Tag Archives: Justice

Change is Coming

Living in the Spirit

June 14, 2020

Scripture Reading: Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. –Matthew 9:16-23

Now is a time to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. I have been asked a couple of times recently why I hate some politician or another so much. My answer is always the same, I do not hate them; I do disagree with almost every stance they take on governance. Our society is on the cusp of significant development, which requires changes, and people are afraid of change.

The Israelites before the exile were extremely comfortable in their ways of being even when they were not just or righteous. They did not want to rock the boat, help others at the cost of their privilege until they found themselves being marched into exile by other nations who took advantage of their complacency and greed.

God created the world within a plan that requires God’s people to take responsibility for the earth and all that is a part of it in a just and merciful manner. When that does not happen, our history indicates such societies fail.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for our failure to create a just and merciful world. Write on our hearts your vision for your children and guide us in its implementation.

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.

Sent

Living in the Spirit

June 13, 2020

Scripture Reading: Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town. –Matthew 10:5-15

I wrestle with the juxtaposition of receive without payment; give without payment and laborers deserve their food. I have a sense of panic when I realize I am halfway to the grocery store and have forgotten my phone. Yet, I remind myself that most of my life I went everywhere without a phone. It is hard for me to consider setting out on a journey among people I do not know or do not know well without even a change of clothing. Even people who look a lot like me. Jesus apparently expects me to depend on the hospitality of these strangers to feed me. Or am I reading that wrong?

Those are just the practical plans for this mission. When was the last time any of us raised someone from the dead? What does the Lord require of us*? Certainly, in this scripture he is asking for more than is humanly possible. Yet, if we believe Jesus was fully human, he did all these things and more? I do not think Jesus is saying we should not pack a bag or otherwise plan for other necessities as we step out in service to God. I think he may be saying that the only real help we need lives in our relationship with the omnipotent, omnipresent Lord. When we get in sync with the Lord our priorities settle into right places.

We like to throw a little money at problems we see and call it good. I do not think the sins of our world will be washed away without our total commitment to understanding them and using all the gifts with which God endowed us to fix them. Our own greed is probably a great place to start. Greed undergirds poverty, a broken health care system, making criminal justice a for-profit industry, and the desecration of our environment.

Jesus is still sending us out into a world in need of healing with the greatest power of all, God’s love. We are the instrument of that love.

Prayer: Lord, open our hearts to the call of spreading your love across the world. Amen.

*See Micah 6:8

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.

Broadening Understanding

Living in the Spirit

June 12, 2020

Scripture Reading: Romans 5:1-8
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.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

We are who we are because of the confluence of our DNA, our culture, and our life experiences. I see the world through the eyes of a sickly little kid raised by a mother who I describe as the world’s first egalitarian and a father who soothed his soul with music. I grew up on a farm. The art of working began with my first steps. Food as a source of life involved the death of animals and sometimes backbreaking labor generally accomplished in a spirit of fun and comradery. Loving God and following the example of Jesus Christ was built into my being in the womb. Jesus was my friend as a child.  While my concept of Christ has grown over time, he still fulfills the role of a friend for me to this day.

Coming from a small rural community, I interacted routinely with rich and poor, young and old. My grandfather’s first wife was part Native American, and I was raised with nine aunts and uncles who were part Native American. My first encounter with a black person was at the age of six when my mother was taking a college course over the summer. I attended class with her one day. The woman who sat next to her was black.  Mom introduced her to me as she would have introduced me to anyone. Driving home, I asked my mom way the lady was so dark. My mom answered by saying, that is the color God made her. I was in college before I met a person from Asia.

My character was re-shaped when at the age of 23, I became a child welfare worker and saw the world through a lens that broadened my perspective, putting me on the path to justice advocacy that I still walk today.

The thing I must remember, we all must remember is that all people do not perceive the world the same way we do. Communicating is challenged when I see what is happening around me, totally different than others do. Listening and really hearing what someone else is saying requires us not just to take in words but to also consider the confluence of life that created the speaker’s worldview.

