Prayer: Lord, help us see greed wherever it is invading our world. Grant us the courage to turn away from it as we work for a world that follows your righteousness and justice. 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.

What Is Justice

Lent

March 29, 2021

Scripture Reading:
Isaiah 42:1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
   my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
   he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or lift up his voice,
   or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
   and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
   he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be crushed
   until he has established justice in the earth;
   and the coastlands wait for his teaching. –Isaiah 42:1-4

What is justice? Is it an individual reality only or is justice always interrelate? The Hebrew word translated above as justice is mishpat and means judgment* and is targeted at the nation. The pictures of scales evenly balanced is an apt illustration of this word. But how do we determine what is just–doing that which is right: acting rightly or justly: conforming to the standard of the divine or the moral law: free from guilt or sin**?

I read in the paper yesterday that a man was set free from a rape charge because the woman who was raped was drunk, and there was solid proof that she was drunk because she chose to drink. No one forced her to drink. That decision was following that state’s law.

The Oklahoma City jail has some significant infrastructure problems that have resulted in it not having running water for weeks. Yesterday, a guard was taken hostage, and the prisoners demanded better treatment. Many of the prisoners are there because they could not pay the required bail. One prisoner was killed as authorities regained control of the facility. Many people held in jail have not been found guilty of anything.

The state of Georgia just passed a law making it illegal to provide water to people standing in line waiting to vote. Christ-followers are commanded to provide water for the thirsty. (Matthew 25:35) Who determines what is just?

Prayer: Lord, as we observe today, Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple grounds, guide us to ponder on the things that are just or unjust in our individual lives and our land. Please help us to see ways we can foster justice across our world. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/hebrew/4941.htm
**https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/righteous

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.

Doing God’s Righteousness

Advent

December 18, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Romans 16:25-27
Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.

Seeking God’s guidance in how we live our faith is key to everything we do. Understanding God’s guidance requires us, as with our computers continually, to clear the cookies that send us in wrong directions or clutter our storage space so much we do not have room in our souls to receive God’s righteousness. We must do this regarding every aspect of life. I remember sticking my arm out to protect a foster child I was transporting when I had to slam on my brakes to miss an animal in the road. My arm would have been useless if that had been a car pulling in front of me. So, we now have seat belts and child seats. I had no problem adapting to seatbelts, but a lot of people did, some still do.

It is sometimes harder to reassess faith issues, often handed to us by parents or respected faith leaders. Both were doing their best to train up their children in the way they should go* at the time. My ancestors who owned slaves, probably referred to passages in the Bible to support that practice. Polygamy was as much an economic reality as a faith construct. Having been raised on a farm, I can assure you that the women worked as hard as the men. They just had different duties. Those same duties changed when industrialization increased. Such changes have resulted in imbalances of worth among occupations. Gleaning what is right, what is just, requires God’s enlightenment from well-practiced communication individually and in communion with other people of faith. Such dialogue must include a careful discernment of how our worldview shapes our faith rather than the example of Jesus Christ and God’s righteousness.

*See Proverbs 22:6

Prayer: Lord, help us discern your righteousness and justice as we serve you in this world today. 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.

God’s Righteousness

Living in the Spirit

October 2, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Philippians 3:4b-14

even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Clergy from my denomination generally do not wear the white clerical collar. Some of my female friends wear collars because sometimes they are not accepted by others as clergy without that visible proof. Some clergy advocates wear the collar to tell legislators and media that faith-based groups care about an issue without the need to say a word.

In the scripture above, Paul is talking about credentials that are meaningful to other people. In his case, he seems to mainly be addressing the Jewish community to whom the credentials he lists would be most important. Paul claims something beyond merely following the law. He describes being the righteousness that can only be realized through a relationship with Jesus Christ. There is a difference between stopping at a stoplight to keep from getting a ticket and stopping at a stoplight to make sure your neighbor, driving on the same road, is safe. The mask we wear to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is an excellent example of this. I understand that these masks do little to protect me from the virus, but they protect others from the virus when. We all wear masks, we eliminate markedly the spread of illness, with you protecting me and I protecting you.

There is a difference between self-righteousness and God’s righteousness. We are called to be a part of God’s righteousness, God’s justice. That does mean we must remove all impediments to our ability to love like Jesus letting go of what we value about ourselves and living in the ways that God created us to live. It takes knowing we are each a person of worth because God created us, as are all people.

Prayer: Righteous God, teach us to love ourselves as you love and thus enable us to love all others as you love them. 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.

