Tag Archives: Justice

Carefully Taught

Living in the Spirit

Actors John Kerr and France Nuyen in a scene from the 1958 film South Pacific. The interracial romance between the onstage pair unsettled some audiences.

June 17, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Galatians 3:23-29

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

I cannot read this portion of scripture without hearing in my head – You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught from the musical South Pacific by Rodgers & Hammerstein. Here are the first three verses:

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught from year to year,
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade—
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
You’ve got to be carefully taught!*

Bigotry is becoming normal in our society today. The current popular target of our hate is turned toward people in the LGBTQIA2S+ community but it still lurks across all lines of differences. God created each of us in God’s image. Every time we have a flash of bigotry fly through our minds, we need to remember that—God created each of us in God’s image.

Prayer: Lord, help us not teach bigotry by our actions or our words and heal us from the bigotry we have been taught that lingers in our being. Amen.

*See at https://rodgersandhammerstein.com/song/south-pacific/youve-got-to-be-carefully-taught/

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.

Moral Law

Living in the Spirit

June 16, 2022

Scripture Reading: Galatians 3:23-29

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

I am aware of originally good-intentioned laws, that are now bad laws. They are almost impossible to remove because they have become norms.  Oklahoma has a burdensome law that taxes cannot be raised without a 75% vote from the legislature in support of the increase. Attaining that super majority vote is nearly impossible. While there is no limitation on cutting taxes. Tax idealogues are in control resulting in Oklahoma’s rankings being very low among other states in the provision of crucial state services that are not being provided. Our education system is among the services being hurt by a lack of adequate funding. Civil laws are intended to define and protect the Common Good, not protect the rights of one group’s financial doctrine over another. Thus, moral law must be considered in establishing civil law.

Moral law is a system of guidelines for behavior. These guidelines may or may not be part of a religion, codified in written form, or legally enforceable. For some people moral law is synonymous with the commands of a divine being. For others, moral law is a set of universal rules that should apply to everyone*.

The Bible is one source of civil law established for events happening in the time it describes. Eating pork was avoided because at one time they did not know what trichinosis was, how to recognize it, or how to prevent its devastation other than avoiding pork altogether.  The Bible also records moral laws that stand the test of time in general, guiding the standards needed for society to function successfully. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may break some international laws or covenants. The slaughter of innocent children and others surely is against the moral law.

The Ten Commandments are moral laws that have been muted over time. Lying, idolatry—particularly the worship of money, and adultery all have lost their strength in supporting morally healthy communities and thus a morally healthy world. While laws and rules not found in scripture hold dominance over being a practicing Christian, for example, white supremacy.

Determining what is moral involves discerning and practicing what is just. We seem to have lost our way regarding justice. We will never attain justice until we are able to give up the idols of greed, lust for power, and bigotry that are now our guiding lights.

Prayer: Lord, open our eyes to see the harm we do to one another by not taking the time to deepen our understanding of your way, your truth, and your life**. Amen.

*https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Moral+Law#:~:text=Moral%20law%20is%20a%20system,that%20should%20apply%20to%20everyone.

**Derived from John 14:6

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.

Bringing Hope

Living in the Spirit

June 10, 2022

Scripture Reading: Romans 5:1-5

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

I get suffering producing endurance and endurance produces character but, I had to stop and think about character producing hope. Paul, the author of this idea, certainly lived it. He spent time in jail simply for preaching the ways of Jesus Christ. In some instances, he was waiting to see if he would be released, left there to starve or be executed. Until recently, I did not know that prisons in Paul’s time did not always feed their inmates. The prisoners were often at the mercy of friends and family to bring them nourishment. Experiencing that type of commitment does produce hope.  That type of commitment is just a reflection of the love of God provided through the gift of the Holy Spirit who nourishes our souls. We, too, are called to bring hope to a world when things seem so hopeless.

I just watched the testimony of a ten-year-old girl survivor of the Uvalde shooting who showed character and hope when she spread over her body the blood from her dead friend lying on the floor next to her so the shooter would think she too was dead. Hope may have saved her life. We as a people must be the catalyst for the changes needed so that such shootings do not happen. We must let this child’s courage and character teach us to be bringers of hope.

 Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we selfishly replace the safety of our schools so we can keep our deadly toys. 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.

