The sage theologian Karl Barth taught his students to preach with the Bible in one hand and
the newspaper in the other. His admonition wasn’t just a clever homiletical technique, it was
an assertion that our faith calls us to live in the world in a particular way— a way grounded in
love and sacrifice, a way dedicated to the pursuit of justice and equality for all people,
particularly the poor and the outcast. Earlier this week, our Presiding Bishop reminded us of
the prophet Amos’s cry that “justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever
flowing stream.” We have hard, painful, work ahead of us if we want to lean on the Word of
God and stand with Amos to bring to fruition his plea that “justice roll down like waters and
righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”
The brutal murder of George Floyd, the staying power of systematic racism, the widening
income disparity, the manifold flaws of our public education and health care systems, the
breakouts of criminal and counter-productive looting, the destruction of property and loss of
livelihoods, the militarized action against peaceful protesters, legally assembled, all conspire
against Biblical values, and are a violation of our Baptismal Covenant. When will justice roll
down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream? This week as I watched the
Bible being used as a prop in a photo op, businesses being looted, cop cars burning, people
on fire, and peaceful demonstrators forcibly denied their right to free speech and assembly,
the cynic in me answered the question in the negative. We will never see “justice roll down like
waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”
I quickly realized that holding such a position is not a Biblical value, it is a sin to which I
confess, and for which, I repent. Retreat, indifference, learned helplessness, racism, prejudice,
privilege, fear, willful ignorance, and silent complicity are sins for which I must repent. I know
that there are many others who have likewise sinned. It is only when we step up and speak out
and pay attention and listen to our brothers and sisters who have been treated unjustly for
generations that justice can begin to roll down like waters and righteousness like a ever
flowing stream. It is encouraging to see so many people, of all ages and backgrounds,
stepping up and speaking out. When I see police and protesters kneeling together and
working for justice and peace, it fills me with hope and faith. There is so much to do, but we
can do it— with prayer, with peaceful protest, with criminal justice reform and other legislation,
with our talents and treasure, with a willingness to stay at the table, or to come to the table for
the first time, and engage in open, honest and frank dialogue about what needs to happen in
order to create a society in which “justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like an
ever flowing stream.” I invite you to join the Adult Formation class this Sunday at 9:30 a.m.(via
Zoom) for a time of prayer and lament to begin, or continue, the ministry of reconciliation to
which we are all called.
In his “Moon Speech,” President John Kennedy said: “We choose to go to the moon this
decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that
goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that
challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, one which we
intend to win.” We seek to live out our Baptismal vows “to resist evil, to proclaim by word and
example the Good new of God in Christ, to respect the dignity of every human being, and to
work for justice and peace,” not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because
the challenge is one we are willing to accept and one we [cannot] postpone if we are to be the
people God calls us to be.
In the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the parable of the unjust Judge. The point of the parable is
that the woman’s persistence results in justice. She doesn’t give up until justice is meted out.
Let us be persistent in working for justice and peace, trusting that “God’s power, working in us,
can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”
Peace,
Ray Hanna