"Lenten Justice" (Zechariah 7:1-14)

First Sunday of Lent, February 21, 2021

 watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3iTC7PjH28

            Lent begins today.  Lent is the season of 40 days leading to Easter.  Moses and the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, learning to trust God and live under God’s law.  Of the exodus community, only Joshua and Caleb entered the Promised Land.  All others died in while wandering and their offspring made up the chosen people of God.  Sin was rooted out during the 40 years.  At the beginning of the Gospels, Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days.  He resisted the devil’s temptations and did not sin.  He who was without sin, God’s only Son, died for us. 

Thus, for 40 days during Lent, we commit to spiritual disciplines designed to help us turn away from sin, turn toward God, receive forgiveness, and acknowledge our dependence upon God.  Disciplines are things we do to condition ourselves.  We fast, journal, pray, confess, practice periods of silence, and commit to other disciplines in order to present ourselves to God, contrite, and grateful for his grace.

Zechariah, who we’ve read these past three weeks, contributes to our Lenten worship, but we need to understand one important way he fits in God’s big picture and to do that we have turn back to the law and then forward to the Gospels.

The law of Moses, the Torah, is given in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, as the people move throughout the Sinai Peninsula.  Then the law is restated in Deuteronomy.  ‘Deutero’ means ‘second,’ and ‘nomos’ means law.  Deuteronomy is a second rendering of the law.  Moses does not repeat every word he said in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.  He restates it.  In Deuteronomy, the people are no longer on the move.  That generation has died off, and their children will settle the land.  So Moses restates law as it is fitting for that next generation.

This restating, not repeating, happens throughout the writings the Psalm and the prophets.  They reach back to the law and the later prophets allude to the earlier ones, but do so in a way appropriate and needed in their context.  Jesus does the same.  His “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew is similar to his “Sermon on the Plain” in Luke, but he changes things up in those different settings.  So too do the Gospels writers change up how they write Jesus’ story based on the needs of their readers.

The foundation of God’s word remains consistent from law to prophets to Gospel.  Leviticus 19:2: God speaks through Moses to the people; “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.”  This is restated in Deuteronomy 14:2a: “You are a people holy to the Lord your God.”  Jesus has holiness in mind in the Sermon on the Mount when he says, in Matthew 5, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish but to fulfill.  For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (5:17-18).  Holiness is God’s standard.

When Haggai and Zechariah prophesy to the people who have come out of exile, they don’t give a new law.  They call the people back to the law that the nation had violated for the centuries leading up to the exile.  God is a “start-over” God.  After the flood, with Noah’s family, God started over.  After using the Babylonian exile to punish His people for generational, systemic rejection of his will and his way, God started over, through the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah, and the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest. 

A cornerstone of the ethical system that guided the people in how to be holy is compassion for the neediest in society.  Again, we see this in Leviticus, restated in Deuteronomy, and then re-emphasized by Jesus.  Leviticus 19, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.  You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien.”  Why?  Because, God says, “I am the Lord” (19:9-12).

In several places, Deuteronomy re-asserts this emphasis on kindness to those who need kindness.  Chapter 24 is an example.  “You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether Israelites or aliens.  … You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise, they might cry out to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt” (24:14-15).  Did you catch that?  In disputes of justice between the haves and the have-nots, God is not impartial.  God is on the side of the poor.  If that makes you uncomfortable, take it up with Deuteronomy.

If you don’t like Deuteronomy’s answer and want to appeal to a higher court, take it with Jesus.  Throughout the Gospels and especially the Gospel of Luke, he teaches and enacts mercy for the poor and those at society’s margins.  He makes a place in his circle for those rejected by the temple and the king’s court and, today, some churches.  “Blessed are you who are poor,” he says, “for yours is the kingdom of God. … Woe to you who are rich … and full … for you will be hungry; … you will mourn and weep” (6:20-26).  I’ve been criticized for preaching too much ‘social justice’ and not enough ‘gospel.’  This morning, I have just read straight from the law, the prophets, and the gospels.  Social justice is the Gospel; critics can take their complaints straight to the source.

