April 29, 2001
|
|
|
| Worshipful
Work: Most of you know that this congregation is a member of the faith-based community organization Building Responsibility, Equality, and Dignity, or BREAD. Several weeks ago, the members of the BREAD clergy caucus agreed that this weekend will be a time for our synagogues and churches to focus on justice. Our particular theme for today is Worshipful Work: Doing Justice. I invite you to think of justice as a verb, as an action word one that that requires that we act when we see something that needs doing. I also want to invite you to focus for the next few minutes on the connection between work, worship, and justice. The American Heritage Dictionary defines justice as, "the principle of being just, or the upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law" (p. 979) At a "Rethinking Justice" workshop a few weeks ago, we learned that justice and charity are related, but not the same. Charity is short-termed, the recipients of charity are primarily receivers, and the service is not usually repeated. It is of limited benefit in that the goal is immediate relief, given in a direct service. It is what happens when we give a bus pass to someone who needs one. On the other hand, justice is long term, participatory, and organized for whole communities, not just a few people. The people have a role in their own deliverance; the goal is systemic and social change. Justice takes time, commitment, and desire. When a community gets together to ensure quality education for its children, or to make sure that their streets are safe and the police that serve them are fair, when people feel secure in their persons and their integrity is respected, then justice is in place. The late preacher, theologian Samuel Proctor shared his definition of justice as part of his sermon at the funeral of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: "Justice is that human virtue that does not wait for volitional, spontaneous, unscheduled charity. Justice says that a certain kind of fair play should be counted on, expected, scheduled and without which some penalty is sure to follow. Justice says that if you plan to do right, write it down, tell everybody, make it known, commit yourself, let us all be in on it together. Justice is blind, impartial, persistent, even handed, plays no favorites." (African American Pulpit, Winter 2000-2001, Judson Press, p. 71) Part of the biblical witness about justice describes God who, "loves righteousness and justice, [so that] the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord." (Psalm 33.5) The prophet Amos looked at the unfaithfulness and injustice all around him, and issued this clear call: "let justice roll down like water, righteousness like an everflowing stream." (Amos 5.24) And Jesus says about justice: "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 practiced with out neglecting the others." (Luke 11.42) One of the clearest biblical calls to justice comes from the prophet Micah. The people have been disobedient to God who has brought a case against them. We might think of it as a breach of covenant lawsuit. You remember the covenant. God said to their ancestors if you will obey my commandments, and be faithful to your belief in me, I will be your God. On behalf of the people for all time, their ancestors said, we will do all that you say. But they did not. They ran after other gods, they mistreated members of their community, they acted in unjust ways to enhance themselves, at the expense of others. When it is there turn to defend themselves, they began to negotiate. God, what if we made amends by giving you acres of land, tons of oil, thousands of heads of cattle. What about giving you our firstborn children? God, what will it take to please you? The reply is simple and straightforward. Just these three things: do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God. Do justice. We remember what can be described both politically and theologically liberal justice work in the 60’s and early 70’s – movements to end the war in Vietnam come to mind. And we remember what can be described as political and theologically conservative justice work in the 80’s and early 90’s – movements to define for all time what a true family values come to mind. We can perhaps still hear the voices that say to us, "no matter how you define it, this is just another way for the church to do politics." Yes, but with this difference. For people of faith, no matter their theology, no matter their politics, justice work is Christian work. It is what they do when their faith compels them to act. Doing justice is work, even worshipful work. Worshipful work is the model for much of the work of the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Worshipful work depends less on Robert’s Rules of Order, though they are used, and gives more emphasis on integrating disciplines of the faith, prayer, Bible study, into the business and decision making processes of the church. The question for worshipful work is not what is the most efficient way to work, but what is the most faithful way to work. The issue is not will the status quo be upheld, but rather, led by the Holy Spirit, what would God and Jesus Christ have us do? But our faithfulness is shown not only in our personal relationships with God and with Jesus, but in our relationship with others too. The worshipful work of justice welcomes the stranger and develops relationships of trust. This congregation does worshipful work as it opens its doors to our neighbors, and gives aid to people in need who stop by. It happens as we welcome people with warmth and hospitality, we have make space for them in this place. Doing justice means looking beyond ourselves, and seeing what is possible. We are members of BREAD because we have found that by being part of something bigger than ourselves, we can accomplish more with others than we can by ourselves. It is the work of BREAD to do identify an issue in the community such as safe, decent and affordable housing. We then work with and advocate strongly with city officials to find a just solution, such as a commitment of Housing Trust Fund money to go to families of several income levels in order to insure that as many people as possible can have safe, decent, and affordable housing. We then hold public officials accountable for the promises they make. We want you to know about BREAD, so there will be a potluck after church today, with a presentation by the