Tag: justice

Psalm 146

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment


              I am something of an old cartoon buff.  I was told when I was eleven years old that I would outgrow watching them – I’m still waiting for that day.  I, of course, enjoyed watching Underdog.  There is something deep within the human psyche that cheers for the underdog.  Wally Cox was the perfect voice for the mild-mannered shoe-shine boy to take his underdog super energy pill and fly through the sky to rescue Sweet Polly Purebread.
             That “something” that is within us that identifies with the underdog is the justice of God.  Today’s psalm lets us know that God cares about the underdog.  There ought to be no doubt that God is deeply concerned for those who are powerless, defenseless, and on the margins of society.  The psalmist identifies such persons:  those who are hungry; the prisoners; the blind; those bowed down; the orphan; and, the widow.  All these people represent individuals without ability to be movers and shakers in their culture.  In short, they need God.
             And God delights to use his power to lift them up.  What is more, truth be told, it turns out that all of us are underdogs.  We all need God.  Every action and decision we take and make is really God’s grace and enablement to do it.  We owe it all to him.  Thus, the logical and reasonable response to such a God is praise – to declare our hallelujahs to the one who reigns forever and will always see humanity’s great need.  How will you praise him today for who he is and for what he has done?  Let such praise shape your soul and lift your spirit as you intentionally connect with the gracious God who gives the underdog what he needs.
             Eternal God, you reign forever and ever.  I praise you as long as I live.  I put my trust in you, and not in those in society who wield their apparent power and influence.  Let them wallow in their delusions while I declare the mighty Name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Amos 6:1-8

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            There are few books in the Bible as kick-in-the-pants as Amos.  It is filled with God’s displeasure over Israel’s social and economic sins.  Few Americans nowadays realize that the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century’s rise of the Social Gospel did not result from liberal theology, but taking the Old Testament prophets, particularly Amos, quite serious.  Post-Civil War United States’ industrialization expanded at an incredible rate, swelling the cities.  This was the era of the great robber barons, and the wildly wealthy capitalists.  Although some of them were careful to be generous, most built their economic empires on the backs of poor immigrants and struggling families.  Poverty, inequality, and poor labor conditions were rife.  It was an era of tremendous social upheaval and change.
 
            It was a time not unlike conditions in ancient Israel.  Amos pulled no punches in communicating God’s message that the extreme wealth of some, while ignoring their fellow Israelites trapped in cycles of poverty, was leading them directly to their downfall.  “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory… who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!”  Because of base callousness and not providing justice for the poor, Israel would be taken over and their wealth redistributed.
 
            There is not enough money in the world to immunize a person, group, or nation from the watchful eye of the God who has solidarity with needy and oppressed peoples.  If others do not take up the mantle of justice by providing them with help, God himself will act.  People everywhere need to be treated with basic respect, dignity, and the freedom to work hard and make a decent living.  Poverty is not always personal, existing because of laziness.  No, it is usually the result of some systemic sin in society that keeps people trapped.  One of the things that every one of us can do is build a relationship with someone who is treated more like a nuisance or a project, and interact with them on a regular basis as if they were a fellow human being.  Perhaps then we will find a greater connection with the prophets of old and the God who cares for all.
 

 

            Watchful God, you care about all your creatures and all people everywhere.  Lead me to those for whom you desire to provide justice and newfound dignity so that your name is made famous among both rich and poor for the sake of Jesus.  Amen.

Longing for Justice and Righteousness

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
Some words make us squeamish.  Justice often gets a bad rap by some in the church, as if it were some code word for “liberal.”  Righteousness seems more like the “right” word, but gets thrown around like an old familiar blanket, as if we already know all that stuff.  So, what’s the big deal about justice and righteousness?  Other than being very biblical terms which get used a lot in Scripture, being just and right is what the Messiah is all about (Jeremiah 33:14-16).
 
            Justice and righteousness are most often paired together in the Old Testament.  They are really two sides of the same coin.  We often think of justice in punitive terms of giving lawbreakers what they deserve.  But biblical justice has much more to do with giving someone what they need and deserve in order to live and thrive as human beings.  To act justly means to provide things like clean drinking water, a safe environment, fair and equitable business practices, food to eat, a place to sleep, etc.  Righteousness is the relational element to justice.  To be righteous means to have right relationships, to connect with people, to move toward them and provide them with all the relational things that people need like respect, dignity, friendship, hospitality, fellowship, etc.
 
