ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
April 9 , 2022
Last night, we were invited to share in an Interfaith Iftar event at the Mosque on Spears Road. The topic of discussion prior to the breaking of the fast (a part of the Muslim celebration of Ramadan) was compassion and justice. Your pastor (that would be me, Bruce) did a less than stellar job when I was invited to speak, but you can be extraordinarily proud of John Basel who was asked to speak from the perspective of working with the Hope Center of Houston. John was brilliant. John shows compassion to so many who live without shelter in our community, yet the challenge of providing permanent housing is a constant struggle if true justice is what we seek. Justice assumes a lasting transformation at the very core of systems and structures that have not always treated people with dignity and compassion. Proverbs 21:15 says, “Acting justly is a joy to the righteous, but dreaded by those who do evil.” Justice is dreaded by those who continue to benefit from broken and unjust systems. Such folks will manipulate and distract society from what is really happening, often casting blame on the victims of the broken and unjust systems. It is hard to bring real and lasting change to such systems, yet God has been demanding it from the very beginning. The time of making excuses is over. It is time for people of faith, of every faith, to act as the Lord requires which is to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).
Holy God, wherever I might be benefiting from broken and unjust systems, I pray for an awareness that will lead to a change within me – a change that will then ripple out from me and into the world around me. Amen.
