Tag Archives: Justice

Mitigate and End Discrimination

Eastertide

April 23, 2020

Scripture Reading:
1 Peter 1:17-23

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. –1 Peter 1:17-21

Where do we place our faith and hope? Viruses indeed do not discriminate. A fact that should make us consider our priorities in life. I live in the heart of tornado alley. Many victims of a catastrophic storm, usually standing before their destroyed home, will say that they may have lost all their material wealth, but all their family survived.  That was what mattered. Many report they placed their faith and hope in God.

COVID 19 has pulled the bandage off the festered sore that people do discriminate. Our discrimination impacts the lives of everyone. The percentage of people of color dying from COVID 19 is disproportionately higher than the rate for white people. There are reasons for that. Many of the people doing essential jobs are people of color like janitors and grocery clerks. Quality, routine health care is not readily available to people working in low wage jobs in a nation that depends on employers to provide the majority of its health care insurance. Thus those low wage workers are more likely to suffer from health issues that heighten their vulnerability to viruses. People of color are much more likely to be sentenced to prison for non-violent crimes than white people. Prisons are too crowded to provide safe distancing in a contagion. This list is endless.

As we work from the safety of or homes or just shelter in place to mitigate COVID 19, we must take some time to ponder a different future. What steps do we need to take to turn our country, the world, into a place where all God’s children matter?

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for turning eyes blinded by our indifference when seeing what we have become as a society, a nation, a world. Help us work to mitigate and end discrimination. 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.

Interdependence and Preparedness

Eastertide

April 21, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
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.

Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.’

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.’ And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’ So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

History reports several great awakening among God’s people. The Hebrew Bible documents a roller coaster of spiritual highs where God’s people turned back to God’s ways, followed by slippage back to serving the lesser gods of greed and lust for power. We read the stories but do not retain or practice the wisdom they share. As I hear of the lack of testing tools related to the COVID 19 virus, I remember the story of Joseph advising the Pharoh of Egypt to store up excess grain from the bountiful harvest because famine was coming. George W. Bush reacting to reports regarding possible pandemics began addressing the issue in 2005: ‘If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare.’* By 2018, we had to cut somewhere, pandemic preparedness being one to provide a significant tax cut, primarily benefiting the wealthiest in our nation.

There is much wisdom to glean from our current pandemic. God created an interdependent world for all God’s children. We must learn to care for and love one another to survive. God created a world with enough for everyone, whether it is food or the skills and tools to address pandemics. Working together results in synergy where the total effect is more than the sum of the parts. Jesus put synergy best in saying, whenever two or three are gathered together in my name, I am with you.**

Prayer: God of Hope help us learn from our mistakes as we move forward from pandemic to build a healthy world for all. Amen.

*https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/george-bush-2005-wait-pandemic-late-prepare/story?id=69979013
*See Matthew 18:20

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.

Mob Mentality

Lent

April 5, 2020

Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:11-54

Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, “I am God’s Son.” ’ The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way. –Matthew 27:38-44

The older I get, the more I understand that people are much the same rich or poor, black or white, male or female.  All fall somewhere on the continuums of good and evil, wise and foolish, righteous and unrighteous. Paul implied something similar when he said there is no Greek or Jew*. Of course, being human almost seems to require our defining and rating differences. Jesus was popular among many people drawing large crowds to hear what he had to say. Some came out of curiosity and left once their interest was satisfied. Some did not know what to think. Others who heard and believed in him experienced their lives changing forever. And some, like the religious leaders of the day, were threatened by him.

Mob mentality ensued. I am reading Fire in Beulah by Rilla Askew, a work of fiction that deals with the Tulsa Race Riot. It describes the almost party atmosphere of people attending the hanging of a white man by other white people that occurred in Tulsa the year before the riot. Parts of Tulsa caught up on the greed of the oil boom lived in an anything-goes-world. Mob mentality provides an outlet for pent-up emotions in a world where some flourish at the expense of others. Paradoxically, the people who are the angriest often have the most to lose. Their rage is most likely not directed at the current incident, but building over time had found an outlet for expression.

The people of the first century, no doubt wanted a savior, needed a savior. They were caught in the web of the Roman Empire and led by faith leaders who were more concerned about their power and status than about the people they served. I cannot imagine how it must have felt to see one more potential savior end up on a cross.

People are the same today. The world continues to be awash with greed and lust for power. We, however, know the end of the story. Although Jesus died on that cross, he arose from the tomb and lives today, guiding us to be the people of God as we work to bring the gift of God’s love to all.

Prayer: O, Lord, nourish our souls each day, enabling us to work for a just world where mob mentality is only a paragraph in a history book and all have a place at your table. Amen.

*Galatians 3:28-29

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.

