Justice Devotional - Greatness of a Nation

From 
Devotion to Justice
A series of devotions from the Justice table on the topics of

• Women and children
• Hunger and poverty
• Creation care
• Immigration

Greatness of a Nation
Psalm 72:11-14

Make other rulers bow down and all other nations serve him. Do this because the king rescues the homeless when they cry out, and he helps everyone who is poor and in need. The king has pity on the weak and the helpless and protects those in need. He cares when they suffer, and he saves them from cruel and violent deaths. (Psalm 72:11-14, Contemporary English Version).

This Scripture teaches us two things: (1) that the greatness of a nation depends on how it treats the poor, vulnerable and needy; and (2) that the government (here represented by the king as sovereign) has a God-given responsibility for the life, health and well-being of all who suffer and are in need. In a democratic society where the people are sovereign, it is now our responsibility to work together through our government to fulfill this sacred obligation for political leaders in all nations.

Just and merciful God, you are the Giver of all good things and the Judge of all nations. Have mercy on the nations of the world, including our own, bless us with good and wise and compassionate leaders, and help us always to remember that the greatest among nations is the one that does the most to lift up the least of its people, especially those who are poor and hungry. In your Holy Name we pray. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Ken Brooker Langston Executive Director, Disciples Center for Public Witness, DOC Justice Advocacy Consultant and Public Policy Advisor, Office of the General Minister and President of the Christian Church (DOC) Director, Disciples Justice Action Network (DJAN) Hunger and Poverty Read more!

Justice Devotional - God Gives Freely

From 
Devotion to Justice
A series of devotions from the Justice table on the topics of

• Women and children
• Hunger and poverty
• Creation care
• Immigration

God Gives Freely
2 Corinthians 9:9-11

God freely gives his gifts to the poor and always does right. God gives seed to the farmer and provides everyone with food. He will increase what you have so that you can give even more to those in need. You will be blessed in every way, and will be able to keep on being generous. (2 Corinthians 9: 9-11, Contemporary English Version).

In God’s good creation, God has provided enough for everybody to have their basic needs met. If we have been blessed with stewardship over a part of God’s abundance for all, then we, as people of faith and conscience, have both the responsibility and the privilege to share these blessings with others, especially those most in need, through our personal giving, our community involvement, and our advocacy for public policies consistent with this understanding of God’s purposes.

O God of abundance, you have blessed your children with enough and more than enough to meet all of our needs. So fill us, we pray, with such an abundance of gratitude that we will freely share our blessings with others and do our part to ensure that, in all areas of life, your abundance is more equally shared, leaving no one poor or hungry or homeless. This we pray in your Holy Name. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Ken Brooker Langston 
Executive Director, Disciples Center for Public Witness, 
DOC Justice Advocacy Consultant and Public Policy Advisor, Office of the General Minister and President of the Christian Church (DOC) 
Director, Disciples Justice Action Network (DJAN) Hunger and Poverty Read more!

Justice Devotional - Taking Faith Seriously

From 
Devotion to Justice
A series of devotions from the Justice table on the topics of

• Women and children
• Hunger and poverty
• Creation care
• Immigration

Taking Faith Seriously

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

On World Refugee Day this year, I was at the courthouse supporting a man from my church as he became a U.S. Citizen. His people, the indigenous Bunong people — also among the handful of tribes known as Montagnard — are refugees for many reasons. There is racism, there is the political lashing out against those who fought alongside the Americans during the Vietnam War, there is the Christian faith that now defines life for so many Montagnard people, and there is the inconvenience of these hill tribes of indigenous people living for generations on mineral rich soil that can be harvested and exploited for profit if only all these people would disappear.

Most refugees have left their homeland for a few of these reasons. Montagnards are in the unique position of being refugees for ALL the reasons persons might become refugees. The one that has hurt the deepest, they tell me, is that they are hunted for their faith. When their churches burned down, they have gathered for worship in homes; when they were told that celebrating Christmas would be a punishable offense, they have gathered for Christmas anyway and endured the resulting beatings and torture; when they were told that public gatherings like baptisms would get them fined and arrested, they have baptized in rivers under cover of darkness. These are a people who take their faith seriously. I am awed by what they have lived through for their faith in Jesus.