Zechariah’s instruction to rebuild the temple helps the people to once again “be holy” as God commanded them to be.  In chapter 7, the prophet highlights God’s emphasis on social justice.  A delegation made up of Israelites who stayed in Israel during the exile and of Israelites who returned from Babylon approach the prophet.  In verse 3, they ask, if should they continue to practice fasting and lament as they have been doing for years. 

It would be like us having a prophet present and asking, should we keep on observing spiritual disciplines as we have for so many years.  Now that exile was over and work on the new temple had started and communal life in Jerusalem has begun anew, should they carry on the same religious disciplines?  In a few months, we might ask, now that most people have received vaccines and cases are way down and things are opening, what do we do?  What do we do now?  That’s essentially what this delegation in Zechariah 7 asked and their question pertained specifically to spiritual practices. 

Through his prophet God responds to a question with a question, a penetrating question.  When you fasted, was it really for me (v.5)?  Does God need us to fast?  When you feasted, wasn’t that for yourselves (v.6)?  Much like us, the ancient Israelites found the communal feasting easier and more enjoyable than the communal fasting.  In answering these questions, God connects the importance of worship at special times with the everyday necessity of justice for the poor, widow, and orphan.  Both the prophets Amos and Isaiah reject the ritual of fasting when the worshipping community neglected the poor. 

Zechariah alludes to this disconnect and failure by the people in verses 11-14.  When we neglect the poor, God refuses to hear us.  The call to justice, voiced by the prophets, is a call that comes from the Spirit.  To ignore it is to ignore God and God won’t be ignored.  God won’t hear our prayers or empower us in our practice of spiritual disciplines if we neglect the things God values.

The threat of God’s anger only becomes punishment and a break in the relationship with God if the people revert back to the selfish ways that cut them off from God before the exile.  There is an opportunity for hope in verse 9.  The temple is being built, the community is being restored, and in the tradition of Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Amos and Isaiah and Ezekiel and to be later taken up by Jesus, Zechariah re-issues the call to justice.  Verse 9: “Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, or the poor.”  

Just as the building of the temple sets worship at the center of community life in Zechariah 1-6, this response, tying the post-exile community to the teachings of Moses and the previous prophets sets justice for the poor as a top ethical principle for the people of God.  Jesus does the same in his practices and in his teaching.  And the call to holiness and the prioritizing of care for the poor are central for us, a community of his followers. 

Fasting, confession, prayer, journaling – I support all of these as spiritual disciplines for you to undertake during Lent.  I propose that working for social justice and a concrete commitment for how you will show compassion to the poor must be regular, not an occasional, part of a disciple’s life.  We commit to advocate for and care for the neediest in our society, and like Zechariah, we find our place in the tradition of God’s people.  If, on the other hand, we try to practice a faith that’s strictly individualistic and utterly separated from loving our neighbor and helping people who need help, then we’re living a lie, proclaiming a faith that’s not Biblical, and God says in Zechariah 7, he will not hear us. 

It’s Lent, time to appreciate the grace God has shown us in Jesus.  We cannot live in harmony with God or neighbor apart from him.  So, take up disciplines, practices that will turn your mind, body, and heart fully to Jesus.  Make sure care for underprivileged, underserved, and disadvantaged is included in your Lenten practice. 

AMEN 

Work for Justice

 

2-1-2021

            Justice is a Biblical value, one of the highest Biblical values.  Leviticus 24:22, Deuteronomy 15:29, Isaiah 58:6-7, Amos 5:21-24, and Amos 8:4-6 are just a handful of the hundreds of Old Testament verses commanding that the people of God maintain justice and take care of the poor and vulnerable.  Taking care of the most vulnerable members of the community is always tied to maintaining justice. 

