SortaCrunchy

Who We Love and How We Live: A Community of Justice

As we move into week four of 40 Days of Community, we're focusing on what it means to be a community of justice.  I invited Amber Robinson, author of Mercy Rising: Simple Ways to Practice Justice and Compassion, to share some thoughts on what justice is and how we can seek to live justly.  In addition to taking the time to speak to us on the topic today, Amber has a special gift for some SortaCrunchy readers . . .

When it comes to hard things, I am a reforming coward. I will not see Hotel Rwanda, no matter how many friends insist. The one time I gave in to a similar movie (a decade ago) I found myself violently crying in the theater bathroom stalls and forced myself to walk back in long enough to retrieve my husband. I won’t watch video clips replaying tsunamis, earthquakes, or the like.

The irony is that I speak up for vulnerable children with Compassion International, help educate others to spot signs of trafficking in their own cities, and find peace in my backyard organic garden. Seems unlikely. When people have told me they themselves can’t be involved in justice issues –“It must be your thing”- I don’t believe them.  Anyone can walk justly. I have learned the secret that in the most unlikely of places there is hope, joy, light, and real community.

WHO NEEDS JUSTICE?

Who needs justice? They seem invisible because the voices of the marginalized are often silent. Take a look at this list. There are many groups of people that need our help here and overseas.

You probably already help in some of these areas. Do you donate to a local food pantry? Do you participate in special giving during holidays? Do you buy local produce or fair trade items? You are living justice every day. But there is so much work we still need to do.

WHY IS JUSTICE IMPORTANT?

What is the big deal after all?

When I hear my friend Jo’s name, her face comes to my mind. What rushes into my spirit at lightning speed are her attributes: fun, joyful, and thoughtful. In fact it is not easy to separate those inner qualities from my perception of her.

In the same way God has many attributes. God often seems far away because I cannot see his face, but I can know his attributes: holiness, love, mercy, grace, and truth. Sometimes it’s hard to remember to put justice in that list.

We speak with our lips what’s on our hearts. Jo speaks most about family, friends, spiritual topics, and photography. Anyone who is around her knows that these things are important to her. When God speaks to us through his word, it seems fair to say that he speaks about what matters to him.

How many times in scripture do you think justice issues are mentioned?

Ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times? Tony Hall, former U.S. Ambassador for humanitarian issues, says there are over 2,500 verses in the Bible on justice issues!

Not only is justice a part of God’s character, it is a central issue repeated over 2,500 times. If justice is a key attribute of the God we serve, it needs to be a key attribute of his servants. Is it rare to hear these issues spoken about in mainstream Christian circles?  In everyday conversations with friends and family? Why is that?  Maybe it’s the connotation of the word “justice.” Sometimes when I say “justice” people hear “fanatical socialism.” Many people probably think of “social justice” in this context.

SOCIAL JUSTICE OR KINGDOM JUSTICE?

What is social justice? Social justice is “the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society.”(Websters New Millennium Dictionary of English) Others have told me social justice brings up images of government-run programs such as unemployment, welfare, and social security. I’m interested in a different society, a different kingdom. An upside-down kingdom. Where families and neighborhoods and faith groups do small things to enact change.

Society says to fight and claw your way to the top.

Kingdom justice says “The last shall be first.”

Society says to take care of yourself and your family first. If you have anything left, you can give that away.

Kingdom justice seeks first God’s agenda and then trusts that all the other stuff will work out.

Society glorifies the wealthy, the brilliant, the famous, the well-bred. Use those connections to win.

Kingdom justice humbles itself to aid those who are oppressed.

Social justice follows the whims of a fickle crowd.

Kingdom justice is an age-old wisdom, never changing, ever-constant, until one day when the Author of Justice returns and every wrong will be righted.

In my justice journey I have met “important people” changing their world as the heads of major non-profit organizations. Many of them are my heroes. But my greatest inspiration includes women like Angelina who impacts childhood nutrition when she sends her breast milk overseas with IBMP. Stephanie who feeds the hungry and brings the world home when she plays FreeRice and Quest for Compassion with her kids. Amy who ends her role in the domestic slave trade when she checks out companies at Chain Store Reaction. And Sara who offers hope to a pregnant teen neighbor in the shape of a baby swing.

We don’t need to join a committee. We don’t need to leave our family and friends and do it on our own. It is messy-it hurts. We grow and cry and learn to love. Not for what we can get or give, but to walk through fear into life and joy.

Parts of this article are excerpted from Amber's book Mercy Rising .  Three SortaCrunchy readers will win an e-copy of Mercy Rising, thanks to Amber's generosity and thoughtfulness!  To be eligible to win, simply share your response to this question:

What are some ways you see people working toward justice in your community, and how have you/will you contribute to the movement of those seeking to work towards justice?

