Sermon 6/25/17
Micah 6:1-8
From Charity to Justice: Seeking Justice
Imagine that you were walking
alongside a river one day, and you saw someone in the water, clearly in
distress, struggling, and needing help. What would you do? Well, of course, I
imagine that you would jump into the water and help the person out, or at least
call on someone else to help. Of course, that’s what you would do. But what if,
as you were helping the first person out of the water, more people appeared, coming
down the river, all appearing to be in distress? What would you do? At first,
you might think to quickly gather a group of people – together, with a team,
maybe you could start to get all of the people out of water and to safety. But
I think, eventually, if this problem persisted, you would choose to send at
least one person to travel along the river, looking for the source of the
problem. Why is it that so many people are in the water, struggling for their
lives? Was there an accident upstream? Did a boat sink? Did a bridge collapse? Has
there been some disaster? Is someone or some group trying to harm these people,
throwing them into the water? Once these questions can be answered, you can
begin to think about a plan of action. You still need, of course, to get the
people out of the water who are in distress, with their lives in immediate
danger. But in the long run, more people will be saved if you figure out how
they’re ending up in the water to begin with.
I told you when we started this
series two weeks ago that the focus of my doctoral work was studying how to
help congregations move from a charity-based focus in their outreach work to a
broader justice-grounded focus. This river scenario I just shared is one of the
ways I help folks start to think about the differences between charity and
justice. There is certainly a place for, a need for charitable action. We see
this particularly in times of crisis, perhaps as a response to a natural
disaster or a tragic event. Charitable actions focus on the immediate response, meeting immediate
needs. It can be very individually-focused, as in “we need to help this person who has fallen into the
water.” Charitable action focuses on fixing what we might call the results of oppression and injustice. If
we’re thinking about poverty and hunger, charitable actions would focus on
feeding a person who is hungry, providing material needs or cash assistance for
a person struggling with poverty.
But there are some problems with
charitable actions when they move from being the initial response in a time of
crisis to being the primary response
of people of faith to injustice over time. First, charitable action doesn’t
address the causes of injustice,
since it aims simply to alleviate the results. Charitable action can feed
hungry people, but without asking why people
are hungry, and working to address and change the causes of hunger, there will be no end to hunger. Our charitable
actions are optional actions, based on generosity and desire. We can give or we
can choose not to give. Charitable actions are often come with huge power
differentials between the person who gives and the person who receives.
Remember, we talked about justice and righteousness being grounded in right
relationships between God and one another. If our only relationship with some
people is through acts of charity, where we are always giving and the other is always
receiving, there is no chance for mutual
relationship. The work of justice focuses on ministry with people instead of ministry for people. The work of justice is long-term work, and focuses on
changing whole systems and structures. And finally, the work of justice is what
God requires. It isn’t optional,
something that God calls us to do if we feel like it, if we have enough extra
to share, if we’re feeling generous. Throughout the scriptures, the work of
justice is work that God builds into the very laws that form the covenant
between God and God’s people. The poor and vulnerable are protected by law, and
failure to act with justice towards those whom God protects is a failure of
justice, a violation of law, a sign of brokenness in the covenant. God takes it
seriously when we fail to work for justice.
Part of how we get “off track” with
charity is because the concept of charity has changed over time. In the
scriptures, the word that can loosely translate into something like our word
charity means “to give alms,” to give money to those in need. It appears in two
or three places in the Bible, describing a practice of giving to the poor that
was considered generous, but was also part of the law, an expectation for
faithful Jews. As our PowerPoint title slide says, charity gives. We need charitable actions, we need to respond to the
immediate crises of people in pain, people suffering. We can do good and needed
charitable work. But, it’s a word that doesn’t really communicate what we want
it to, and it perhaps doesn’t encourage us toward the mutual, set right
relationships in the way we want it to, and it doesn’t change things beyond the immediate for the people who so need to
experience the freedom and good news and release we read about in Isaiah last
week. We are called to something more. Last week, when we shared in our
Companion Litany to our Social Creed, we used the phrase “God celebrates when
justice and mercy embrace.” Considering acts of mercy serves us better than
acts of charity. The concept of mercy is grounded in our biblical witness, and
speaks of God’s loving action towards us. To be merciful is to have compassion
for others. You might remember me sharing with you last summer that the word
compassion, often used to describe the way Jesus looks at us, means literally to have your stomach twisted in knots with
concern for others. What if we acted with mercy and justice in the face of the
world’s brokenness, and our need to build right relationships with God and one
another?
