How do we braid justice into our everyday lives?
Article by Matt McCoy
3 minute read (plus videos)
What happens next? We’ve witnessed a cultural flashpoint, and we’ve all had to find our own individual places within it. The diversity of our church continues to delight and amaze me, and our diversity has certainly been on display through our responses to the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and many others.
Old Testament prophets consistently talk about how pandemics, pestilences, and plagues make visible the sins that are easily hidden, and the sin of racism in America has certainly been visible in the last few weeks.
This has been so visible that it’s prompted a global response. One response I found particularly impactful was from a British-Nigerian pastor who offered his condolences and several important responses. Honestly I’m grateful for all the voices outside of America who are speaking in to our current situation. I love how he braids together his faith, his race, his geography, his love of community, and everyday life all together:
So, what happens next? Last week we sent out a video highlighting Micah 6:8 and I concluded that video with the reminder that we all will “keep walking with our God.”
That’s all well and good, however, there is an inevitability that none of us can avoid:
Everyday life eventually returns to us all.
The way you read that last sentence says a lot about how you’re doing right now.
Some of you would read that with relief, “Ahhh, finally, everyday life eventually returns to us all.”
Some of you read that with grief, “What a bummer, everyday life eventually returns to us all.”
Some of you read that with despair, “I want to keep this intensity going! We have to keep this energy moving forward! Oh no! Everyday life eventually returns to us all.”
So what sort of ‘everyday life’ will we return to? And how will we braid our experiences, and how we make sense of them, into our everyday life?
One theme for us to braid into our everyday life is justice. I’ve heard this word used, a lot, over the last few weeks, and I think now is a fantastic time to explore this theme more. Our friends over at The Bible Project put together a great little video on justice, which we will get to watch together on Sunday. I’ve included the link below, but I have two small theological issues to point out before you go watch it.
First, the imagery is very individual in its response, which reflects the individualism of Americans, which is foreign to the biblical worldview.
Second, the person who has received forgiveness from Christ does not receive anything from their community, and we know that Uncommon Friendship means we give AND receive from everyone.
How do we braid this theme of justice into our everyday lives? This is a hard task, especially on the days when it feels like God is nowhere to be found. We need a guide for this journey. Let’s follow Ruth.
The story of Ruth is a beautiful demonstration of how God is at work and at play in the joys and frustrations of everyday life. She’ll invite us into discovering more about discerning God’s will, she’ll help us celebrate our vocations even when they seem kinda boring, and she demonstrates the sort of cross-cultural communication necessary to listen to people who are radically different than us.
Here’s a short video we tossed onto social media this week to introduce the topic for Sunday, if you’re not a social media sort of person: