Today's Sermon

 

"Committed to Justice:  Who We Are Series"

 

            We continue our series on who we are as Christians with the theme of justice.  In the ancient texts, the word we translate as justice and the word we translate as righteousness is the same.  While we tend to distinguish them in English, with one being more communal and the other more individual, in scripture they are the same. Listen to how this theme of justice or righteousness appears both in the prophets of Amos and Micah and in Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of Luke. 

First Reading
Amos 5:21-24
²¹I hate, I despise your festivals,
   and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
²²Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings,
   I will not accept them;
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
   I will not look upon.
²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;
   I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,
   and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Second Reading
Micah 6:8
⁸The Lord has told you, O mortal, what is good;
   and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
   and to walk humbly with your God?

Third Reading
Luke 11:37-47
37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. ³⁸The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. ³⁹Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.

42 ‘But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practised, without neglecting the others. ⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honour in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the market-places. ⁴⁴Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.’

45 One of the lawyers answered him, ‘Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.’ ⁴⁶And he said, ‘Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them. ⁴⁷Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed.  THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD.  THANKS BE TO GOD.

            Do you get the point?  Justice matters.  Its roots are deep in our tradition.  It is foundational.  As Rebecca Davis puts it, and is quoted on the cover of your bulletins, justice is a biblical issue.

            I’m reminded of a story.  At a friend and colleague’s church, from time to time, in fact quite frequently, an opportunity for the church would come up, a need in the community, a cause people found really worthwhile for the church to get involved in, yet it wasn’t clear who should take the lead.  Invariably someone would say, “That sounds like something for the Peace & Justice Committee.”  Every time, that was the response, which showed they knew the church had a role to play, a calling you might say, supporting the work of justice in the community and wider world.  The only problem was that church didn’t have a Peace & Justice Committee. This did not deter them from referring worthy matters to it.

            This simultaneous awareness and lack of awareness is a humorous and poignant illustration of the struggle some churches have in living out their biblical calling to do justice work.  Some reject this altogether.  Others have no trouble enacting it.  Many, however, know they have a calling—they should do something, they should be about more than just prayers and worship and fellowship (although all of those should lead to someone wanting to do justice work), and yet they aren’t quite sure what to do and who should do it.

            There are indeed plenty of complicating factors to churches doing justice work.  Some associate justice with just one side of the political spectrum, though this is odd since presumably everyone wants justice; we just might have different ideas about how to go about it.  If Christians can’t come together and civilly deliberate with one another, discern the will of the Spirit together, then what does that say about the fragility of the faith? Others think the church should stay out of it altogether out of some misunderstanding of the separation of church and state, clause about the government not establishing or privileging a particular religion.  Religious groups can and should engage in public life, not in a partisan manner, but in a way that seeks to make things better. 

            If you’re one who doesn’t like for their religion to be political, I think I understand your concern, not wanting to be partisan, but if we’re defining political as relating to public affairs, well, then, the Bible was pretty political, as were the prophets, as was Jesus who did plenty to shy from challenging the social order.  The Bible readings we just heard are a stinging indictment of those who don’t want to “go there.”  God is not interested in our worship if it doesn’t lead to transformative action.  One of the “Six Great Ends of the Church,” which is in our constitution is:  The Promotion of Social Righteousness—and remember that’s the same word as justice; it’s literally social justice.  I get and appreciate the sensitivity people have around this; I really do.  Some just want their church to be a place of refuge where they don’t have to think about all that stuff.  They’re inundated enough in their own lives.  Church should be a refuge, a retreat, but any retreat should prepare you to reengage in the world differently.  That’s the point. 

