The Kingdom God:
Social Justice For Humanity
Joshua “Cory” Standridge
Biblical Perspectives of Social Justice
Dr. Benefiel
November 30th 2010
Introduction
Social Justice Within the Church or Faith Community
Christ as the Head and Example of Leadership for the Church
Power Dynamics and Oppression
Christ’s Response to Oppression
Treatment of Others
Sinners
Non-Believers
Eschatology
Premillennialism
Postmillennialism
The Call to Social Justice for the Individual
Displacement
Serving Justice and God’s Will
Call to Action
Social Justices Issues In Kansas City Missouri
Poverty
Education
Addictions
Crime
Housing
Racism
Other Oppressive Systems
Employment Opportunities
Compensation
Price of Goods
Legal Loan Sharks
Conclusion
Appendix of Scripture References
Bibliography
Introduction
Social justice is a call to right the wrongs of oppressive systems that have been established for various reasons. How we address social issues reflects our view of the telos of humanity. The Church, as the body of believers, must stand firm and strong as the voice against the suffering of both believers and non-believers. Throughout history the Church has been on the front line in the fight against oppression partly because of its eschatological views. As our personal views change, so to do those of the church. In no way can one separate the Church (community) and the Individual. We are a part of the Community, but we also have a personal relationship with God. Through that relationship we must grow to be more Christ-like, seeking his will through prayer. In serving justice our actions make our prayers visible to the community. The city of Kansas City, Missouri is filled with diversity and with oppression of many sorts. Poverty and crime are only two of the major reasons there is suffering in Kansas City. The many oppressive systems in Kansas City destroy the hope of those who suffer. God calls believers to stand firm against oppressive forces by being the example we are to follow.
Luke 4:14-20 gives a clear explanation of Christ’s directive for all of humanity. If we are to live as Paul told the Philippians to in Philippians 2:5-11, we must also take upon ourselves Christ’s passion to proclaim the Good news to the poor and freedom for the prisoners; as well as his desire to serve the blind and to set the oppressed free. One cannot proclaim to be a follower of Christ and not make social justice, righting the wrongs of oppression, a priority.
Social Justice Within the Church or Faith Community
For some the church is the only form of defense they know against the established oppressive systems. Not all systems are oppressive, but those that are must be dismantled by the faithful followers of Christ. The oppressed oftentimes don’t have the strength or the willpower to stand up against the hardship that faces them for many different reasons. One of those reasons is “Power Dynamics.” “Power dynamics is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of the institutions and organizations accept that power is distributed unequally.”1 Often the powerful don’t realize they are oppressing others. According to Eric Law in his book, The Wolf Shall Lie with the Lamb, race is a very distinct way to recognize power dynamics. “Most whites believe that inequality can be countered by simply, physically including the powerless and the disadvantaged.”2 This is not true because even upon the inclusion in a group, some cultures are more silent or submissive. In the United States, for instance, the ability to express yourself well is a quality demanded in leadership roles. “Verbal ability is often confused with good leadership. Cultures that favor the individual over the collective tend to use an abundance of words to communication with each other. Silence is often interpreted as consent apathy, or inability to communicate.” 3
In some accounts of the presidential debate between Nixon and Kennedy, those who watched the debate on TV said that Kennedy won the debate. But others, who only heard it on the radio, would have said that Nixon won. The taller and more charismatic a person is, our culture would suggest, the better the leader will be. Appearance is often mistaken for a leadership quality. Publicized television and the media frenzy that our society has been taken ahold by is controlling our view of power. Since 1928 the taller of the presidential candidates has won in the election 15 times. The shorter has won 4 times, two of which were George Bush Jr. and twice the candidates were the same height.4 US citizens have fallen privy to the belief that the more eloquent and taller candidate is more amply prepared to lead this country. The beliefs or politics often take the back burner. Americans have lost track of what are important characteristics for a leader. The Church must step in and correct the wrongs that have lead us astray.
Eric Law would suggest that we model ourselves off of Christ. “Salvation for the powerful comes from the decision to give-up power and take up the cross. The gospel, however, never asks the powerless to choose the cross, because the powerless, by their condition of powerlessness, are already on the cross.”5 “You do not have to choose the cross when you are already on it. Instead, we should be teaching the blessedness of the empty tomb, the resurrection, and the Easter celebration.”6 There is hope and victory in the power of the cross and those who are oppressed need to know about it, and grab ahold of it as their own. The emphasis is on the resurrection and not on the suffering, because there is so much suffering in their life already.7 The powerful take up the cross allowing themselves to sacrifice the power they have so that the suffering of the oppressed will be eased. The powerless find solace in the joy of knowing that they have defeated death. No matter what may happen to them they will one day find joy in being with Jesus, the one who proclaims the good news to the poor and freedom for the prisoners, he serves the blind and sets the oppressed free (Luke 4:18).
