Christlike Justice and the Holiness Tradition

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The villagers — moved with compassion — pulled person after person from the river. Who upriver keeps pushing these people in?

Amos saw the poor of his day and had compassion on them. But there came a time — moved by God — when he got tired of dealing just with symptoms. He was ready to raise his voice about the cause. Of all people, Amos was an unlikely candidate to be a prophet.

Review: Christlike Justice and the Holiness Tradition

Amos was a shepherd, likely with little education. The year was B. But if the two nations seemed as strong as a marathoner in the highlands of Kenya, there was nonetheless a secret cancer growing inside, the cancer of injustice. So God tells Amos to leave his flocks and to travel north approximately km to Bethel, where Israel had its official place of worship and sacrifice to God. There Amos — like a doctor — diagnoses the illness and applies the divine treatment in hopes of healing their disease before it is too late.

Amos is smart how he addresses the crowd at Bethel. He starts in chapter 1 by making a quick tour of the surrounding nations. He points to Damascus first: And as he makes the grand tour, you can almost hear the crowd shouting: The crowd grows silent. What were some of the abuses they were practicing? In short, for the poor, life was brutal while the privileged few built stone mansions for themselves!

We might expect injustices in a land that knew nothing about God. But this was far from the case. These were the people of Yahweh. Certainly, they were careful to keep up appearances, observing all the prescribed sacrifices. What was the problem exactly? They claimed to love God but they mistreated the powerless and the marginalized.

Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream Amos 5: But that was Israel long ago, right? Nothing like this would happen in the 21st century in the countries where you and I come from…would it? No one would go to church on Sunday and praise the Lord, then on Monday oppress or rob someone else…would they? I spent my senior year in high school and my gap year between high school and University working at a grocery store, in the produce department. Soon after I started the job, my boss asked me to mop the floor of the back room as part of my night shift duties.

The floor still looked dirty when he came in the next morning. You need to use fresh water and change it often, and use a clean mop head.

Here at ANU, our slogan is: God must transform us first if we want God to be able to use us to change the world. The Lord used Dr Cindy North in a powerful way to speak to us about the change God wants to make inside of us individually. But may I suggest that that is not the end; it is just the beginning. When we come to the New Testament, we find the same theme. Ephesians is one of the richest New Testament books when it comes to the doctrine of the church. In the face of injustices and wrongs around us, what should the church do?

Paul gives us the answer in Ephesians 5: Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them italics added. The Common English Bible renders it: Welcome to the club! When it comes to the topic of Christian social justice, Bill Hybels uses a term that is helpful. Hybels is the pastor of a megachurch in the Chicago area, but he grew up in a small, dysfunctional church.

Bill as a teenager prayed for a friend, that he would decide to follow Jesus. It seemed like God was answering his prayers, that the friend was beginning to ripen to spiritual things. Few welcomed him; he felt like an intruder. The love of Christ was absent. He refused for that situation to persist; he knew he had to do something to change it.

He realized that small churches needed help, training so they could be sensitized to how their actions could push people away. Hybels now hosts regular conferences for small churches, equipping them to better reach the lost. His holy discontent became his calling. There are other stories of how God can use holy discontent. In , Great Britain officially abolished the slave trade, outlawing the carrying of slaves in any of its ocean-going vessels throughout the Empire.

Yet few know the story behind the man largely responsible for this victory, who persevered through 20 years of set-backs to finally win a glorious victory. All his life, he suffered from colitis, a bowel condition that was very painful and that could only be treated with laudanum, an addictive form of opium. Despite his challenges, Wilberforce was ambitious and was elected as one of the youngest ever Members of Parliament. Yet something happened to Wilberforce at the age of Sure the principles as well as the practice of Christianity are simple, and lead not to meditation only but to action.

Wilberforce stayed in Parliament and soon thereafter plunged into the battle against the slave trade.

The oppression of thousands of African men, women, and children became for Wilberforce what sparked his calling, his holy discontent. Here is a short clip where Wilberforce tries to convince some reluctant MPs of the justice of the abolition cause:. I wish I could say that slavery in the world ended for good in , when Parliament went a step further and outlawed not only the transporting of slaves on British ships but the keeping of slaves in any British territory.

Yet we know human trafficking in many forms still exists around the world. They live as domestic servants, unpaid and provided just the bare minimum to live. There are now organizations working to rescue restaveks so that they can live a better life. What wrongs in your society do you see? What injustices weigh upon your heart? Ask God whether rectifying one of those injustices is His calling on your life, is your holy discontent. God has saved us so that each of us can change some corner of our world.

One of the noblest sentiments in the American pledge of allegiance is the final line intended to describe the United States of America: The passage continues vv. The common denominator for five of the seven groups of people on the list is powerlessness. What can those who are incarcerated give us? Or how about the destitute woman who has lost her husband, or the child left alone after the death of their parents? As for immigrants, they are sometimes in the most precarious position of all. Rather, it is those who seemingly have little to offer in return — the last, the lost, and the least — who have captured the loving heart of our Father.

In a world that coldly pushes them to the margins as unimportant, God draws them in, wrapping them up in loving arms, whispering comfort. His compassion is naturally accompanied by the stubborn pursuit of justice on their behalf. The parable is told of a farmer whose land was adjacent to a river. One day when tending his field by the river bank, he saw a woman flailing in the water. The farmer quickly called his family and together they fished her out of the water to safety. An hour later, the scenario repeated itself, except this time it was a man in peril.

The rescues continued all afternoon, until they had saved half a dozen from the river. God feeds the hungry and gives justice to the oppressed. Yet there are two more groups of people on the list, namely, the righteous and the wicked.

Review: Christlike Justice and the Holiness Tradition | Engage

And what does God do? The LORD loves the righteous v. Here is where the church can set an example for society. Do we praise our children when they do virtuous things or do we ignore them, thereby discouraging that behavior in the future?

Where Theology Meets Everyday Life

Similarly, do we disapprove of those among us whose self-centeredness makes them callous, even wicked, or do we elevate them? To do the opposite is to invite disaster. We serve an amazing God! The LORD models how we can walk a different path, one of heartfelt concern for the powerless.

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