The Emperor’s New Clothes

emperorEastertide
May 6, 2016

Scripture Reading: Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
The one who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. –Revelation 22:17, 20-21

We are all called to declare the good news of the love of God as manifested through Jesus Christ. We are all called to drink of the water that Christ gives that becomes in us a spring of water gushing up to eternal life (John 4:14). We are all assured that the grace of the Lord Jesus is with us in all that we do in his name. So why do we feel discouraged?

If our political situation were not so dead serious, it would be comical. I remember laughing at the people described in the children’s book, The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson, who were so gullible that they believed the lie they were told. Remember the story? The emperor had been told that the clothing he was wearing could only be seen by the competent. He could not see it but he did not want to admit that so he paraded through the town undressed. All the people also had been told that they were incompetent if they could not see the clothing and even though they saw no clothing they cheered for the emperor as if they did see it. Finally, a child calls out that the emperor was wearing no clothing.

Now is the time that we remember whose we are. We serve the God of justice and mercy who sent God’s son to us as this gift of living water. We do not need to be afraid of the manipulations we face. We need to demand truth and we need to accept our responsibilities as citizens called to provide for the common good that is the only purpose of government. And yes, I know discerning the common good is not easy, but nothing worth doing ever is. When we turn around and seek God’s justice the path will be clearer.

Prayer: Lord, so quench our thirst for your righteousness that we are freed to pursue it with all diligence and with the sure and certain knowledge that you will be with us in the endeavor. 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 American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.

Merciful Justice

hateEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
January 14, 2015

 

Scripture Reading: Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18

O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
   and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
those who speak of you maliciously,
   and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
   And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
   I count them my enemies.  — Psalm 139:19-22

Psalm 139 is one of my favorites. It reminds me of God’s vigilance for each and all of God’s children including me. It makes me feel good until I get to verses 19-22 quoted above. Why did the author have to stick those verses into my meditation?

The word hate or hatred is defined by Merriam Webster as a general attitude of prejudiced hostility :  group animosity.* I suppose the author of this Psalm wanted us to each remember that even with the attentiveness of God to our care and guidance we are still capable of hatred. It probably starts with hating those parts of ourselves that we know are not a part of God’s plan. Our hatred can then blossom into exaggerated surveillance of others to see where they too may be missing the mark. We may search out likeminded disciples to coalesce our hatreds and even give them the credence of community so that what we hate together becomes a self-defined righteousness. When our cup runs over with self-righteousness, there is little if any room left for God’s justice and righteousness.

I for one do not believe we can ever hate the sin but not the sinner. God calls us to all inclusive love that Merriam Webster defines as unselfish and benevolent concern for the good of others**. All of us stand in need of the healing of our souls at one time or another and the balm for that healing is always love, God’s love and our love for each other.

Prayer: Lord, overcome us with your merciful love so that we can live and model your merciful justice. Amen.

*http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/hatred
**http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/love

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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

God’s Righteousness, Our Ministries of Hope

Justice and righteousnessAdvent
December 5, 2014

Scripture Reading: 2 Peter 3:8-15a

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, — 2 Peter 3:14-15a

 While we are awaiting the arrival of righteousness we must practice righteousness. The word “Righteousness” is an important word in our faith but, I fear, it does not raise images of hope in many people. It is rather like the word “carol” to me. I love music and I love singing Christmas carols but a deep seated prejudice lingers with me from a girl that attended grade school with me for only one year. She was much larger than all of us, my guess now is that she had been held back a few years. Her only joy in life seemed to be derived from pestering the other members of the class. We would call her a bully today. I was genuinely glad when I heard her family had moved away during the summer. I still have to clean my brain filters every time I am introduced to a new person named Carol even though I have never met anyone else in 60 years named Carol with whom I had a bad experience and one of my dearest mentors had that name.

I think we, people of faith, sometimes confuse righteousness with self-righteousness and sometimes we confuse our definition of righteousness with God’s definition. We also sometimes tend to use our definition of righteousness to judge others when I think Jesus was pretty specific about having drawn the assignment of judge himself (John 5:20-30). The word righteousness stems even into Greek from the Hebrew and refers to what is just in God’s eyes.*

This is a great season for cleaning up all those brain filters that are limiting our ability to live into righteousness and thus justice. God can make all things new and, I believe, can turn those bad experiences of life into tools we can use to work toward justice, perhaps because we have experienced its absence.

Prayer: Righteous God, I lay before you those things in my mind and in my heart that limit my ability to live fully into your righteousness and I lay before you those things that are perhaps even too difficult for me to face right now. Cleanse my being, heal my wounds, and turn any injustice I might have perceived into ministries of hope for the world. Amen.

*http://biblehub.com/greek/1343.htm

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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.