In their suffering the oppressed sometimes will become martyrs for a cause. “The church does not seek martyrdom; to do so would be to invite oppressors to sin… Martyrdom is never the goal, but the church knows that as the body of Christ it will inevitably come into conflict with the disciplines of the principalities and powers.”8 The power regime that oppresses certain people uses methods of suffering to establish its own need. William Cavanaugh explains the oppressive power of a regime over a person who is being tortured:
“The future becomes a possession of the regime above all through the indefinite nature of the imprisonment. The prisoner’s life stops at arrest; if and when it will begin again is entirely out of the prisoners hands. For them, time instead becomes a weapon against them. Time cannot move forward because there is no endpoint for the time to approach. The prisoner is never nearer to release. Time runs in circles, always dumbing the prisoner back in the anguish of the present. The regime has an eternity in which to torment the prisoner; they posses quite literally all the time in the world.”9
Even when an oppressive regime is not an established form of government or not using physical torture as a method of control, Cavanaugh’s concept still has truth. One example is the suffering that some high school students go through. For some, the “torture” they experience is truly time-stopping. Some of them may see difficult times at home where “time runs circles” when there is no hope for change, and time seems to not matter. One way that many teenagers feel they can regain control, away from the oppressive regime, one last and final time in their life is to commit suicide. Rather than find hope in the redemption of new life, they find hope in the redemption of being free from the oppression any way they think possible. This is where the faith community must stand as a light in a dark world. The church must show the oppressed the eschatological imagination that, “although they may presume to take from the oppressed, Christ has vanquished the powers of Death once and for all.”10
How we treat others in the faith community is a prime example of our faith that Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins. Following Christ in His compassion does not mean searching for suffering as a goal in itself. Fellowship with Christ is not a commitment to suffer as much as possible, but a willingness to be obedient, fearlessly listening to God’s loving will for our lives, to which we are called.11“Jesus stresses in Matthew 7:21-22 that the test of true discipleship lies not in words but in actions.”12 Christians today are not surprised that Paul urged the Corinthians to excommunicate a church member living with his fathers wife. But we quietly overlook the fact that Paul, in the same paragraph, also urged them not to associate or ever eat meals with those who claim to be Christians but are guilty of greed.13 The church must stand up to the sin that happens among its believers in order to cleanse the body from within. 10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.14 15 If someone claims to be a believer and is not living a life that is in accordance with Scripture, it is the churches responsibility to correct the believer and offer them the chance to change, if they will not, then they must be removed form the body so that they will not bring any one else into their sin.
The church should also seek to stop the oppression of the non-believer, non member of the church, because it is what Christ would have us do. “Jeremy Bentham, an English moral philosopher and legal reformer, founded the doctrine of Utilitarianism. Its main idea is simply stated and intuitively appealing: The highest principle of morality is to maximize happiness, the overall balance of pleasure over pain.”16 What Bentham means by this, is that whatever makes the majority happy and causes the least amount of pain is what is morally right for humanity to seek. In an eschatologically Christian view, we should all agree with this moral principle. If we don’t spread the news of Christ there will be much suffering and little pleasure for the majority of people. The good news of Christ’s redemptive act is why the church seeks out the lost.
Historically the church was very involved in social matters. Prohibition was established by conservative Christians in governmental positions. In the postmillennial era Christians set out to change society and, in a way, bring about the second coming of Christ by making the world better. Ushering in changes into society, however only had negative effects of rebellion. Prohibition, for instance, was intended to rid society of the negative effects that alcohol had on the body, poverty, and on the attitudes of people who drank it. Instead, all it did was make it more of desire for people. It raised crime, and created an underground market for the consumption. Those who sought out to change society had their heart in the right place, but they did not act with wisdom and, most importantly, with love. Postmillennialism is still around, but it is falling to the wayside. The benefit of Postmillennialism was that social justice was of the utmost importance to making society better so that Christ would return. 1st Thessalonians 5:2-3 says, 2 For you know very well that the day of the LORD will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.17 This scripture verse is saying that the end will come when we know peace and safety.
