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New Testament Reading—Matthew 13: 31-35
There was once a very inquisitive child who liked to ask his mother questions about the meaning of different words that he heard. One day the child saw a book on her shelf called, The Joy of Spiritual Growth, so he naturally asked his mother what spiritual growth meant. He wanted to know what it was that could make people so happy. The mother thought about it and said, “You know how your grandmother is a very loving person. She cares a lot about you and a whole bunch of other people. That’s why we say she has a very big heart.” The child nodded and said, “Yeah.” The mother then said, “Well, when you grow spiritually that’s when the love that you have keeps getting bigger and bigger. It’s like your heart has a door, and you keep letting more and more people inside your heart, and every time you let someone new into your heart it gets a little bit bigger.” A look of understanding flashed across the child’s face.
The next day the mother and her son were driving to a swim lesson, and as they drove, they were listening to a talk radio show. The subject of the show was whether churches should be involved in social justice issues. The child picked up on what was being said, and asked his mother, “What’s social justice?” The mother didn’t want to give an abstract answer because she knew that would simply lead to more questions, so she thought about it for a second. Then, she said, “We’ve talked about how when you see another student at school having a hard time, it’s good to help that student, right?” The child nodded his head and said, “Yeah.” The mother continued, “Well, sometimes we look around the world out there, and we see a lot of people having a hard time because of a huge problem that they are all facing. They might be homeless or hungry or lacking the money they need to buy medicine when they are sick. Social justice is when you want to do something to fix that huge problem you see out in the world. You want all of those people to have a home to sleep in or enough food to eat or some medicine to make them feel better.” To which the child responded, “Wow, if someone wants social justice, that must mean they have a really big heart.”
I began with this story for a couple of reasons. The first is that I think sometimes the idea of social justice can seem a few steps removed from the ordinary life of a lot people. For some, social justice might sound like a big, abstract concept. It might also sound like the business of radicals or people who go around calling themselves activists. The mother in this story, however, presents a concrete definition of social justice instead of an abstract one, and she suggests an accessible and close to home understanding of what social justice is all about. She essentially says that social justice is a lot like caring about the kid who gets bullied at school. With social justice, one is taking that same kind of care and applying it on a large scale. It’s been said that justice is what love looks like in public. Not only are you privately concerned about your aunt on disability who barely scraps by, but you’re also actively concerned about all of the people on disability who barely scrape by. You realize that there is a large-scale wrong that needs to be righted. In a sense, I think social justice really boils down to two things: with compassionate eyes one sees a big picture problem and with a caring heart one seeks a big picture fix.
Another reason I began with the story about the mother and the child is that I think the perspective of the child points to why a church would want to connect its spiritual growth with social justice. In thinking about the child’s recognition of what social justice does to the heart, what church wouldn’t want to have a large heart full of love for other people? What church wouldn’t want to do something to help fix the problems of the world? If you think about it, the two most significant stories of our faith, the exodus story and the gospel story, are essentially social justice stories. In the Exodus story, God is looking at the big picture. God’s heart is moved by the suffering of the Israelites, and God responds by putting Moses on the task of pursuing a big picture solution: the Promised Land. In the Gospels, we learn right away that Jesus is born into a time with a big picture problem: the Roman Empire. In Mary’s magnificat, Mary expresses her belief that Jesus has been sent by a God who brings the powerful down from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. Later, the central message of Jesus is a big picture solution: the Kingdom of God. A more accurate translation is the Empire of God. Jesus tells the disciples that God’s Empire is going to be the exact opposite of the Roman Empire. The rulers of the gentiles lord it over their people and act as tyrants, so the big picture fix is an empire in which it’s the servants who are greatest. The last become first.
Even though there is a strong social justice theme at the core of the Bible and even though it is easy to connect social justice with spiritual growth, would it be safe to say that not every church goes gangbusters for social justice? Would it also be safe to say that even in those churches where this kind of passion can be found there are still some real challenges to be faced in making social justice a spiritual practice? This morning I want to look at a few of those challenges and suggest that addressing those challenges head on is actually another means for spiritual growth.
