BENjamin

Spring seems to have finally arrived here in Chicago after a pretty long winter. We’ve had some nice 60 degree days as well as some cool rainy ones. Spring is an exciting time… there’s so much newness.

First, my sister is about to give birth to a baby girl. I’m going to be an uncle and that’s exciting! Uncle Ben! I really am pumped to have a little niece.

Secondly, a new baseball season has begun. Go Twins! Its an exciting time for baseball fans because no matter how bad your team was last year, there’s hope that this year will be better than the last and you just want to see how those newcomers will do. It could be a long year for my beloved Twinkies. They’ve lost two of their best and most popular players in Torii Hunter and Johan Santana. Santana might be the best pitcher in all of baseball, but the thrifty Twins just couldn’t afford to pay these two that much money. But I’m still excited for this season. I doubt they’ll make the playoffs but I think they’ll be better than most expect. They still have Mauer and Morneau who can mash with the best of them. They also added a young guy by the name of Carlos Gomez. He might be the fastest player in baseball and I’m pretty high on him right now. He’ll strike out a lot but its just fun to have a guy that fast on your team. They also traded for Delmon Young. People don’t deny how talented this guy is and what his potential is, but he’s had some attitude/character issues/questions that have tainted people’s opinions of him and is why his previous team decided to trade him. However, he has said all the right things since coming to Minnesota and seems to be looking forward to making a fresh start with the Twins.

Speaking of fresh starts…

I’m a big fan of the book of Hosea. Its a book that is largely about second chances and the persistence and faithfulness of God with stubborn people. There’s a very spring-like term that is used in this book – Jezreel. Jezreel means ‘God plants.’ I think this idea is pretty cool. There’s excitement and hope and expectation. God is in spring mode. God is restoring and planting and we get to reap the harvest. I grew up on a farm and so the idea of planting is a familiar one to me. Now in the city, planting seems a little more foreign amidst all this metal, glass, pavement, and concrete. But when I was reading Hosea, I couldn’t help but be filled with an excitement and hope. God is planting something here in Chicago, and I want to see what grows and what will be harvested. What is God planting in you? What is God planting around you? Who has God planted in your life? Whose life has God planted you in? Spring truly is an exciting time.

It seems to me that peace and social justice have become pretty trendy among many Christian circles. It’s exciting to me that people are becoming more aware of the biblical mandates for these very good things but I’m pretty cynical about the real and actual efforts that we (myself included) are making to truly pursue these noble efforts. I will probably remind myself several times that this critical blog is aimed at me as well. I really wonder how truly dedicated and sincere our social justice efforts are. I wonder if its one of those things that we feel great talking about because just talking about such matters makes us feel like we’re really doing something. I’m leery of the chatter. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy sitting in a group of people that are concerned about social justice and believe that Christians are called by God to advocate for equality and justice. But it can’t just be talk.

Today I was at a conference for urban youth workers and I went to a session about justice. It was a good discussion and all of that. Several (of the numerous) biblical texts were brought up that talk about the demand for justice. One of those passages comes from Amos 5:21-24.

“I hate all your show and pretense – the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offering and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your hymns of praise! They are only noise to my ears. I will not listen to your music, no matter how lovely it is. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, a river of righteous living that will never run dry.”

This is a powerful passage. God desires his people to live justly and righteously more than he wants our songs and our offerings. Its not the only time the Scriptures say something like this. But I cringe sometimes when I read this passage or hear it presented in a workshop such as the one I was in. First of all I cringe because I find it very ironic that a Christian contemporary musician (CCM) made a worship song out of the last verse about letting justice roll down and mercy flow. I feel like they kind of missed the point of the passage. I don’t think that God was trying to tell us that we should sing songs about peace and justice. The point is that God desires us to pursue justice, to do it, to live it. As I thought about it more, I think CCM’s making a song out of the verse is somewhat fitting as a sign of what Christians may be doing with justice, mercy, and peace. I fear that we’ve made it a show. We’ve made social justice our ’show and pretense ‘ the hypocrisy…’ because it has become the trendy thing to talk about. We can say we’re about social justice and people are impressed. But God is not impressed with our talk. In the verse God doesn’t say he wants to hear people talking about justice … he wants to see it happening.

I’m not saying that the discussions should stop, but don’t let it be just a show. It has to be real. We need to be actively pursuing these things. We can’t settle for passive talk and simply not participating in injustice but actively doing justice, loving our neighbors, and advocating for others. And I’m not really sure that many people who claim to be about social justice are really sincere. Its cool to talk about and all that but are those of us who are so privileged by the systems of injustice really ready to give up those privileges and benefits to truly live a just and merciful life. Are we really willing to make that sacrifice or do we feel that saying we’re about social justice is what God wants to hear?

I think the reason that I’m writing this blog is that I’m kind of frustrated with myself and the workshops or discussions like the one I was at today. It was a good workshop and some interesting points were raised, but I’m ready to stop talking about how its important to be about social justice and start coming up with ways of actually pursuing justice and being merciful and living righteous. What should I do? How should I respond to the injustices that I hear about? What should I be doing on a day to day basis?