Why Church: Because God Calls for Justice—Psalm 31: 1-5; Acts 7:1, 51-60
In the State of Georgia, your fourth shoplifting conviction is automatically a felony and requires one year in prison, not local jail, but full prison. There are no exceptions, and it doesn’t matter how much you stole. She stood in front of me with her attorney in 2015, a 66-year-old grandmother suddenly tasked with parenting her 5-year-old grandchild because the child’s mother was killed in a car wreck. She had been caught red handed on her fourth shoplifting charge, and the law was clear she had to serve one year in prison, probation and a $500 mandatory fine.
She had three prior shopliftings. She stole earrings at 17, makeup at 18, and a couple bottles of wine at 20. Here she was, now, 46 years later charged with shoplifting from Kroger. Unfortunately, she stole because she lived on social security, was waiting on food stamps for her grandchild’s care, and couldn’t get ahold of Meals on Wheels to update delivery information. There was no food, no help, and no hope. So, she stole. And the law called for a hefty penalty.
Today, in Acts, we read about the first martyred apostle, Stephen. He stood accused of blaspheming God and Moses. If we go back to Acts 6, we hear that Stephen was man filled with God’s wisdom and Spirit. He was debating some men from another synagogue, and apparently his skill led him to fully and completely win the debate. None could touch his gifts of wisdom and Spirit. So, in true form, they persuaded others to lie and say he was a blasphemer as payback for bruising their egos. It was petty. It was cruel, and I’m willing to bet it got far, far more out of hand than they ever expected it to go.
At his trial, Stephen starts out retelling all his knowledge of the faith. Then he calls the religious leaders stubborn, rebellious, unyielding to the Spirit, and accuses them of their ancestor’s crimes of killing the prophets. But when he proclaims a vision of Jesus at the right hand of God, they come completely unglued and murder him. He was right. Nothing Stephen said was untrue. But everything he said was illegal according to the religious law of the day. He was right and it was illegal to be right. Was this justice?
Justice is found in God’s gifts of wisdom and truth. And sometimes standing for what is truthful and right can lead us into uncomfortable places. We live in a world that is often unjust, unfair, unethical, and unrepentant of all those things. Many of you know this all too well. Some of you grew up in a time when it was fully and completely legal, written in code, for people of color to be treated as second class citizens and even less than human in many instances. It was legal, but it was completely wrong, and incredibly unjust.
Some of you have talked about dealing with your illnesses and the medications that you need to treat them. Those medications are thousands of dollars, and the insurance says, “Nope, sorry.” It’s perfectly legal. But it’s grossly unfair and unjust. Some of you have gotten a big old dose of dealing with the criminal justice system and how overtaxed, underfunded, and ill-equipped it has become since COVID. Hearing the words, “I’m sorry, but we just don’t have the resources to help you,” is perfectly legal and allowable. But it leaves you with no justice, and it’s unfair.
Jesus came as the Messiah on this earth to live, love, heal, and teach. He proclaimed good news, and he showed people the truth of his work as the Son of God. They killed him. What he said was absolutely illegal. To claim divinity and power over the religious rules and institutions was blasphemous. The law of that day proscribed Jesus’s execution, and yet it was monstrous, unjust, and unfair in every way. But out of that unjustness, Jesus brought us life and grace.
Justice is found in wisdom and mercy, and at times, we struggle with both. Wisdom is found in our ability to listen both to God’s voice and to the voice of others. I have always loved the analogy that you may know that a tomato is actually a fruit, but wisdom tells you not to put it in your fruit salad. There’s a level of judgement, discernment, listening, and experience which all go into the mix to create wisdom. Wisdom teaches us when to talk and when to listen. Wisdom is that voice speaking to us telling us when something doesn’t sit well with our soul, even if it is what is expected and called for. Wisdom is often the Holy Spirit giving us a nudge in the right direction.
Mercy is what Jesus offers us in the cross, and what we are called to offer others through grace. Stephen would have never stoned those men for what they said to him. He followed in the mercy of Christ. When we put these two things together—wisdom and mercy—we find justice, a place where we protect the vulnerable and work to make life more gentle for those who suffer.
Why church? Because God calls us to stand for what is just and fair based on what the Bible tells us is right and holy. The Bible talks about justice 328 times, and 25 of those specifically instruct us to “do justice,” in some form or another. Christians can get a bit nervous when we talk about justice because it feels like we’re about to walk through the sermon equivalent of the valley of the shadow of death straight into preaching politics.
But God’s justice is not about politics. It’s about grace, and a Savior who called us to live into grace in our world. What we have to go back to is the two big commands that Jesus gave us: Love God and Love Our Neighbors. In our Gospel, Stephen says some pretty harsh things to the religious leaders, and he didn’t particularly say it in a very tactful way. But underneath Stephen’s abrupt speech was this call for them to do justice and to find the wisdom and mercy of Jesus in their own lives. Stephen offered them the truth and a call to repent and return.
Repentance should be the end result of justice. Where injustice is confronted and called out, the remedy is to return to God, repent of the wrong, and begin doing what is right and just. And we find the truth of what is right and just in Jesus’s words—love God, and love our neighbors. A wise friend once said to me that faith is really pretty easy. Once you believe, if you filter everything you do and say through that filter of loving God and loving your neighbors, you won’t really run afoul of what Jesus says all that much.
I really like how the Psalm says it: “O Lord, I have come to you for protection; don’t let me be disgraced. Save me, for you do what is right.” A minister in the Presbyterian church I was playing piano for once said, “What is popular is not always what is right, and what is right is not always what is popular. In either case, you must find a sure footing in Jesus to stand firm.” Wisdom. Mercy. And Justice.
And so, she stood before me with her attorney, this 66-year-old grandmother, tears streaming down her face in a silent cry. She had concealed these food items, which was enough for shoplifting, and when caught had turned everything back over. But concealing the items with intent was enough. All of us there knew that if she pled guilty, she’d have to go to jail and lose custody of her only grandchild, her only family left. If she went to trial, she’d probably get several years in prison, likely not surviving at her age. She had done wrong, and the law and my superiors would not allow me to just dismiss the case.
But did you know that if someone pleads guilty to “attempted shoplifting,” there’s no prison or jail time required at all? And maybe, if a desperate person steals food but returns it when caught, attempted shoplifting is enough without jailing a terrified old woman and destroying an entire family. Wisdom will speak a powerful, Spirit-filled word to us. Mercy will tug at our Christ-centered hearts. An in those times, we pray that the world will know God’s goodness, God’s grace, and God’s justice.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/939802017060013