Participating in Social Justice by Josiah Espinoza
“Jesus spent his whole life helping the
incarcerated, the poor, the hungry and the needy. He said, ‘This is the kingdom
of God, when you help these.’”[1] Pastor Randy Howard.
As we entered the New Year of 2016, Pastor
Randy Howard has been emphasizing the need for community outreach and
integration. He has stated several times the need to transform our mentality
toward the poor, oppressed and marginalized. He has preached on the need to
reach the incarcerated, the disenfranchised, the homeless, and the children
that are hungry and in need of godly centered homes. Participating in social
justice is indeed the work of the church. Jesus has expected it of his
followers. So as we experience transformation through the power of the Gospel
in the inner man, there should be a compelling drive by the Spirit to transform
the community around us.
The church has always emphasized the need
of transformation. Transformation is the process that every believer is
experiencing through the new birth of the Spirit of God. All those that have
put their faith in the salvific work of Christ are experiencing the new birth,
as it is written “Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has
come.”[2]
But what does it mean to experience the new and what is it about the new that
we are to be beholding? Throughout church history the emphasis of the new has
always been focused on the newness of the inner man, which is absolutely true
and essential for understanding the born again experience. The Scriptures are
full of statements of inner transformation and newness of life. In the newness
of life there is death to the old man and an awakening of life by the sovereign
grace of God through the Holy Spirit by faith and repentance. Yet, the newness
of life of the inner man cannot be beheld with the eyes because the inner man
is invisible. So what was the Apostle saying when he said “behold?” Not just the
transformation of the inner man, but the visible outward expressions of the
transformed inner man. The newness of the inner man causes a transformation of
outward action so that the world may behold the life of Christ in us, as it
says in Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so
that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in
heaven.” This is what it means to participate in social justice. Dr. Jessica W.
Wong[3]
understands social justice in the following way:
If we are going to use the language of social justice as
Christians, we must understand it to be the realization of the Kingdom of God
in our midst as we learn both to embody Jesus and, at the same time, to
recognize and honor Jesus in the people around us. This is not an individual
project, but a communal one that requires us to see the world through the lens
of Jesus Christ.[4]
Once the church community
becomes one in their understanding of social justice, then true transformation
can take place and the church can begin to change the surrounding social
injustices for the sake of the Kingdom. As a church community we must tackle socially
unjust systems together and shine the light of Christ on those who are a part
of those systems, such as: the incarcerated, the poor and homeless, and the children
in the foster care system.
As one considers their
view of incarcerated people one must remember three very important things: (1)
they are humans made in the imago dei (image
of God); (2) their mistakes do not negate their need for help, for themselves
or their families; (3) God is willing to forgive them and reconcile them to
himself and to the body of Christ.
The people in our prison
systems have been made into statistics, numbers that only give the public an
idea of what percentage the population is in the prison system. They are only
viewed as leeches that “take from our hard working tax paying” citizens. Society
has labeled them as threats and corrupted people that deserve their just
punishment. However, one must always remember that everyone deserves the just
wrath of God but that through his grace alone, his church is reconciled to the
Father by the sacrifice of the Son. In the same way, the church is supposed to
graciously extend its hand toward those who have been objectified by the legal
system. It is the duty of the church, not only to visit the incarcerated, as it
says, “I was in prison and you came to me,”[5]
but to reintegrate them back into society by lovingly inviting them to become
one with the church under the banner of the Holy Spirit.
Another great call that
the church has been commanded to accomplish is to reach the poor. However, one
must first come to a proper definition of what is meant by “poor.” Poverty is
not just defined by the lack of material possession. Nor is it understood as an
interior spiritual state (“poor in spirit”).
I think that Gustavo Gutierrez gives a proper definition of what poverty
is in the biblical sense. He states that, “In the Bible poverty is a scandalous
condition inimical to human dignity and therefore contrary to the will of God.”[6] In
other words, the state of the poor is a total objectification of the person.
The poor are dehumanized and made into objects in our society. They are seen in
a similar light as the incarcerated; people that are using tax payers’ dollars
to get “free stuff.”
The homeless are seen as
drug addicts, alcoholics, people with vices and lazy people that need to get
their life together and work hard. Although I do agree with the verse that
states that “the laborer deserves his wages,”[7]
yet the context of those verses is in regards to ministers receiving wages for
their work. The other scripture that is commonly used amongst evangelicals to
not give to the poor is 2 Thess. 3:10b that states, “If anyone is not willing
to work, let him not eat,” but this verse is in reference to those within the
church that were taking advantage of the support of the other people within the
church, not about the poor. It is also commonly stated that “the poor from our
day, are not the same poor from Jesus’ day.” Meaning, the reasons that there
were poor people in Jesus’ day are not the same reasons we have poor people
amongst us today. This may be true to a certain extent, but that does not make the
poor of our day any less in need. The church must transform its thinking about
the homeless if we are ever going to affect our community for the glory of
God’s Kingdom.