On the flip side, Premillennialism is a view that Christ will return after the thousand years. Essentially, the world will get worse and worse and when it is at its very worst Christ will return. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 says, 1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.18 As Premillennialism grows in popularity, the desire to make the world a better place falls to the way side. Christians start to believe that any help they give might prolong the second coming of Christ. These Christians see the lapse in moral virtue of the word as a sign of the end times.
The Church must bind together as one body and forget about the theological perspectives of the end times, in order to do the work of Christ established in Luke 4:18, to proclaim the Good news to the poor and freedom for the prisoner, serve the blind and to set the oppressed free. “When we no longer experience ourselves as part of a caring, supporting, praying, community we loose faith.”19 Without a vital relationship with a community of believers, a relationship with Christ is not possible. With out a relationship with Christ, true compassion is not possible. “Compassion, then can never be separated from community. Compassion always reveals itself in community. Relationship with Christ is relationship with our brothers and sisters.”20 The Church must set out to serve and it takes many individuals for the body to be whole.
The Call of Social Justice for the Individual
What does Christianity require of its followers? Every religion has its “rules” or “demands.” Christianity is no different. In Philippians 2:5 Paul tells the church in Philippi to mimic Christ in all that they do. This is the same for the members of the Church today. We are Christians because we mimic Christ. Jesus had a gift for flipping the world upside down. Just when you thought you understood what was going down, he would put a spin on everything. Servant leadership, for instance, was a new concept. There is no reason that a kingly person would wash the feet of his court. But Jesus knew that by washing the feet of his followers they would be empowered to go out in to ministry. When people are empowered, great things happen. In Luke 4, Jesus gave clear direction of who we are to minister to. We are to proclaim the Good news to the poor and freedom for the prisoners; to serve the blind and to set the oppressed free. This was what Christ wanted of us.
The only way we can amply serve others is to displace ourselves. We must step out of our comfort zone and reach out to the suffering, no matter the level of suffering they are experiencing. Social justice is helping those who cannot help themselves. “If we find ourselves as powerful we must take on the spirituality of the cross and move toward being powerless. If we find ourselves as powerless, we must take on the spirituality of the resurrection and move toward being powerful.”21 The sacrificial love expressed on the cross is the same love that we must seek to give others. As an individual part of the body, there is no better way to serve Christ than to point those in suffering toward His restorative resurrection.
The mission of Christ is clear from the scripture in John. John 3:17-20 tells all that Christ came to save the world. Those who are saved will step out of the darkness that they have been living in, and will see the light. This light is the mission of Christ. This mission is the fulfillment of creation and the correction of the fall. By seeking to correct and fulfill we are seeking to do the will of Christ. Bringing those who are suffering into right relationship with the Father is our mission. The only way to do this is to make a home where the suffering is. As Henry Nowen says in his book (co-authored with two other people) Compassion:
“It (compassion) is not bending toward the under privileged from a privileged position; is is not reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy or pity for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On the contrary, compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is the most acute and building a home there.” 22
Displacement is setting out to find the oppressed and making them a part of your life. Not only are you to take them in, but more importantly you are to allow them to take you in. “We are pain avoiders and consider anyone who feels attracted to suffering abnormal, or at least very unusual.” 23 Displacement is the act of setting out to change the status quo in your life. Christ did not come so that all Christians would live comfortable lives. He upset the established, “comfortable” order. If Jesus came in to the world today, he would do more than turn over the tables in the temple. The Church has gone from seeking to serve others, to seeking to save – not others, but money.
Prosperity is not proof of God’s blessing. “It is a heresy, particularly common in rich nations to think that wealth and prosperity are always a sure sign of righteousness.”24 The prosperity gospel has seen many churches grow very large. These communities are so large that the sanctuary is a stadium. They come to hear about what God would have them do so that he will bless them. “According to Kant, the moral worth of an action consists not in the consequences that flow from it, but in the intention from which the act is done. Doing something because it’s right, not because it’s useful or convenient, confers moral worth on an action.”25 If a person helps someone who is suffering so that they might climb the social ladder, or see other benefits, rather than helping because they want to love as Christ did, then their actions have no moral worth. Giving because it is a tax write off has no moral worth. Seeking personal gain when helping others can actually cause more hurt in the kingdom than help. Many non-believers call Christians hypocrites, and rightly so.
