Bible Passages: Psalm 148, Luke 4:14-18, Matthew 23:23
Summary: Jesus’ life and the Psalms reveal that social justice is foundational to God’s identity–God desires that the most vulnerable members of society are protected, provided for, and cared for. Current policies and practices of the current government are unjust, such as the recent bill passed which cuts health and food benefits to the needy and gives tax breaks to billionaires, ICE’s treatment of immigrants, and eliminating USAID. Christians are called to carry out God’s vision of justice by speaking out and working for social justice.
On the 4th of July, Karen and I spent some time standing on an overpass with about 50 other people holding up signs calling our government to be true to its values of democracy and justice.
The organizer was a man named Bob Fasick, is spending a good part of his retirement speaking out through these kinds of rallies. He says his motto is – “Retired, but not reclining”. Bob brought a big canvas sign he painted with the words “Justice for all” and hung it on the fence on the overpass.
To be honest, I’m finding it hard to be proud to be an American right now. And part of it is because instead of justice for all, I see a lot of signs of injustice by our government. A few examples:
ICE agents going around the country with masks, arresting all kinds of people who shouldn’t be detained, and doing it without any due process. Frightening.
Now they’ve built and bragging about Alligator Alcatraz– putting human beings in cages inside a hot building in the Florida Everglades surrounded by alligators and pythons.
They’ve dehumanized immigrants-mostly those with brown skin, regardless of their status- to the point of making jokes about it this prison, even selling t-shirts and other merchandise to celebrate it. Disgusting.
The complete closure of USAID, which experts say will lead to 14 million people in our world dying over the next 5 years. Heartbreaking.
The passing of a big but not beautiful bill in Congress that will strip healthcare and food from vulnerable people who depend on it for survival, and at the same time give massive tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. Unbelievable.
In times like these, with so much injustice, I look for signs of hope, a higher road to take, something that screams “things are not supposed to be this way!” Especially in a country that prides itself on being “Christian”.
And I find hope right here in this book, the Bible. Because here in the Holy Scriptures we see clearly a God who is a God of justice, a God who is on the side of the most vulnerable, a God who wants to fix the injustice in the world so that every human being can be taken care of and live with dignity and hope.
There are so many verses in this Bible that talk about this kind of this God, who condemns injustice and calls people to work for his justice to reign.
It would take 100 sermons to mention all of those verses, so today I’m just going to point out a few of them. And I’m going to focus on two places—the Psalms in the Old Testament and then briefly look at Jesus in the New Testament.
In preparing for my message today, I was inspired by two books—Open and Unafraid: the Psalms as a Guide to Life by David Taylor, and Good and Beautiful and Kind: Becoming Whole in a Fractured World by Rich Villodas who you’ve heard me mention before.
So you’ll see a few quotes from Taylor and Villodas on the screen today.
Here’s the first one from David Taylor on why justice is an important theme in the Psalms:
The psalmists pray repeatedly for justice because they understand that a world full of broken people, dark forces, and harsh conditions generates injustice everywhere and always…Where this/there is injustice talk, there is also a plea for a Just Judge to make things right….
And that’s where God comes into the picture. God is that Just Judge, because justice is an essential aspect of God’s nature. That’s made clear in Psalm 89 that was read by Greta Ann:
Vs. 14 says “righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.” Being the foundation is about as intrinsic to someone’s nature as it can get, right.
Let’s unpack that verse and even throw in a little original Hebrew language so we can better understand the biblical meaning of the words righteousness and justice.
I took Hebrew way back in seminary, and it was good to get a little refresher here.
Righteousness = Tzedakah צְדָקָה. The letters and words actually read right to left in Hebrew, and those little dots and other characters under the letters aren’t smudges, they’re punctuation marks.
The closest English word to tzedakah is probably “charity”, which we think of as giving to those who are in need. And in the Hebrew world, charity implies giving in a way that lifts people up and empowers them, gives them hope.
One definition of tzedakah I found says: unlike the English concept of charity as a voluntary act of goodwill, tzedakah (righteousness) in Jewish tradition is considered an act of justice and righteousness – a moral obligation. Giving to people in need is not optional in God’s economy.
So now let’s look at justice: Justice = Mishpat מִשְׁפָּט . When we think of justice we often think of the justice system. But the biblical concept of justice means:
- More than court decisions .
- God’s way of making things right and involves
- Perfect fairness for everyone
- Love and justice together
Now God’s righteousness and justice are tied closely to another Hebrew word that you’re probably familiar with, shalom. The closest English word to shalom is peace, though shalom has a very expansive view of peace.
There’s a cool verse in Psalm 85 that paints a very descriptive word picture of the connection between shalom and righteousness.
Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace (shalom) will kiss each other; –Psalm 85:10
That’s about as close as you can get, right?
Righteousness and peace are cozying up to each other here, and that adds up to the biblical vision of shalom which can be described as human flourishing.
As theologian Nicholas Wolsterstorff says:
God desires that each and every human being shall flourish, that each and every person shall experience shalom (a deep sense of well-being)…It is what God has promised to creation and what God will fulfill in the new creation.
The reality is that so many people in our world are unable to experience the peace and well-being and flourishing, the shalom that God desires for everyone.
A big reason that many are deprived of shalom is because they’re in a vulnerable situation and are unable to provide some things they need, and so must depend upon others. We’ve all been in that predicament at one time or another, right?
Wolsterstorff has come up with what he calls “The Quartet of the Vulnerable” in ancient Israel, and it includes: widows, orphans, resident aliens, i.e. immigrants and refugees, and anyone else who are poor and without the resources they need.