Prayer: God of Hope, meld dour life experiences together so that we might all benefit from the experiences of others so that we might grow together with endurance and character striving for hope. 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.

Rising into Justice

Living in the Spirit

June 11, 2020

Scripture Reading: Exodus 19:2-8a
They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.’

So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. The people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

I love how the Bible is so interrelated like how Isaiah 40:31 (but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary,   they shall walk and not faint) reaches all the way back to our Exodus scripture above. We should never underestimate the impact being freed from Egyptian slavery had on the Israelites.

I recently watched a rerun of Finding Your Roots that shared the family tree of the civil rights leader John Lewis. Now Representative John Lewis discovered he inherited his enthusiasm for civil rights from a great great grandfather, Tobias Carter. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified by the states on December 6, 1865, freeing the slaves. Tobias Carter was one of those slaves. Finding your Roots discovered the documents that showed where this man was one of the first slaves to register to vote in 1967. He claimed his place in a world made new.

God’s eagle’s wings are there for all of us when we commit ourselves to live in God’s righteousness. The struggle for individuals and communities is first, ferreting out what is God’s justice. Secondly, bringing our definition of what is right and just into sync with God’s, and finally, living God’s justice. This process starts with our delving deeply into tracing the threads of God’s justice throughout the Bible, not just picking a few verses here and there that line up with our prejudgements. Christ-followers may be in for a big surprise as we consider the justice Jesus lived as our model. An interesting exercise might be reading Matthew 12 or 25 and then trying to imagine what we believe and live compared to what he taught and lived. Changing our ways of being is very hard. When we align with God, we receive the power of those eagle wings to lift us out of our disparities with God’s righteousness.

Prayer: Forgive us when we find ourselves caught in the world’s idea of justice. Lift us up on eagle’s wings to a higher plain of 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.

God Listens, We Can,Too

Living in the Spirit

June 10, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
I love the Lord, because he has heard
   my voice and my supplications.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
   therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
What shall I return to the Lord
   for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
   and call on the name of the Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord
   in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord
   is the death of his faithful ones.
O Lord, I am your servant;
   I am your servant, the child of your serving-maid.
   You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
   and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
   in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
   in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!

Once again, a black man has been killed by policemen. This time we all got to watch the killing via media. Repeatedly, I have heard the word “listen” regarding the plight of blacks in our society over the past few weeks. Our scripture today tells us that God listens to all God’s children and hears what we say. Ours is a dynamic relationship with God, where love is reciprocated with more love.

We do not worship the fixed statues of old granting them powers they were unable to possess. We tend to worship out-of-control aspects of society that, like a parasite, flirts with us and diverts our attention from what really matters, allowing it to sap our soul-strength from us for its benefit.  

Our nation was formed by primarily Europeans immigrating here some in search of freedom from oppression, some in search of freedom of religion, and others seeking fortune. Some came with the full blessing of their church. The questions of history, I suppose, will never be answered whether the amalgamation of those immigrants and the natives that were already here could have ever been peaceful and mutually beneficial. Abraham’s migrating from Ur to the land of Canaan was at first hospitable until it was not. Until the parasites of greed resulted in violence among the tribes.

Four hundred years ago, the idea of producing more and more crops to make more and more money at the cheapest cost possible resulted in slavery. Humans, primarily from Africa, were extracted from their homelands and sold to the highest bidder to provide the cheap work necessary to make the most money from those crops. And we are still paying a high price for this denigration of God’s children for personal gain.

God is crying for us to abandon these draining gods and calling us to a deeper relationship with God. God listens and will enable us to listen to one another if we open our hearts to God.

Prayer: God let your love overpower us to the extent that we can see all the evil distractions of this world and turn from them and practice loving one another. 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.