When the wealthy bask in their affluence while indifferently ignoring the poor, they act unjustly and fall under God’s condemnation.  It’s not enough to avoid dishonesty and graft.  We aren’t righteous because we avoid wrong behavior.  We are right in God’s eyes when we care about what God cares about.  The New Testament is even more adamant about God’s call to his people to take care of the poor and advocate for victims of injustice.

Black History Month, February, is a good reminder to the church that we have to be out front in working for justice.  We make the declaration “Black Lives Matter” because our country’s political and legal systems as well as our social institutions have too often heavily favored white people and treated black and brown peoples with contempt and outright prejudice.  To work for Biblical justice is to see this reality, denounce it, and work for equity and healing.

This is why we try to help the poor of all racial backgrounds.  When people go hungry and can’t pay their rent and lack adequate healthcare, it’s unjust.  A place to live, clothes to wear, food to eat, and access to doctors and dentists are basic human needs.  Where some people go without these things, there is injustice, and disciples of Jesus must actively work to combat injustice.

The endgame in this is shalom, the Biblical vision of all people living in right relationships with God and with neighbor.  Shalom can only be had when people have peace, feel safe, and are full.  Zechariah 3:10 puts it this way, “On that day, says the Lord, you shall invite each other to come under your vine and fig tree.”  Similarly, Micah 4:4 says, “They shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make they afraid.”  Fighting for justice leads to people everywhere freely experiencing shalom.

            How can you work to uplift your neighbors that they might live in right relationships with God and with each other?  You could donate to Hillside Church’s “Helping Hands” ministry.  You could volunteer when we host the Dental Bus (June 5, 2021).  You could volunteer at the food pantry (first, third, and fifth Saturdays each month).

            You could also be part of the partnership we will be entering with Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (Chapel Hill, Rosemary Street).  Holy Trinity and Hillside will be entering a relationship of dialogue around the idea of “Racial Manners.”  How can white, black, and brown people live together in relationships of harmony and safety?  First in Zoom meetings and then, when appropriate in in-person meetings, we’re going to sit with our brothers and sisters from Holy Trinity and have in-depth, from the heart discussions about how can black, brown, and white people can relate well, as good neighbors.  Chris Faison (PhD, Johns Hopkins) will be our facilitator. 

            Work for justice and promote your neighbor’s shalom.  Whether you volunteer in one of the ministries listed above, join our “racial manners” discussion group, or find some other platform in which to invest yourself, follow the prophets’ lead and work for justice.

"Who is Jesus Talking About" (Luke 4:14-21; Proverbs 19:17)

Sunday, January 27, 2019

            “They got up [and] drove him out of town ... so that they might hurl him off the cliff” (Luke 4:29).  Someone makes you hot-red mad, and you’re standing right next to a cliff and off they go!  If you had been somewhere else, say a field, maybe you just punch the other guy.  It’s violent, but all he gets is a bloody nose, not a free fall ending with a splat on the rocks below.  After you’ve thrown him over, do you regret your hasty decision?  Do you wish you hadn’t thrown him off a cliff?  Probably.  What did he do to make you that angry?

            In chapter 4, verses 14-21, Luke gives us a summary of Jesus’ words from that day in the synagogue.  He actually preached a full sermon on the Isaiah text that he read, Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58:6.  Luke’s summary helps us see that when Jesus began preaching the crowd was impressed and excited.  A local kid had grown up to be an outstanding preacher.  But as he talked, they realized they were condemned by the truth he told.  Enraged, as we read in Luke 4:29, “they got up [and] drove him out of town ... so that they might hurl him off the cliff.” He did not allow himself to be killed like that.  But they were mad enough to try.  Why? 

            As we understand Jesus’ message in Luke 4, are we angered because we’re declared “guilty” by Jesus’ truth?  Or, are we convicted, as in we feel called to walk in Jesus’ light?  We feel prompted by the Spirit to say and do the things Jesus said and did.  These were Jesus’ friends and neighbors, his people.  This was one of his earliest sermons.  And he makes them so mad they want to kill him on the spot.