Wealth is a large distraction for the kingdom. The Redemption and Lift theory26 by Donald McGavran, states that members of evangelicalism have seen a rise in social economic status because they have given up their pagan ways. Before they were believers the poverty in which they lived in was surrounded by addictive behaviors, namely sex, drugs, and alcohol. Upon the giving up of their pagan ways, they were able to better invest the money that would have been spent on addictions, Now they rise in class and are no longer a part of the poor. This prosperity is not necessarily a sign of God’s blessing. As they rise in SES (socioeconomic status) the once poor person now has many possessions. This “Redemption and Lift” has lead to a complacent and comfortable Christian who will avoid their past at all costs, for fear of the reminders of what one was and no longer is. “An abundance of possessions can easily lead us to forget that God is the source of all good. We begin to trust in ourselves and our wealth rather than in the almighty.”27 The abundance leads the evangelical astray. Now they have enough money to simply donate it to charities. They can help the poor with out having to be reminded of their hurt. We more or less assume that compassion is the natural response to human suffering,28 but another response can be fear. Feelings must be displaced. Compassion is not sadness or any feeling for that matter. Compassion is an action. “As long as religious people are well dressed, well fed, and well cared for, words about being in solidarity with the poor will remain pious words more likely to evoke good feelings than creative actions… In short as long as we avoid displacement, we will miss the compassionate life in which Christ calls us.”29
Social Justice issues in Kansas City
Like all social systems, there is no single fix to the injustices within a city. Kansas City has many faults, and many spectacles of beauty. One of the most difficult things that social justice must avoid doing, is focusing always on the negative. There is beauty and success in Kansas City. “There is one thing about Kansas City that no other city can have, we have the core downtown, we have the Liberty Memorial, we have the zoo, we have the Starlight Theater, we have the downtown infrastructure, and iconic buildings. That is a true down town and you can’t build that today.“30
One of the best ways to start diminishing the suffering of those in the urban core is to build an educational system that will offer redemption to those who seem to have no hope. Kansas City has many different school districts. Kansas City School district is one of few rare exceptions that allow charter schools within its district boundaries. These schools have seen drastic improvements in the recent past. There have been quite a few school buildings that have been closed down in the last few years, and those buildings are sitting vacant. The buildings are owned by the school district however and the city does not directly control the districts. Kansas City has been in talks with the school districts about how to properly use the facilities. One suggestion was to start opening them up for businesses to rent, or for community gardens and fish hatcheries to be put in the facilities. In Parsons, Kansas one school that was closed down was sold to a faith community and they began having worship in the facilities. A vacant school around Holmes and 80th would be a wonderful facility to see a Nazarene church build a community around.
Aside from the emptiness of the educational facilities, the students that are still attending school with in the community are in jeopardy of getting a degree from an unaccredited school. If Kansas City district looses its accreditation, the students that graduate from high school will have a difficult time getting into college. Many of the students don’t even care to graduate. They have lost hope. Keenan White attends a school in KCK school district. He says his classmates are gangsters and they don’t expect to go to college.31 Teens in high school in the urban core are required to attend school, but many have no desire to learn. One benefit of school would be for the students to learn more about health and cooking. If students would learn how to better care for themselves they would be less likely to get sick and to have medical bills.
It is difficult to find teachers who are willing to “make a home” in areas like these. One teacher, who will remain anonymous, told me that she has two students passing her math class. “We are required to teach material at such a speed that the students can’t keep up. Instead of the students learning a little, they learn nothing. Their grades drop and their hope is lost.”32 We as a church must step in and help to resurrect the school system, by making relationships with the teens and helping them to learn through other methods that the schools are not able to offer, such as tutoring. Many students in the urban core decide to drop out in order to get a job sooner. The city could require employers to only hire employees with a GED or a high school diploma if they are under 18 years of age.
Lack of education teams up with addictions to cause a exponential effect on the community in relation to the poverty rate. If a person makes minimum wage working a full-time job, they may take home about $800 a month after taxes. If they have an addiction to smoking or alcohol, their monthly budget can be cut by as much as $200, leaving only $600 a month to pay rent and buy food and clothing. Rent can be as much as $600 a month alone. In the urban core with Section 8 government housing, this worker could find rent much lower so that they could pay utilities and then buy food. Money would still be tight. Having no high school degree leaves a person with very little hope to gain a better life.
Addictions destroy lives. People can lose their jobs and their family because of an addiction. In an addiction, money goes toward the drug first, then what ever is left is used to pay other bills. The lack of hope mixed with addiction leads to a downward spiral. People take the drugs to avoid their life at first. Then the drug begins to grab onto them and it becomes a need for the body to avoid the pain of detoxing.