Theological Sin

Living in the Spirit

June 6, 2020

Scripture Reading:
John 20:19-23
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

I have never entirely understood what John is saying in this last sentence:  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. According to The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary: In John, sin is a theological failing, not a moral or behavioral transgression (in contrast to Matt 18:18). To have sin is to be blind to the revelation of God in Jesus. . . Jesus brings people to judgment by his revealing work and presence in the world*.

Perhaps John is trying to say we are not judged on what we do wrong as much as we are judged by what we do not do right—sins of omission, not commission. Amid the chaos of racism and all its ugly ramifications, the idea of sin as a theological failing rings true. Jim Wallis calls racism America’s Original Sin in his book by the same name. I think sins of omission are what Jesus outlined in Matthew 25 when he said we would be judged by how well we fed the hungry, clothed the poor, cared for the sick, restored the prisoner, and welcomed the stranger.

Today I got a broader sense of the idea of retaining the sins of others. None of us are perfect, and none of our ancestors were perfect. Yet if we retain the sins of our ancestors in our faith practices, we have not learned from the error of their ways. A few years ago, I found in a historical record in Illinois that the first Christian worship service in that area was held in the home of my third-great grandfather around 1835. He had traveled to Illinois to homestead land made available as Union soldiers had, in the Blackhawk War, beaten back the tribes that used the area for hunting. Christian missionaries had been working with those tribes since the 1600s. Some of the natives became Christians and most likely held worship services. I doubt my third- great grandfather thought much about that. He may have had some concern that the natives might come back to reclaim their land. He was practicing the “theology” of Manifest Destiny or the Doctrine of Discovery, take your pick. He believed that God had given this land to those who came from across the ocean to claim it. The irony of the story was many of those who came were here in search of freedom from religious oppression. The same “theology” was practiced by my ancestors, who owned slaves. I have wills where the slaves were left to family members with the slaves listed by names among the horses and cows.

I am proud of my ancestors, who overcame hardships and made contributions to the furtherance of God’s Kingdom on earth in many useful ways. Yet, with the hindsight of history, I hope not to retain their theological sins in my theology. I pray for the clarity to know the differences and to emulate their righteousness as I forgive the communal sins of the past so my society can prepare a better future for the generations to come.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see and address the societal sins of our time and our place, so we do not leave them to our descendants to overcome. Amen.

*The New Interpreter’s Bible, a commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume IX, page 847, Abingdon 1995.

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.

Living in Harmony

Living in the Spirit

June 3, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

O Lord, how manifold are your works!
   In wisdom you have made them all;
   the earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
   creeping things innumerable are there,
   living things both small and great.
There go the ships,
   and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it. –Psalm 104:24-26

I am entering week three of critter control at my home. One lone squirrel remains in my attic. I think it entered the trap set last night. Hopefully, this squirrel will be returned to the wild today. The critters are here because of urban sprawl. Workers accidentally knocked open the door to my crawl space, welcoming hungry raccoons, possums, and at least one squirrel into the outer bounds of my house. The company removing the critters is very humane and uses exit cages on openings that let the animals leave but not return. When they examined my house, they discovered other possible entries that have now been sealed. The gateway out from my crawl space remains, but apparently, my squirrel friend is not aware that the exit exists. Yesterday the trap was set.

The moral of this story is that God created an interdependent world where all on earth must work in harmony to thrive. Whenever we allow our quest for wealth or privilege or power overcome our commitment to accepting our roles in an interdependent society that society is thrown off balance in varied destructive ways from the results of climate change to racism.

God also populated the earth with a diversity of people who together possess the skills and talents needed to sustain life and grow in wisdom and truth. For our world to work at the most fundamental level, we must work together, each making his or her contribution to society. God’s world is designed to function optimally when we love our neighbors as we love ourselves—all our neighbors all the time. Our wellbeing is based on the wellbeing of others. I think that is precisely what God intended.

Prayer: Lord, help us grow in wisdom and truth as we change our way of being to reflect your plan for a world fueled by 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.

