Tag Archives: Justice

Partners in Christ Service

Living in the Spirit

Living in the Spirit

September 27, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
   and you will not listen?
Or cry to you ‘Violence!’
   and you will not save?
Why do you make me see wrongdoing
   and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
   strife and contention arise.
So the law becomes slack|
   and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous—
   therefore judgment comes forth perverted.

Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
   make it plain on tablets,
   so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
   it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
   it will surely come, it will not delay.
Look at the proud!
   Their spirit is not right in them,
   but the righteous live by their faith. –Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:2-4

What we fail to understand is that God expects us to do our part in providing for the Common Good among all people. The first line of this scripture calls for help, but I fear we want God to wave a magic wand and make everything the way we want life to be. There are many problems with this way of thinking, but the major one is that we all have different perceptions of what that way should be. God expects us to work together to find common ground in defining and providing for the Common Good as we seek justice, act kindly, and walk humbly with our Lord (See Micah 6:8) The hymn Called as partners in Christ’s service* addresses this well.

Prayer: Lord, help us respond with a deep commitment to fulfilling your chosen end.  Amen.

*See at https://digitalsongsandhymns.com/songs/6113

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.

Lamentations

Living in the Spirit

September 26, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Lamentations 1:1-6, 3:19-26

Judah has gone into exile with suffering
   and hard servitude;
she lives now among the nations,
   and finds no resting-place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
   in the midst of her distress.

 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
   his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
   ‘therefore I will hope in him.’

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
   for the salvation of the Lord. –Lamentations 1:3, 22-26

I watched Ken Burns latest series on PBS which describes the USA’s interaction with the Holocaust. Most of it was not news to me but seeing it all gathered together was heart-wrenching. It was also frightfully similar to parts of our nation today. Some with their heads buried in the sand, some leaning toward fascism.  Others see what is happening but do not think it is theirs to solve, and others want to help but do not know what to do.  

Yesterday, I took a day off from the news. I have grown tired of hearing another senseless murder occured in my city overnight, and lamentapoliticians raving about issues that take the focus off the real problems that cry out to be addressed–lack of health care, poorly supported education systems, homelessness, and hunger. I needed to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations are good for the soul as God strengthens our backbones giving us the courage to rise and be the people God created us to be as we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. (See Micah 6:8)

Prayer: Lord, grant us the courage we need to serve you more nearly. 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.

Can’t Bye me, Love

Living in the Spirit

September 24, 2022

Scripture Reading: Luke 16:19-31

‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. –Luke 16:19-25

I am so tired of being asked for money. During this election season, I get five or more text messages or emails a day begging for campaign donations. Most of the pundits I hear predicting election outcomes base their prognostications on how much money the candidate has raised whether it came from a few rich supporters or many small donors. The Beatle’s song titled Can’t Bye Me, Love runs through my mind, and I wonder if we end up electing people who are better at raising money than finding common ground for the Common Good. I am not sure the skills are interchangeable.

Jesus indicated that he judges us by how well we love our neighbors. He is quoted in Matthew 25 listing the criteria by which he judges people:  feeding the hungry, providing water for the thirsty, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, restoring the prisoner, and welcoming the stranger.  Rather than how much money a candidate raises, where they stand and act on these issues might be a better criterion for choosing someone to serve in our government.

Prayer: Lord, enable us to love our neighbors as you would have us to 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.

Treasure in Clay Jars

Living in the Spirit

September 21, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 146

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
   I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

Do not put your trust in princes,
   in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
   on that very day their plans perish.

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
   whose hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth,
   the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
   who executes justice for the oppressed;
   who gives food to the hungry. –Psalm 146:1-7

I wonder if Paul had this Psalm in mind when he wrote the following snippet in this letter to the Corinthians:

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

I spend much time in advocacy work with people from varying backgrounds and opinions on how things should be done and who should do them. Advocates test the trust of leaders constantly. Decisions are often made on political expediency rather than striving for common ground in search of the Common Good.  This Psalm helps advocates to find the Higher Ground of their work while understanding that we and the people we advocate for and the those we advocate to are treasures in clay jars. We indeed must keep our hope in the Lord as we strive to execute justice for the oppressed and find food for the hungry.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for being an ever-present help in times of trouble. 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.

