MDUMC Justice Charter–Part 2 →

What then will we do?

Having considered the Charter’s declaration of beliefs, we now examine the possibilities of living into our call to do justice.

Therefore, we will:

• Seek ways to do justice through our church programs and ministries, prayerfully asking God’s guidance in helping us to recognize systemic structures of injustice and granting courage to respond;
• Step with love into the gap to speak for those who have no voice;
• Work through our ministries to remove barriers and social conditions that perpetuate injustice, seeking to create an environment where all may live in fullness and wholeness;
• Pledge to continue to be in respectful conversation with those whom we differ, and to explore the sources of our differences with the goal of reconciliation;
• Open our hearts and minds as we seek to love all persons with kindness and agape love;
• Strive to walk humbly with our God, prayerfully asking the Holy Spirit to guide us;
• Honor our sacred worth of all persons as we continue to seek the mind of Christ and to do the will of God in all things.

The call of the Charter  calls us to look at ourselves, our prejudices, our timidity, and our shortcomings.  The Charter calls us to call upon God for strength and guidance, to remove the scales from our eyes and then to have the courage to do justice.  In the context of the Charter doing justice is not a singular action.  We are called to be the community of the faithful, to trust one another to not just to learn and study, but to then take action with other believers to bring about justice.  Justice is not just about finding what is wrong with the world, but is also about finding solutions and then taking action to alleviate those injustices.  It is not about coming up with a liberal or conservative agenda.  It’s about coming up with Christian solutions that are based on our understanding of our Christian principles.  It’s recognizing that solutions to injustice are complex and that there are no easy answers.  At every step we are called to ask, “what is the roll of the Church in this issue and more importantly, what is God’s will.”

How can we solve the issue of poverty if we do not offer the love of Jesus Christ to them, get to know them personally, build relationships and invite them into our congregations.  We know that many in our culture have no spiritual connections and are often lost in the complexities of life. And what does it say to persons when we are not willing to be inclusive and offer full participation in the life of the church through the covenant of marriage and ministerial ordination.  And does the situation ever arise when it is time for brothers and sisters in Christ to decide to divorce one another when the disagreements on justice are too divisive, thereby limiting the body’s ability to effectively address other issues of justice.

Issues of justice have elements of relationally.  It is therefore important to build relationships with those persons in power whether it be elected or appointed officials, business groups, or civic groups.  These persons and organizations are often the groups that hold power over those who are marginalized.  And they often are reluctant to relinquish their power whether it is a result of their own conviction or that they are merely the puppet of others.  Justice cannot always be achieved in an atmosphere of harmony.  Throughout history we have seen that justice has a price for those who advocate for those who are oppressed.  But it can always be done in an atmosphere of love.  Love is power and sometimes can be contentious.

God calls us to do justice and we believe that God’s will towards justice will prevail.  And we must remember that justice will prevail in God’s time, not ours.  But I believe that it will not occur at all until the faithful join in the struggle and are willing to pay the price.

One last thought.  When someone says something so outrageous concerning justice issues that it catches you off guard and you know you should say something, but you don’t know what, says this, “I don’t agree.   That goes against my Christian convictions.”

Epilogue

For Courage to Do Justice

Lord open my eyes that I may see the needs of others;

Open my ears that I may hear their cries;

Open my heart so that they need not be without succor;

Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong,

Not afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.

Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,

And use me to bring them to those places.

And so open my eyes and my ears

That I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee.

Amen*

*The United Methodist Hymnal #456

As always I encourage your comments and hope that you will develop conversations and actions in your classes, bible studies and with friends on what God is calling us to do in the area of justice.  In the next few months  our  TMO (The Metropolitan Organization) will be offering “pressures on families” to find leaders interested in issues of justice and the issues affecting families in our community.  We will also be discussing how the Justice Charter informs and impacts “pressures on families”.

MDUMC Justice Charter–Part 1 →

A Short Exposition

In 2011, after over six months of study, prayer and discernment, the board of Stewards at  Memorial Drive United Methodist Church approved the Justice Charter which was our statement of how we would respond as a congregation to Micah 6:8 which states, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and walk humbly with the Lord.  Here are the affirmations of justice:

Because we believe:

• All persons are created in the image of God, with sacred worth and equal value in the sight of God;  
  
• All are blessed with spiritual gifts that differ according to God’s grace;  
  
• Social conditions exist that prevent some from exercising their gifts and living in wholeness, and where allowed to persist, these conditions perpetuate poverty and create systemic structures of injustice;
• Christ’s call to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves consequently requires us to seek justice;
• As disciples of Christ, we are further called to serve as reconcilers of conflict and disparity;
• Those who have gone before us have provided clear biblical and historical guidance and a rich tradition of advocacy for those who have no voice;
• Wishing for justice is not enough–scripture requires that we do  justice.  We are called to respond–to take action.

We all know that loving mercy and kindness is easier than doing justice.  With mercy we can study about justice issues, write a check or do an hour or so volunteering sorting clothes and feel good about ourselves.  On the other hand, justice kicks us in the gut. Justice tells us that as long as there are hungry people, people who cannot make their own way, or are oppressed we are falling short of what Christ called us to do.  It’s not that we’re bad people or that we don’t care.  And God still shines God’s grace on us.  More often than not it’s that we feel so overwhelmed by the need.  Even with our best intentions,  we know that we can’t change the world or do away with poverty or hatred or all the other afflictions in the world so we placate our conscience with our modest efforts and hope that what we do, will make a difference.  We may even appease our conscience with reasons why justice efforts won’t work.  We can blame governments, the rich, big business or the afflicted themselves.  Our attitude then becomes, I can’t solve the problem so I either do nothing or only the minimum.    I’ve even heard that in the past  that the church took care of hunger and poverty in our communities and that then at some point the government took over that responsibility.  Finding reasons for injustice and the result of our unintentional consequences is easy since it absolves us from responsibility to do justice.  The result of all this is that, if we even think about it, we tell ourselves that the problems are insoluble.  Is that all there is?  Or is that our shadow side speaking?  God gives us the freedom to respond or not to respond with justice.  But, I believe that God weeps when God sees how we treat one another.  So, can we get out of this quagmire?

Here is what our Charter says:   

Justice is the dynamic concept calling God’s people to work toward the opportunity for equality and fairness or all.

Let’s look at Part 2 to see what we can do.