When faith intertwines with justice in one's community and at church

LANSING, Michigan — As participants in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Young Adult Advocacy Conference came together for Sunday morning service with members of First Presbyterian Church of Lansing, the Rev. Jennifer Hibben had a situation back home on her mind.

While on the way to the conference, Hibben, a Methodist minister accompanying a group pf YAAC participants who were en route from Iowa, had received a notification that a community member had been apprehended by immigration authorities.

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“We're really heartbroken about that,” said Hibben, who directs The Vine, a campus ministry affiliated with Collegiate Presbyterian Church and serving the Iowa State University community. "We continue to figure out how we as people of the church can continue to work so that these things don't happen.” 

Social justice advocacy work — and the importance of getting young people involved — was the focus of last weekend’s conference, also known as "Jesus and Justice." The topic also tied into Sunday’s sermon at First Presbyterian Church by the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, advocacy director in the Interim Unified Agency of the PC(USA).

Explaining how the conference works, Hawkins told church service attendees that “we bring young people together to talk about faith and justice together — how they are intertwined” and later added, "God calls us to be people of justice.”

During his sermon, Hawkins noted that “when you talk to young people about their priorities, justice is at the top of the list,” and praised a YAAC panel of young adults for expressing their concern about many topics on Saturday.

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Young people “talk about the ways in which they want to make a difference in this world,” Hawkins noted, and when “you look at all of the protest marches that happened in this country in the last five years, most of them have been led by young people.”

So it’s vital for the church to convey the message that justice was important to Jesus and is also important to the PC(USA), Hawkins has noted.

“We've got to find ways to connect with young people, to let them know that we, too, are concerned about justice,” he said. “We want to support you in your drive to make a difference in this world, to be a living witness to what it means to follow Jesus.” 

One of the main scriptures that Hawkins highlighted was Matthew 23:23-24 in which Jesus chastises the people for neglecting justice, mercy and faithfulness. “Those are our priorities today, church. If everyone does not have justice, we cannot be comfortable.”

Hawkins also emphasized Micah 6:8, which asks, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God?”

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Yet “our rulers are struggling with what it means to have integrity,” Hawkins said. “Our nation is so divided, one against another, and even in the church, we define ourselves by political labels,” such as being a red, blue or purple church, instead of remembering that “we fall under the banner of Jesus Christ.”

Regardless of race, socioeconomic status or political party, “when we walk in this house we are one,” Hawkins said.

The preacher also expressed concern about wars scattered around the world, from Gaza to Sudan to Ukraine, and urged church attendees to look to Micah 4:2-3 for words of peace.

“War is too rampant around this world,” Hawkins said. “And we pray that our God might indeed bring forth this promise that all nations will put away their weapons of war and yet melt them down into farming tools in order to feed hungry children. That is why we are here church. We are called to be a people who recognize that there is pain in this world, there's suffering in this world, and we cannot pretend that it's not going forth and not happening and not do anything about it.”

Read what the Rev. Jihyun Oh had to say at Jesus and Justice here. A story about an immigration march and vigil that was part of the conference can be found here.