Each day of the e-Summit Dr Read sends an email to all delegates, which includes a Bible message from the handbook ‘Jesus and Justice: Living Right While Righting Wrongs’, published in the Theology and History stream.
DAY SEVEN MESSAGE
From Jim Read
28 March 2010
Welcome to the last day of Speak Out, which according to the Christian calendar is also the first day of the week. Sunday is the day on which Christians have traditionally gathered to remember and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
As Speak Out ends we look back at what has taken place in the week. (An evaluation survey will be sent to you in a few days, and we hope you will take the time to complete it.) We also look forward to what will come as a result of our time together. Pray that we will all have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts willing to go where the Spirit wants to lead..
Today’s Discussion Facilitators
- Theology and History discussions are being facilitated by Dr. Aimee Patterson
- Theory and Principles discussions are being facilitated by Brenda Linsell
- Promising Practices discussions are being facilitated by Major Victoria Edmonds
Today’s “Chat Room” Discussions with Presenters
- Major Campbell Roberts will be online to discuss effective engagement in the political process from 8 am to 10 am New Zealand time. (You will find a converter on the website to tell you the equivalent in your time zone.)
Today’s Scripture: Isaiah 58; Luke 19:28-44; Ephesians 2:11-22
Since I joined the International Social Justice Commission team a couple of years ago, I have learned that Isaiah 58 was one of William Booth’s favorite parts of the Bible. Read it and you’ll immediately see why.
“[The Lord says:] Is this not the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” (Isaiah 58:6-7)
As William Booth knew, we really cannot worship the God of the Bible without connecting love of God with love of the neighbor and love of the neighborhood. Again and again the Bible teaches that religion that ignores social justice makes God sick (see Amos 5:21-24 for just one example).
On the other hand, as Professor Roger Green has reminded us, Catherine Booth was biting in her denunciation of “sham Christianity” — a title she gave to “religions of bodily compassion.” She knew that it is possible to engage in campaigns for social justice without even a nod in the direction of transcendence. If religion without justice is empty, justice without God is blind. Social reform needs a vision, and not just any vision, but a vision that comes from God.
This is Palm Sunday. Jesus, riding a humble donkey towards Jerusalem, receives the homage of the crowds. It looks to them as if the social order will finally be made right. But remaking the world according to Jesus’ standards was not what powers-that-be had in mind. “As he came near and saw the city, [Jesus] wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’” (Luke 19:41-42)
Thanks be to God — Pilate, Herod and Caiaphas did not have the last word. Jesus has already made a fundamental change in the fundamental structures of the world. “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us…So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.” (Eph. 2:13-14; 19)
Strangers made into citizens; enemies made into kin. When the church is the church, the world is able to see the good things God has in store for humanity.
To read all of Dr. Read’s daily devotionals log onto the speakout website