COMMENTS CLOSED: Winners of the e-book are commenters 7, 9, and 14 - Amy Sullivan, danielle, and and Tamara.  Thanks, everyone!

photo by Abi Skipp

Deep and Wide

Into this beautiful community, today I'm welcoming another voice - a guest post from Hyacynth from Undercover Mother:

It’s a rainy Sunday morning, and we’re splashing through puddles while trying to dodge fat drops of rain.

We’re late, per normal, which is seemingly part of life with two small boys.

As we rush into the church building, we quickly greet those standing in the foyer before hurriedly dropping off the kids in their Sunday School classrooms; we then scurry into the sanctuary, where we take our seats, two in a sea of hundreds of faces.

The service lures my soul into rest, fills me with passion for such a wonderful Maker.

But there’s a deep longing resounding in my heart after the service ends – one that desires to remain in communion with Him through being in communion with His people, be a part of the Body … because the body part I feel we most closely resemble these days are feet, quickly ushering us toward the kids’ classes and then out the front doors of the building, so as to drive two hungry, tired children home.

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Small talk has been flooding my conversations more pervasively during the past year.

I wonder how I’ve gotten sucked into constant stream of casual communication revolving around the weather or the rising price of {gas} {milk} {meat}.

How I’ve found myself only sharing the doing "good" and the "fine" and "all right" of life while brushing past others as we run through the doors of preschool pick up and Bible Study, both places I have to rush in and out of to make it on time to the other.

I often leave these places emptier than when I first entered -- scattering little pieces of my life into the vast expanse of the communities in which I wade.

Somehow, I've noticed my schedule has grown increasingly more crowded. And as good friends have moved away or become too busy for meeting, I’ve less and less been treading water with other women as we navigate the deep blues of motherhood and marriage, neighborhood mission fields and the hearts God has been shaping and molding inside our very chests.

And more and more, I’ve been wading in the shallow waters, clinging to the shoreline, anchored by busyness and by a deep fear of going out too deep into the swell of another’s heart again.

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Jesus lived his life rooted deeply in communion.

Communion with God.

And communion with people.

He was often surrounded by faces, thousands even, during His ministry.

And He knew each by name.

It amazes me how he had such a way of knowing each person personally, how He knew what each heart needed.

He was immersed in community while here on Earth, wading in the wide waters, traveling from town to town, synagogue to synagogue, home to home.

But he didn’t just stop and pace back and forth in the width of the tides.

He honed 77 hearts, and He sent them out to proclaim the good news.

He handpicked 12 disciples, men He would teach, really listen to and break bread with daily.

He wove his heartstrings into those of three then, even inviting them into His anguish and asking them to take His deepest requests to the feet of the Father.

And then there was one – the disciple whom Jesus loved, perhaps His best friend.

I sift through the layers, peeling them back and examining my life against His, viewing Jesus’ life
within the lens of community.

God in the flesh, the maker and creator of the very human heart beating in my chest, sought to dive into the depths of other people’s souls and allowed His friends to swim in His own.

And He didn’t have to – He could have found completion within the triune of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I ask myself why. Why then did He do it? Why did He dive into the murky depths of his friends’ hearts, opening Himself to be wounded by their weaknesses {the Garden of Gethsemane} and their wayward spirits {Peter’s denial, Judas’ betrayal}?

To minister to their hearts, seems to be the text book answer.

But digging deeper, we must see there’s more to the story.

He did it to show us how to walk with each other, how to commune with each other, how to live our lives so that our stories interweave and build chapters within his epic story.

Those numbers – the 5,000, the 77, the 12, the three, the one – aren’t given to us as random detail.  Those numbers symbolize much more.

The Church. A church. A small group. A circle of confidants. A soul-deep friendship.

We were made for community.

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Lately, all I’ve been doing is showing up.

Granted, presence is a vital part of community.

But.

I’ve been learning that showing up means more than just being physically present – sitting in the pews of church services or filling a chair in a Bible study.

Showing up means being there mentally and emotionally, really entering into these moments when we’re surrounded by the other souls who are walking the hallways of our churches or the paths at the park or settling in the seats at social functions.

I’m learning to take Jesus’ ways with people to heart – the really listening, the really personalizing, the really seeing people where they are and where He would have them go.

In those realizations, I’ve had to wrestle with unhitching myself from the anchors of busyness and fear, the very things that are keeping me bound to wading in the shallow waters of community within a circle or small group.

And I keep coming back to one thing: I must clothe myself with Jesus before venturing into those deeper waters.

It’s only when He is the encompassing life jacket that I can unhook myself from the other ties and safely swim in the uncertain waves, the murky blues and the immeasurable depths of another’s heart.

And, because of such, He means for us to go deep as well as wide.

