Speaking Justice, Living the Gospel: An Open Letter to The American Church

I have been dealing out internally with how to respond during the events of the past several months in our country. This news is nothing new; it is the lived experience of people of color and we aren't to debate the validity of their claims, but seek to understand what we are told is true. We must plunge into the tension-filled space and admit our wrongs. Repentance is hard, but God's justice rolling down like a mighty river is not mutually exclusive with pain. Let's sit down and take a look at the divide, and listen to what it is telling us. Could God be in the center of that divide, actually mending us? It cannot be out of anger nor angst that change happens, it must come from a place of love and abundance (side note-abundance has zero to do with the monetary). This journey takes time, humility, and grunt work.

I wrote this during my year in North Lawndale as an essay for my graduate class, Theology of Poverty, for Eastern University. I write on my lived experience and this is to all of us who choose to follow God in the Christian tradition. It still reflects some of my thoughts and feelings towards the church and it's role as part of society, although some things have progressed even further.

It is with deep love and care for the church that I publish this words.

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Dear (American) Church,

It has been a while that we’ve been following Jesus, hasn’t it? A few thousand years, and before that many of our brothers and sisters were following the voice of God, several awaiting the coming of our Savior. I wonder what it would have been like, to be a part of the first group of believers to be called Christians because they were following this man named Jesus Christ so closely. What an honor we can bestow! However, church, have we lost sight of this humble honor, and forgotten part of the life of the man we have chosen to follow? Have we abandoned the command to speak justice, love mercy, and walk humbly; in the Way of Jesus? As human beings capable of falling short, I believe we have. I believe we, American Christians, have repressed the unexplainable justice of Christ and the role it plays in God’s redemptive plan for the world. Our good news needs a resurrection by the Gospel of the crucified Jesus, and, church, with the power of God, I believe we can do it.

In his book, Overrated: Are We More in Love with the Idea of Changing the World Than Actually Changing the World, Eugene Cho makes a profound statement about justice: “God’s justice is His plan of redemption for a broken world. God’s justice is renewing the world to where He would have intended it to be.” Justice is so much more than a segment of the kingdom of God, but rather all of it. The deliverance from our sins, freedom from death, the healing of physical and social ills, and the call to steward our earth are all within the gospel Jesus came to reveal to us. What has been harmed must be reconciled to God’s original intent of creation. So, what is that? Can we actually create a world like that, now? My answer is, yes! It’s what we’re called to do in the here and now, church. To be the physical manifestation of the Kingdom that is to come to fullness when Jesus returns, but that can exist through us, right now. Amen!

“Remember that you are dust…”

Growing up and living in a country where we have access to so many necessities and conveniences, it can be difficult to remember our roots are in the dust of the earth. Our lives began out of the most-simple substance: dirt. The trees, plants, hills, and bushes all stem from the same ground we do. The sunlight giving us energy is the same sunlight that makes the gardens of my neighborhood grow, and the air in our lungs clean, if we also made it clean for the plants. You see, church, taking care of the earth isn’t something that “the world” has told us to do. It is something the Creator of this earth has commanded us to do. We can’t survive without stewarding our big, beautiful earth! When the earth suffers, we suffer. With the global temperature steadily rising, animals, plants, and people are dying because we have done our earth an injustice by polluting it. It is an injustice to the Creator to throw trash on the ground, to allow glaciers to melt and food supplies to dry up, leaving animals to die and people to starve. It is an injustice to all of us. When one of us suffers, all of us suffer. Recycle, throw trash away (don’t litter!), or try not to drive as much if you drive. Even the little things we do, matter.

Poverty Calls Us Out

The idea of success in America has usually been tied to monetary, physically tangible things. When one of us does not have them, we wonder how they don’t. Our nation tends to say it’s because they didn’t work hard enough for it, they made bad decisions, and probably don’t deserve it. Much of our theology in this country has been shaped around this idea — a theology of work ethic and prosperity. Our churches have faced fates of growing in numbers and dollars, but failing to reach the needs of the people outside of our newly renovated walls. But the gospel of Jesus whispers something quite different. Jesus dove to the core of our human struggles, to the root of our problems, and dwelt in them to redeem.

I currently live in North Lawndale, a neighborhood on the Westside of Chicago, and poverty is a common experience among the people of my community. I am a part of an urban ministry and during our orientation, one of our staff leaders made the comment, “there are no God-forsaken places, there are only church-forsaken places.” When we, the church, forget about justice, places are forsaken. And, church, all too often we have been the hands behind the very injustices we fail to see. Many people in my neighborhood have experienced poverty spanning several generations, because of compounding situations out of their control. It is systemic, because much of it is not of their own, original doing. This is an element of oppression, of which Jesus came to abolish and set the oppressed free (Luke 4:18). Most of my neighbors didn’t choose to live in Chicago; their parents, grandparents were refugees fleeing racial discrimination in the South. When they arrived, they were only greeted with discrimination from realtors, employers, and businesses that made it very expensive for them to live in Chicago and very difficult to get a job.

Many businesses moved out because of the area, causing several to lose jobs and little jobs to be available. This structure is still apparent today: there are few businesses to get jobs at, the jobs that are available are mostly minimum wage, and people are in poverty working full work weeks. In fact, many people live well below the poverty line working full time in my community. Jesus does not desire this. If we really, truly, believe that those red words of Jesus are the living word, then his words in Luke still ring true today. Jesus said he came to bring good news to the poor and set the oppressed free, written down thousands of years ago. But our Christ is risen and alive — that mission is continuing. And we’re asked to join in. What can your local church do to address the needs of your community? Are we willing to give our money, so that others may thrive, not just survive? And church, are we okay with our money and our time, going to non-Christians, if it means they can break free? Is Christ not living for all people? Dwell on that for a while, and see what God has to say.

Breaking to Mend the Broken

You see, church, Christ didn’t just deliver us from our sins and give us eternal life. He did so much more than that. He invited us in to a relationship with him in redeeming all things, including forgiveness of sins and eternal life, but it is not limited to these. How great is Jesus that he looks on us with that much love and adoration, that he would want to continue God’s plan with us. Restoring the world with Jesus is difficult and messy, can cost politics, friends and even family. In order to know what needs to be mended, we need to break for it first. We need to open our hearts and minds to the injustices we see and hear from others. We need to listen to each other. Justice is a biblical word. It is a Godly word. It is a rich, beautiful word that belongs to our Creator. And because of Jesus, belongs to us, too. We become more like God when we are aware of the injustices of this world; God has always been in the midst of them all. The question is, have we? Have we been the ones working to restore them, or the ones creating them? It’s painful to look back on our history, church, but we have to make things right. We must always seek shalom. We must never forget God’s justice is not always ours; God’s justice was crucified on a cross by the powers of human justice. But his resurrection brings revolution. Church, let’s bring that revolution.

Lovingly,