Tag Archives: Justice

God’s Messengers

Ordinary Time

January 31, 2022

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’

I stopped to imagine the Seraphs described above and wondered if any artists had attempted to draw it. Most pictures that I found dealt in abstraction, but a couple attempted a likeness. One such picture is featured above. We take for granted today’s flight without pilots having the ability to see where they were going. In the 7th century BC, the idea of sightless flying was most likely tied to the guidance of the Divine.

How does God speak to us today? The Man of La Mancha, musical addresses that question in the second verse of The Impossible Dream,

To right the unrightable wrong
And to love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are to weary
To reach the unreachable star

Our calling is to identify the unrightable wrongs and seek God’s guidance and power to correct them. Isaiah tried to save Israel from its unrightable wrongs as did other prophets and the people stubbornly refused to turn to God’s ways. Time will tell if we follow God or face the consequences if we do not.

Prayer: Lord, let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24) Amen.

Second verse of The Impossible Dream by Leigh Mitch / Darion Joseph, The Impossible Dream lyrics © Helena Music Company, Andrew Scott Music, Helena Music Corp. See at https://www.google.com/search?q=the+impossible+dream+lyrics&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS987US987&sxsrf=APq-WBvgCIb1irM5m3aM56we2YigDoqcEA%3A1643579189923&ei=NQf3YdTVN-amqtsPq9CXgAY&oq=right+an+unrightable+wrong&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYADIHCAAQRxCwAzIHCAAQRxCwAzIHCAAQRxCwAzIHCAAQsAMQHkoFCDwSATFKBAhBGABKBAhGGABQAFgAYPIZaAFwAXgAgAEAiAEAkgEAmAEAyAEEwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz

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.

Restore Our Souls

Ordinary Time

January 26, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 84

For a day in your courts is better
   than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
   than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
   he bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the Lord withhold
   from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
   happy is everyone who trusts in you. –Psalm 84:10-12

The Lord is brighter than the sun and more protective than the strongest shield. Envision a group of people waiting on a hillside for the sun to come over the horizon. A wonderful explosion of color surrounds it until it rises high enough and becomes so bright one cannot look at it without the help of sunglasses.

 The title of J. B. Phillips’s book, Your God Is Too Small, flashes through my mind when I read scriptures like this one. Scriptures like this give me great hope that God will restore us to wholeness from our wandering ways. I have become very cynical during the COVID pandemic because of our response to it. We seem caught in a web of total denial unable to deal with the reality that is around us. Our self-righteousness may be catching up with us. We have lived in a favored state for so long we forget the blood, sweat, and tears our ancestors experienced creating the privilege we now see as normal. Indeed, to whom much is given, much will be required (Luke 12:48)  We have millions of fellow citizens who do not have enough of the basic needs of life and we have a world full of starving people longing for the people of God to relieve their suffering so that they might too enjoy setting under a rising sun with the protection of God’s love.

Prayer: O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
   give ear, O God of Jacob!
Behold our shield, O God;
  look on the face of your anointed*. 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.

Ministry of Justice

Ordinary Time

January 23, 2022

Scripture Reading: Luke 4:14-21

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
   because he has anointed me
     to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
     to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’  –Luke 4:16-21

The text for Jesus’s first sermon was Isaiah 58:6, and 61:1-2 quoted above. They outline his ministry’s purpose—bringing justice to the poor, captives, blind, and to letting the oppressed go free. These remain our goals today. We have failed repeatedly to maintain justice.  We live in the richest nation in the world and yet $140 million people* live in poverty or are one crisis away from poverty. Former students remain in low-income situations because of interest rates making payback of loans a lifelong commitment. They are captives to a system designed to make the rich richer not to lift people out of poverty. It is interesting that Jesus chose the blind to highlight. Besides returning sight to the blind, It may mean he came to open all people’s eyes to disparities in our world and how we drift away from the core of God’s plan for all creation. Oppression continues in the USA, for example, Black male offenders continued to receive longer sentences than similarly situated White male offenders**.  According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, in 2020, women’s annual earnings were 82.3% of men’s, and the gap is even wider for women of color.

I invite you to join me in a season of prayer for our nation and our world as we seek to discern what kind of world in which we want to live, during this election year.

Prayer: Lord, Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me, Spirit divine!*** Amen.

*For more information see https://wwSeew.poorpeoplescampaign.org/140-million-maps/

** see https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/demographic-differences-sentencing

Derived from hymn Open My Eyes by Clara H. Scott see at https://hymnary.org/text/open_my_eyes_that_i_may_see

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.

