Reflection on Justice and Peacemaking

by Sandra L. (Sandy) Strauss

Morning Worship, July 16, 2004
Ghost Ranch Conference Center

Text: Matthew 25:31-46

In our world, it’s easy to ignore the plight of prisoners. Most of the atrocities we hear about are nowhere within our sight—and many are halfway around the world. Within our more recent historical perspective there were Jews in Nazi Germany and the internment of Japanese persons living in this country. There were dissidents sent to Siberia and black South Africans held hostage in their own country. There are women figuratively held hostage throughout the world—women forced under the chador in Afghanistan and women in South Africa living under the cloud of AIDS, infected by husbands who bring it home when they return from working far from home. There are young African American men who turn to selling drugs because they cannot find work—and young women around the world turning to prostitution because other doors are closed to them. There are men and women who remain “in the closet” because some people cannot accept that their sexuality is different. Iraqi citizens are bound and hooded, or threatened with dogs.

It’s easy to claim that others are responsible—after all, what did you or I do that caused these atrocities? Others have issued the orders, or governments have sanctioned these acts. But—as citizens of this world, and citizens of the kingdom of heaven, we cannot turn a blind eye to the horrible acts that leave persons physically bound and broken, or the policies that establish invisible barriers that are just as much a prison as bars, brick, and rope.

As citizens of the kingdom, we have a responsibility to ensure that our brothers and sisters have the opportunity to live without fear, to live without persecution, to live without undeserved imprisonment. Yet, we may think we can do nothing. What can one person do that will make a difference? Why bother? We can’t change the world.

I’d like to challenge the assumption that we are powerless. We are certainly not! We have, in many cases, ceded our power to those who have abused it—to governments who wage unjust wars against other countries or against their own citizens. We have given power to multinational corporations that maximize profits by underpaying and overworking laborers. We have permitted mainstream media to control how news is fed to us so that we only hear the perspective that those who set the agenda want us to hear.

How do we change it? We can’t offer a prisoner our ticket for freedom, but we can exercise our power to vote. We must seek to educate ourselves and others so that we can vote responsibly. We must demand that our elected officials enact legislation based on justice and fairness, and when they do not do so, we must seek persons who will and vote to put them in office. We must cease, to the extent possible, to support companies who exploit workers, destroy the environment, or employ business practices designed to maximize profits to the detriment of individuals, families, communities, and even countries. Voting—using the power of the ballot box or the power of your feet—can send a powerful statement to those we entrust with power to do the right thing.

There is hope—hope for freedom, hope for true change that will release the prisoners—but only if we accept our complicity in their imprisonment and size the power we possess to do what our faith demands that we do. Matthew’s words speak volumes—whatever we do, or don’t do, to the least of God’s children, we do, or don’t do, to God. It’s not enough to stand on the sidelines and watch. God calls us to do nothing less than to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

We have the power to do these things. We have the responsibility to do these things. If we do not exercise our power and demand better, we will not see change and we will not see justice.

And if we cannot see justice, we will never know peace.

O God, you give us much, and we respond with so little. You give us a world that provides all that we need, and we destroy your creation and exploit your resources so that it provides for only a few. You give us a wonderful diversity of brothers and sisters, all created in your image, and assume our image is your only true image and find ways to imprison those who are different.

God of grace…God of love…God of wisdom…God of peace…pour your Holy Spirit on us and lead us down a path of justice. Help us to see the error of our ways and give us the power to work for change. Guide us to see your face in “the least of those”—so that we may be turned from goats to sheep, treating them as they deserve to be treated, as true children of God.

Let us take strength from the peace we find in this place and go forth refreshed and renewed, prepared to set your people free to live in peace. Amen.