I Will Do a New Thing in You

Living in the Spirit

September 13, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 98:1-5
O sing to the Lord a new song,
   for he has done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm
   have gained him victory.
The Lord has made known his victory;
   he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
   to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
   the victory of our God.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
   break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
   with the lyre and the sound of melody.

I prefer to write these devotions the day before they are published because I like to cover current events. I had the opportunity to go on a retreat, however, and decided to write some of these ahead so that I could take a bit of a retreat from my routine. I am glad I did that and am equally glad that when I returned to my writing this Psalm was waiting for me. I learned the chorus, I Will Do a New Thing in You*, (see Isaiah 43:19) when I attended a Children’s Defense Fund Seminar several years ago. Life changes and the world around us changes. Thus, we are constantly thrust into finding new ways of being and answering our call to serve the Lord.

The meeting I just attended considered economics’ impact on everything we do. We met in Washington DC and had the opportunity to tour the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Holocaust Museum. At the same time, we explored the impact the economy had throughout the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in our study group.  The irony of the experience was staying in an expensive hotel and eating expensive food while exploring the negative impact economic factors have on all people’s lives. All the vulnerable poor could not have afforded this educational experience. That is only bad if we do not incorporate what we gleaned from the experience by finding ways to restore our world to wholeness where everyone has enough. That will require us to take our blinders off and let the Lord lead us into a new thing in us.

Prayer: Lord, help us find our new thing so that we can enable others to find theirs. Amen.

*https://hymnary.org/text/i_will_do_a_new_thing

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.

Welcoming the Beloved Community

Living in the Spirit

September 13, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 98:1-5
O sing to the Lord a new song,
   for he has done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm
   have gained him victory.
The Lord has made known his victory;
   he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
   to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
   the victory of our God.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
   break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
   with the lyre and the sound of melody.

For some time now, even in the chaos of USA politics, senseless war, and uncontrolled climate change, I have felt that we are entering a new age. Modernity, largely connected to technological advancements, is being spoken of in the past tense. I do not follow astrology or geology or any of the other -oligies used to describe our eras. I identify more with Isaiah, Amos, or Jerimiah’s hope for the aftermath of exile. Considering the way, we as a people have been acting, we could well be headed deeper into exile. It is our choice because God blessed us with free will, but I sense that at least a remnant of people is longing for the Beloved Community, the Kingdom of God, and that also is a choice. We still can avoid exile.

We do need to sing a new song, and we need to encourage others to join that choir. We might start by exploring what the Beloved Community is.

Prayer: Lord, open our hearts and minds to the development of the Beloved Community. 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.

Serving God by Welcoming Others

Living in the Spirit

September 8, 2022

Scripture Reading: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

I, too, am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service. I truly do not know where I would be without the love of God, the model of Jesus, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  I am a cradle Christian and reading this scripture made me wonder if I take for granted God’s love. I think we can, and we should take God for granted, but we must do that with humility and the knowledge that we are responsible servants of God’s call to share that love with everyone. As we grow into adulthood, we must choose to accept that responsibility and claim our own path to service.

All people were not born into the faith, and even those who were born in a faith-practicing family may not have experienced God’s love in a manner that welcomed them into his service. It breaks my heart when I read about or meet someone who has withdrawn from their faith community or worse been asked to leave it because they do not meet that community’s standards for serving God. I do not know of a time in my life when our faith communities needed to turn around from the ways that drive us away from loving like God and reclaim that which God is ready and eager to heal making us all whole so that we can love all of God’s children made in God’s image.

Prayer: Lord, make us whole, make us one, make us just. 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.

A time to Die

Living in the Spirit

September 7, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 51:1-10

Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon
To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
   blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
   and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
   and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
   and blameless when you pass judgement.
Indeed, I was born guilty,
   a sinner when my mother conceived me.