We find both mercy and justice in
our scripture text this morning. Today we turn our attention to the book of Micah.
Micah is another of the prophets, and he writes around the same time as does
the prophet Isaiah, and you can find a lot of similar themes in their work.
When we pick up our reading in chapter 6, Micah is reporting that God is
declaring to the hills and mountains that God has a controversy, a case to
bring against Israel. Basically, God is accusing Israel of failing to uphold
the covenant between God and God’s people. God has promised to be the God of
Israel, and the people were in turn meant to be faithful to God and God’s law,
but they’ve failed to uphold their end of the promise. God, though, is
ever-faithful. Still, God is demanding an accounting, and when God brings the
case against Israel, God starts by reminding the Israelites of all that God has
done for them, of all the ways that God has been a guide, their leader, their
strength. “Remember how I brought you out of Egypt and slavery?” God reminds.
“Remember how I gave you leaders in Moses, Aaron, and Miriam?” “Remember how I
saved you from the enemies that wanted to keep you from reaching the promised
land?”
Micah then speaks on behalf of the
Israelites, imagining their response to God’s claim against them. He imagines
that the Israelites will offer anything – burnt-offerings, and offerings of
livestock – extravagant riches – a thousand rams, ten thousand rivers of oil,
even their firstborn children – in order to be justified, to be set in right
relationship with God again. The pictures Micah paints are of extreme
hyperbole, suggesting we’d promise anything
to be on good terms with God again.
But, Micah says God has already told
us what is good, and what is required. We already know what God wants – we just
don’t seem to want to do it. What does God require? That we “do justice, love
kindness, and walk humbly with [our] God.” God doesn’t want our extravagant
gifts when they don’t come with our heart and soul attached. God wants our
hearts, our compassion, our commitment to justice for all of God’s people, and
our humble discipleship, following in the footsteps of Jesus. Both less costly
than all of our treasures, and more costly, because God wants everything, heart
and soul and whole lives as an offering.
What God wants, as always, is for us
to make God’s ways our ways, for us to make God’s values our values. That
happens when we seek righteousness – right relationships with God and one
another. And God reminds us that God has always treated us with justice and
mercy. Remember, remember, remember how I have loved you, how I have treated
you, how I have worked for fullness of life for you. And let your remembering
spur you to work for the same for others. Remember – you already know what I
require – justice, mercy, and humble discipleship.
So, how will we do this work here,
in this congregation and in this community? What can we do here that will help
us make God’s values our values, set us right with God and neighbor? How will
we love mercy here, and seek justice here? I think we can work to build on the
things that we already care about as a community. Our church serves many
families each fall with our We’ve Got Your Back to School program. There’s a
vital ministry that can lead us to ask justice-seeking questions. How can our
faith communities better support our schools, our children, and our educators?
How can we be advocates, working to get the resources our schoolchildren need?
How can we be in relationship with families with schoolchildren who feel
overburdened and stretched thin? How can we support teachers and administrators
and staff who can have such a profound impact on young lives? We have a
thriving Friday Lunch program that brings meals to countless people in our
community – so many people touched by this program. What do we know about what
resources are available to the elderly in our community? How do we build
meaningful relationships with folks that are often neglected and overlooked by
a society that values eternal youth? We’re beginning to think and plan and
dream about how we support people and families who are walking the road of
recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. Already, we’ve been talking about
being advocates for mental health resources, educating ourselves and our
community, encouraging hospitality and breaking down stereotypes. There is no
one right way to seek justice, grounded in mercy. There are so many ways to
answer God’s call. What stirs your spirit? What way is God calling you? Where
does your compassion meet God’s vision of justice and wholeness for the world?
God wants nothing more and nothing
less than our hearts and souls. And God tells us just how we can make such an
offering. Not with jewels and riches and without
what God really wants. Requires in
fact. God has told us what is good. Let us do justice. Let us love mercy and
kindness. And let us walk, walk this journey as disciples, walk humbly in the
company of God. Amen.
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