            In the four actions Jesus lists, who is he talking about?  More importantly, if we are to embody those actions, who, in our time, would we say is Jesus addressing?  

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” he says in verse 18, “because he has anointed me to” and then he proceeds to say all that the Spirit has commissioned him to say and do.  Jesus’ intentions spring from the same Spirit that led him into the desert where he fasted and confronted Satan.  Yielding to the will of the Holy Spirit, he ends up proclaiming a gospel of liberation for the oppressed.  

Note the verbs and objects of the actions, and think about what actions the Spirit calls in the face of injustice today.  We bring the reality of Jesus into our time so that our thoughts and responses or lack of responses reveals our attentiveness to the Holy Spirit or our willingness to ignore the Holy Spirit.  

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.   In the first century, “the poor” referred to most people.  There was almost no middle class to speak of and few people owned property.  Healthcare and insurance just didn’t exist as we understand those things today.  Jesus’ message of ‘good news’ was a promise from God that life didn’t have to be an endless, painful struggle to just survive.

In our time, there are more options and more resources available to people and yet, still in our country and around the world, crushing poverty imposes misery on millions.  The Borgen project identifies poor health, higher crime rates, and lack of education as the top negative effects of poverty.  Poor people cannot afford medicines and treatments that would utterly eliminate conditions many of us don’t ever have to worry about.  Crime rates are higher not because poor people are more prone to break the law but because their desperation leads them to do things they otherwise would not do.  Starve or steal?  I’d steal. 

As the body of Christ, how we do help poor people receive the good news Jesus promised?  What can we do to feed the hungry, educate those who cannot afford school supplies or who live in impoverished communities with substandard schools?  How can we minister to those incarcerated, individuals who never had the opportunity to see life not tainted by arrests and prison?  How can we be the good news Jesus promised?

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim release to the captives.  In 30 AD, Israel was exiled in their own land, enslaved to the Roman empire.  The people were enslaved to a complete misreading of the law of Moses by religious overlords who condemned them instead of helping them see God’s grace. And all people were slaves to sin.

Today many people are captive in the world. One example: girls are kidnapped and forced into the sex-industry, living as slaves.  Men are in bondage to their pathological addictions so that they see their own urges not as prompts to lead them to love their wives, but as sexual appetites to be indulged to excess.  They don’t see the girls they buy as human, but as objects that exist to satiate their demented appetites.  Everyone in the transaction is broken and lost and in need of compassion and help and real love.  This is one example of many in the world today in which we see people in bondage.  The Holy Spirit led Jesus to proclaim release to the captives.  As the body of Christ, how we do proclaim release to those in 21st century captivity?

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim recovery of sight to the Blind.   

When Jesus worked miracles of healing, he usually told the person helped to go and show themselves to the priest because the ailment, blindness, leprosy, paralysis or something else, would disqualify that one from participation in worship.  Physical disabilities were indications that someone had sinned and was unclean and unfit for worship.  The highest good to be had in life was a right relationship with God and that relationship was realized in worship.  The disability didn’t just deprive someone of health and impose pain; it cut the person off from God.  By healing people, Jesus made a way for them to come to God.

In 21st century America, we don’t blame people for blindness or sickness or other debilitating conditions.  But do we welcome those who have physical disadvantages?  Do we structure life our community and adjust our communal attitude so that we are inviting and hospitable for everyone?  We may not be able to work miracle of healing as Jesus did, but we can pray God-sized prayers.  We can expect miracles.  And whether or not they come, we can be a church family that does whatever is necessary to joyfully include everyone.  In Christ, there is no healthy and sick; all are one and we strive to meet one another’s needs in love.  As the body of Christ, how do we proclaim recovery so that all who are a part of our worship have a clear path to relationship with God?  