Coming to Christ

Lent

April 3, 2020

Scripture Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Therefore God also highly exalted him
   and gave him the name
   that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
   every knee should bend,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
   that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father. –Philippians 2:8-11

I had never heard the term “High Christology” until I took a theology course several years ago and discovered the words to describe what I think I have always intuited. My mother I am sure planted those seeds; Christ who is Lord came to earth as a human and lived among us. Later I was influenced by the books of Hebrews, John’s Gospel, and Paul’s letters. Paul spells out that understanding very well in the poetry of Philippians 2:5-11.

I am a child of the 60’s. Civil rights, the war in Vietnam, the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, and The Sound of Silence all ran together sweeping through my consciousness and blended with my long-held faith that when two or three are gathered together the Lord is with us*. As I look back on those days and see what is happening among my peers and others, I wonder if some became disillusioned with our vision for justice because they lack the sense of the Lord being at the table with us.

While we long for a world filled with mercy and justice, we must work with persistence to make the changes necessary for that to happen. Making changes in our own hearts and minds is hard. Walking with others as they face and make needed changes in their lives is challenging. I do not know if it is even possible without the abiding love of God, the model of Jesus, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit accompanying us. But I trust that the day will come when all will be nourished by the love of God.
when every tongue should confess
   that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father

Prayer: God of Justice and Mercy, rekindle in us the experience of breaking bread with you at the table of life with Christ. Amen.

*Matthew 18:20

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.

Empowered to Love

Lent

April 2, 2020

Scripture Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross. –Philippians 2:5-8

What was in Christ’s mind? According to this poem/hymn, Christ recognized that he was made in the form of God but was not equal to God. Perhaps that relates specifically to his tenure as a human. For Jesus to be fully human and thus completely understanding of how humans think and feel, it was imperative that God Incarnate must experience full humanness. Did that require him to give up special powers? Yet he healed the sick and raised the dead. Have we reached for knowledge and wisdom to follow in his footsteps? We have come a long way, but we are not finished yet. Jesus was cautious. He did not use his gifts for selfish gain or personal aggrandizement. Are we to follow that model also?

What does it mean to empty oneself? Are we to purge ourselves of all things that made us who we are and start over again? Jesus talked about being born again. I doubt that we could ever shed our histories. Some may be embedded in our DNA. We do need to work at ridding ourselves of all the baggage that we carry that is holding us back from being the person we are created to be. Finally, if called, could we be obedient to the point of death? As I write this, I cannot help but think of all the health care workers who are striving to save people from the covid 19 virus, many of whom have already given their lives in service to others.

 According to Genesis we are all made in the image of God and none of us are equal to God, but we have been blessed to be siblings with his Son Jesus Christ and invited by him to share in forming a Kingdom ruled by love. What does it mean to be made in the image of God? We are each fully capable of loving ourselves and one another. We have no excuse for hating anyone or disparaging anyone or classifying ourselves as better than anyone. And most of us have probably only tapped the tip of the resources God placed in each of us at our beginning. In times like these we need to persevere, testing the limits of God’s gift to love and apply it as needed even if it simply means sheltering at home.

Prayer: Lord of Love, thank you for the gift of your Son to model the ways of love. Strengthen us as we face the challenges of life and help us grow in oneness and justice as we deal with this crisis.

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.

Fruit of the Spirit

Lent

Scripture Reading:
Psalm 130

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
   and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
   more than those who watch for the morning,
   more than those who watch for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord!
   For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
   and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
   from all its iniquities. –Psalm130:5-8

Patience is one of the cluster of characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23—love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The use of the singular or collective noun “fruit” has always been a challenge to me. The word is describing the results of the gift of the Spirit and seems to imply that they are more like a cluster of grapes than a bowl of mixed fruits. My tendency is to separate them but deep inside I think they are more like the grapes.

I oft state that patience is a virtue I lack and jokingly add that I prefer the King James Version translation that uses the words long-suffering. I finally came to realize that patience is the fuel for perseverance. While I agree with Ralph Waldo Emerson that Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm, justice is never accomplished without perseverance. Enthusiasm may ebb when the challenges seem overwhelming; perseverance rekindles the fire of enthusiasm.

Waiting on the Lord is not grounded in sitting around and doing nothing to make the world a better place for all, until God finally gets God’s job done solving all our problems. Waiting on the Lord always involves being in close communion with God as we persevere in doing God’s will as a part of the Body of Christ active and engaged in the world today—not getting ahead of God and not dragging our feet behind God.

Prayer: Lord, we do indeed need Thee every hour but at this moment in this time, our need is great throughout the world. Help us feel your presence as we persevere to overcome the calamity that is upon 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.

Truth and Transparency

Lent

March 20, 2020

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
‘Sleeper, awake!
   Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.’

