Day 868 - Word and Speech or Truth and Action?

A Sermon for the Urban Outreach Ministry, April 27, 2015, Chattanooga, TN

OT reading: Psalm 23

NT reading: 1 John 3: 16-24

I had intended to conclude my commentary on the nature of faithful Christian social justice last week to avoid becoming overbearing, but the lectionary persists in presenting to us more reflections on the nature of Christian activism. 

A Christian has an irresistible obligation and free gift of opportunity to walk in the world striving to reflect the model of human behavior that Jesus gave us. Over the last several months we have discovered two core characteristics of that model Christian life: (1) It honors the Lord as Creator and  Lover of all, and source of all good gifts; (2) It causes us to shower the same honor we give to the Lord and all our good gifts on all God’s children, as we desire that heavenly rain our self. That is, it is a life of radical Christianity characterized by direct personal action of sharing our own good gifts with those who have less. Why? Because the root of all the Lord’s love is heart-wrenching compassion (splanchnizomai, remember?) towards the Lord’s creation. To hold that compassion for our fellows compels us personally to share our gifts because it means the Spirit of the Lord abides within us.

That life of honor and mutual, compassionate sharing is the nature of the Kingdom of God. In other words, living an active, compassionate, giving Christian life realizes the Kingdom of God on Earth. Such living instantiates Christian justice in society.

There is a fine line separating us from error in our quest for justice and the Kingdom of God. It is a line that Christian activists seeking Christian justice often cross. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is an error Christians have struggled with since at least the time that the words of John’s letters were written.

One common inclination is to think of the world as comprised of “good” and “evil.” This motivates us to engage in a war of words and speech to fight evil, or to retreat.

At the extreme this represents the conceptual worldview of Gnosticism, that we are comprised of a pure “spiritual being” and an evil physical body. We either go to war against the evil in society or we withdraw into cloistered lives or hedonism (our cell phones, internet, social media, the bar scene, alcohol, nicotine, vanity  etc.). 

Few Christian social activists would claim the label of Gnostic, hermit or hedonist, but many have the idea they can change an evil world into a “good” world, that they can hide behind the words and speech of their sermons to like-minded people or indulge in a secular life avoiding personal self-giving acts themself.

Christian activists who actively seek social justice desire to change laws and governments to create a more charitable, Christian society. The painful irony is many of these will also state that do not seek or want a “political” label, e.g., Democrat, Libertarian, Republican or even “anarchist” (in the US), yet they lobby legislatures, Senators and Representatives and other elected officials for changes in the law that they feel in their own mind are best for everyone. In effect they join the political process they oppose. (It could be useful for them to read 1 Samuel 8 again, and Richard Niebuhr's corpus.)

Can words and speech change society and bring us closer to a “Kingdom of God?”

One of the most well-worn questions we use in our Christ-based program of urban ministry that seeks to change people’s mindset is, “Who do you have the possibility of control to change behavior?” The answer is, “Only yourself. The only power you have over others is the model of your own behavior.”

You may object. But I ask you three simple questions, (1) Did Prohibition stop people from imbibing alcohol?;” "(2)Did the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, or (3) the Civil Rights Act of 1964 abolish racism in the United States?

Racism is still present in the United States of America, but it is often cloaked in a disguise of the real sin - failing to love one’s neighbor as one self. We manifest it by shirking the responsibility to help the poor. We manifest it by refusing to share profligately our own wealth with those who have less. We manifest it when we feel uncomfortable being around people who are different and seek to surround ourselves with like-minded people, perhaps not hiring or promoting those who are different. We manifest it when we cede action to the state (which always operates on a lower ethical plane than expected of individual persons) rather than take our own action. The end result is an insular, disintegrated society such as the Johnanine community.

Did the changes in these previous laws have any positive effect? The honest answer is “yes.” Legal racial discrimination was abolished even though some still practice it on a personal scale. Now the opportunities for people of color in our society are far greater that at any time in its history. Yet most of those opportunities arise from deliberate personal action most of us do not have the persistence to exercise amidst an environment of persistent, if subliminal racial inequality. Many of those opportunities are not accessible to people who are trapped in a world of inculcated generational poverty. Giving money or free food only perpetuates their hopeless state, harming while trying to help. In John's time feeding the hungry was a noble act against the state. Today, perhaps we have done as much harm as good? This is a constant problem with modern "relief efforts" such as the Community Kitchen in Chattanooga. We feed the poor but the consequence is habitual dependence with the handout and do not offer effective routes to independence.

The call of 1 John 3: 16-24 acknowledges the truth of the model of Jesus that relies on the compassion of the Lord. It compels us to act with our own two hands showing we are living in the Kingdom of God with the Spirit within us.

1 John 3: 16-24 calls us to share the goods of the world we possess with those who are lacking. It is a frightening venture to earn perhaps $30,000/yr (or far less, or far more) and begin to share your income as act and model of Christian compassion with those who are lacking. Isn’t it easier to just haul a protest sign and chalk a sidewalk with symbolic protest?

Of course it is easier and far less effective. That is the fundamental point about faith and God’s grace. Jesus said that if you were going to walk in his shoes, do it faithfully and be prepared for sacrifice and abuse. But he also said, in this way you find your way to life in my Father’s house.

That brings us to the critical message the Gospel of John and the writer(s) in his community who penned the epistles of John. Jesus was a man, God incarnate, who walked in the world modeling the compassionate human behavior the Lord expects of all humanity. At the same time the Lord is here with us in Spirit giving the promise of spiritual comfort in the knowledge that when you walk in the world in this way you are on the way home. It is expressed exquisitely by the comforting message of Psalm 23.

I will quote it as paraphrased by Isaac Watts in the hymn I favor ,  “My Shepherd will Supply My Need.”

“My Shepherd will supply my need;

Jehovah is his name:

In pastures fresh He makes me feed,

            Beside the living stream.

He brings my wandering spirit back,

            When I forsake his ways;

And leads me, for his mercy’s sake,

            In paths of truth and grace.

When I walk through the shades of death

            Your presence is my stay;

One word of your supporting breath

            Drives all my doubt away.

Your hand, in sight of all my foes,

Doth still my table spread;

My cup with blessing overflows,

            Your oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God

            Attend me all my days;

O may Your House be my abode,

            And all my work be praise.

There I would find a settled rest,

            While others come go and come;

No more a stranger, or a guest,

            But like a child at home.

         There is a home where we will live in child-like innocence. We will find our way there by the truth of Jesus that inspires true social justice of our actions of a Christian life. That life reveals the Kingdom of God.

Amen.