Justice: The Final Frontier

If you have not read the previous two blog entries, please stop, go back, and do so, as these three posts are intended to be read together.

Now that you are back, we turn our thoughts toward justice. What are the just kingdom realities toward which we strive if so much of our current experiences of charity are inadequate and perhaps even harmful?


Often in these conversations I will hear someone throw out Jesus' quote, "the poor you will always have with you." This line is thrown out as though charity is really the best we can hope for anyway. But Jesus himself was quoting Deuteronomy, and the verse in its entire context reads, "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land" (Deuteronomy 15:11). Funny, but we always leave off that later part about therefore care for those in your land. We also miss the quote from earlier in the chapter where it says, "However, there need be no poor people among you" (v.4).

If poverty was supposed to be eradicated in the midst of the people of God how was (how is) that supposed to happen? Spoiler alert, I will not solve this age old question in the following paragraphs. But, how can we keep pressing in to this question?

JUSTICE AS SYSTEMIC REFORM IN SCRIPTURE
The text in Deuteronomy that was quoted speaks to systemic reform. Moses was advocating for an overhaul of how people interacted with one another when there were inequities. First, there was to be a general posture of openhanded generosity as a posture of faith. Faith that there was enough. Faith that God was good and provides in abundance to be shared, not scarcity to be hoarded. From that place of open handed generosity there was then also to be a radical reckoning which was to even the playing field every seven years, at which point debts were cancelled and properties returned to original owners so that the equity with which things were portioned out originally could be the reference point for the whole community.

JUSTICE AS SYSTEMIC REFORM IN THE CHURCH
What might this look like for us today? This radical redistribution of resources is deeper and more thorough-going than our practices of charity, even if we think of charity in terms of redistribution of resources. What does this idea of transferring the means of wealth equitably look like within our churches and between our churches? What might it look like for the offering plate to be not simply a means of income generation for the programs and expenses of the church, but as a mechanism for the radical redistribution of wealth as it seemed to be in the days of the early church? What would it look like for churches, maybe together in a geographical area to commit to ensuring that there was no one who was homeless within the geographical neighbourhood? What would it look like for the church to be at the cutting edge of societal reform around poverty issues because we are motivated by a gospel imperative of love that seeks justice?

JUSTICE AS SYSTEMIC REFORM IN SOCIETY
Throughout Scripture there is a clarion call for justice that removes the yoke of oppression. Removing that yoke cannot be done with bandaids and I would argue that it can rarely be done in a generation. The kinds of yokes that oppress in our society today reach deep into the psyche of all of us and touch on our primary ways of interacting with the world. But creating more just systems can create ladders with which we can all move toward more generous and more equal ways of being in the world.

If you live in BC and Canada, let me point you in the direction of Seth Klein and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives for more information on all of these things. While for many of us who are middle to upper income earners or even working to upper class persons these may seem like ideological concepts that are very removed from your every day life, for the poor, who are often working class as well, this touches on daily life and creates the need for charity. Topics for us to get involved with from a justice perspective include:

The Living Wage: because work should lift you out of poverty, not keep you there
Tax Reform because in BC we have had a decade of eroding tax fairness where the richest 20% pay the lowest total tax rate, and middle-income ones pay a lower rate than poor and modest-income households
Welfare Policies: there is a significant need for reforms here. Some information can be found at the website for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives but a summary of the problems include: the fact that welfare in its current form discourages work by deducting dollar for dollar whatever you make from your welfare payments (particularly since welfare does not provide a livable amount month to month). A person on welfare cannot have any money in the bank month to month or else that amount is deducted from their cheque. There are time limits (as of 2004) as to how long you can stay on welfare (2 years out of every 5) while supports for finding work have been radically cut.

WHAT CAN YOU DO????
1. Educate yourself on problems that don't affect you on a day to day basis but that do affect your neighbours.
2. Advocate for change. Consider joining the living wage campaign or the raise the rates campaign.
3. Redistribute wealth by contributing money to an area of need and trust the people there to sort out how to use it. Give them time to be able to respond in a way that is most appropriate to their context.
4. Ask, who are the invisible poor in your neighbourhood and figure out a way that they can help you. Turn the power dynamics upside down, it was something Jesus was very fond of doing!

He has shown you, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you. Do justice. Love mercy. Walk in humility with your God.