Not Okay

As a culture, there are many things that we have just accepted as part of our society. We don't fight them. Oftentimes, we don't even think about them, unless they affect us directly. We've merely accepted these things are okay with us. Or at least, not worth trying to change. 

For example, we have accepted that politicians are going to do dirty things, but that’s okay as long as they also promise to be working in our best interest (regardless of whether or not they actually do). We have accepted that it is okay for there to be multi-billionaires, and soon, trillionaires, people who have enough money to solve world hunger, and yet... don’t. We have accepted that one out of eight Americans live with food scarcity, and one in seven American children live in poverty. We have accepted that people of color face systemic injustices and rampant racism, leading to an over representation of black and brown bodies in poverty and in our prison system. We have accepted that women are routinely sexually abused, assaulted, and harassed. We have accepted big pharm and insurance companies manipulating the system for their own benefit, even as these systems keep us sick so that their profit margins remain huge.

We have accepted all these things. They are "just the way things are" in this country, the supposed "best country in the world". This is the system we have created. Or rather, that we have inherited from those who created it. 

But, are we truly okay with these things?

As a church, should we accept these things?

When you read through the Old Testament law (which, I know, is no one's favorite thing to read), you get a sense of the type of culture and society God desires for us. In the law, you see repeated provisions for the poor, protections for the weak and vulnerable, and strict prohibitions against hoarding wealth and therefore further sustaining poverty. 

In the New Testament, especially through the words and actions of Jesus, you hear this command to love others the way we love ourselves. To love others the way God has loved us. We see Jesus upsetting the "religious" people by breaking their rules in favor of helping people whenever and however they need. We see Him telling us that love is more than words, more than a "feeling", it is an action. It is feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, and welcoming the stranger. 

If indeed God made every human being in His image, male and female, all races, all backgrounds, shouldn’t we then honor that image of God in them by treating everyone with the same dignity and rights and respect?

Perhaps my initial statement is incorrect. Perhaps it is not that we have accepted these things, but that we've accepted defeat. We think they are unchangeable. We think the system is too big, too well-funded, too difficult to change. We think the things we dream of or wish for are only just that - dreams and wishes. Things which we will never see accomplished this side of Heaven.

This defeatist attitude, however, assures us that we are correct.

Throughout history, there have always been those who haven’t accepted the way things are. People who have stood their ground and fought against oppression, hate, and prejudice. People like Martin Luther King, Jr, whom we celebrate today. A man flawed in many ways, yet who led a movement that sparked change in our country.

We need those people now.

God needs His prophets and His teachers and His men and women of God to rise up and to speak out for those whose voices have been silenced for so long.

Edmund Burke is attributed as saying, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Are we just going to do 'nothing'? 

Or is it time to stand in the gap, to rise up, and be the change?

After all, you may be the miracle someone else is waiting for.

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