We get the day off of work. Our kids are home from school. We march. We remember Martin Luther King Jr. We remember that we had to have our eyes opened to see the injustice that was right in front of us. We remember that the world our God wants to create is a world of justice.<\/p>\n
We remember that we\u2019re not there yet.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure how many of us cultivate an imagine for what it might look like if God were to show up and act. But on the flip side, we\u2019re quick to point out what it looks like when God\u2019s not acting to our liking.<\/p>\n
We point to the problem of evil. We point to injustice. We point to injustice. We point to war and famine and death.<\/p>\n
Hold that up to a mirror and we get a picture something like what Jesus preaches in Luke 4:<\/p>\n
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
\nBecause the Lord\u00a0has anointed me
\nto proclaim good news to the poor
\nHe has sent me to announce release to the captives
\nand recovery of sight to the blind
\nTo proclaim the year of the Lord\u2019s favor<\/p><\/blockquote>\nJesus goes on to claim that he is this embodiment of justice. He is this picture of God showing up.<\/p>\n
What Does It Look Like When We Show Up?<\/h3>\n
If I had any modicum of artistic ability at all, I would draw a two-frame cartoon or split-frame cartoon that went something like this:<\/p>\n
Frame one: person musing to a friend what an awesome place the world would be if God showed up today in the ways that the prophets (including Jesus) promised that God would.<\/p>\n
Frame two: God musing to an angel what an awesome place the world would be if people showed up today in the ways that the prophets (including Jesus) told us to.<\/p>\n
Jesus\u2019 sermonette in Luke 4 comes from Isaiah 61. A few chapters earlier God had called on Israel to act like this:<\/p>\n
This is the fast I choose:
\nRelease the bonds of wickedness\u2013set free the mistreated!
\nShare your bread with those who are hungry,
\nBring the homeless into your house,
\nClothe the naked when you see them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nMaybe, just maybe, we need to be the justice that we want to see. Maybe, just maybe, one of the ways God needs us<\/a> is in creating a world where liberty and justice thrive.<\/p>\n
Maybe what it looks like when God shows up is that God\u2019s people are showing up.<\/p>\n
Warning Signs<\/h3>\n
If you keep reading in Isaiah, after God tells the people to hold a different kind of fast, a fast for justice, you find that there\u2019s more to the story. The very people who are failing in their duty to be agents of justice still long for it for themselves.<\/p>\n
Because of all this, justice is far from us, and righteousness beyond our reach. We expect light, and there is darkness. We moan like doves. We expect justice, but here is none; we away salvation, but it is far from us. (Isaiah 59:9, 10, 11, CEB)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is the complaint of a people who, when looking \u201cdown,\u201d are quick to mete out whatever is to its own benefit. But when they look \u201cup\u201d or \u201csideways\u201d in the social structure of their world demand that things be just.<\/p>\n
And I wonder as I read, I wonder as all of these musings come flowing together on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, whether they should not be mirror for us.<\/p>\n
How many of us complain about the injustice of big money in politics, as we live blithely unconcerned about how our own big consumer money leaves a footprint\u00a0of slavery around the world?<\/p>\n
How many of us complain about seemingly asinine court decisions that make it to the news while living in blissful disregard of the massive rates of incarceration that plague the African American communities of our own country?<\/p>\n
What would it look like if God showed up? What would it look like if we showed up to do as God has directed?<\/p>\n
A Worthy Fast for Today<\/h3>\n
So what does a fast for MLKJ Day look like that might be pleasing to the Lord? (If I may be permitted to so riff on Isaiah 58.)<\/p>\n
Read Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2019s Letter from the Birmingham Jail<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Watch his \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=H0yP4aLyq1g<\/a>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Watch Michelle Higgins\u2019 prophetic call to the church to better live into its calling.<\/p>\n