Typically in my late night rantings and ravings I am wrestling with ghosts. I am struggling with theologies and philosophies, debating Kant and Plato. Struggling to make sense of inherent rights and bestowed worth, to make sense of the human condition and the problem of evil. I make no effort to disguise that I understand these things from a Christian perspective and believe that my faith informs my worldview. However, I also try to argue in a way that leaves room for debate. If you don’t believe in the same things I do, I don’t want my orthodoxy to prevent our being in dialogue and struggling together through this thing called life in community. But tonight I find myself in a difficult situation.

In recent days, Glenn Beck has drawn press for calling Americans to leave their church if their pastor makes any mention of social or economic justice. Even further he declared social justice to be a perversion of the gospel. I won’t go into the reasons why because that is a pointless debate. I will say this. I wish I had Glenn Beck’s faith. I wish I believed in the Bible and Jesus he believes in. Because that would sure be a lot easier than believing the Jesus I find in the Bible. The Jesus I know has called me to be an advocate for the poor (Matt. 25:45). The Jesus I know came to preach good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed (Luke 4:16). The Jesus I know declares the poor are blessed and are the true inheritors of the Kingdom of God (Luke 6:20). The Jesus I know reminds me that the things of this world are fleeting and can be taken from me as easily as they came, but that I belong in body and soul to God alone and no earthly power can take me from Him (Matt. 22:21). The Jesus I know has called me, above all else, to love God with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength, all my mind, and to love my neighbor as I love myself (Luke 10:27). The Jesus I know has given us a model for how to do these things together in community (Acts 2:42-47). And the Jesus I know makes no excuses about how hard it will be to do these things (Mark 8:34-35). The Biblical narrative of justice begins in the Prophets and continues through the Gospels and the Epistles (Isaiah, Amos, Micah, Matthew, Luke, Philemon, & James). Indeed it is difficult to read the Bible and NOT see justice as a primary concern of God. I wish I was called to an easier faith.

I wish.

I wish.

I wish.

But I am here today not because of what I wish, but because of what I believe. I am here today because I believe that at the beginning of time God spoke my name and had a plan for me. I believe that God has called me, a broken and fallen man, to work for the restoration of His Kingdom until that day when it is completed in the return of His Son Jesus Christ. I am here today to say that I cannot stop calling for justice for the poor and oppressed and I will not be silent because that is what the powers of this world want, I am not theirs to command. I am here today to call for the restoration of relationships, for compassion and mercy, for peace and justice. I am here today to be a voice for healing and comfort. I am not calling for these things now because my voice is more eloquent than others, nor am I saying that I am doing these things better than anyone else. I struggle with vanity and conceit, with lust and greed, with selfishness and cynicism. I am here today to do these things because to choose not to, to walk away from these things to which I have been called is to walk away from my God. And in a world where there is so much pain and suffering, so much hate and injustice, I cannot turn my back on the One who is working through love to restore justice.

Filed under: life by Jonathan