Vice President of the organization. See what it means when people chant "BREAD rises" as congregational BREAD teams will gather tomorrow night at 7 pm at St. Dominic Catholic Church, and that is why 2500 members of BREAD congregations and other community leaders will gather May 21 at Veteran’s Memorial auditorium for the BREAD assembly. By the way, if the driver is wearing a BREAD button, parking is free at the Vet. Membership in BREAD is natural to who we are. Our mission statement says in part that we are a congregation that "serves our community through ministries of reconciliation and justice. We cannot fully serve our community until we know what we are about, therefore we will enter into a series of one to one conversations with members of the congregation in June and July. We will talk together about our hopes and dreams for our congregation and for this particular community because the better we know ourselves, the better we can serve others. Service to others as a matter of faith, work and justice, is the lesson of the reading from the gospel of John. In what John records as his third appearance to the disciples, after his resurrection, Jesus called out to the disciples who had gone back to fishing for a while. He fed their bodies, then as they listened, he asked Simon Peter a question. Their dialogue taught the disciples and it teaches us. "Do you love me?" "Yes." "Tend my sheep." Peter do you love me." "Well Peter, let me ask you this, do you love me?" "You know I do. Why do you keep asking me? Don’t you trust me?" Peter had apparently forgotten about denying Jesus three times. But Jesus looks to him and says, "OK. Here is what I want you to do. "Understand that your faith in me will mean your life. You will be stretched out, like I was when I was crucified, and led to places you didn’t think you would see when you were a young man. Then follow me, and engage in worshipful work." If you love me, then feed and tend all of my creation. As we read Micah, we see that justice is just one third of what God requires. The other two requirements follow from justice. We are to love kindness, that is, we are to practice not only love, but also loyalty and faithfulness. Loving kindness has to do with being a faithful partner with God. When we do justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God surely follow. That is the way it has been in the church, we are in a long line of Christians who have believed all people are daughters and sons of God. Justice work is worshipful work which honors God by honoring people’s worth and dignity. We do justice, and love kindness, when we understand that every human being is a child of God and has worth. We walk humbly with our God and tend to God’s sheep as we understand that worshipful work is justice work and risk taking work. We saw it on display in Cincinnati a few weeks ago when clergy stood on the streets in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood and put themselves between angry citizens and angry police. Now I have heard and I agree that whether in Over-the-Rhine, or in Quebec City at last week’s trade summit, people should make their protests passionately, peacefully, and they should always obey the law. But I also agree with the former Los Angeles police chief, Willie Williams who said, that people in troubled communities seldom have a problem with calling the police, they just don’t want the police to treat them like the enemy when they arrive. When we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God, we are able to advocate from a faithful point of view for fair treatment for everyone. Then when we achieve fair and just treatment, we will be doing worshipful work. So we are doing worshipful work when we say in the name of justice, that profiling is wrong. You know profiling occurs when the police stop somebody because they just don’t look right, or they are driving a car that is perceived to be beyond their means, or they are walking or driving through a neighborhood in which the thought is that they do not fit. Justice speaks the truth that judging people negatively, profiling based on race, or gender, or orientation, or economic conditions, or place of residence is wrong. It leads to abuse of power as the powerless are bullied and disrespected, and it leads to dereliction of duty as some communities are given less than they deserve while other communities are given more. If someone around the corner is taken to jail for being drunk and disorderly, and someone in a more affluent neighborhood is given a drive home, justice has not been done. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Take care of the people and follow me. Follow where? We are invited to the place where we know we can speak in the name of Jesus, a word of hope, peace, encouragement, perseverance, and justice. Here Samuel Proctor one more time. "Justice says, don’t ask for a privilege for yourself that you would not grant to everyone similarly situated. On the other hand, it says don’t do to another person what you would not want done to you. It is even-handedness. But my friends, lying behind the notion of justice is the assumption that someone will be around to see that it is done, to supervise it, to monitor it, to guarantee it, to give it force. There just has to be someone who has the fine tuning, the understanding to know when a situation is out of balance, and that somebody must have the courage, the brains, the audaciousness, the cool bravery, and the passionate zeal, the size, the voice, the looks, the energy, the following to force an issue in the name of justice. Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Walk carefully, walk knowing that God sets the pace, God knows the destination, God picks us up when we fall down. God will lead us when we put our trust in God, we will be led to the places we need to be, and we will do what we need to do. Do we love Jesus whom we follow and whose life was all about justice and mercy for everyone, enough? Do we love him more than what ever it is that holds us back from doing the work of justice? Do we love him enough to seek justice and to pray for it, long for it, look for it, work for it, and just do it? I think we do, I believe the answer to that question is yes, and that we will do the work of justice and we will follow Jesus wherever he leads us and proclaim justice wherever we go. To God be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
|
Broad
Street Christian Church
|
