DOING JUSTICE: God Loves Justice

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 I realize the new year just began and I started it with a look at Max Lucado's Inspirational Reader, but.....  Luke is currently in Israel and Palestine talking peace and justice.  Before he left I gave him a study book called How Do I Make It Right: Doing Justice in a Broken World  by Tracy Young.  Today's d365.org talked justice.  So.... while I can borrow Luke's book and because it seems so timely - a look at answering Micah's question, What does the Lord require of you?  

Thursday, January 9
Isaiah 42:1-4 GNT

The Lord says,

“Here is my servant, whom I strengthen—
    the one I have chosen, with whom I am pleased.
I have filled him with my Spirit,
    and he will bring justice to every nation.
 He will not shout or raise his voice
    or make loud speeches in the streets.
 He will not break off a bent reed
    nor put out a flickering lamp.
He will bring lasting justice to all.
 He will not lose hope or courage;
    he will establish justice on the earth.
    Distant lands eagerly wait for his teaching.”

    God refers to his servant to come, Christ, in the above passage.  But God also speaks to us.  We are the agents of justice for our world today.  We are the ones for whom the world eagerly awaits.  

      d365.org author Jennifer Peterson Singh writes, 

But justice is transforming the world so everyone gets a fair shot. It means becoming involved to change the processes that keep people trapped on the margins of society.

Doing justice seems overwhelming, and we never do it alone. But with God we can do things we could never even imagine doing on our own. We can change the world.

    And that's the blessing.  We don't have to do this work alone.  We done have to be SuperSaint and single handledly for change.  We have God and we have each other.  Together we can make a huge difference.  

INTRODUCTION

How Do I Make It Right?  Tracy Young

Micah 6:8 GNT

No, the Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.

     We have a pretty good idea of what it means to love and to honor and refer God.  We have a good idea of what is just and right.  But to DO justice is a little more vague.  In much of Scripture the word is often linked with companion righteousness and friends with hunger, poverty, oppression.  These words give us a hint of what God wants.  But how to DO it.  That's what I hope to gain a better understanding of through this study.  

"I hope you'll see with fresh eyes God's deep and enduring love for those who suffer and who long for restoration.  And I hope you'll be challenged in your humble walk with God to build on acts of mercy by pursuing justice:life-changing, culture-challenging, shalom-seeking, Christ-following JUSTICE!  (TY)

FRIDAY, January 10

How Do I Make It Right?  Tracy Young

God Loves Justice: Allowing Lament (p.11-13)

Psalm 10:8-11 MSG

They carry a mouthful of hexes,
    their tongues spit venom like adders.
They hide behind ordinary people,
    then pounce on their victims.

 They mark the luckless,
    then wait like a hunter in a blind;
When the poor wretch wanders too close,
    they stab him in the back.

 The hapless fool is kicked to the ground,
    the unlucky victim is brutally axed.
He thinks God has dumped him,
    he’s sure that God is indifferent to his plight.

Why do we think we have a monopoly on suffering and oppression??  Granted today's modern world carries more than its share of injustice, but the Psalm above reads like the Biblical six o'clock news: a litany of what is wrong in life.  These psalms literally cry out with pain and anguish.  God!  Help us!  

We must recognize and see the injustice.  We must lament that oppression and hunger exist.  It must hurt within our souls.  Then...we will take action.  

God sees all this.  God knows.  The Psalm ends with the words, 

But you do see!
    You do see troublemaking and grief,
    and you do something about it!
The helpless leave it all to you.
    You are the orphan’s helper.  (v. 14, CEB)

 What is God waiting for?  Me?

SATURDAY, January 11

How Do I Make It Right?  Tracy Young

God Loves Justice: Who Do You Think I Am? (p.14-15)

Exodus 3:11 GNT

But Moses said to God, “I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

     We can come up with all kinds of reasons for ignoring God's call.  We are too young, too old, too shy, too abrasive.  Our health isn't good, we sin too much, we stutter, we don't have time.  Who does God think we are???

"Like Moses, we're likely to wonder, 'Who am I to pursue justice in this broken world?' But maybe our question shouldn't be, 'Who do we think we are?' but 'Who does God think we are?" (TY)

     We don't have to do this alone.  God thinks we are capable.  God will MAKE us able.  God will work through us and in us.  God just needs our YES response to get to work.  

How Do I Make It Right?  Tracy Young

God Loves Justice: Justice and Worship (p. 16-18)

Amos 5:21-22 CEB

I hate, I reject your festivals;
    I don’t enjoy your joyous assemblies.
22 If you bring me your entirely burned offerings and gifts of food—
        I won’t be pleased;
    I won’t even look at your offerings of well-fed animals.

     How often do we present to God a two-sided persona?  Sundays we welcome strangers to church, we sing praise with gusto and enthusiasm, we prayerfully thank God for our blessings, and implore God to help us. 

     And then Monday rolls around.  We ignore the neighbor next door, we grumble about church responsibilities, we say a mealtime blessing with rote mechanics, and turn a cold shoulder to the needs of the world.  