The man who now pledged allegiance to the flag had passed through the waters, through the fires, through the floods. Now he decided to put his lot in with the country that had become his home. As it turns out, wherever he has gone, he has carried Jesus with him. In this land or that one, living in a traditional Bunong village, or in a suburban Charlotte home, he and others like him have carried hope in Christ like a light to show them the way.

I marvel that, on the Sundays when it's too rainy to go out and people stay home from church; on the Sundays when it is too lovely to be inside and people opt to do something other than church; on the holidays when all the extra family and celebrations crowd out church; Montagnards in Vietnam and persecuted people around the world are risking their lives to gather together, to worship, to share a little of the light they have found that will, one day, lead them to their true home.

Rev. Jolin Wilks McElroy: Pastor First Christian Church, Charlotte,

NC Immigration and Refugees Read more!

Justice Devotional - Moses’ Mother and Strategic Decisions for Placement

From 
Devotion to Justice
A series of devotions from the Justice table on the topics of

• Women and children
• Hunger and poverty
• Creation care
• Immigration

Moses’ Mother and Strategic Decisions for Placement

Exodus 2:1-10

My recent life feels like it has been all about movement. A move from California to Washington, D.C., from a city condo to a neighborhood house, from a community office to a church site, from a single life to marriage. In every change, I have been struck by the number of decisions about placement that have been required: Where should we look for a home? In what new locations will we put items from all those boxes? What living arrangement will best allow my husband’s future to now fit with my own? They are strategic decisions, each one small but building upon another, working together to form a new life.

In chapter two of Exodus, Moses’ mother Jochebed made strategic placement decisions far more complex than these. Aware she had given birth to a son the Pharaoh wanted to kill because he was afraid of her people; she traded in a certain future of trauma by making a decision to use a little bit of tar. She bravely opted to use a basket for life instead of becoming a basket case of fear. Rather than drowning in panic, she protected her son amid the papyrus — and strategically floated him into the arms of the Pharaoh’s princess. Each one was a small decision. But building together, they formed a remarkable future for their Hebrew family — as the princess eventually paid Jochebed to nurse and care for her beloved baby she had protected.

All around us are immigrant neighbors also making their own strategic placement decisions to try to build a solid new home in this country for their families. There’s the single mother who walked her children to school every day because she was not allowed to get a license. There’s the young woman “DREAMer” who was raised here most of her life but not allowed to accept a scholarship because she was brought to this country without documents as a young child. And there’s the father recruited to produce food in America’s fields, who now is laid off and must choose to leave his family now settled here or risk being caught and deported. As people of faith, we also have the chance to make strategic decisions to build just policies for compassionate immigration reform to help refugees and immigrants in our midst build more firm futures. Pastor Natalie Chamberlain from Fresno, CA. shared stories with her congressmen this week of two church children impacted by recent ICE roundups at the end of the recent growing season in the fertile San Joaquin Valley. One was a little boy in her church’s pen pal program who broke down crying to his pal because of his dad’s deportation. Another child’s family had been attending church, but is now gone because they could no longer pay the rent. As we work in partnership with our denomination’s Refugee & Immigration Ministries to welcome newcomers, let us remember the courage of Moses’ mother Jochebed and likewise make decisions that help build stronger and faith filled futures for our neighbors, our churches, ourselves. God who granted Moses’ mother with the courage to float a basket that led to the Promised Land and extended the journeys of your Hebrew people, let us listen to the courage of those seeking futures around us, and share our love to build family unity and hope. AMEN. Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley-Rea Director of Refugee & Immigration Ministries,
Disciples Home Missions Immigration and Refugees

Read more!

Justice Devotional - Citizenship

From 
Devotion to Justice
A series of devotions from the Justice table on the topics of

• Women and children
• Hunger and poverty
• Creation care
• Immigration

Citizenship

Matthew 20:9-12

Since we were little kids, most of us had a well-developed sense of what was fair. When our brother or sister got away with something, we were quick to say, “That’s not fair!” Maybe our parents told us the old adage, “Life isn’t fair.” But deep down, we still cling to the belief that it should be. That’s one reason we’re so incensed when someone doesn’t follow the rules.

For many, the thought of people entering the United States by crossing the border illegally evokes the same outrage: “Who do you think you are? You think you’re so special that the rules don’t apply to you? That’s not fair!”

But that’s just it: it’s not fair.

