Day 11: 21 March 2011
21.03.2011
When have you treated someone differently in speaking, action or thought because of the colour of their skin or ethnic background? This can be as simple as an assumption you made about them.
If justice is ‘the right ordering of power’ what might justice have looked like for them in your interaction?
(Today is also World Day for Water.)
“Speak up for the people who have no voice, for the rights of all the down-and-outers. Speak out for justice! Stand up for the poor and destitute!”
The Message Bible, Proverbs 31: 8,
This is the advice King Lemuel’s mother gave him.
If it was given to you, what would you need to change about the way you live?
“‘Justice fatigue’ … the privileged often treat justice as something discretionary that one can choose to engage in or not. But opting out is not an option for the millions whose lives daily bear the marks of injustice.” Mark Labberton
Collect stories from the newspaper, television and radio that remind you of this inequality. Place any news clippings on your piece of purple fabric or paper.
“(God has) already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously – take God seriously.” Micah 6: 8 (The Message Bible)
What does it mean for you to “take God seriously”?
“Justice is the right ordering of power.” Mark Labberton “Justice is what love looks like in public.” Cornell West Do you act justly toward your family, your boss, your colleagues, your friends, strangers, the disadvantaged, the environment, yourself? Find a way to act justly today in one area or situation you don’t usually.
Yesterday you defined justice.
Does the God you serve act justly?
What situations do you see that happening in? (Sometimes its easier to describe where you don’t see it happening.)
What does that mean for you as a follower?
What do you think “justice” means?
Look it up in a dictionary.
Write your definition down. Leave the note on your purple place.
Talk with God and other people about this throughout today. Think about it as often as you can.
G20 Protests, Melbourne. Use this image to reflect on today.
Psalm 32
A David Psalm
1 Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be— you get a fresh start,
your slate’s wiped clean.2 Count yourself lucky—
God holds nothing against you
and you’re holding nothing back from him.3 When I kept it all inside,
my bones turned to powder,
my words became daylong groans.4 The pressure never let up;
all the juices of my life dried up.5 Then I let it all out;
I said, “I’ll make a clean breast of my failures to God.”Suddenly the pressure was gone—
my guilt dissolved,
my sin disappeared.6 These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;
when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts
we’ll be on high ground, untouched.7 God’s my island hideaway,
keeps danger far from the shore,
throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.8 Let me give you some good advice;
I’m looking you in the eye
and giving it to you straight:9 “Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule
that needs bit and bridle
to stay on track.”10 God-defiers are always in trouble;
God-affirmers find themselves loved
every time they turn around.11 Celebrate God.
Sing together—everyone!
All you honest hearts, raise the roof!—from Lectionary for this Sunday, the Message
Today Maria will watch her 4 year old son Amir die because she had to choose between buying medicine for him and 10 days food for her two other young children.
25 000 children like Amir, under the age of 5, will also die today because they didn’t have enough to eat. 18 000 of those children could have easily been saved with basic nutrition and health care.
Go without eating lunch today and use the time to pray for those who can’t choose whether or not they will eat.
‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?’ “He will answer them, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.’
The Abbey organized in the fall of 2008 on a neighborhood back porch with two commitments, exploring the way of Jesus for city folks, and seeking the growth of the community from within instead of from outside. Several of us had kids and we prayed that the girls we were raising and the girls walking the sidewalks as prostitutes would benefit together from our church's presence. Never one at the expense of the other.
We took on the language of the Abbey to communicate the historic tradition of orders of faith plopping down in the middle of a city and making "sanctuary"' for the wanderer and for the beautiful. We wanted our identity to be tied to this kind of posture and practice.
We took as our patron saint, the Good Samaritan, our Neighbor. He knew what is was like to be outside of religious groups. He was not the person the religious reader would have expected to act with God's desired compassion. And yet his "neighboring" became the exemplar in Jesus' tale told to the lawyer who wanted to be awarded life eternal for his doctrine or his behaviors.
Neighbors Abbey does not simply bring the dreams of God to SW Atlanta, we expect to learn them from neighbors who have already been participating in these ways. This is part of what it means for us to walk in Jesus' Way, its just what those early disciples and the lawyer and the neck-craning religious leaders would have run into walking along with Jesus.
Now we meet for meals, to help our neighbors, to pray, to discuss scripture, to design public performance art projects, to mentor youth, and many other things.
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