I think the first challenge in making social justice a spiritual practice for a church is that social justice inherently involves disrupting the status quo. A big picture fix requires tampering with the way things are and making some fundamental changes. You can count on social justice rocking society’s boat, and I think part of the reason some churches don’t pursue social justice is that they are afraid of having their own boat rocked in the process. There might even be a fear that if the boat rocks too much some of the crew might even fall over board or jump ship. Those can be legitimate fears, but let’s look at this another way. What if Jesus had decided that he wasn’t going to rock the boat? Would we even know who Jesus was? Or, what if churches never debated slavery? What if churches never debated jim crow, women’s equality, or marriage equality? Sometimes if you want to get to the right destination you have to travel through some rough waters. While not every boat that travels through rough waters losses some of its crew, sadly enough that might sometimes happen. Entire denominations split over slavery. It’s a hard business, but I think spiritual growth can occur in figuring out how to navigate those rough waters to the best of one’s abilities. For example, how do you love people and disagree with them? To think about it another way, how do you strongly disagree with an idea but still communicate that you respect the person who holds the idea?
Related to all of this are some other challenges. If you are seeking a big picture fix, that means you will first need to do some trouble shooting. You will need to look for the root cause of the problem. This means you’ll have to start asking questions. Why are things the way they are? Questions alone can unsettle people, but again I think spiritual growth can happen in the process. Courage is part of spiritual growth, and it takes courage to ask questions that expand the heart and mind. It also takes a courage rooted in faith to cope with how others might respond. I am reminded of the famous Brazilian bishop Dom Helder Camara who once said, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.” A couple of years ago a radio and television personality claimed that when churches say they are for social or economic justice they are really using code words for communism and Nazism. One might think, “Gosh, I don’t want anyone calling me a communist or a Nazi.” Still, it’s not like Jesus wasn’t ridiculed and called names. Sometimes part of our faith is having the courage to risk that happening. I’ve heard that some people in the larger community think they are ridiculing us by pejoratively calling us “the gay church”—as if that’s a bad thing. When I think of spiritual growth in the face of slander and put downs, the thing I always remember is the spiritual value of dignity. I am thinking of the kind of dignity that doesn’t come from the world but comes from realizing that one is made in the image of God. That’s the kind of dignity that can’t be taken away.
The final challenge that I will mention today when it comes to making social justice a spiritual practice is one that has to do with hope and practicality. I suspect that this might be the most significant challenge for many of us as individuals in this congregation. Religious phrases like the Promised Land and the Kingdom of God can almost sound embarrassing in today’s political climate. They sound too utopian and far-fetched for our cynical, pragmatic age. In truth, social justice really forces us to face one of the hardest parts of human existence and that’s the feeling that we are small and powerless human beings in the face of much larger forces. Still, I think this is where the Christian faith is at its best. The crucifixion was the ultimate symbol of powerlessness, and yet generation after generation has managed to transform that symbol of deadly defeat and despair into a symbol of transcendent power and hope. Long after the Roman Empire crumbled and fell, generation after generation has kept the spirit of Jesus alive in their own lives.
As for feeling small in the face of a big picture problem, I think Jesus gave us some clues for how to deal with that as well. Jesus knew how to take a fantastically big concept like the Kingdom of God and shrink it down into the size of something you can hold between your two fingers. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It is this super small, ity-bity, seemingly insignificant thing. To some, it might even seem like a joke. But then along comes a gardener who is tremendously dedicated to caring for plants and tending to them as they grow. This gardener decides that it is her job to take care of this ity-bity seed and make sure it gets planted and watered and fertilized. The gardener puts all this time and effort into taking care of this ridiculously puny mustard seed, but eventually something starts to grow, and once it starts growing, it flourishes and flourishes until finally it is the greatest plant in the whole garden. It’s the tree that all the birds want to make their home. For just about any church seeking to spiritually grow and embody the Kingdom of God here on earth, it’s not a bad image to have. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are as a congregation. It doesn’t matter how big a problem you are facing. The Kingdom can start with you. It can start when the heart of a congregation opens its doors to the let the world inside. It can start when a congregation is ready to let its heart get bigger and bigger. Amen.