Simple Rhythms: Social Justice
Finding spiritual exercise rhythms of social justice empowers us to be agents of change. It allows us to challenge injustice wherever we find it so we can transform our society. As followers of Christ, we are called to speak truth advocating for the rights and dignity of all people. In doing so, we embody the radical love and compassion of Christ and bear witness to the coming kingdom of God.
INTRO
This morning, we continue our Simple Summer series looking at how we can discover simple rhythms of incorporating spiritual exercises to help us connect with Jesus. Today our topic is social justice.
Now, in the last decade, the term, social justice, has become a loaded word sparking all sorts of thoughts and feelings. I’d imagine for many of us, it might bring up names like George Floyd or Daunte Wright or events like protests or riots. For some, it might mean finding solutions to issues like racism, injustice, and inequalities. For others, it might come with concerns about certain groups of people wanting special rights for just them, but no one else. Social justice means something different to everyone, but if we take into consideration its biblical roots and tradition in the Christian faith, we find that it is the heartbeat of who Jesus is and when we discover simple rhythms to live it out, it helps us connect with Jesus.
Social justice in the bible
The Church has its footprints in the social justice world by serving the marginalized. The Church has come to the aid orphans, widows, slaves, the displaced, the sick, and the poor to name some. Many human service organizations and hospitals were established because of the church. Many of our parents were sponsored by people who were a part of the Church. But this hasn’t always been the case. Unfortunately, we find that God’s people were unjust and oppressed others. Notably, in the Old Testament, the book of Amos best illustrates the neglect of social justice among God’s people. Instead of being caring and compassionate, God’s people were oppressive. Let me read from Amos 2 to show you what I mean. I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation. This is what it says,
6 This is what the Lord says: “The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They sell honorable people for silver and poor people for a pair of sandals. 7 They trample helpless people in the dust and shove the oppressed out of the way. Both father and son sleep with the same woman, corrupting my holy name. 8 At their religious festivals, they lounge in clothing their debtors put up as security. In the house of their gods, they drink wine bought with unjust fines.
The injustice Amos witnessed among God’s people included dehumanization, abusing the helpless and oppressed, and sexual exploitation. The lounging in clothes their debtors put up was a practice they had where the poor put up their clothes as collateral for debt. It’s like a loan where you put up something you own like a car or home to secure the loan so that in case you can’t pay, the lender can seize the collateral as payment. And according to Old Testament law, Exodus 22 and Deuteronomy 24, the clothes held as collateral were supposed to be returned in the evening so the borrower could have a blanket at night, but instead the lenders lounged in them. Drinking wine bought with unjust fines suggest unreasonable maybe even false charges made so they could take the excess money and indulge instead of using the money to fix the issues.
Amos lived during a time where his country was prosperous and the people believed that this was a sign of God’s favor, but Amos saw it differently. Their prosperity resulted from oppressing the poor. In Amos 8:5, this is what it says,
“You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless.”
Businesses stopped working on the Sabbath and religious festivals, but as soon as they were over, they were ready to rob the poor. Externally, they observed and did what God commanded them to do. They did what they were supposed to, but with the wrong intentions. This led Amos to tell Israel how God felt about their contradictory lives. This is what he says,
21 “I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. 22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. 23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
Ouch. That’s harsh. Imagine if God were to step into our sanctuary this morning and tell us that he hates our gatherings, he does not accept our offerings, and the songs we sing are noisy. God rejects their worship of him because they lack the justice and righteousness. At the end of the passage, God concludes by saying this to the Israelites,
“24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.”
This can feel overwhelming. A mighty flood of justice or an endless river of righteous living seems like a lot. How do we flood a place with justice when all we have are drops of kindness? How can we have an endless river of righteous living when it feels like we have a inconsistent flow of good days and bad days? But I think this might help. Richard J. Foster offers the idea that at its core, social justice is God’s Greatest Commandment. Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and love your neighbor.
Earlier, during scripture reading, we heard what it looked like to love your neighbor. The Good Samaritan demonstrated what it meant to love your neighbor. He was the unlikeliest neighbor because of the racial and religious tensions between Samaritans and Jews. They were not allow to associate with each other because of the differences, but Jesus reveals to us in the parable that it was the Samaritan, the outsider, who was the neighbor while sadly, the priest and Levite were not. Foster suggests that the work of social justice revolves around treating people equitably, being compassionate, and seeking peace. Attributes that the Samaritan man demonstrated.
Treating people equitable means we see others as equals. We are impartial to others. We saw in Amos how dynamics like socioeconomic, gender, privilege, and power created a rift among the people. In contrast, we saw that the Samaritan saw the beaten man as another fellow human. The Samaritan cared for the man despite the dynamics that would normally create division.
Being compassionate means steadily caring for others’ wellbeing and being thoughtful of others. An example of this can be seen in Leviticus 19. Instructions were given to farmers to leave crops on the edge of their land or fallen grapes for the poor and the foreigner. They were instructed to leave provision for the needy. Being compassionate was extended to animals and land. After 6 years of farming, the land was given a year to rest (Leviticus 25:3-4). Scripture also instructed ox owners to not muzzle their animal so they could eat while they worked (Deut. 25:4). Foster says this,
“The whole point of this instruction was that our dominion over the earth and the little creatures that creep upon it is to be filled with compassion was to manage and care for it kindly, lovingly, and tenderly.”
This is what compassion looks like. That we care for someone or something kindly, lovingly, and tenderly.
Lastly, social justice means we seek peace. Biblical peace isn’t simply the absence of conflict, but it’s the presence of harmony and unity. When the Samaritan took the man to an inn, he didn’t simply offload the issue to another person, but rather he paid the innkeeper in advance and offered to reimburse for any extra expense if needed. The Samaritan and innkeeper were united in caring for the beaten man. Together, the looked out for each other’s wellbeing. At the end of Jesus’ parable he tells the expert in the law to go and do likewise and Jesus invites us to do the same too.
APPLICATION
Social justice is a spiritual practice that helps us connect with Jesus because it’s who he is. In Matthew 9, we’re told that Jesus saw the crowds who were harassed and helpless like a sheep without a shepherd and he had compassion on them. We know that Jesus is the good shepherd who cares for us, but at the end of Matthew 9, he invited his disciples to pray so that God would send out more workers to show care and compassion to others. And I believe this morning, many of us are those answered prayers.
Foster invites us to wrestle with social justice in our personal life before entering other arenas.
Personally, we must consider how we live or don’t live out justice in our own lives. Is there pride, selfish desires, laziness, greed, an excessive or over-consumption of food or drink, or lust within ourselves? Take some time and reflect if there’s any of these vices that show up in your life?
These vices can prevent us from doing good in the world because they are attributes that only focus on us. Foster encourages us to take these vices to God through prayer trusting that God will transform those vices into virtues and enable us to be selfless instead of selfish.
From there, Tim Keller offers these thoughts. Live out the social justice life, the compassionate life by not limiting who your neighbor is. Your neighbor is anyone you come into contract with. It could be someone here in this room who you know or don’t know. It could be the person who lives next to you or someone standing in line ahead of you. And next, consider what can you do to care for them. Social justice isn’t just about thoughts we have, but it’s the action we take.
Social justice is living the compassionate life of loving your neighbors as yourself. And when we find the simple rhythm of loving others on a day to day basis, it draws us closer and closer to Jesus. Let’s pray.