Justice and Peace Reflection

This is a recent reflection I wrote for a Prayer Service sponsored by my office, the Wi'am Center. We focused on Non-Violence, Justice and Peace for about 10 days in the beginning of September. Here are some of the things I felt led to reflect on with our friends in the community.
Peace from Palestine,
Ashley

Justice and Peace Reflection
I want to thank you all so much for inviting us to share this service with you. It is good to worship the Lord together. And it is both a joy and a challenge to stand before you today and reflect on Justice and Peace.
It is a joy to reflect on Justice and Peace because we believe in a G-d who is merciful, loving, just and kind… a G-d who desires Justice and Peace for all G-d’s children. However, it is also a challenge to reflect on Justice and Peace because they often seem so hard to find in this time and in this place.

How can we find that which is good, that which is holy, when walls prevent us from seeing our holy places and disrupt our attempts to work and provide for our families? How can we be that which is good, that which points to holiness, when violence invades in nightly incursions and children die from indiscriminate bullets?

As Christians, we have been given the gift of scripture and we have been given the gift of Christian community. The prophet Micah offers us hopeful perspective on Justice and Peace. He states,
‘The Lord has shown you, O mortal what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your G-d.’
<>< Micah 6:8

Thus we find that which is good, that which is holy, when we look to our Lord. We learn how to be that which is good, that which points to holiness when we respond to G-d’s desires for our lives.

The Lord requires us to do justice. But how can we do justice? In the tradition of the prophets, in the footsteps of Gandhi, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., in the actions of Mother Teresa, and in the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, we learn that the best way to do justice is to pursue it with passion and with diligence. We call people to account and we hold each other to account whenever injustice occurs. Christ never insinuated that peace or justice did not require action on our part. Rather, he taught us, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of G-d.’ <>< Matthew 5:9 We do not wait for peace, we do not watch for peace… but through justice we participate with G-d in making peace. To do justice is to be a peacemaker.

The Lord requires us to love kindness. What does it look like to love kindness? Christ reminded us that the greatest commandment of our heavenly Father is to ‘Love the Lord your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.’ <>< Luke 10:27 Loving kindness is something we must learn how to do with and from each other. It is difficult to be kind when someone hurts us. It is difficult to be patient when we are under constant pressure. It is difficult to show mercy when a brutal Occupation is fundamentally merciless. Yet mercy and kindness have been given to us through the gift of G-d’s Son. To love this gift of kindness is to offer it back to G-d’s creation. But it is not to be separated from justice. For the type of kindness and mercy that we must learn to love is only possible when it is connected to justice, to peacemaking and to humility.

The Lord requires us to walk humbly with G-d. How do we learn how to walk humbly? Though this is a very difficult requirement for us all, the answer to this question is simple. How do we learn how to walk humbly? By taking the first step. Instead of walking in the direction we want to go. Instead of taking the action that will achieve what we want… we ask G-d, ‘where do You want us to go? What would you have us do?’ And then in faith we take a step in that direction. How will we know that we have walked humbly with G-d? More than likely that first step, or some step very soon after will take us down the path of Justice and Peace.

Because our G-d is a G-d of Justice… a G-d who calls out for justice, who requires us to do justice, and who enables us to take that first humble step towards action for justice.

Because our G-d is a G-d of mercy and kindness… a G-d who calls out for mercy, who requires us to love kindness, and who enables us to take that first humble step towards action for kindness.

Because our G-d is a G-d of Peace… a G-d who calls out for peace, who requires us to make peace, and who enables us to take that first humble step towards action for peace.

Walking humbly before G-d means accepting the responsibility of doing justice, of loving kindness and of making peace. In ourselves, in our families, in community, in our world. This is our call. Our call to action… our call to humbly respond to a crucified and resurrected Lord.

Let us join together in a prayer that expresses this call to action and gives us the opportunity to take that first step.

Hear the words of St. Francis and his Prayer for Peace:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.