{"id":5170,"date":"2022-08-18T13:49:49","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T17:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/?p=5170"},"modified":"2022-08-19T10:23:43","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T14:23:43","slug":"our-collective-thriving-part2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Collective Thriving (Part 2 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p class=\"p1\"><i>Welcome readers! Please subscribe through the button on the right.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">(Read this series from its beginning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part1\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s1\">here<\/span><\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5164\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1222\/2022\/08\/SJ2179.png\" alt=\"sunrise\" width=\"580\" height=\"300\"><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Economic and Labor Justice<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Consider the Sabbath commandment we read in Exodus:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Inherent in the original Sabbath institution was an element of economic and labor justice for workers. Today I would argue that one day is not enough to ensure laborers, workers, or employees are not being exploited. I wasn\u2019t alive in the time of Exodus, but I would guess that it was only a start back then too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Also notice that the Sabbath commandment in Exodus does not put the onus on children, slaves, animals or vulnerable immigrants to refuse to work for those subjugating them. This would only place undue stress on them, adding moral implications to something which they had no choice about.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">No, the commandment is rather addressed to parents, masters, and livestock owners. To apply this to our context: the Sabbath commandment does not tell employees not to work for their employers on the Sabbath. The commandment tells <i>employers<\/i> not to exploit their employees and not make their employees work on every day of the week. If someone is working on the Sabbath, the person responsible is their employer who demands that labor be done, not the employee faced with the choice between observing a Sabbath or putting food on their family\u2019s table.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">As the gospel of Mark reminds us, \u201cThe Sabbath was made for people. People weren\u2019t made for the Sabbath\u201d (Mark 2:27-28).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">This is a deeply Jewish theme of contrasting people\u2019s strict religious observances with their actions about others\u2019 concrete justice needs. We encounter this contrast of values and priorities all the way back in the prophetic justice tradition of the Hebrew scriptures:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe multitude of your sacrifices\u2014<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">what are they to me?\u201d says the LORD.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI have more than enough of burnt offerings,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">of rams and the fat of fattened animals;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I have no pleasure<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">When you come to appear before me,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">who has asked this of you,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">this trampling of my courts?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Stop bringing meaningless offerings!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Your incense is detestable to me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations\u2014<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I hate with all my being.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">They have become a burden to me;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I am weary of bearing them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">When you spread out your hands in prayer,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I hide my eyes from you;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">even when you offer many prayers,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I am not listening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Your hands are full of blood!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Wash and make yourselves clean.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Take your evil deeds out of my sight;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">stop doing wrong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Learn to do right; <i>seek justice.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i> Defend the oppressed. <\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Take up the cause of the fatherless;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:11-17, emphasis added)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Today, I think this still tracks. We still see in our communities some of us who can be very intentional about our observances within our religion while we ignore the social justice concerns of others. Christians can sometimes be among the worst offenders in this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But the last thing to note this week is that this is an <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ableism\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"s1\">ableist<\/span><\/a> story.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll unpack that next.<\/p>\n<p>(READ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part3\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">PART 3<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We still see in our communities some of us who can be very intentional about our observances within our religion while we ignore the social justice concerns of others. Christians can sometimes be among the worst offenders in this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4129,"featured_media":5164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3166,729],"tags":[621,783,3181,2611,1056,73,963,1842,3178,3172,2720,2049,284,777,3169,58,3175,1914,70],"class_list":["post-5170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disability-justice","category-liberation-theology","tag-ableism","tag-disabilities","tag-disability-justice","tag-ecological-justice","tag-economic-justice","tag-feminism","tag-healing","tag-immigration-justice","tag-labor","tag-labor-justice","tag-lectionary-reading","tag-lgbtq-justice","tag-liberation-theology","tag-racial-justice","tag-sabbath","tag-social-justice","tag-surviving","tag-thriving","tag-womanism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Our Collective Thriving (Part 2 of 3) | Social Justice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We still see in our communities some of us who can be very intentional about our observances within our religion while we ignore the social justice concerns of others. Christians can sometimes be among the worst offenders in this.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Collective Thriving (Part 2 of 3) | Social Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We still see in our communities some of us who can be very intentional about our observances within our religion while we ignore the social justice concerns of others. Christians can sometimes be among the worst offenders in this.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Social Jesus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HerbMontgomeryofRHM\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-18T17:49:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-19T14:23:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1222\/2022\/08\/SJ2179.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"580\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Herb Montgomery\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@HerbMontgomery\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Herb Montgomery\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/\",\"name\":\"Our Collective Thriving (Part 2 of 3) | Social Justice\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-18T17:49:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-19T14:23:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/#\/schema\/person\/26e337fc68cc87d32a2927e9e42faca4\"},\"description\":\"We still see in our communities some of us who can be very intentional about our observances within our religion while we ignore the social justice concerns of others. Christians can sometimes be among the worst offenders in this.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Our Collective Thriving (Part 2 of 3)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/\",\"name\":\"Social Jesus\",\"description\":\"What a first-century, Jewish prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of making our society a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/#\/schema\/person\/26e337fc68cc87d32a2927e9e42faca4\",\"name\":\"Herb Montgomery\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b010cbc5f6c9ea988c104f693dcc9ef?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b010cbc5f6c9ea988c104f693dcc9ef?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Herb Montgomery\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.renewedheartministries.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HerbMontgomeryofRHM\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HerbMontgomery\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/author\/hmontgomery\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Our Collective Thriving (Part 2 of 3) | Social Justice","description":"We still see in our communities some of us who can be very intentional about our observances within our religion while we ignore the social justice concerns of others. Christians can sometimes be among the worst offenders in this.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Our Collective Thriving (Part 2 of 3) | Social Justice","og_description":"We still see in our communities some of us who can be very intentional about our observances within our religion while we ignore the social justice concerns of others. Christians can sometimes be among the worst offenders in this.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/","og_site_name":"Social Jesus","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HerbMontgomeryofRHM\/","article_published_time":"2022-08-18T17:49:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-19T14:23:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":580,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1222\/2022\/08\/SJ2179.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Herb Montgomery","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@HerbMontgomery","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Herb Montgomery","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/","name":"Our Collective Thriving (Part 2 of 3) | Social Justice","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-08-18T17:49:49+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-19T14:23:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/#\/schema\/person\/26e337fc68cc87d32a2927e9e42faca4"},"description":"We still see in our communities some of us who can be very intentional about our observances within our religion while we ignore the social justice concerns of others. Christians can sometimes be among the worst offenders in this.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2022\/08\/our-collective-thriving-part2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Our Collective Thriving (Part 2 of 3)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/","name":"Social Jesus","description":"What a first-century, Jewish prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of making our society a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/#\/schema\/person\/26e337fc68cc87d32a2927e9e42faca4","name":"Herb Montgomery","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b010cbc5f6c9ea988c104f693dcc9ef?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b010cbc5f6c9ea988c104f693dcc9ef?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Herb Montgomery"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.renewedheartministries.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HerbMontgomeryofRHM\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/HerbMontgomery"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/author\/hmontgomery\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}