Mary’s Strength

Pentecost

May 31, 2020

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:39-57

And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and to his descendants forever.’

And Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home. –Luke 1:46-57

This is a beautiful poem of justice. I wonder how old Mary was when she wrote it. It is placed in the scripture at the beginning of the story after Mary learned from an angel that she was pregnant and fled to visit her relative, Elizabeth. Was it composed during the three months with Elizabeth after Mary had digested what had transpired?  It reflects that she was enabled to turn what could easily have been considered a disaster into a vision of hope for not only her future but the future of the world.

Serving God, doing justice requires constant and consistent preparation for what lies ahead. We do not run into fire without the proper equipment and knowledge in dealing with it. People who do justice do confront it in the best way possible, and they do need respite to look back to see God’s work in their work and adjust their position to God’s in the examination.

John Dominic Crossan notes in his work that the Roman siege of Sepphoris located a few miles from Nazareth occurred about the time Jesus was born. Some suggest that Mary may have been born in Sepphoris. Surviving dangerous times requires hope and faith. While pictures often illustrate Mary as placid and innocent, my guess is that by the time Jesus was born, she was strong as steel, reinforced by God’s love. She is one from whom we should learn.

Prayer: Lord, strengthen us to do your justice in our 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.

Finding God’s Justice

Eastertide

May 30, 2020

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:39-57

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’ –Luke 1:39-45

Isn’t it wonderful when we have a cousin, other relatives, friend, or pastor that we can go to in times of trouble and know we will be welcomed with open, loving arms? Elizabeth was such a person to the young scared Mary, pregnant and unsure of the future even though she has received God’s assurance of God’s support and purpose in her situation.

I fear we judge too soon too often before we fully understand the situations of the people we encounter in our world. I was glad I received a social media post forwarded to me written by a young black minister calling all who care about justice to continue every effort to make our world a better place while practicing God’s love and forgiveness. I am old enough to remember the Watts riots watching them on TV. Our world was already a powder keg then because of the Vietnam War. Our powder keg now is a virus over which we have little or no control, and people, out of work, scared, with family and friends dying, are at varying degrees of anxiety. Some voices are making matters worse. Others, like the young minister, are speaking God’s truth to the forces of evil in our society. I thank God for such a man as this. He is the future of our nation and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Watching those riots in 1965 a few months after I graduated from high school changed my life forever. The events happening in our land today are changing lives too. We have choices to make whether those changes will be driven by the love and justice of God or the forces of evil that inflame them.

Prayer: Lord, we live in troubled times. Help us understand your justice and how to make it a reality. 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.

Genuine Love

Eastertide

May 29, 2020

Scripture Reading:

Romans 12:9-16b
Let Love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.

Let love be genuine. It is funny what we remember from the books we read. I have no idea how many years ago I read C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves, but ever since that reading, I have carried the wisdom he shared about loving people we discern as unlovable. He described a woman, his neighbor, who, by all experiences, was not a pleasant person to be around. He worked at avoiding her, if possible.  As he dug deeper into the life of Christ, he became more and more uncomfortable with his response to this woman. He finally decided he could not love her but would treat her like he did. So, he stopped avoiding her, chatted with across the path, and ignored her more offensive actions. One day, after a brief discussion, as Lewis walked away, he realized that he had learned to love her.

As I listened to the news this morning about another black man who had been killed by a policeman, I heard words something to the effect that black people cannot tell white people how to fix themselves regarding ending racism.  I recalled Martin Luther King’s words in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. He concluded that the Negro’s  great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted  to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice;

What struck me most as I read the scripture above was the words of action Let Love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Like C. S. Lewis we each need to examine how we are slowing the progress of creating a world ruled by love and actively change our hands-off or negative ways of being to letting our love be genuine in all that we do while we do all that we can.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for our going along to get along and help us to see how we can learn to genuinely love one another. 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.