Jesus says, “Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow
from you.”[8]
Understanding the context of this scripture is absolutely essential to
understanding social justice. Jesus commands us to give to the one who begs and
to not refuse the one who would borrow. This verse is written in the context of
loving your enemy and letting people take advantage of you. One thing that is
true for most people is that when a homeless or poor person is begging from you,
the automatic assumption is to think that the person begging is trying to take
advantage of you. Yet Jesus expects us to give to those people with a joyful
heart even if they may be trying to take advantage of you. It is not expected
of the people of the church to fix world hunger because the poor will always be
amongst us, but it is expected of the
church to become the type of people that do not dehumanize others or presuppose
that the homeless and poor are “not really” homeless or poor. It is expected of
the body of Christ to affect the community among us for the kingdom of Jesus and
to do it in such a way that reflects the nature of God’s grace. The church
needs to change its mentality toward the poor. The church is to give without
prejudice, without bias and without presupposing the intention of the beggar.
The church
ought to give in secret so that the Father who sees in secret might reward them.
“Whoever
is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.”[9] Being
generous, as I have stated before, is
more than tending to their material needs. Being generous is recognition of
their being made in the imago dei,
entering into their pain and suffering, and tending to their needs
holistically. Where there is need for food, feed them. Where there is need for
spiritual life, give them the life giving message of the gospel. Where there is
physical or emotional pain or suffering, suffer and weep with them, that their
sorrow may turn to joy. The church must become a place of healing and
provision. As it is written:
As for the
rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of
riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good
works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future,
so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.[10]
The body of Christ must not become proud
in its own riches, but must give. Give not only materially but in good works.
As Pastor Howard has said, “We need people. We need money but we need people
more.”
The final thing that the
church must seriously engage is the children in the foster care system. My wife
and I, since we have been married, have deeply desired to adopt children and by
God’s grace we will adopt a child into our family. Adoption and foster care are
one of the greatest embodiments of the message of God’s grace because it is by
gracious adoption that the church has been brought into the family of God. God
in his sovereign grace has chosen his children to become his sons and daughters
and to become conformed to the image of the Elder Brother, Jesus. God, without
any merit or righteousness of our own, chose us to become part of his family.
As it is written, “In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through
Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”[11]
and again, “ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of
God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back
into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons (and daughters),
by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”[12]
If the church wants to
reflect the same glorious, gracious gift of adoption, it must become a church
that tends to parentless children, just as the father has loved and chosen us
tenderly while we were fatherless children. America is one of the few places
where the church is not the primary means by which orphans are cared for and
because of it we have neglected the call to “love the least of these.” Jesus
said, “Let the little children come
to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”[13] If God has graciously adopted us, how much more should we
adopt the orphans of our society?
All of these people, the
incarcerated, the poor and homeless and the children in foster care are all
people made in the imago dei. Therefore,
conviction should flood our hearts about the nature of our church. Gate Church,
let me encourage you to change your way of thinking toward these people. Allow
me to call us to action as we are being filled with the power of God’s Spirit.
Visit the incarcerated and tend to the families of those in jail. When they get
out, let us open our arms to them and integrate them back into society by
making them one with us. Give to the poor and the homeless. Do not give out of
compulsion, but give out of the joy from knowing that God has given you
everything and more. Let us become a people that will care for the parentless
and that will graciously open our homes and commit all the good that we have to
them. Remember that we are to love thy neighbor as ourselves, meaning, in the
same way that you already love yourself, love thy neighbor. May God move us to
action to impact the world for his glory. Amen.
[3] Dr.
Jessica Wong was a professor that I had for a course in Contemporary Christian
Thought at Azusa Pacific University. She has a Ph.D. with an emphasis in
theological anthropology, cultural studies, and theologies of liberation with a
focus on race and gender and she very graciously gave me a definition for
social justice according to her understanding of the subject matter. I felt
like her insight on the matter was beneficial for establishing a proper
definition. Her expertise in this subject is invaluable.
[6] Gutierrez,
Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation:
History, Politics, and Salvation. Maryknoll:Orbis Books. P. 165
Gustavo Gutierrez is a Catholic Theologian and
a Dominican Priest that has stood for Latin American social justice. He is
known as the “father of Liberation Theology.” Liberation Theology interprets
the Christian faith out of the experience of the poor. Although I do not agree
with all of the components of Liberation Theology (i.e. its willingness to
advocate violence to win social justice), I believe that Gutierrez’s
interpretation of poverty is a proper definition.
[8] Mt. 5:42
[13] Mt. 19:14
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