Justice and Jesus -- An Anglican Approach

At tomorrow's Adult Christian Formation session (9 - 9:50 am in Schuyler Hall), I'll be leading us through a conversation on "Justice and Jesus." As Anglicans, we have a particular way of "doing theology" that places authority first in scripture then in tradition (which, as Jaroslav Pelikan notes is "the living faith of the dead not the dead faith of the living!") and in reason (our own thought, conversation and lots of room for the Holy Spirit). I hope you can be there, but if you can't (or in preparation for being there) ... here are our guiding prayers, vows, scriptures and wisdom from tradition ... as well as the questions we will be grappling with (that's the reason piece).

Go ahead and start the conversation in the comments section! All thoughts welcome!

Guiding Prayer
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Guiding Vows
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
I will with God’s help.
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
I will with God’s help.

Guiding Scriptures
Matthew 6:25-33
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Questions for discussion (reason)
*What is God’s righteousness? How does it differ from self-righteousness?

*What is the choice that is being presented to us in this reading?



2 Corinthians 5:16-21
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Questions for discussion (reason)
*What is the mission of the church?
*Does this change our understanding of what God’s righteousness is? If so, how?

Guiding Wisdom (Tradition)
“If I could remove one word from our language it would be the word justice. Because when we say ‘justice,’ our necks stiffen and our ears close.” – Esther Mombo

“The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?” – Dorothy Day

“My experience has shown me that we win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.” - Mohandas K. Gandhi

“The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue...

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."” – the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from Letter From a Birmingham Jail.

“I’ll never forget my first day at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa. A political rally had been called and canceled by the government, so Archbishop Tutu said, "Okay, we’re just going to have church then." And church he had. They gathered together in that Cathedral and the police were massing by the hundreds on the outside and they were there to intimidate, to threaten, to try and frighten all the worshipers. I will testify, being on the inside, that I was scared. You could feel the tension in that place. The police were so bold and arrogant they even came into that Cathedral and stood along the walls. They were writing down and tape recording every thing that Archbishop Tutu said. But he stood there to preach. And he stood up, a little man with long, flowing robes, and he said, "This system of apartheid cannot endure because it is evil." That’s a wonderful thing to say, but very few people on the planet believed that statement at that point in time. But I could tell that he believed it. Then he pointed his finger at those police standing along the walls of his sanctuary and said, "You are powerful. You are very powerful, but you are not gods and I serve a God who cannot be mocked." Then he flashed that wonderful Desmond Tutu smile and said, "So, since you’ve already lost, since you’ve already lost, I invite you today to come and join the winning side" And at that the congregation erupted. They began dancing in the church. They danced out into the streets and the police moved back because they didn’t expect dancing worshipers.”- From a story about Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Questions for discussion (reason)
*What is the unique role of the church for justice today?
*Where does the Good News of the Kingdom of God meet the bad news of the injustice of the world?