Month: November 2021

Luke chapter 18 begins with the parable of the persistent widow… or we might call it the parable of the unjust judge… depending on your point of view. A widow oppressed by an adversary goes to court and petitions the judge persistently for justice, but the judge keeps putting her off. Finally, he says he will “see that she gets justice” just to get her off his back. And Jesus uses this parable to teach… what?

That we should always pray and not give up

“And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’ ”  Luke 18.6-8

Two things: One, God has promised justice for the oppressed. It doesn’t always come when we want it to, but He promised it would come.  Waiting for God’s justice to come has been a characteristic of an oppressed people… Witness the Hebrew slaves of the Old Testament, the Jews of the Holocaust, the suffering of the American Indian and immigrants at our borders, and the fate of enslaved Africans and their descendants. It seems like waiting for God’s justice is a necessary prerequisite to the spirituality of the oppressed. Which, as my enslaved ancestors demonstrated, is a more authentic spirituality than that exhibited by oppressors.

But this doesn’t sit well with those of us who are living through oppression.  We want justice and we want it now.  Which brings me to my second point.

Jesus says God will bring justice and He will bring it quickly.  But it just doesn’t seem to come quickly enough to satisfy us here on earth. True and lasting justice requires faith.  Not faith in society, or systems, the goodness of humankind or even our individual selves, but faith in God.  It is only this faith that helps me keep going after experiencing moments like the Rittenhouse verdict.  It reminds me that I can’t expect fairness in this world.  I’ve got to look somewhere else for justice.

God cares about the injustice we suffer now and motivates us to work against it, but He will not reach down and fix things… that is our responsibility.  God has a long game goal… the redemption of all creation.  Many of us feel like if we can get that one guilty verdict, that one acknowledgement of injustice done, then we’ll have turned a corner and things will get better. Well… still waiting.  We have to live for something more.  I felt vindicated when the men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty… but does this herald a change in our society towards racist attitudes and unjust systems? I can’t afford to think that way, because the next “thing” is around the corner.

Jesus goes to the crux of the matter: “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”  How do we live life every day dealing with oppression, injustice, fear, and hate?  I guess I feel like I have to trust God and do justly, as he requires (Micah 6.8).  Yes, we hunger and thirst for justice, but we need His grace.

So, we should not give up.  As Christians we are to seek justice, but never lose sight of who we serve and the goal of our justice seeking. We should not give up praying for justice, nor working for it… for Justice will surely come.

“…and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God, and heal the sick.” Luke 9.2

This is our goal in ministry here.  We respond to Christ’s call to proclaim the kingdom of God by lifting up the name of Jesus, who has declared that, if he is lifted up, he will draw all people to himself (Jn 12.32).

We encounter “the sick” and seek to heal them… people who are sick in heart and sick in spirit.  The violence, the stress, the crime… human trafficking, drugs and gangs… social injustice… the struggle to survive these things is real.  In revealing God to the world Jesus sent his disciples out to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal the sick.  People came from all over the country to be healed by Jesus, and then his by disciples.  And they heard the good news preached. 

We distribute healing in many ways: addressing felt and basic needs, advocacy, counseling and prayer, but the main way God works in this ministry is by befriending people. The impact of relationship on a young person’s life cannot be overly esteemed.

Last week I drove by a construction site here in the neighborhood and someone hollered “Chris, Chris!” I couldn’t see who it was but I waved anyway.  After completing my errand, I came back to see who it was.  It was Junior, a child we befriended thirty years ago. He was active in our ministry as a child, but we’d lost touch as he became an adult. He wanted to tell me about how well he was doing, how God had blessed him and his family, and how much influence we had had on his life.

Jesus gave his disciples the power to heal the sick in order to draw them near to the kingdom of God.  The Lord allows us to cultivate life lasting relationships with young people for the same reason.  I see Junior in the eyes of a young boy I spent time with this week playing basketball who was so obviously thrilled to spend some time with me… he was so starved for attention from a positive black man.  Little things can have a huge impact; an impact of which we may never be aware. God uses that stuff! 

I see Junior in the face of the young man who we’ve known since he was a child who diligently worked hard to be able to go to college and make something of himself despite the long odds of growing up black and male in north Minneapolis.  He writes in his college application essay of how positive influences like ours helped keep him out of the streets. We proclaim the gospel at every opportunity… at church, basketball practice and games, camps, visits, etc.  We comfort the grieving and sad, we encourage the desperate and hopeless, we befriend the lonely and alone… we lift up Jesus at every turn.  Through friendship and presence, through relationship and longevity, and through genuineness and openness.  And we see the kingdom of God arising around us in this place, growing and flourishing.