Justice: Parishioner Reflections on the Jubilee

...justice flows naturally from our lives when we see God in those in need...

"No one can serve two masters. They will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." (Matthew 6: 24)
 
Believers who live in modern-day USA - the richest, most powerful country in the world-- face a stark challenge. While "In God We Trust" is inscribed on our currency, money itself seems to have become our society's God. The images on our billboards, TVs, and magazines seem to suggest that we always need more, bigger is better, and we are what we own.

The comfort that wealth provides is real. But it also can create an unbridgeable chasm between ourselves and a Lord who is especially present amidst the hungry, the homeless, the imprisoned, the outcast. While the US population is less than 5% of the world's total, we consume nearly 40% of the resources used each year. While many of our lives are eased by luxuries, nearly 30,000 people - most of them children - die each day from simple lack of proper nutrition.

It was this sort of on-going crucifixion of the poor that led Martin Luther King, Jr., to call for a "radical revolution of values" for this country in 1967. Sadly, both our society and our world have only grown more unequal since then, to the point where the USA has the highest poverty rate and most unequal distribution of wealth of any industrialized nation.

The structures that create and sustain this ugly situation are immense, it is true. Still, justice flows naturally from our lives when we see God in those in need. It is crushed when we allow money or material possessions to be our goal. Which master are we serving today?

Prayer:
God, give us the courage and vision to turn away from the false idols of our consumer culture, and more towards service to you in the least of our sisters and brothers.

Mark Andersen

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Revised/reviewed September 5, 2000