Micah 6, verse 8 points out how we can be involved with matters of justice:
8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
God has called His people, I believe, to be purveyors of justice - to seek and to speak the truth. And, His truth becomes the basis, the measuring stick, the plumb line for how people are to be treated. In his famous letter from the Birmingham jail, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. invoked Amos 5:24, which reads, "But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream." Justice is to be based on truth, not your truth or my truth, but the rock-solid principles of the Scriptures, which contain His absolute truth and reveal His heart.
In Jeremiah 22, we can connect with a passage that shows us the heart of God regarding matters of
justice:
3 Thus says the Lord: "Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you indeed do this thing, then shall enter the gates of this house, riding on horses and in chariots, accompanied by servants and people, kings who sit on the throne of David.
5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself," says the Lord, "that this house shall become a desolation." ' "
Another translation (ESV) uses the word "justice," instead of "judgment" in verse 3.
On this day set aside to honor the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with the 50th anniversary of his assassination set to be commemorated in less than three months, we have the opportunity to consider his contributions to the civil rights movement and to be inspired to pursue the cause or causes to which God has called us to address.
King began his journey to prominence really here in Montgomery, Alabama in the mid 50's, but there was an event that was actually brought to light recently during the Oprah Winfrey speech at the Golden Globes that I want to use as my beginning point.
A tragic event occurred in Abbeville, Alabama. A young lady named Recy Taylor was walking home from a church service at Rock Hill Holiness Church, according to CBNNews.com. She was attacked and raped by six white men. No one served prison time for this brutal attack; no one was even prosecuted. The article states that, "In 2011, the Alabama Legislature issued Taylor an apology for failing to prosecute her attackers, even though one of the men had confessed."
CBN refers to a documentary, "The Rape of Recy Taylor," directed by Nancy Buirski, which "tells of the brutal attack and the justice Taylor longed for." In the film, Taylor says, "I was begging them to leave me alone," adding, "Don't shoot me. I got to go home and see 'bout my baby. They wouldn't let me go. I can't help but tell the truth what they done to me..."
The CBN article points out that: "Taylor's Christian faith appears to have been a common thread throughout her life." Also...
So, long before Parks' action in 1955, she was involved in the pursuit of justice. Her brave action on that bus led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which named Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, as its head. So, you could make the case for the connection of the tragedy in Abbeville in 1944 to the cause of civil rights in the late 50's and the 60's. And, you never get away from the concept of the justice that our God wants to bring - that's what fueled the civil rights movement.
One further thing about Recy Taylor. In that NBC piece, her granddaughter, Mary Joyce Owens honored Taylor; she was raised by her grandmother after her mother's death when she was 8. Owens is quoted as saying:
But, you can also think that we serve a God of justice. We do not sweep injustice aside, but pursue justice with great fervor, recognizing that we can be empowered to do what is right. That's why #MeToo is a movement that touches the Church; we should want to make things right, to identify sinful behavior in our midst; hopefully to restore the victims and rehabilitate the victimizers.
We also recognize that we serve a God of action. Year after year during the civil rights movement, God ordained people and events to bring about the cause of justice for those who had been treated as a separate class of citizens simply because of the color of their skin. People, motivated by a cause, influenced by the Scriptures, prayed, gathered, spoke out, and spoke truth - God's truth, absolute truth. Perhaps God is calling you to be part of making something right. There are plenty of causes out there, and we can seek the Spirit's direction on how we can be involved in seeing God work through us.
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In Jeremiah 22, we can connect with a passage that shows us the heart of God regarding matters of
justice:
3 Thus says the Lord: "Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you indeed do this thing, then shall enter the gates of this house, riding on horses and in chariots, accompanied by servants and people, kings who sit on the throne of David.
5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself," says the Lord, "that this house shall become a desolation." ' "
Another translation (ESV) uses the word "justice," instead of "judgment" in verse 3.
On this day set aside to honor the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with the 50th anniversary of his assassination set to be commemorated in less than three months, we have the opportunity to consider his contributions to the civil rights movement and to be inspired to pursue the cause or causes to which God has called us to address.
King began his journey to prominence really here in Montgomery, Alabama in the mid 50's, but there was an event that was actually brought to light recently during the Oprah Winfrey speech at the Golden Globes that I want to use as my beginning point.
A tragic event occurred in Abbeville, Alabama. A young lady named Recy Taylor was walking home from a church service at Rock Hill Holiness Church, according to CBNNews.com. She was attacked and raped by six white men. No one served prison time for this brutal attack; no one was even prosecuted. The article states that, "In 2011, the Alabama Legislature issued Taylor an apology for failing to prosecute her attackers, even though one of the men had confessed."
CBN refers to a documentary, "The Rape of Recy Taylor," directed by Nancy Buirski, which "tells of the brutal attack and the justice Taylor longed for." In the film, Taylor says, "I was begging them to leave me alone," adding, "Don't shoot me. I got to go home and see 'bout my baby. They wouldn't let me go. I can't help but tell the truth what they done to me..."
The CBN article points out that: "Taylor's Christian faith appears to have been a common thread throughout her life." Also...
...according to Buirski, Taylor recalled how God kept the men who attacked her from taking her life that night.
"The Lord was just with me that night," Taylor reportedly says in the documentary about her assault.Here is a stunning, yet disturbing story with a spiritual component. And, the assault got the attention of a young investigator named...Rosa Parks - a point that Winfrey included in the speech. As NBCNews.com reported: "Her story gained national attention, and her case was handled by a young NAACP investigator named Rosa Parks — nearly 11 years prior to Parks’ historic refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus."
So, long before Parks' action in 1955, she was involved in the pursuit of justice. Her brave action on that bus led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which named Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, as its head. So, you could make the case for the connection of the tragedy in Abbeville in 1944 to the cause of civil rights in the late 50's and the 60's. And, you never get away from the concept of the justice that our God wants to bring - that's what fueled the civil rights movement.
One further thing about Recy Taylor. In that NBC piece, her granddaughter, Mary Joyce Owens honored Taylor; she was raised by her grandmother after her mother's death when she was 8. Owens is quoted as saying:
"It was ordained by God that I was placed in her life and I thank him for it because he placed me with a precious jewel,” she said. “And those things that happened to her shouldn’t have happened, but she didn’t let that define her. They didn’t make her bitter, they made her better.”There are some takeaways from the exploration of the Recy Taylor story today. And, I think that one of the key ones is that we do serve a God of healing. Unspeakable horror took place in Recy's life, yet she trusted God in the midst of her attack, and apparently continued to trust Him throughout her life.
But, you can also think that we serve a God of justice. We do not sweep injustice aside, but pursue justice with great fervor, recognizing that we can be empowered to do what is right. That's why #MeToo is a movement that touches the Church; we should want to make things right, to identify sinful behavior in our midst; hopefully to restore the victims and rehabilitate the victimizers.
We also recognize that we serve a God of action. Year after year during the civil rights movement, God ordained people and events to bring about the cause of justice for those who had been treated as a separate class of citizens simply because of the color of their skin. People, motivated by a cause, influenced by the Scriptures, prayed, gathered, spoke out, and spoke truth - God's truth, absolute truth. Perhaps God is calling you to be part of making something right. There are plenty of causes out there, and we can seek the Spirit's direction on how we can be involved in seeing God work through us.
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