27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.33 If we are to be pure Christians we must make a home in hearts of those who live in rough, down-trodden places. Addictions tear up families and lead to more addictions within the family system. The only way to break the cycle is to separate the addiction from the system.
As the city becomes engulfed with uneducated addicts, crime begins to rise. People will do anything to get a fix. Theft and murder rise because of the wars that take place to keep the drugs on the street and the desire of the dealers to corner the market, because greed and a want for more money and greater wealth. Crime also destroys families. Those family systems begin to build a tolerance to crime. People in the urban core no longer think they are doing something wrong. When they get punished for a crime, they try to put the blame on others. In their mind the judicial system is the oppressive regime. That is why police are not welcome in some neighborhoods in the urban core. “The citizens (of the oppressed regime) become self disciplining which is far more effective than the use of brute force (by the regime).”34 The life of those in the urban core is oppressed by the systems in place of the urban core. They would rather shoot a person and kill them, than to call the police. Capital punishment with no jury places fear on the others who live in the community and creates a new regime hidden by the fear of the false regime (justice system).
The housing market builds into the circle of downtrodden neighborhoods and poor living conditions. Gentrification should be the last resort, but often times it is the easiest and first. Wealthy investors would much rather destroy the houses in a neighborhood, uprooting the families in that area to build new, expensive, houses. Even city government favors this method over correcting the poverty of the established family. Destroying the neighborhood and creating a new neighborhood with 200-300 thousand dollar homes, where there were 20-30 thousand dollar homes, creates a much larger tax base, typically demands less police presence, and gets rid of the problems the city faces. It does however push those problems to another area. “We can sit eight San Francisco’s inside the city limits of Kansas City with the same population.”35 With such a geographically large city, those in charge would rather fix the problem by moving the poor to a new area.
If a poor family is in a negative situation, often times it would be best to move them away from that situation, but there are no systems established to provide for a mass exodus that would benefit both the poor and the wealthy. Ideally, the city would build a new government housing complex with an established job search committee to help those who move find employment. They would also create new facilities that would help to give hope back to the families and a center for the community to learn and grow. Then, when an uprooted family moves, they can start new with the help of a community that wants them to have success. The uprooted area can then be developed and the poverty that was once there can also be corrected. If there are established home- owners who desire to remain in the same house, that should be made available with remodeling plans and funding, by the developer who stands to gain profit from the surrounding land. As the city grows it can then begin to take better care of itself and its poor with the newly created infrastructure. In this model neither the rich nor the poor lose out completely, it is truly a utilitarian plan, where all are served for the best and the most can be accomplished at the least cost.
“Those who have supportive families and good education have obvious advantages over those who do not.”36 The advantage of lack of a good education must be corrected in a way that does not build division. Affirmative Action Laws were enacted to restore balance to a society that favored people with white skin. It had the unintended consequence of dividing people into groups on the basis of color. Some of the laws have given advantages to people not because they were oppressed in life, but because of the color of their skin. This is racism. “We invest much of our energy into defending the differences between people and groups of people. Thus we define ourselves in ways that require us to maintain distance from one another. We are very protective of our “trophies” (accomplishments). After all, who are we if we cannot proudly point to something special that sets us apart from others?… Being compassionate would require giving up dividing lines and distinctions. And that would mean losing our identities!… (Our Identity) makes us into completive people who compulsively cling to our differences and defend them at all costs, even to the point of violence.”37 This creates a competitive cycle, rather than a compassionate cycle. “Must we simply recognize that we are more competitive than compassionate, and try to make the best of it with a “healthy dose of skepticism?” Is the best advice we can give each other that we should try to live in such a way that we hurt each other as little as possible? Is our greatest ideal a maximum of satisfaction with a minimum of pain?”38 The only way to avoid this is to seek to be compassionate in our lives and choices. Affirmative action is morally wrong, according to Kant, because its motive is to give the upper hand to a minority, not a person who has been oppressed. When people are using this law to get jobs making six-figure pay checks, and companies are hiring minorities because of their skin color so that they have a better ratio, that is racism. We as a society must do away with race discrimination, and there is no better time than now. There is little reason to even have race as a discussion, as most people in our society are not 100% of any race. Rather let the discussion be about suffering. On both sides. When we find ourselves in a powerless position in relation to others, we must practice the spirituality of the empty tomb. If we find ourselves in a position of power, we must practice the spirituality of the cross.39 This is how we will defeat the evil of suffering. It is all in how we chose to act. It will not be an easy road, but it is the road of compassion that Christ calls us to follow. “Voluntary displacement leads to compassion, by bringing us closer to our own brokenness. It opens our eyes to our fellow human beings who seek out consolation and comfort.”40 Displacement then is our way serving the will of God, by seeking justice all the time.