Just like then, there are a lot of vulnerable people in our world today, and it seems like what’s happened to USAID is a symptom of a larger attitude I’m seeing in our society,
becoming indifferent or even cold-hearted toward people who are vulnerableand hurting. Some Christian people of influence have coined this phrase “toxic empathy” which I fear is giving people permission to not lend a helping hand to people outside their inner circles.
But God desires– no demands–righteousness, charity, and justice to those who are vulnerable.
Rich Villodas says that “justice is love in public”. I like the way that this cartoon connects it to political involvement.
Love is political. When people say I should stay in my lane and avoid politics, I remind them: love includes everyone. But when someone insists some people must be excluded, that’s when it becomes political. Because they’ve decided who is worthy of love and who isn’t.
So voting and raising our voices and getting involved to ensure that everyone is worthy of being taken care of and being treated fairly is justice and it translates as love in the public arena.
So God is a God of justice, and God also expects those who worship and serve God to act with justice. Psalm 72 is a call for Israel’s kings and their successors to have governments that flesh out God’s justice.
72 God, give your judgments to the king.
Give your righteousness to the king’s son.
2 Let him judge your people with righteousness
and your poor ones with justice.
4 Let the king bring justice to people who are poor;
let him save the children of those who are needy, but let him crush oppressors!
Let it be so, because he delivers the needy who cry out,
the poor, and those who have no helper.
13 He has compassion on the weak and the needy;
he saves the lives of those who are in need.
14 He redeems their lives from oppression and violence;
their blood is precious in his eyes.
Then we see other scriptures that call all of God’s people to act with justice: the prophet Isaiah for example:
Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless; Plead the cause of the widow. –Isaiah 1:17
SLIDE: Rich Villodas quote
I like what Rich Villodas says about our responsibility to work for justice:
Justice is one of the primary ways that we love God. It is essential, not an extra…the scandal of Christianity is that we love and encounter God through people, especially those on the margins of society…If the love we claim to have doesn’t lead to a commitment to seeing wholeness and justice, we will have short-circuited God’s love.
–Rich Villodas, Good and Beautiful and Kind
And then David Taylor sums up the importance of justice in the Psalms:
In the psalms there is no true worship without justice,
no faithful prayer that leaves out justice,
and no genuine faith that takes justice less seriously than God takes it.
Now the reality is that there are a lot of people in American society who do a lot of worshipping, and a lot of praying, and claim to have a lot of faith in God and Jesus. But at the same time, I see what Taylor is describing here—a lack of concern for God’s justice, for taking care of the most vulnerable.
I hesitate to just point the finger at others because I know that I myself often leave justice out of my life and witness as a Christian. I want to be open to people holding me accountable to working for justice.
At the same time, we need to call it out when we see others neglecting God’s call to be mediators of justice, and also when they act injustly.
One example I see of this currently is politicians who are professing Christians who pray in public before and after decisions are made in Congress, i.e. thanking God for passing the bill that in my mind is full of injustices.
When I saw them praying, I was drawn to the words of the prophets Isaiah and Amos:
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke? -Isaiah 58:6
I hate, I reject your festivals; I don’t enjoy your joyous assemblies.
Take away the noise of your songs; I won’t listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. -Amos 5:21, 23-24
All of us need to examine ourselves against the words of the prophets Isaiah and Amos lest we deceive ourselves into thinking we are more spiritual than we really are.
Jesus called this hypocrisy, and just like the prophets, he couldn’t stand it. This verse is one of 7 “woes” that Jesus spoke to some religious leaders of his day.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.”–Matthew 23:23
Jesus, with his teachings and his actions, carried forth and fulfilled God’s vision of justice for the world. We heard his vision clearly in the scripture from Luke that we heard, which took place at the beginning of his ministry.
Anointed by God’s Spirit to bring good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, set the prisoners free—these are all justice being fleshed out.
So much more could be said about Jesus and justice; but I need to start wrapping things up. One thing I want to remind us of is to keep God’s vision for justice and God’s love for all people at the center of it all and not ourselves.
Rich Villodas says it like this:
If we don’t live from the center of God’s love, working for justice can be just another creative way to meet the unrelenting needs of our egos…We work for justice not because it justifies us; rather because we’ve been justified, we work for justice…We are called to work with urgency, knowing that the needs are great, and also with patience, convinced that God is near…
When we keep God at the center and know that God is near, we can speak out and act with courage, we can live with hope, and not let fear paralyze us or divert us away from our work for justice.
SLIDE: Bulletin image
Justice is one of our core values here at Daniels Run Peace Church. It’s right there in our motto—living love, growing justice, welcoming everyone. Maybe during the sermon response time, we can reflect on what it means to “grow justice” wherever God has planted us and also where we feel God is leading us.
One more thing as I close. For many years I was part of the Rotary club when I lived in a different state, and the club always said the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of the meeting.
As a Mennonite, I believe that the only thing we should give our ultimate allegiance to is Jesus and his kingdom, not any governments in this world. So I would remain silent until the last line, where I would join them saying “with liberty and justice for all.”
A couple of professors at the Mennonite seminary in Indiana came up with an alternative pledge, what they call “A Christian pledge of allegiance”. As we close, I’d like to invite you to recite it with me if you so desire.
I pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ and to God’s Kingdom for which he died, one spirit-led people the world over, indivisible, with love and justice for all.
May it be so. Amen.