Read more from Hyacynth at Undercover Mother: A long-term assignment in the jungle of motherhood. 

photo credit: Alita Jewels Treasures

 

40 Days of Community: Weekly Fellowship (and more thoughts on Green Like God)

Lord, mold us and form us into the kind of people you want us to be. Be patient with us when we fall short of what love demands of us. And give us patience with ourselves. Catch us in the arms of your grace. Amen.

That prayer is from today's Morning Prayer in the Common Prayer reading.  It spoke directly to my heart today as I am all too aware of how I fall short of what love demands of me and my need to be caught up in the arms of grace.

The arms of His grace, and the arms of your grace as well.

As I wrote last week, I really didn't know when I began this journey through Lent with a focus on community how mighty and unstoppable the pull to community would become in my life.  It's not unlike a vortex that keeps pulling me in, away from my computer, and out out out into places my feet take me.

I've only been able to publish about 25% of what I had planned and hoped to share so far in this 40 Day journey.  And I know that none of you are waiting with baited breath for a new post to pop up, but I still feel bad that this isn't playing out the way I had envisioned.  In the meantime, other visions are moving from the world of specter to flesh, and much is still in the process of taking shape.

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to share some thoughts from Jonathan Merritt's Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet, a book which truly affirmed and inspired my belief in and commitment to creation care.

I love the approach Merritt takes in this book.  He begins by telling of his unlikely conversion from apathy and skepticism about all things environmental to having a fresh and fervent understanding of a Christian's view on creation.  He tells of the words of a theology professor, a statement that started the ball rolling for him:

There are two forms of divine revelation: the special revelation in Scripture that is able to lead us to salvation and the general revelation we receive through nature.  Both are from God . . . So when we destroy creation, which is God's revelation, it's similar to tearing a page out of the Bible. (-- Dr. John Hammett, as quote by Merritt, page 2)

That led to an epiphany of sorts that put Merritt's feet on the path of discovering more about what God has to say about creation and how we are to respond to His commands regarding creation.

After examining creation itself, Merritt spends time uncovering what is meant in the Hebrew word choice and connotation of God's command for those of us who have dominion over the earth.  When we are told to "work" and "take care of" this planet, the idea is not to doing something merely for ourselves (as humans), but out of loving stewardship of what has been given to us by the Creator.  There is this meaning behind the words that connects stewardship to servanthood:

Understanding dominion as stewardship of God's handiwork rather than man-centered domination is consistent with the original language.  In the Hebrew, the words work and take care of have much deeper significance, meaning to work in ministry or do something for God, to care for diligently in obedience.  Some biblical scholars even translate this verse to read "to worship and obey." (p 48)

Later in the book, he breaks down popular objections to conservationism and creation care.  Many of these are wrapped up in politics, and if this is an argument you bump up against a lot, I highly recommend checking out his response in this realm. 

I loved the section where he takes on the "The World Is Going To End Anyway" objection.  In this section, he quotes N.T. Wright, and I have to say that to gain a full, complete understanding of what the Bible really teaches about the fate of God's creation (all of it), you MUST read Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. 

Merritt equates this kind of thinking to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, since eventually we are all going to die anyway.  Regardless of your views on what happens to us after death, most Christians recoil at such reckless care of the body because many of us believe what the Apostle Paul wrote about our bodies being temples of the Holy Spirit.  And yet we treat the earth with reckless abandon, even while knowing that God reveals Himself to everyone and everything through His creation!

Merritt writes: "Future knowledge doesn't change our present obligations" and "The knowledge of a returning Master does not free us from our earthly obligations, it calls us to them."

In the latter part of the book, he brings the cause of creation care down into the major issues, and then shows how a life dedicated to responsible living ultimately ends up being a life committed to social justice and the care and concern for God's people.  If you have even a hint of leaning toward creation care, I know you will love this book.  Even better - if you are apathetic or resistant towards creation care, I dare you not to find solid, practical inspiration in its pages.

* * * * *
Finally, I wanted to share some links related to our 40 Days of Community:

Directly related to the idea of creation care connected to community - Carol Howard Merritt's How Your Church Can Support Local Food Movements is a fantastic and practical read, and I think Katie of Imperfect People is putting all of this into action through community gardening.

I LOVE what Nicole wrote at Gidget Goes Home about Intentional Community.  YES YES YES.

And finally, everything I've ever wanted to say, hoped to convey about the tremendous power of daily prayer, especially from the Common Prayer book, Nish (The Outdoor Wife) said it all so much more beautifully and brilliantly than I ever could: The pulse of prayer.

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We had to cancel our meal plans again this week because of sickness (this time it was Kyle who was under the weather - a rarity, indeed).  Daily prayers and the encouragement of the #40DayCommunity are blessing my heart out.

I would love to hear from you - reflections on the week behind, hopes for the week to come . . .

 photo courtesy of Christian Revival Network