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A faithful presence of love in the absences of our city.

An Oasis of Justice

I finished my sermon on Sunday with this illustration from Harvie Conn:
Perhaps the best analogy to describe all this is that of a model home. We are God's demonstration community of the rule of Christ in the city. On a tract of earth's land, purchased with the blood of Christ, Jesus the kingdom developer has begun building new housing. As a sample of what will be, he has erected a model home of what will eventually fill the urban neighborhood. He now invites the urban world into that model home to take a look at what will be. The church is the occupant of that model home, inviting neighbors into its open door to Christ. Evangelism is when the signs are up, saying 'Come in and look around!

Our church that meets at Central and San Mateo should be a house…a model house where God resides in and through His people. We are a demonstration community. A house erected by the blood of Jesus. This house should be:
A house marked by justice and righteousness
A house where people meet with Jesus.
Now what does this look like. Well, I didn’t get to this in the sermon. I mean, every sermon is always a battle…what is this text about…how does the Gospel pop out of the passage…where is Jesus…how do we apply this in light of Jesus and the Gospel…This series in the minor prophets is challenging on a number of levels for me, for you, for us. Preaching through a whole book in one sermon is just one of those challenges. Getting through exegesis to application is another. This week, I was long in the tooth again, and yet didn’t get to a thrust of application from the text. Namely, justice and injustice. How can we be a house marked by justice and righteousness, where people meet with Jesus. God charges the people of Israel during a time of luxury, why are you living justly. We can be charged with a similar thing. And we certainly would fail in so many places to doing justice, sometimes even doing injustice.

Injustice happens in our world. This injustice is often impersonal. For example, someone born into poverty with little chance of escape (almost like slavery) isn’t there because 2 or 3 conspired against their family. In ancient world, accumulation of wealth meant accumulation of lands, at someone’s expense. Justice and injustice were very personal, very communal, messy and costly. We want a justice that is out of our hands, set the right policy, vote for right people, put money in right places, and let the state do the rest. Sleep easily while we accumulate our stuff and experiences. Amos tell us that’s not enough! If we get nothing else from Amos, we should get some holy discomfort. Some parts of scripture are meant to agitate, provoke, make us profoundly uncomfortable…get us thinking, get us praying, get us confessing and repenting. Some passages can’t be neatly wrapped up or have tidy endings. I want you to be uncomfortable; certainly not presumptuous. I want you to think, pray, wrestle with what you pay employees, service providers, what comes out of your tailpipe, what policies and politicians you vote for. Asking yourself when you go to bed at night…did I act justly? Today? Did you walk by any homeless people? Did you buy anything that didn’t use slave labor somewhere in their supply chain? Do you know the environmental and HR practices of the products you use and consume? What about education? Predatory lending? Outcomes in our judicial system that bear mark of racial prejudice? The kids on your block, the women on your block—are they all safe? We are not off the hook just by voting for good policies and giving a little money out of our surplus. Where the church loses its gospel witness, it usually withers and dies or is forcibly reformed. If we have nothing to say about injustice in the world, then we have nothing to say, and why would anyone pay attention if we did?

Well what do we have to say? And do? Well, We need to get messy. Make it personal, get us (God’s people) involved, because that’s what God does. Amos 9:11-12 points to the booth of David that is raised — Jerusalem, from where YHWH roars as a lion, is where the lion of the tribe of Judah becomes the spotless lamb who was slain for our transgressions. What can heal us? What can change us? What can move us? Empower us? The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amos points to this as the objective reality that will change Israel.

This is what happened to the corrupt tax collector Zaccheus. His personal encounter with Jesus led him to become a man of justice, making restitution for the injustice he had participated in. To bring justice, to free captives and conquer evil, Jesus gets messy, Jesus does the costly thing, Jesus gets personally involved. His actions have political implications, but they are not primarily or exclusively political. Holy Discomfort is not, “what do I have to do to be saved?” But, “what should a saved person be doing?” Holy Discomfort is doing justice in our communities. Places where we have power and influence we stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. Like Jesus and with his help, we do the costly, messy, sticky personal things. We get involved for the sake of others’ flourishing. Maybe someone on your team in your workplace is being scapegoated for failures, maybe you step in, speak up and tell the truth. Maybe someone is being blackballed in your social circles, or even your family. Maybe your company is doing what’s best for its bottom line and not for its employees or customers or places it does business. Goes without saying we do not participate in these things, but God’s coming Kingdom means we can actually be a part of rolling these back. The policies and political leaders we support do matter. There should be a special place and priority in our political loyalties for protection of the innocent, compassion for the marginal and redressing of injustice.

At church, we strive to be an oasis of justice. Where people are treated with dignity, where we don’t smuggle in our culture’s prejudices. Where people in trouble can receive compassion. And where outsiders in trouble can come for help too. And they do. Our diaconate has done a lot of work, we need more people and resources to help us do works of justice and compassion. With the church there are all kinds of injustices we can be addressing: helping provide a better alternative to abortion with Real Options; moving towards the homeless population and learning how to help them; sponsoring and investing in children in desperate need around the world with compassion international; getting educated and becoming an advocate against domestic slavery; using your education capital to help tutor kids in tough situations; possibilities endless…foster care, getting involved in our schools, neighborhoods. All of this is in response to Jesus’ resurrection and promised return. None of this supposes that injustice will be eradicated before he returns. Our job is to proclaim his coming kingdom in word and deed. And if his kingdom is bursting with justice and righteousness, then that’s what we need to be speaking and doing. And when this leads to suffering loss, loss of time, loss of position, loss of energy...Jesus promises whatever is sacrificed or foregone for the kingdom will be reimbursed 100 fold. The beauty and abundance of new creation is as sure as Jesus’ resurrection; do not miss them for fading things

It is so easy to get paralyzed. Like where do I start, how do I start, I mean I have so much going on…Martin Luther King’s exegesis of good Samaritan is a good place to start. Levite and Priest wonder what will happen to them if they help that man. Samaritan wonders what will happen to that man if I don’t help him. Jesus’ death and resurrection gives us the freedom to try and maybe fail, but also the power to give ourselves away for the sake of justice. Because that’s what he did! He gave himself away to rescue us from the jaws of sin and death and satan. If you are united to him, then he lives in you and can do the same through you. I invite you to pray, to cry out to God now and ask Him to help you. And then to step out in faith and act. Let us be a people who are generous in our justice. A people who are faithfully present in our living, speaking and serving. A people who aren’t afraid.

~ Justin Edgar

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