Finding What is Right

Living in the Spirit

June 5, 2022

Scripture Reading:

John 14:8-17, (25-27)

‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. –John 14:14-17, 25-27

I acquaint advocacy with what Senator John Lewis called “good trouble.” He, indeed, was an advocate to model one’s life after. A gentle man who forcefully stood for the right and yet, did his fair share of stirring up good trouble. Doing what is right is often dangerous as Senator Lewis found out as a young man when he crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. It seems almost counterintuitive to link the work of the Holy Spirit with peace as it applies to advocacy. The peace being described in the above scripture is the peace that passes understanding. (See Philippians 4:6) Such peace comes from doing what is right in God’s eyes not as defined by humans. I think of the devout Saul of Tarsus who just knew that he was doing right in persecuting the Christ-followers of the first century until he had an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Our challenge as advocates today is to make sure we are doing what is right in God’s eyes. It is election season in the USA, and we are hearing all kinds of pronouncements on what is right and what is wrong with our country. We need to be very sure our lines of communication with the Holy Spirit are not cluttered with cultural filters blocking the Spirit’s truth from reaching our hearts and minds.

Prayer: Take our lives and let them be consecrated Lord to thee* in all that we do. Amen.

Derived from the hymn Take My Life and Let It Be by Frances R. Havergal. See at https://hymnary.org/text/take_my_life_and_let_it_be

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.

In A Fog

Eastertide

May 30, 2022

Scripture Reading: Acts 2:1-21

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
“In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
   and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
   and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
   in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
     and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
   and signs on the earth below,
     blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
   and the moon to blood,
     before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” –Acts 2:1-14

And so it begins. The disciples had to shake the fog out of their heads before they could read the scriptures of old and see themselves in them. They had to replace Judas and move on. We, too, go through times of fog when nothing is clear, and all seems out of sync. We are living in such a time as that right now. Our world is still fighting a stubborn virus while trying to recover from its aftermath. Mass shootings are happening repeatedly. We keep asking why. Our leadership seems impotent to address the issues that confound us some stand staunchly in the way of progress while others are being corrupted by greed and lust for power.

We, too, might benefit from an old hymn for evil has always lurked in the background and we are the servants of God called to overcome it.

1 Let justice flow like streams
of sparkling water, pure,
enabling growth, refreshing life,
abundant, cleansing, sure.

2 Let righteousness roll on
as others’ cares we heed,
an ever-flowing stream of faith
translated into deed.

3 So may God’s plumb line, straight,
define our measure true,
and justice, right, and peace pervade
this world our whole life through*.

Prayer: Amen.

* Let justice flow like streams by Jane Parker Huber, See at https://hymnary.org/text/let_justice_flow_like_streams

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.

Economic Justice

Eastertide

May 26, 2022

Scripture Reading:

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

‘See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. –Revelation 22:12-14

I just finished writing a report on the minimum wage including how out of date it is to the cost of living. Thus, reading the first verse above about paying people according to their work struck a chord with me and it was not harmonious. In the USA women still make 20% less than men doing the same work. Work generally identified as women’s work is routinely cast with lower wages than men are paid for like work. And what does the color of one’s skin have to do with anything related to the work one does?

What that scripture says to me is that God is a God of justice and God expects us to be people of justice. The work of the person who cleans the surgical theater is as important in keeping the patient alive as the surgeon’s skill. My paternal grandfather died from what was called blood poisoning at the time, we now call it sepsis. He developed it because the scalpel used by the doctor to lance a boil had not been properly sterilized. What determines the worth of each person’s work? How do we measure economic justice? When Jesus said the poor will always be with us (Matthew 26:11), I think he just recognized the reality that incomes always have varied, which continued to his time on earth. I somehow do not think, Jesus had in mind the current state of the USA economy where CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978. Typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time (2018). (https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018/)

Prayer: Lord, show us how we can do justice in a world that values wealth more than people. 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.

We The People

Eastertide

May 24, 2022

Scripture Reading: Acts 16:16-34

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God. –Acts 16:25-34

Our country, the whole world actually, has been caught in the throes of a pandemic, while dealing or failing to deal with the forces of unusually destructive fires, drought, hurricanes, floods, ice storms, and tornados. During all these challenges, our leadership seems primarily concerned with assuring that the rich get richer. Leaders invest their time in stirring up our prejudices and practicing divide and conquer politics. They care more about controlling people’s personal lives than addressing the systemic problems that plague the world, like poverty, climate change, and terrorism. The leadership in a true democracy should be a mirror image of we the people. We need to ask ourselves if indeed our leaders are a mirror image of us, and whether we are the ones who need to change.