The new normal in our culture seems to be that truth is what we make it. Of course, such a philosophy is not new at all.  Titus Flavius Josephus is one of the most respected historians of the time that Jesus was on the earth. Now historians and theologians look back on his work as still very helpful, yet they read it with an eye for how much he was trying to please the Roman authorities or at least avoid their rancor. People of faith sometimes scorn politics, but all life is caught in political intrigue.  We humans tend to look out for our own wellbeing, wealth, and power that may or may not have anything to do with political parties or government.

for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Striving to be transparent is a counterpoint to creating our own truth. When we each are transparent to others in our motives and aspirations, we are forced to face up to whether our ideas and actions are good and right and true. Our striving for transparency models for others the cleansing power of truth made know. It may not be pretty, it may not be what we perceive as good and right, but it opens the door to the righteousness in our interactions that God so desires for us. Justice starts with our recognizing our own practice of injustice.

Prayer: Lord, during this Lenten season open our hearts and minds to search for our own transparent truths so that once discovered we might test them as fitting within your world of love and justice. Create in us clean hearts so we might better reflect your righteousness. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Developing Empathy

March 12, 2020

Scripture Reading: Romans 5:1-11

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. –Romans 5:1-5

First, let me be clear, I do not believe anyone should suffer through child abuse or domestic abuse or any kind of oppression for the purpose of developing endurance or character. Hope is not a destination it is the driving force to positive outcomes. We are all called to break the chains of oppression however and whenever we can.

That said we all suffer to one degree or another and how we deal with suffering defines us in many ways.  I was told at the age of 50 that my left knee needed to be replaced but at that time the protocol was not to do such surgery until the patient was 60 except in rare cases. So, I limped around for ten years using a cane, gaining a lot of weight that made matters worse, and becoming an expert in pain management.  About the time I turned 60 the protocol was changed as implants had been improved. I did have the surgery on my left knee, and it made a major difference in my life. What I learned through that process is that suffering does produce endurance. The pain from the surgery was less than the routine pain to which I was accustomed, and the pain from surgery soon went away.

Our life experiences dictate how we view others. We project our experiences on others for better or for worse. Yet we can never know the pain others have or understand fully the things in their background that foster their responses to life challenges. Empathy is an art not a science. Trying to see the world from another person’s perspective requires us to set aside the filters of our being to help us understand another’s driving forces. We cannot magically erase their past anymore than we can ours. We can walk along beside them and support them in building the hope they need to thrive.

Prayer: God of Grace and Mercy, grant us the gift of empathy as we work toward a world ruled 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.

Water from the Rock

Lent

March 9, 2020

Scripture Reading: Exodus 17:1-7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?’ But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?’ So Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.’ Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’

I remember reading somewhere that humans can survive without food for several days but going without water for three or more days is deadly. Water is necessary for life. Grumbling about not having water to drink reflects the fear of death by dehydration. A people who lived around desert land were no doubt acquainted with such disaster. Panic, giving up, anger, even hoarding water supplies would be normal responses to such a situation. The Israelite refugees from Egypt were demonstrating their humanness.

God provided for the Israelites repeatedly in desperate situations like this, but they seem to have short memories and limited faith. One aspect of the role of a leader is to demonstrate faith in the face of trials seeking solutions when none are in sight and setting examples of cool heads and perseverance.  

We live in a world full of similar chaos. In 2019, An unprecedented 70.8 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide, and 37,000 people are forced to flee their homes every day due to conflict or persecution*. We drink water from faucets with little thought of how we routinely have fresh, tested, clean water available simply by turning a knob. One of the roles of Christ followers like you and me is to be the rock that provides water for those caught in the wilderness of being a refugee from their homeland for whatever reason.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the water we drink daily. Help us make sure all your other children have the same opportunity to have water to survive. Amen.

*See https://reliefweb.int/report/world/world-refugee-day-2019

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.

Stumbling Block

February 25, 2020

Scripture Reading: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12

Is not this the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
   and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
   the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
   you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. –Isaiah 58:6-9

I am blessed or cursed with a gut-level need for justice. Sometimes I do not know which. I, in general, come quickly to discernment on what I deem to be just; the greater challenge is to hold that which I deem to be just up to the scrutiny of what Christ defines as just. For example, we are all bigots in one way or another including me and that is a boulder-sized stumbling block to justice. A woman was shown on the news following the Iowa caucus trying to recall her vote for Pete Buttigieg when she discovered after she voted that he was gay. If she had determined that he was the best person for the job of president, why would his sexual preference matter? My mother would have call that cutting off your nose to spite your face.

In my career I routinely watched men with less experience and education than I promoted over me, many politically supported. Some I thought were good at their jobs; some were not. Most were dependent on female staff, paid less, to teach them their job. I also noted a few of those men recognizing the discrimination and doing what they could to address it. At one point I was assigned the task of completing a study to determine if there was discrimination in our workplace against women. Even I was shocked when I discovered that the woman who basically oversaw all the work of the agency made $20,000 a year less than the lowest paid male in her job class. She had worked longer than most of them and I do not think anyone questioned her being the right person for the job.

The Hebrew Bible is filled with the wisdom of the prophets as in Isaiah quoted above telling us that we bring about our own destruction by not practicing God’s justice. We the people need to keep that in mind as we consider who we chose to lead us.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see more clearly your justice and align our view of justice with yours. 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.