     And then we wonder why God isn't always happy with us!  How often do we send mixed messages not just to God but to those around us?  Our words of praise and honor must carry the actions of justice and service for our relationship with God to be whole and pure.  

"But when the people of God begin to seek justice for the oppressed, when we feed the hungry and look after the homeless, when we examine our own lives for unfairness toward the weak, then our acts of worship please God.  Then they aren't empty or hypocritical gestures substituting for a real relationship with God but acts of love and honor and respect." (TY)

Sunday, January 12

How Do I Make It Right?  Tracy Young

God Loves Justice: The Fatherless and the Widow (p.19-21)

Deuteronomy 10:17-19  MSG

God doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing.  You must treat foreigners with the same loving care – remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt.

     The weakest of society can summarize ‘foreigners’ here: the oppressed, the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the abandoned, the impaired, veterans, the elderly.  In Biblical times, to be widowed was to be left on the fringe of society; thus, widows and orphans are often mentioned. 

     But who are our ‘foreigners’?  Today we so easily figure that must mean people overseas, the ‘starving children in Ethiopia or India’  (So eat your food!)  And if we can’t go to India to give out a sandwich, there must be nothing we can do, right? We're off the hook!

     Wrong.  The foreigners live next door.  Immigrants in our cities and towns.  Strangers in our stores and shops. Sometimes the foreigner dwells within our own home.  We don't have to travel the globe.  We were once one and the same - together.  

     This is a powerful reminder for God’s people to acknowledge our shared humanity with those who live at the edges.  ‘Love these people,’ God says, ‘ these people without power, status, health, or property, because they are my children too.  Love them because I love them.  Love them because their cries were once your cries.  You are not so very different.’  (TY)

Monday, January 13

How Do I Make It Right?  Tracy Young

God Loves Justice: Water, Water Everywhere! (p. 22-24)

Amos 5:24 CEB

But let justice roll down like waters,
        and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Eugene Peterson in The Message paraphrases:

Do you know what I want?
    I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
    That’s what I want. That’s all I want.

     Israel was and is a dry, arid country, except when the seasonal rains come to the desert land.  Then the monsoons flood the earth and life springs forth.  Water is the life-blood of the land.  Justice should be like water bringing life - but not the intermittent flows of the desert country. Justice must be an everyflowing stream.  

     Tracy Young writes, 

God wants justice - not in fits and starts or here and there.  God wants justice to permeate, to penetrate and restore people.  God wants justice to refresh the weary, to ease the thirst of the downtrodden.  God wants justice to wash away injustice.  God wants justice to soak in and nourish our relationships with one another.  Like a never-ending river, God wants justice to flow day and night.  

     How often is my justice intermittent?  I support a good cause and figure I'm done for the month?  Each time I ignore or turn my back on injustice, I am putting a dam in the flowing waters of God at work.  Lord, help me to be an ever-flowing stream of justice in my world.   

Yesterday in church I penned a short prayer to close my daily writings.  

      Today, Lord, may I live the Light. May I walk the words,

                 May I BE what I write.  Amen. 

Tuesday, January 14

How Do I Make It Right?  Tracy Young

God Loves Justice: Questions and Thoughts......

1.  What are three words that come to mind when I think of justice?

      Fairness.  Equality.   Hard. (unattainable?)

2.  What is the typical OT pattern of justice?

      Seems to be that the people of Israel get in trouble, God bails them out, they are thankful, and then forget and treat others as they were being treated.  God gets angry, the people of Israel get in trouble, and it starts all over again.  

3.  "God expects us to share his concern for those at the bottom of the barrel - and to do something about it." (TY - p. 25)

4.  What's going on in Baker City or our country that makes me want to say, 'ENOUGH'!  The world?

Perhaps I need to look around my own community more for violent injustices, but the situation in the Middle East comes to mind obviously - the occupations, the violence, the unfairness.  North Korean violations of human rights, corrupt governments in Africa.  

5.  Looking back, are there times in my life when God has used me in an unexpected way?  What were the results?  My work in Habitat for Humanity has been unexpected.  I didn't expect to enjoy it so much, to want to learn new skills so much.  I sensed God's presence when working side by side with homeowners.  

6.  What changes could I make to begin to reflect God's concerns more in my life outside of worship?  Awareness of local needs.  

7.  Does God's mercy extend to the unlovable, those on the margins of society who seem to want no contact?  What does this mean to me?  God loves everyone, even when they deny God's existence.  People withdraw to avoid being hurt over and over.  Reach out.  

8.  What sort of dams exist in the river of justice locally and what can I do to open the gates?  It seems the biggest dam is indifference and ignorance.  Luke is gaining invaluable first hand knowledge of the situation in Palestine.  We can't be ignorant much longer.  

ACTION:  Do some research.   If ignorance is a dam, unblock the waters!  What are some organizations that could use my help?  Where are there situations of blatant injustice that I can address?   Be specific and take small steps, but sure steps.  PRAY.  For the sick and weak, the lost and lonely, the widow and orphan, the oppressed, the inprisoned.  Pray for the 'least of these' and pray for my own open heart to go into action.