There are many other oppressive systems found within the city. The lack of well paying jobs and the desire for profit and greed of employers and owners contributes to the oppression. In poorer areas, typically where crime is higher, it is difficult to find stores that will sell goods at a reasonable price. Because of crime, the risk of having a store there is higher. Oftentimes the poor will have to go to connivence stores to purchase their goods like eggs and milk. The price of these goods at these stores is nearly double what they would be at a grocery store outside the urban core. Due to the high cost of personal transportation such as taxes, insurance, fuel and repair costs, the poor must purchase within their community.
When the poor don’t have the money to buy necessities, or to feed their addictions, they must resort to one of the most socially unjust systems in our country. Pay day loans and car tittle loans charge predatory interest rates. According to the website of Speedy Cash, one such loan company, they have a 14-day loan that has an APR of 651.79%,41 compared to credit card rates which normally are around 24% for people with moderate credit scores. These loan institutions are taking advantage of the suffering that people are in. The church should unite and fight these institutions because of the evil they represent. This is capitalism at its worst.
Conclusion
“It is difficult for us to comprehend that we are liberated by someone who became powerless, that we are being strengthened by someone who became weak, that we find new hope in someone who divested himself of all distinctions, and that we find a leader who became a servant.”42 This gift given to us by a Divine Savior is something we should share with all. It is the Churches responsibility to live out Luke 4:18 because that is what Christ came to do, and the Church is the body of Christ. The church must recognize power dynamics and seek to respond with the cross or the tomb, which ever is needed. It is the church’s responsibility to seek the will of God through prayer. “Prayer is a discipline of patience, allowing the Holy spirit to do a recreating work with in us.”43 As a member of the Christian community we must individually seek out to serve justice. “We sin as participants in evil social structures only if we understand something of their wickedness and then fail to do what God wants us to do to correct the evil.”44 Serving justice is correcting the evil structures that are before us. “God wills justice for the poor, not occasional charity.”45 Wealth can get the church to be lazy and complacent. Charity is not the same as compassion. Charity is not displacement. It is easy to write a check, it is more difficult to form a relationship and build a home near oppression.“Those who are oppressed serve as walking signifiers of the regimes powers, spreading fear among those who might be tempted to defy the state…they are branded like a cow marked and branded by its owner.”46 We can see oppression everywhere we go. There are opportunities to fight suffering in every city. When you stand before the LORD as in Matthew 25:35-40 how will He respond to you? Will you be one of the righteous?
APPENDIX
Additional Scripture References.
Deuteronomy 8:10-14
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.47
Isaiah 61:1
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners48
Isaiah 61:8
8 “For I, the LORD, love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
and make an everlasting covenant with them.49
Psalm 104:27-30
27 All creatures look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.50
Matthew 6:2-4
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.51
Matthew 7:21-22
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’52
Matthew 25:35-40
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’53
Luke 4:14-21
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”54
John 3:17-21
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.55
Ephesians 5:5-7
5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.56
Philippians 2:5-11
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.57
Colossians 1:24-25
24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness.58
1 Timothy 2:1-4
1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.59
Hebrews 2:17-18
17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.60
Hebrews 4:14-16
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.61
Hebrews 7
Melchizedek the Priest
1 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” 3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.
4 Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! 5 Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, from their fellow Israelites—even though they also are descended from Abraham. 6 This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 And without doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater. 8 In the one case, the tenth is collected by people who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. 9 One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, 10 because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.
Jesus Like Melchizedek
11 If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? 12 For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also. 13 He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, 16 one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is declared:
“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”[a]
18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
20 And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 21 but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him:
“The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
‘You are a priest forever.’”[b]
22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.
23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely[c] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.62
Hebrews 10:32-35
32 Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. 33 Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. 34 You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. 35 So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! 36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.63
Hebrews 13:1-3
1 Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! 3 Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.64
James 2:9-13
9 But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law… 12 So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. 13 There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.65
James 2:14-17
14-17Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?66
James 2:18
18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”67
James 3:13-18
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.68
James 4:7-9
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.69
1 John 3:16-18
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.70
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outside the city. I pray that your journey through Lent will include discovery after joyful discovery in your spiritual life; perhaps even the discovery of that pearl of great price that Daniel Bonnell has so beautifully depicted.
Amy Luckenbill
Bo Crowe
Lisa Setty
Cory