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to let the oppressed go free.   

Similar to the captives and to the physically infirm in Jesus’ day, the oppressed were people powerless to stand up for themselves, victims of abuse by the power-holders.  

In our time, think about those incarcerated in the United States.  If we want to be simplistic about it, we’d say, lawbreakers go to jail and those who abide by the law don’t.  According to a U.S. Health and Human Services Department survey in the year 2000, people of all races use and sell drugs at remarkable similar rates.  White, black, Hispanic, Asian - there are equal proportions of each population addicted and equal proportions of drug dealers.  So, why are 80-90% of those serving long-term sentences for drug convictions black?  Why are black men 57% more likely to go to prison for drug charges than white men?  And consider this.  The effects of prison don’t end when the sentence is over.  Try getting a job when you’re labeled an ex-con.  For white people, a drug addiction is a sickness to be treated.  For blacks, it is a crime to be punished.   The inequalities in prison sentencing are one example of how a group of people ends up oppressed here in America, the land of the free.

As the body of Christ, standing in the light of Christ, walking in the footsteps of Christ, how do we help the oppressed go free?  Jesus had the Spirit upon him because he came to let the oppressed go free.  How do we, his followers, embody his mission?  

The Spirit of the Lord is on us.  If we respond, we end up taking 4 specific actions.  We help the poor, we name the captives as we renounce their captivity, we welcome the sick, and we see the oppressed as well as our hand in their oppression: help, name, welcome, see.  In Luke 4, Jesus preaches justice.  We know Him.  We know that to walk in his steps and stand his light and help these He promised to Help, is gospel work because gospel means “good news,” and that’s what he promised.  

This makes people who hold power angry.  The privileged get uncomfortable because their position of privilege will have to be shared.  Jesus was OK with the anger and the discomfort.  We want to follow Him, so we have to overcome the anger and enter the discomfort.  We have to acknowledge our own sins and we have to open ourselves to the suffering of others.  How do we do it?

If you’ve been following along in this series, you might expect me to prescribe spiritual disciplines at this point.  We’ve talked about disciplines that we do to condition ourselves to see God in everyday life, to live obediently, and to submit ourselves fully to God.  Are there disciplines that condition us to help, name, welcome, and see the oppressed?  Probably.  But, this morning, the conclusion is an invitation.

I invite you to participate in ministries our church already has in place.  We need more volunteers.  We need you to give your time to strengthen the ways our church already works to help, name, welcome, and see.  Every month, we collect an offering to help people in financial distress pay their rent and utility bills.  Twice a year, we collect food for the Yates Association food pantry.  Every Christmas, we collect school supplies for extremely poor families in Appalachia.  We partner with Children’s Hope Chest to help poor children in Ethiopia and with Project Esperanza to help displaced children in Dominican Republic.  Every weekend, we have a tutoring ministry for refugees.  Once a year, we build a ramp on the home of a wheelchair bound person.  Once a year we host a free dental clinic.  Our youth group goes on a mission trip; this year they’ll go to South Carolina.  All these ministries are done in the spirit of Jesus’ preaching in Luke 4.  All these ministries need prayer support, volunteers, and additional financial support.  HillSong will be a church walking in the light when we have 100% of our members and attendees involved in these ministries.  

Open your heart to the Holy Spirit as you read the word.  Jesus said the Spirit led him to help the poor, to name evil and name the victims, to welcome the wounded, and to see the oppressed.  Allow the Spirit to a similar work in you.  Together, we are the body of Christ.  In the power of the Holy Spirit we can do good in Jesus’ name.

AMEN

God Expects Justice

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Isaiah 45:8 (CEV)

⁸ Tell the heavens to send down justice
    like showers of rain.
Prepare the earth for my saving power
to sprout and produce justice
    that I, the Lord, create.^[a]

Isaiah 45:8 (NRSV)

⁸ Shower, O heavens, from above,
    and let the skies rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation may spring up,^[a]
    and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also;
    I the Lord have created it.