Of Laws and Grace

Ordinary Time

January 19, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 19

The law of the Lord is perfect,
  reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
   making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
   rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
   enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is pure,
   enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
   and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
   even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey,
   and drippings of the honeycomb. –Psalm 19:7-10 he

Sister Joan Chittister’s book The Ten Commandments: Laws of the Heart helped me understand the importance of law in our lives while delving into the breadth and depths of the Ten Commandments. I grew up on a farm. One evening while watching TV, we saw an ad for a Gubernatorial candidate showing him walking idyllically through a pasture with grazing cattle holding his wife’s hand staring up at the blue sky. My dad said he could never vote for anybody who does not have sense enough to watch where he was stepping in a pasture full of cows. Laws and rules formed from experience ease our paths in life.

God wants the very best for all of God’s creations including each of us, and through God’s various emissaries shared guidance toward that end. The Ten Commandments are the most practical advice we could ever receive. Think about how much better our world with be if we had ever all worked at following them. Instead of practicing sage advice we either use them to establish self-righteousness or to judge others.

A few thousand years later God sent Jesus who introduced us to grace establishing that God’s love is our salvation and God’s supreme commandments to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves encompasses all the laws. Those laws remain relevant as they help us discern how to apply love in our daily lives.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the gift of your grace and for the laws that exemplify our living in your love. 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.

Seeking God’s Light

Ordinary Time

January 12, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 36:5-10
Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
   your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
   your judgments are like the great deep;
   you save humans and animals alike, O Lord.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
   All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
   and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
   in your light we see light.

O continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
   and your salvation to the upright of heart!

The weather in Oklahoma changes often. We can have a high of 80 degrees one day and a high below freezing the next. The wind is rarely still, and cloudy days mix with bright sunny days. I am light sensitive, so I wear regular glasses, often covered with sunglasses. Yesterday, I faced the dilemma of needing to be outside on a freezing day with very bright sunshine. My poor ears did not know what to make of what I thrust on them—glasses stems, sunglass stems, masks loops, and finally earmuffs. My ears hurt from all that weight.

We can carry a lot of weight in our spiritual life that limits our access to God’s light. Nevertheless, the nature of God’s light is not blinding unless, in some circumstances, we shroud ourselves with so much self-righteousness we miss seeing God’s righteousness. Saul had such an experience with God’s light on the road to Damascus*. Saul thought he was doing God’s work, persecuting the Christ-followers. How much work do we do establishing self-righteousness and our justice rather than God’s righteousness and justice?

Prayer:  Lord, free us from the garb of self-righteousness and let your light show us the way to living in your Spirit. Amen.

*See at Acts 9:1-19

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.

Distraction

Ordinary Time

January 8, 2022

Scripture Reading: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’ –Luke 3:15-17

One of the advantages of having grown up on a farm is understanding what things like chaff are. Chaff is all the stuff that engulfs seeds or the fruits of harvesting grain that must be removed to take full advantage of those fruits. In ancient times, crops harvested from the fields were processed to remove all that clutter no longer used. Often that meant tossing the seeds into the air where the winds blew the lighter chaff away. Threshing machines and combines eventually were invented to clear it out. It was considered waste and was often burned where it was collected.

The above scripture leaves the impression that this activity is a one-time venture, and it is regarding wheat seeds at each harvest. However, we humans tend to gather the trash of life like dust being removed one day and reappearing the next. Therefore, we must be very intentional about removing the distractions from our lives that keep us from fulfilling our calling and purpose.

Distraction has become a mainstay of modern politics. I recently posted some information about poverty on a social media site, starting with quoting the low unemployment rate that had just been announced for Oklahoma. The remainder of the piece described how full employment would not end poverty in our world today. Though superfluous, the arguments discredited my knowledge, even though what I had written was correct and probably stopped readers from seeing the data on poverty. I heard political analyst John Dickerson on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (1-6-2022) saying that this distraction process was an intentional assault of those who want us to question everything while driving home unsubstantiated information.

Jesus cautioned us in Matthew 10:16, ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Wise words for the world we live in today.

Prayer: Lord, give us the courage and strength to be your Body in the 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.

Noxious Foe

Ordinary Time

January 7, 2022

Scripture Reading: Acts 8:14-17

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

While I value the Holy Spirit greatly, I never know how to share my thoughts about the Spirit with others. John 3:8 states my dilemma well, The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’

I searched for other references to the Holy Spirit and stumbled on an old hymn with no other reference than 5 L. M. and the title Creator Spirit. I laughed when I read the last verse because it expressed well my immediate feelings about the world these days, although I never thought I might sing the word “noxious.” Here is that verse

Chase from our path each noxious foe,
And peace, the fruit of love, bestow;
And, lest our feet should go astray,
Protect and guide us on our way*.