You desire truth in the inward being;
   therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
   wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
   and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
   and put a new and right spirit within me.

I am writing this the day after James Coddington was executed in Oklahoma. He killed a friend after going on a rampage of stealing from stores to buy drugs. He had served 15 years in prison for the crime and had become a changed man. He peacefully accepted his death by human hands not by God’s timing.

Psalm 51 is one of my favorites. I usually do not quote the headings added by the publisher of the Bible cited below that I copy for these postings. I quoted it today because it describes why David prayed the prayer. His affair with Bathsheba had caught up with him. I take to heart Romans 3:23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It reminds us of our need to maintain a close and meaningful relationship with God. I also do not believe any human has been given the right to pronounce final judgment on anyone. God always leaves open the opportunity for forgiveness and restoration. Humans should too.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for not loving our neighbors by granting them the time to live that allows them to seek God’s forgiveness however long it might take until God decides their time to die. 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.

Doing Right

Living in the Spirit

September 5, 2022

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah

4:11-12, 22-28

At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert towards my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse— a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment against them.
‘For my people are foolish,
   they do not know me;
they are stupid children,
   they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil,
   but do not know how to do good.’

I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;
   and to the heavens, and they had no light.
I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
   and all the hills moved to and fro.
I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
   and all the birds of the air had fled.
I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
   and all its cities were laid in ruins
   before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation, yet I will not make a full end.
Because of this, the earth shall mourn,
   and the heavens above grow black;
for I have spoken, I have purposed;
   I have not relented nor will I turn back.

Jeremiah does not mince words, and still, the people did not pay attention to him. The world he describes sounds a whole lot like ours. The western third of our nation is in a dire state regarding water, the most basic need of living. We seem skilled in doing evil largely related to greed. When the bill was recently passed in Congress including a provision that the staff at the IRS would be increased so they could investigate and deal better with tax cheaters, many were outraged saying it would raise our taxes. They did not seem to recognize that if they are not cheating on their taxes, the taxes will not go up. That reminded me of the County Commissioner crisis in Oklahoma in the 1970s where most of the Commissioners were taking kickbacks on county contracts. When challenged about the process, their answer was everyone was doing it.

We are called to do right and doing right is designed to make our lives better.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for burying our heads in the sand and ignoring the small and large things in our lives that negatively impact others. 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 Does It Mean to be Woke

Living in the Spirit

September 2, 2022

Scripture Reading: Philemon 1:1-21

So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. –Philemon 1:17-21

Paul did not hold back from pressuring people to do the right thing. I felt discomfort when I read in the above scripture how Paul was trying to manipulate Philemon to do the right thing regarding Onesimus. I do not have the same reaction to the word “just” or “justice,” however, the Greek and Hebrew languages treat them equally. What is just is right; what is righteous is justice. I am not a linguist, but I do think we need to be attentive to our cultural interpretation of the words we use or misuse for an ulterior purpose. I do not know when I started hearing the word “woke” as an adjective describing a type of person. The word “woke” to me is the past tense of wake which means the process of transferring from sleep to not being asleep. It also means the water in the ocean when a ship maneuvers through it. Wake is also known as a viewing, visitation, or gathering related to the death of an individual.  None of which explains the woke as a personality type which seems to be the way it is used today.  Apparently, at some point, the word began to be used in slang to mean having or marked by an active awareness of systemic injustices and prejudices, especially those related to civil and human rights* which sounds like a good thing to me. However, it is being used in political ads describing such awareness as negative. Carried to its extreme, this kind of thinking is censuring what we teach in our public schools regarding our history of injustice as being a dangerous thing to teach to children.

Paul expected both Onesimus and Philemon to learn from their mistakes and live in righteousness intentionally. I think God expects that of us today.

Prayer: Lord, guide us in following you more nearly in a world that works hard at confusing us for its negative purposes. Amen.

*https://www.dictionary.com/browse/woke

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.