A responsibility to let the right prevail
One of the most difficult issues clergy face is whether or not to preach about contemporary issues.
We spend all week hearing and talking about immigration, abortion and gun laws. But God forbid we talk about them from the pulpit, or there’s going to be hell to pay.
On numerous occasions, I have been confronted by those who say, “I don’t think politics belongs in the sanctuary. When I come here, I just want to be able to escape it all and pray in peace.”
As lovely as that sounds, I believe the purpose of religion is not to disengage from our awareness of all the wrongs in the world. If it were, then religion really would be an “opiate of the masses.”
I wish I had the privilege to provide an escape from the real world, but it’s my belief that the God of justice and righteousness will not abide it.
I believe religion is not an escape from reality, but a moral imperative to confront reality.
Our responsibility to address the wrongs of the world is no novel idea.
In Biblical times, God is described variously as the “God of Justice” (Isaiah 30:18) and “righteous and upright” (Deuteronomy 32:4). I believe “God rose to execute justice,” as Psalm 76:10 teaches, “to save all the oppressed of the earth.”
God isn’t listlessly tossing lightning bolts from the sky; God is the advocate of the oppressed, the champion of justice and righteousness.
When Abraham was selected as the founder of western religion, I believe our mission was revealed: “For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of God by doing what is just and right” (Genesis
18:19).
Isaiah directs us, “Learn to do good, devote yourselves to justice, aid the oppressed, uphold the rights of the orphan, defend the cause of the widow” (1:17).
Does that sound like the kind of person who would want the sanctuary to be a distraction from it all?
Jeremiah warns us about the blasphemy of exploiting religion: “You are relying on delusions of no avail. Will you steal ... commit adultery and swear falsely ... and then come and stand before me in this house which bears my name and say, ‘We are safe’? — to do all these abhorrent things.”
The Bible makes it clear what God hates, but it also tells us what God loves. Micah teaches, “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God”
(6:8). Psalm 33:5 declares that “God loves justice and righteousness.”
To love is the quintessential act of selflessness. And, when we do shift that focus from ourselves to others, as the Prophet Amos teaches, “Justice will roll down like waters, righteousness like a mighty stream” (5:24).
When Abraham heard God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, did he sit back and say, “Thank God it’s not my back yard”? No! He challenged God saying, “Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?” (Gen. 19:25).
When Moses saw that the Israelites were being oppressed by the Egyptians, did he say, “Thank God I was raised in Pharaoh’s palace, and don’t have to deal with any of that”? No! He challenged Pharaoh, “Let my people go!”
I do not believe our sanctuaries should become places where we stick our heads in the sand and disengage from all the wrongs of the world.
And so, when we are confronted on a daily basis with news about oppressed families torn apart at our borders, women’s rights under attack, white supremacist massacres, we cannot stand idly by and turn God’s house into a refuge from our responsibility to right the wrongs in this world.
The God of justice and righteousness requires not some opiate for the masses, but rather religion inspiring people to be advocates for the poor, the needy, the alien and the oppressed.
This is not about showing up a couple times a year to pray in peace. This is about joining a movement to bring peace beyond the walls of the sanctuary.
I believe we have no right to pray in peace until we have done our part to bring peace about in the world. The sanctuary is not a shelter. It is a think tank and a war room.
We have battles to fight. Only then can justice and righteousness prevail.