            The real question is how to do it well.  As we spoke and laughed about last week, committees are a good start.  They help us draw upon one another’s wisdom and perspectives.  I can’t answer the question of how to do this right fully today, but there is an angle we can explore that I believe can help loose some of the tightness this issue can foster in a church.  It doesn’t have to be contentious.  The angle I’m speaking of comes from the light of the Advent wreath.  Just as this “Who We Are” series is meant to show us the way to and of Christ, these advent themes of hope, peace, joy, and love lead us to Christ.  Today we lit the candle of joy.  That’s not justice.  Maybe that’s part of the problem.  Well, actually, let’s come back to that.  First, let’s play with one of the obstacles to doing justice work.  Sometimes we avoid it because it feels like the opposite of joyful.  Because of disagreements we may have, those that touch on our values, discussions can feel uncomfortable.  Sometimes around these matters a certain self-righteousness can set in and an unwillingness to listen to another.  Micah helps us through this, reminding us that are to hold together doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God.  Humility and kindness should characterize our efforts for justice. 

            I believe is most effective and most inclusive when it is done in joy.  We’ve all seen angry activists.  We may have been them.  I am sympathetic to them.  If we can give them a generous reading, we can acknowledge that their anger is out of a sense that something is terribly wrong, out of sync, harmful.  A moral compass should register strongly when we are dangerously off course.  So, in the abstract, if not always in the particular, we can honor the anger of someone who wants things to be better.  We can do that even as we recognize that anger which lingers or festers also corrodes. The Bible warns against this too. Ephesians reminds us not to let the sun set on our anger (4:26), meaning you can have your anger, maybe you should, but before long, you must transform it into something constructive.  You have to do something with it.  Otherwise, the anger takes up residence inside you where it starts to do violence to you and through you to the world you supposedly, and truly do, want to improve. 

            We could be better about transforming our anger; I know I can.  We can do the work in joy.  We of faith claim there’s a love at the center of this all, claim there is a love that instructs us, connects us, guides us, and accompanies us.  If we truly believe that, then we should be grounded in that love, as hard as that may be.  We are called to do justice in joy because we dare to believe justice has a chance, that it wins.  That is the image of the resurrection.  When we tip over into endless rage or its sibling despair, we enter hell.  We need to allow ourselves to be pulled from its pits, doing our work of reconnecting, to God our source, to our loved ones who are vessels for the divine, to the natural world which manifests God, and/or to our deepest selves which exist within God.  You can run a sprint on the energy of anger, but joy is fuel for is a marathon, folks; we need sustenance, and sustainable practices.  We can do the work in joy, which means joyfully discovering the stories and insights of others, honing our own, joining together with wide representation at the table, and then cooperating and collaborating to humbly do our best at making something better for someone who has things stacked against them.  In simple language, that’s all justice is—making something better for someone or a group of someones who have things stacked against them.

            My sermon took a 90 turn early last week as I was preparing to draft it.  I thought I would only talk of doing justice in joy.  Then a whole new angle appeared in the darkness.  The pastor at Sleepy Hollow Presbyterian, brilliant, talented, wise (my wife), asked if I had seen the videos of Syrians who had been locked away as political prisoners being freed.  You can find these online through reputable news sources.  Some of them show family reunions and I understand that for some families they assumed their loved ones had long been killed.  I read one such account of a man who was to be executed the very day he was liberated.  When they came to his cell, he thought they were coming to take him to be executed, not break the locks on the door. 

            Imagine the joy.  Imagine the joy of that moment, even as we worry about what moments may follow. Do you know what justice is?  It’s delivering joy to another to whom it has been denied, stolen.  Justice is about making access to joy as widespread as humanly or divinely possible. What could be more Christian? What could be more important? What could be more energizing and empowering and unifying?  If you want to feel less helpless and hopeless in your life, don’t just pay for more therapy—and I’m all for therapy—do something that will bless someone else.  It will do wonders. 

            I know many of you do this in your own lives. God bless you.  Here at Westminster, we have a group dedicated to helping spread joy.  It’s called the Committee for Community service.  I hope you join in their work. 

            Maybe our vision could be wider.  Let’s take a moment in prayer, a visualization.  Imagine or open your mind’s eye the needs of the community around us.  Let them come up in you and present themselves…What’s coming to mind?  What’s calling?  What’s broken?  What’s violent or hurtful?  Now, imagine Jesus walking up to you and calling you to action: “I want you to do this. I want you to learn more about that.” 

            If these things sound like matters for the Peace and Justice Committee.  You’re right. It’s called the church.

            Amen.