Noxious foe may be a better descriptor than evil for what is afoot in our world today. We are being besieged on all sides by unnecessary and unmeaningful distractions. That refocuses us on issues that have little to do with the problems being addressed. The goal, I think, is to cast doubt on all information about subjects some people do not want to be brought to the forefront. Therefore, we must be diligent in our advocacy while not getting pulled into the nets of our noxious foes.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the gift of the Spirit, who will guide us not to go astray if we see such guidance. Amen.

*https://hymnary.org/hymn/HoS1864/page/14 (number 5)

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.

Called to Love

Advent

December 14, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 80:1-7

Restore us, O God;
   let your face shine, that we may be saved.

O Lord God of hosts,
   how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
   and given them tears to drink in full measure.
You make us the scorn of our neighbors;
   our enemies laugh among themselves.

Restore us, O God of hosts;
   let your face shine, that we may be saved.

I did not live through the depression or World War II, and I was too young to remember much about the Korean War. I do remember sitting under my desk at school as practice in case a nuclear bomb struck us and watching the aftermath of the assassination of President Kennedy. I lived just a few blocks from the predominately black part of town in college. I remember well the sounds of guns, Molotov cocktails, and fire truck sirens all night after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. I learned later those participants were shooting in the air and destroying trash cans and other containers in their neighborhood in frustration, anger, fear, and hopelessness. Here we are still. Does it ever end? We are a nation divided. I easily can imagine God being angry that we still do not recognize that love is always better than hate, and the love displaced on greed and power is the same as hate. What are we teaching our children? This cycle must stop with us.

Prayer: Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. 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.

Moral Citizens

Advent

December 12, 2021

And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’ –Luke 3:10-14

I found it somewhat ironic that this Scripture with the phrase ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ was part of the liturgy for this week. Congress is considering the Build Back Better Bill; It includes a provision that the federal government will Impose a tax penalty if drug companies increase their prices faster than inflation*. While I am a strong supporter of the separation of church and state, we have a voice in our government’s being moral, being just. What Jesus is outlining in the above Scripture is the simple act of being righteous and just in all we do.

We live in a democracy that requires all citizens’ input and a concerted effort to find common ground for the common good among the diversity of opinions in our country. The word moral as it applies to governance means considering something having the qualities of right and wrong action being governed by a sense of right**. Unfortunately, we are in danger of being overtaken by oligarchs who believe theirs is the only right way to do anything and gain their decision-making control by buying our elected officials***. Such wealth allows our representatives to venture far afield from what is right for the constituents they serve. The oligarchs do not need to invest in the whole Congress or State Legislature. They just need to control enough to divide and conquer lawmaking. In a democracy, we, the people, are the only ones who can stop it.

Prayer: Lord, guide us in being good, moral, and just in our role as citizens. Amen.

*https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/

**https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/moral

***On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, that corporations and other outside groups could spend unlimited funds on elections.

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.

Bearing Fruit

Advent

December 11, 2021

Scripture Reading: Luke 3:7-18

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’ –Luke 3:7-9

What happens after baptism? Baptism, for many of us, was a rite of passage. Some were baptized when their parents brought them forward in church shortly after birth, and they reconfirmed that when they were older. Others viewed baptism as publicly professing faith that Jesus was the Christ and accepting him as our Savior. Some became adults before making that commitment. Those coming to John for baptism did so in the hope of the prophesied Messiah, God’s anointed one coming to make all things right. John spells out our role in complementing the Messiah when he instructs those being baptized and those of us who now follow the Christ when he led them and us to bear fruits worthy of repentance.

If setting things right is the role of the Messiah, we are the workers called to take his love and ways throughout the world. How are we doing at that? Do we rest on our laurels because we confessed faith in Jesus, the Christ? As Luke suggests, John’s audience may think they have nothing left to do because they are Abraham’s descendants. We say we are baptized believers. In developing our ways of being, have we retained Jesus’s way of loving and shaping communities of love? Or are we moving further and further away from God’s righteousness and justice as we advertise a faith of our creation?

Advent is the time to evaluate our commitment to Christ’s ways to determine if we are bearing fruits worth repentance. What changes must we make to come into alignment with God’s righteousness and justice? What steps will we take to implement those changes?

Prayer: Lord, as we move closer and closer to your coming as God with Us let us also grow closer to your 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.