            Justice and righteousness are always to go together.  Justice without righteousness is at best, impersonal, and, at worst, condescending.  Righteousness without justice is only a dead faith that wishes well but never delivers.  But together, justice and righteousness brings love, peace, harmony, well-being, and human flourishing because all the basic necessities of life, physical and relational, are met in abundance.  This is what is meant in the Old Testament when Israel is referred to as “a land of milk and honey.”
 
            The time of abundance is here for us in the person of Jesus Christ.  Yet, it is not here in its fullness.  We anticipate, wait, and hope for the Second Coming of our Savior and King.  While we exercise patience, we long for better days.  A true Advent spirit is a deep longing for justice and righteousness because King Jesus is just and right!
 
            What do you long for today?  I long for things which are broken to be made right.  I long for biblical justice.  I long for the day when my grandson will have no more seizures.  I long for the day when individuals and families will not have to fight cancer anymore.  I long for the day when there will be no more depression, mental illness, or dementia.  I long for the day when people will be completely free of addictions.  I long for the day when there will be no more sex trafficking, death from malnutrition, grinding poverty, corrupt governments, whole families and communities torn by the ravages of HIV and AIDS, refugees with no place to call home, and devastating natural disasters.
 
I long for righteousness.  I long for the day when women and girls all across the world will not be abused and become the victims of disordered power.  I long for the day when Israelis and Palestinians, Iranians and Iraqis, Japanese and Koreans, Russians and everybody else will no more hate each other.  I long for all believers everywhere to experience the exhilaration of new life in Christ.  I long for my community to repent and believe the gospel.  I long for men and women of God to embrace Jesus and forsake all other gods.
 
            I long for the kingdom of God to come in all its fullness, in all its freedom, joy, prosperity, peace, and happiness.  God’s kingdom will not be ushered in through continued worship of things and the constant practice of accumulating more and more.  God’s kingdom will not come through worshiping a particular nation or country.  God’s kingdom will not be ushered in because of self-effort, savvy marketing, and full schedules.  God’s kingdom is not the same as our personal agendas for life. 
 

 

The kingdom of God will come when God decides it is going to come because Jesus is Lord and no one or nothing else is king!  I want to be doing justice and righteousness when he arrives.  The church of Jesus is a gathering of people who are to be just and right in their thinking and practice.  Holding those two important words together is vital to every congregation.

Isaiah 42:1-9

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            As we journey with Jesus through the last days of his life in Holy Week, there is the reminder and the remembrance that God is concerned with justice.  “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”  Indeed, in the person of Jesus and through his redemptive events there is the ultimate work of justice.
 
            It is possible that when we think of the word “justice” we might immediately imagine something punitive.  Justice in this sense is the doling out of judgment to one who has hurt another or transgressed the law.  The biblical concept of justice certainly has this connotation, but only secondarily.  The primary usage and understanding of justice in the Old Testament is justly providing a victim with a need they have.  In other words, it is furnishing the hungry with food, shelter for the homeless, freedom for the enslaved, and the poor with basic necessities.  It is to indefatigably work on behalf of another who cannot gain what they need on their own.
 
            So, when God talks of his servant bringing justice he means that he sees the vast needs of humanity across the earth and vows to do something about it.  This is why God the Father sent God the Son, in order to establish the basis for justice for all nations and all people.  Through the death and resurrection of Jesus our primary and most basic needs for life are met:   especially, the grace of forgiveness.  And through this great love, God’s forgiven people are to spread both their spiritual and material wealth to those locked in circumstances of injustice.  The implications for this are immense and reach across to every area of life, whether it is political, economic, relational, emotional, or spiritual to everyone despite differences of race, ethnicity, gender, even religion.  This is why Christians ought to be at the forefront of concern and action for ministries of justice and reconciliation.  We are to stand up for the oppressed and those in need because Jesus made it possible for us to do so.
            Just God, I praise you for your grace and power working together to bring justice to people.  Fill me with your Spirit so that I might point others to the singular work of Jesus on the cross.  Open my eyes to see the immense need around me, and lead me to understand how I might help.  Thank you for acting justly on my behalf in so many ways.  Amen.