June 21 The Faith Roots of Social Justice

Amos 5:23-24 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.

I just don't think God is into accidents or coincidences. In fact, I think He is pretty intentional in what He does and allows into our lives. My church has been doing a series about the "hole in our gospel." In fact there is a book by that title, and it is described in this way at Christianbook.com:

More than half the earth's population can't find work, feed their families, or secure adequate housing. How can we better care for the neighbor next door---or the woman across the planet? In The Hole in Our Gospel, Stearns explores Jesus' call to love our neighbors and shows you how to use your time, talents, and money to heal a broken world. The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) recently announced The Hole in Our Gospel as winner o f both the Christian Life Category Award and the 2010 Christian Book of the Year.

In the last three weeks, in my church, we have been challenged by what we are doing in relationship to the hurting in this world - whether victims of terrorism, abuse, or poverty. The Bible does say in James2: 16-18" and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. 18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will how you my faith by my works.”

Then I find this entry in My Daily Bible Devotional - and especially this line: Where religious ritual is void of meaning and commitment, social injustice is bound to follow....Where there is genuine worship, the relationship with God that it engenders compels a greater responsibility toward our fellow man.

And finally, I write for Catapult - an online journal, and the next assignment, due July 1 is a challenge to consider the place of comfort in our lives...and the relationship between comfort and justice.... All of that to get back to my first line - God is intentional and I am trying to figure out what my response to all of this should be.