          God created the world, the universe, you, me.  A few atheists have sold a lot of books rejecting the existence of God.  By far most scientists, even those who aren’t at all religious would not claim science does away with God or the idea of creation.  That’s not territory covered by scientific research.  Church goers agree that God created everything.  We may debate the mechanisms by which God created, but we can agree God is the creator.

          Anyone who studies the Bible knows God creates intentionally.  God had a vision in Eden.  The culmination of God’s work came in creating one in his image, the human, the woman and the man. 

          God creates.  God creates with a plan.  God sees humans as His greatest creation and the center of his plan.  We know God as Father, Son, and Spirit, three in one.  The trinity exists in relationship as God is relational.  Human to God, human to creation (nature), human to human, and human to society; we live as God intended when we construct our lives around relationships.  We do our everyday work with relationships in mind.  When we live in humility, peace, and most importantly in love, then things are the way God wants them to be. 

          Look around the world.  Are things the way God wants them to be?  In some cases, yes.  Overall, no.  So what does God do?

According to Isaiah in the exile, God makes it rain. 

“Tell the heavens to send down justice like showers of rain.”

“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness.”

Prolific writer and preeminent scholar Walter Breuggemann cites Isaiah 40-55 as the foundational word of God that comes out of the exile.[i]  Any people utterly defeated in battle on their homeland and then dragged to slavery 1000’s of miles away would be overwhelmed and disoriented.  In 586 BC Israel was. 

Israel had, prior to the fall at the hands of Babylon, been guilty of systemic idolatry and systemic injustice.  The wealthy few prospered while the most vulnerable of society suffered.  The prophet Amos and the earlier chapters of Isaiah both take up this point. God’s response to his own people’s generational, systemic disregard of his way was to allow Babylon to rise in power and crush Israel.  The prophet interpreted Israel’s pain as coming not from Babylonian cruelty, but from God’s punishing hand.  Babylon was God’s instrument.

The exiles perceived themselves to be defeated and by extension, their God, the God Abraham had been defeated by Babylon’s gods.  No, Isaiah said.  All the horrors are a result of turning from God.  And, now, the punishment is over.  As bad as things look, God is bringing a new day.

This is Isaiah of the exile.  This is the word from the exile on which all other words from that time stand.  Isaiah comes onto a scene of depression, despair and rage, and into that he speaks hope that transforms and praise that recognizes who God is.

          Brueggemann calls Isaiah’s prophetic poetry ‘invitational.’[ii]  Isaiah calls Israel to a new hope, a hope for a new reality.  The Holy Spirit animates Isaiah’s message as we read it.  In Isaiah we are invited to be washed in the rain God sends.  But what is it exactly that falls on us when we are the rain God sends?

          In two English versions of Isaiah 45:8, we see a word in the original language translated in two different ways, once as ‘righteousness’ and once as ‘justice.’  Which is it?  Is this a matter of one translation being correct and the other wrong?

          Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance says this Hebrew word, ‘tsedeq’ means righteousness.  However, The New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance in a more expanded definition says the word can mean ‘righteousness’ or ‘rightness,’ and it belongs to a family of meanings that includes ‘fairly,’ ‘just cause,’ ‘justice,’ and ‘vindication’ in addition to the definitions already noted. 

          Just as the best way to construct our reality is in terms of relationships – to others, to God, to creation, to human society – the best way to take in these Hebrew words and concepts is in how they relate to other concepts and in how they are lived out.  It is not a matter of a precise definition so much as in the idea lived out relationally in the world as God created it and intends it to be.

