Day 3: Guiding Texts

Biblical Texts: Amos 5:10-15, 21-24 and Micah 6:6-8

This morning I was reading a book on Plato. One of the thing I always found to be both interesting and confusing about Plato is his discussions on justice; he was very keen on promoting justice, but his idea of what justice is throws the whole thing for a loop! You see, Plato sees justice as something that is done to keep order. In other words, it's used to keep upset people from speaking their mind, dominating the lower classes, etc. Michael Foucault's work stresses the fact that this is still the case, even though we hide it better and describe certain works of power as something other than ways of abusing and punishing the poor (go to a jail and find out how many people there were born poor, then see if you see any correllation).

So when you read the Amos and Micah texts, it's hard to remember that they are coming at the issue of justice from a YHWH standpoint. What is justice according to YHWH? To care for the marginalized, of course. And the poor are right at the head of the line, especially considering that at this time widows, orphans and the sick would all also be poor. So God calls his people to stop being religious and start caring for the poor. It's religion that God finds to be perfect, if you want to look to James for help.

What if a "church" gathered every Sunday morning for a half hour to pray and listen to scripture, and then went out into the community to care for the marginalized of the area?

What if we stopped having so many Bible studies and started to actually live differently?

What if rich Christians (which is most of us in my book) started giving and living lives of absolute simplicity?

Secondary Text #1: Cesar Chavez

What do we want the Church to do? We don't ask for more cathedrals. We don't ask for bigger churches of fine gifts. We ask for its presence with us, beside us, as Christ among us. We ask the Church to sacrifice with the people for social change, for justice, and for love of brother. We don't ask for words. We ask for deeds. We don't ask for paternalism. We ask for servanthood.

Secondary Text #2: Elie Wiesel

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

Peace,
Matt