It’s not fair that I was born on U.S. soil, thereby becoming a U.S. citizen. Because of that fact, I have lived my life free from genocide, political dictatorship, civil war, religious persecution and famine. And then there’s my other citizenship: While I was still a sinner, Christ died for me, making me a citizen in the kingdom of heaven. If ever I should exclaim, “That’s not fair!” it’s because I have received so much more than I deserved.

Immigration is not a simple issue with simple answers. In fact, the more I learn, the more I appreciate the complexity of it all. But I have also found that starting the discussion with recognition that I do not deserve my citizenship — either of them — is a lot more productive than starting it by crying foul.

Can we set our indignation aside, or at least hold it lightly, while we learn about immigration? Because if we do, I believe we’ll find new understanding. And most importantly, I believe we’ll open ourselves to the ways God is working in the Church.

Gracious God, thank you for giving me so much more than I deserve. Help me to live into my citizenship in your kingdom.

Tana Liu-Beers: Immigration Legal Counsel, Disciples Home Missions Durham,
North Carolina Immigration and Refugees Read more!

Justice Devotional - The Problem with Names

From 
Devotion to Justice
A series of devotions from the Justice table on the topics of

• Women and children
• Hunger and poverty
• Creation care
• Immigration

The Problem with Names
Revelation 21:22-27

Life as a refugee is a hard life. There is the indignity of losing one's home. And then add to that the displacing of an entire family, a resettling in a land with different language and different customs and different expectations. Whatever you were in the prior land — a doctor, a teacher, a farmer — very likely bears no relationship on what you are allowed to do in the new place. On top of all this, there is the problem with names.

Many refugees lose their given names when they leave their home and settle in a new place. A few families in our congregation lost their last names when they traveled to Cambodia to a refugee camp. Men were given the initial Y as a last name and women were given a letter H. The US Government had drawn up paperwork to correspond to the legal names Cambodia had given people when they resettled. In a great irony, the process of becoming an American Citizen allows refugees to reclaim those lost names, that lost heritage. By becoming American, they are allowed (finally!) to be called by their names.

Our Lord knows us beyond the names and the labels we wear. Our Lord prepares a place for the faithful even if no other place in the world provides them a welcome. Our Lord finds a way. And with the Lamb, with Jesus the Christ, we are known deeply and completely. With the Lamb, we are home.

Personal experience and panic prompted some of our teenagers to ask a Bible Study teacher about the scripture where the Lamb's book has everyone's name. "How will we know if we're welcome in the new Jerusalem? How will we know if Jesus calls us? Which name will the Lamb use?" The answer the teacher gave was the only answer that mattered. "You'll just know."

Rev. Jolin Wilks McElroy: Pastor First Christian Church, Charlotte, NC Immigration and Refugees. Read more!

Justice Devotional - Worth Being Spent

From 
Devotion to Justice
A series of devotions from the Justice table on the topics of

• Women and children
• Hunger and poverty
• Creation care
• Immigration

Worth Being Spent
Isaiah 58:10

Injustice is a prevailing and ever present ill of society not to be ignored, disregarded or averted. It gives way to economic inequality, human trafficking, environmental degradation, the prison industrial complex, systemic racism and more woes than can be counted resulting in a burdensome list seemingly too great to fight. Yet, we are called to seek justice in the midst of this reality. To spend ourselves for those who hunger and satisfy the needs of those who are oppressed.

No matter how daunting this call may be, we have the power to make a difference in the lives of any who suffer. We are not being set up to fail. We are being invited to join with God in transforming the precious life of another, who is made in the image of God. A meal, a donation, a coat or a protest have the capacity to shine light into the dark situations that are faced during times of oppression and trial. May we be faithful enough to help, strong enough to stand and bold enough to illuminate that darkness.

Most benevolent Creator, forgive our hesitation to seek justice. Bring back to the forefront of our minds how significant changing one moment in one person’s life can truly be. Mature us out of attitudes that oppress our compassion and smother the light of Christ within us. May You mature in us the notion that only our needs are critical. Restore us when the work feels endless and burdensome. We submit ourselves to be bearers of justice and barriers of injustice. May Your grace, mercy and love abound. Amen.

Rev. Lashaundra Smith: Pastor First Christian Church (DOC), Gulfport, MS Hunger and Poverty Read more!