          I offer a few other Hebrew terms.  First ‘mishpat.’  This term is used three times in Isaiah 42 and is translated ‘justice.’ One commentator describes is as God’s absolute divine right, true religion as lived out in everyday life.[iii]  Next, ‘Hesed,’ which is God’s loving kindness.  Throughout the Old Testament, God is known by ‘hesed.’  It is this loving kindness that drives God to rescue his people from exile even though their sins of inequality and ill-treatment of the poor, widow and orphan are what got them in trouble in the first place.  And finally, ‘shalom.’  This can mean peace but a fuller meaning is life in which all is in harmony and all is well.  This is life that prospers. 

‘Tsedeq,’ ‘mishpat,’ ‘hesed,’ and ‘shalom;’ in the way these terms play off each other in describing God and God’s expectations for human life, we see justice, mercy, love, peace, and hope. 

Please note, whatever this means for our activity, justice does not come because we work for it.  We should.  We should be advocates for justice.  But it originates with God.  God brings justice.  In Isaiah’ terms, God rains justice down.  Also note, in Isaiah’s day, God did this through human agency, not by way of miracles.  The agent of God’s justice was the Persian emperor, Cyrus.  He led the defeat of Babylon and he freed the exiles to return home.

Some Israelite did not appreciate that God would accomplish God’s purposes with a gentile pagan.  God responded, “Woe to you who strive with your maker, earthen vessels with the potter.  … I made the earth and created humankind upon it; I stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.  I have aroused Cyrus in righteousness and I will make all his paths straight” (45:9, 12-13).  How awful!  Will God do this by way of some Persian who doesn’t even pray?

Today, are we ever opposed to works of justice because we don’t like the people at the microphone?  I don’t know how you feel about Al Sharpton.  As the story of unarmed Michael Brown being shot by Officer Wilson unfolded, the dominant theme was the horrific trend of African Americans being killed by police instead of protected by those commissioned to protect and serve.  Add to that the alarming reality that African Americans are far more likely to be arrested for crimes where whites are likely to get off with no prison time for the same crime.  We have injustice – systemic injustice. 

But, I hear many Christians I talk to say they don’t like Al Sharpton.  I don’t know why he’s the voice at the microphone.  I am not hear to defend or criticize him.  But when a white guy gets community service for a crime and a black guy gets 6 months to a year for the same crime and it happens all the time, that’s injustice.  When there is a trend of unarmed young black males getting shot by white policeme, we have a problem.  When one of those killed is the same age as my 12-year-old white son and he was shot doing the kinds of things my boys does, I get scared.  I have a black son who will be 12 soon.  We who follow the God that insists upon human beings living in peaceful and loving relationships with each other cannot bicker about our distaste for the voice at the microphone. 

This is not about Al Sharpton or Bill O’Reilly or whomever.  Nor is it about recent tension in the United States.  That is one of our current signs of rampant worldwide injustice.  Racial inequality is an example but not the only one.  And it is not even about injustice.  This is about God.  God demands justice as a norm among the people He created. 

In describing the concept of justice in the Old Testament, Brueggemann says that it recognizes that “the well-being of the community requires that social goods and power to some extent be given up by those who have too much for the sake of those who have not enough.”[iv]  The very first Christians did this in sharing resources so everyone in the church could flourish (Acts 2:44-45). 

A core New Testament value is generosity.  The book Philemon takes this to an extreme where the Apostle Paul subverts an accepted first century practice, slavery.  He tells the slaveholder, Philemon, ‘Your man, Onesimus, is no longer your man.  He is God’s.  He was a slave, but now, you, he, and I are all in one family, brothers in Christ.’  Paul did not condemn slavery as an institution in and of itself.  He envisioned something grander.  In Paul’s view everything in life is re-imagined in light of Christ.  When we are in Christ, racism, slavery, poverty – these are all unthinkable.  The God who rains down justice and righteousness, peace and harmony has no place for suffering and hunger and inequality.