Paul and Silas were imprisoned for trying to show people a better way. They did that in response to a deadly earthquake by demonstrating that better way. In doing so they changed the lives of their jailers. We are called to that same ministry of sharing the ways of Jesus not just in words but also in deeds and selecting leaders that share our vision of Jesus’s better way of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, welcoming strangers, and restoring prisoners to wholeness. Jesus says the nations will be judged on their response to these things not by how many billionaires it creates.

Prayer: Lord, search us for anything that prevents us from serving you more nearly and create in us clean hearts to guide right decisions and actions.  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.

Ruled by Greed

Eastertide

May 23, 2022

Scripture Reading: Acts 16:16-34

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’ The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. –Acts 16:16-24

Money—it is all about money. We are suffering from a pandemic of greed in our country that will be our downfall if we follow the patterns of history. When we reach some level of success as a people, we lose sight of God’s role in our progress and begin to see ourselves as the hope of our destiny. We are, indeed, responsible for how our society survives or even thrives but God is the designer of the universe. Our success is shaped by God’s creation and there is no place for greed in the Kingdom of God. I see it in the news analysis that this or that candidate will win because he or she has amassed the most campaign contributions. It pops up daily on my email, text messages, and phone calls. I receive ten to twenty calls each day from telephone numbers I do not know and do not answer because they are either spam or scams.

1 Timothy 6:10 says it best, 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. We, the people, can demand better laws to require transparency and limit contributions, but to do so we must wrestle with giving up what we perceive as the perks of greed.

Prayer: Lord, help us remove the greed from our lives to better deal with the greed that surrounds us. 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.

Bread of Life

Eastertide

May 7, 2022

Scripture Reading: John 10:22-30

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.’

During our spring session, my Bible study group studied the Apocrypha*, which we discovered most of us had barely even read. Though it was not canonized in the Hebrew Bible, it fills a gap of understanding between the exile and the coming of Jesus, who had read at least some of the Apocrypha even quoting it.

The Feast of Dedication mentioned in the scripture above is another name for Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish festival that commemorates the rededication of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd-century BCE. It is a happy celebration of God’s care for God’s people when their situation seemed hopeless. I thought of that today as I watched a few people being rescued from the Mariupol steel plant in Ukraine. Still, others remain.

I also heard on the news that the cost of bread around the world will go up because Ukraine and Russia are primary providers of the grains needed to make bread. Neither country can to the degree necessary farm and fight a war simultaneously.

I do not think Jesus was just talking about the Jews present when he answered the question of whether he was the Messiah, and he said he had already told them.  I think he is talking to all of us today telling us that we need to get our act together and become one, not just in our houses of worship but all people worldwide are called to be One, assuring that no one’s bread bin is ever empty.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for not recognizing that your abundance is for everyone. Amen.

*We used the book The Apocrypha by David A. deSilva

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.

Celebrate Love

Eastertide

May 6, 2022

Scripture Reading: Revelation 7:9-17

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, singing,
‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’ –Revelation 7:9-12

With the state of the world today, I find it hard to imagine a world ruled by love where everyone has experienced salvation for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth goodwill to men*. Government officials play games of divide and conquer jumping on the bandwagon of the latest divisive issue that has little or nothing to do with providing for the Common Good, the purpose of government. It may get them more votes and once elected they can continue to wheel and deal in greed and power, which often hurts their constituents. I was writing a report recently on poverty in Oklahoma. We rank very badly in most of the categories reported on the American Health Ranking**.  Our Greatest Challenges were listed as a high premature death rate, a high prevalence of non-medical drug use, and a high percentage of households with food insecurity. The only one of those three I have heard any public official address recently is drug abuse.

Jesus’s birth, death, and resurrection had a purpose. We are called to help shepherd in a world where love rules not greed or power. We should never take that for granted and we should always live our lives in thanksgiving by fulfilling Christ’s vision.  

Prayer: Open our hearts, spirits, and minds to serving you by doing our part to create a world ruled by love. Amen.

*From the hymn, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

**Data from https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/Overall_a/state/OK see also https://www.kff.org/statedata/?state=OK

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.