So, if we say justice is from God, not a result our works, then where is it and what are we to do?  Where was God when Michael Brown was shot, when Eric Garner strangled?  I read this that the richest 10% of the world’s population owns 87% of the world’s wealth.  Maybe that doesn’t bother you.  When I think of the Old Testament concept of distributive justice and when I think of the core value of generosity in the New Testament and when I hear Jesus saying that when we share with the poorest of these his children we are sharing with him, I am deeply troubled by this reality.  A few people are ridiculously rich and seemingly without concern for the billions who struggle with malnutrition, lack of educational opportunities, and inadequate housing.  Where is God?  Where is the God who rains down justice?

And if justice comes from God, what do we do? 

First remember that our understanding of ideas like justice is in terms of relationship.  We are connected to the orphans in Ethiopia, to the immigrants lacking documentation who are expelled from America, to Michael Brown’s mother.  In God’s view, human beings are connected to one another in relationship.  So, our first action is to see how one person’s pain is an injury to God’s creation. 

Second, as we read Isaiah, and imagine his words of hope as words for us, we remember that God is present in the world today in Spirit – the Holy, and in body – the body of Christ which is the church.  So, yes, justice is a work of God, and God does His work through the people who make up his church.  Our prayer life has to be one that moves from silence before to the action of love and compassion given to women and men. 

This becomes specific when a disciple’s life is full of relationships of compassion that are based in volunteer efforts.  We don’t just sponsor an orphan in Ethiopia.  We write letters.  We send pictures.  We pray for the child by name.  As much as we can we enter the child’s life relationally.  We don’t just volunteer to help build a ramp on someone’s home who cannot afford to hire contractors.  When we go, we talk to that person.  We hear her story.  We are blessed by sitting with her.  We don’t just enter protest movements, walk in marches, or sign petitions.  We befriend people whose lives are different than ours.  We enter their stories and take them into ours. 

We think about injustice relationally, and this includes the complete elimination of “us” and “them” language.

We follow God from prayer to action.  In this our action is always based on relationship more than project completion.

Third, we think of justice with an eye toward human flourishing.  A few years ago, the youth group was in Atlanta helping underprivileged inner city kids improve their reading.  Our partnership with the CBF missionaries there helped a multiple levels but one persistent theme is that if these kids master literacy and comprehension, they will be able to succeed in school.  If they succeed in school, they might be able to get good jobs that enable them to shed the label “underprivileged.”  Instead of surviving, these kids, today called “poor,” having learned love and developed academic skill may be able to thrive professionally and relationally.  The justice and compassion works that fill our lives and connect us to people are carried out with an eye toward human flourishing. 

 We won’t bring justice to world, not even as the body of Christ doing the work of God.  When Jesus was present, the world did not change.  But those around him did.  The world continued to sink in sin, but he was present, offering a new hope, just as Isaiah offered a new hope.  Now, we lived between the resurrection and the final day when God will set everything right.  Now, we are the voice that points the world to God.  We who believe in the resurrection God and the glorified future he promises are “unstoppably motivated to work for that new world in the present.”

Justice will always be a dominant theme in the prophet’s words and a defining characteristic of the church.

AMEN

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[i] Brueggemann (1978), The Prophetic Imagination, Fortress Press (Philadelphia), p.70.

[ii] Brueggemann (1997), Cadences of Home: Preaching among Exiles, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville), p. 46

[iii] K. Keil (1890) in Commontary on the Old Testament in 10 Volumes, translated by James Martin (reprinted 1973), William B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids), p.175.

[iv] Brueggemann (1997), Theology of the Old Testament, Fortress Press (Minneapolis), p.737.

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[i] Brueggemann (1978), The Prophetic Imagination, Fortress Press (Philadelphia), p.70.

[ii] Brueggemann (1997), Cadences of Home: Preaching among Exiles, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville), p. 46

[iii] K. Keil (1890) in Commontary on the Old Testament in 10 Volumes, translated by James Martin (reprinted 1973), William B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids), p.175.

[iv] Brueggemann (1997), Theology of the Old Testament, Fortress Press (Minneapolis), p.737.