As time went on, there arose once in a great while
a preacher whose words were worth recording for
future generations to hear again and again.
A few of these made predictions about the future,
(mostly warnings, in effect, about the consequences
of heeding or failing to heed their message.
But what made these preachers great "seers" or
"prophets" wasn't what they could predict about the future, but what they
dared to see and say about their present, i.e.
teaching that some people in high places did not
want to hear, such as . . .
{ Isaiah 3:14-16 }
"First to feel God's wrath will be the elders and the princes,
for they have defrauded the poor. They have filled their
barns with grain extorted from the helpless peasants."
. . .
"How dare you grind my people in the dust like that?"
the Lord Almighty will demand of them.
Next he will judge the haughty women, who mince along,
noses in the air, tinkling bracelets on their ankles,
with wanton eyes that rove among the crowds to catch
the glances of the men."
Maybe stockholders whose profits are the result of
oppressive labor practices in far away countries will
escape God's attention, the way they escape the attention
of most preachers; but MAYBE NOT!
{ Isaiah 32: 5-6 }
"In those days the ungodly, the atheists, will not be heroes!
Wealthy cheaters will not be spoken of as generous,
outstanding men! Everyone will recognize an evil man
when he sees him, and hypocrites will fool no one at
all. Their lies about God and their cheating of the
hungry will be plain for all to see. The smooth tricks
of evil men will be exposed, as will all the lies they use
to oppress the poor in the courts. But good men will
be generous to others and will be blessed of God for all
they do."
See a perfect illustration of what Isaiah was talking about
in our own times (almost) in America.
This is what some Christian Conservatives consider
"Christian Philanthropy".
What a contrast there is between the "Christian Coalition"
of today and the Bible! This Coalition promulgates
the view of their coalition partner, the Republican Party,
that the well-to-do friends and supporters of this
politico-religious coalition have only honest labor to thank
for their wealth, while the poor have only themselves to
blame for their misery. But the Bible constantly
blames the woes of the poor on those merchants, landlords,
judges, legislators, princes,and even on clerics and "haughty
women", for depriving the poor and the weak of that
to which they are entitled!
And it expects the well-to-do oppressors of the poor, not
their helpless victims, to stop and to repair these injustices.
{ Zechariah 7:10 }
"Tell them to stop oppressing widows and orphans, foreigners
and poor people, and to stop plotting evil against each other."
Once preachers have translated the Bible from the ancient
languages into modern ones, their job isn't over.
Good preachers owe it to us to show the relevance of
the Bible to our own time and to today's world, by applying
what was said of ancient cirumstances to the HERE and
NOW. If Zechariah were preaching in America today,
would he not be preaching
"Stop oppressing welfare mothers and children; stop
oppressing minorities, immigrants, the unemployed,
the uninsured and the underpaid (poor)".
{ Isaiah 10:1-3}
"Woe to unjust judges and legislators," says the Lord,
"so that there is no justice for the poor, the widows,
and orphans. Yes, it is true that they even rob
the widows and fatherless children.
"Oh, what will you do when I visit you in that day
when I send desolation upon you from a distant land?
To whom will you turn then for your help?
Where will your treasures be safe?
I will not help you; you will stumble along
as prisoners or lie among the slain."
Maybe these scriptures have nothing to do with the many
decisions made every day by mayors, governors, presidents, judges,
and legislators some of which pile even more misery on the
already difficult lives of people on welfare through no
fault of their own. Are "welfare mothers" that much different from
the "widows" of the bible just because the men who are not
helping them are alive? Are the children of these
welfare mothers different from the "fatherless
children" of the bible, just because the fathers who neglect
them are alive? Maybe they ARE the same in God's eyes, in which
case the warnings of the great prophets like Isaiah and
Zechariah DO APPLY in our day -- and not only to
those in power who mistreat these poor women and children,
-- but even to those who support such public officials
by electing them to office!
When JUSTICE is concerned, that is the community's
business. For society as a whole has the duty to
redress wrongs, to make various parties do their jobs
correctly, and to redistribute wealth back to those from
whom it was unjustly taken, whether the rich and the
powerful cooperate willingly out of charity, or
unwillingly for justice sake. This being the case,
caring about the needy is not just the church's business,
not the concern of people as individuals. It is
wonderful for individuals to be paragons of charity.
But it is the community's business to establish and to
protect justice.
{ Isaiah 1:17 }
"Learn to do good, to be fair and to help the poor, the fatherless,
and widows."
{ Proverbs 14:31 }
"Anyone who oppresses the poor is insulting God who made them.
To help the poor is to honor God."
{ Proverbs 19:17 }
"When you help the poor you are lending to the Lord --
and he pays wonderful interest on your loan!"
{ Ecclesiastes 5:10-12 }
" He who loves money shall never have enough. The
foolishness of thinking that wealth brings happiness!
The more you have, the more you spend, right up
to the limits of your income. So what is the
advantage of wealth -- except perhaps to watch it as
it runs through your fingers! -- The man who
works hard sleeps well whether he eats little or
much, but the rich must worry and suffer insomnia."
{ Micah 6: 8-12 }
"What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? The voice of the LORD cries to the city :
. . . Can I forget the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the accursed scant measure? Can I tolerate wicked scales and a bag of dishonest weights?
Your wealthy are full of violence;
your inhabitants speak lies, with tongues of deceit in their mouths. Your rich men are wealthy through extortion and violence; your citizens are so used to lying that their tongues can't tell the truth!"
That's not something that the rich and powerful of any
age appreciate hearing. They have been known to
hurt and even kill preachers who stress such scriptures, while
regularly rewarding with power, money and influence those
preachers who tow the line and promote the belief that
the rich have "earned" their vast economic advantage
over the poor "by hard work" -- in sharp contrast to the poor,
who could be rich too, if they too would only work hard. --
{ Prov. 21:13 }
"If you close your ear to the cry of the poor, you will cry out and not be heard."
{ Prov. 29:7 }
"The righteous know the rights of the poor; the wicked have no such understanding."
{ Psalm 82:3 -4 }
"Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."
Ezekiel 16:49
"This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters (related towns like Gomorrah) had pride, surfeit of food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy."
{ Amos 8:4-7 }
"Listen, you merchants who rob the poor, trampling
on the needy; you who long for the Sabbath to end
and the religious holydays to be over so you can get
out and start cheating again -- using your weighted
scales and under-sized measures; you who make
slaves of the poor, buying them for their debt of a piece of
silver or a pair of shoes, or selling them your moldy wheat."
Once again, this kind of scripture doesn't make those who
oppress or exploit others happy. But if you put
yourself in the shoes of the men, women and children
who are being oppressed, it should certainly make you
happy to know that God doesn't approve of sneaky
merchandisers who are constantly using dirty tricks
to reduce the quantity and/or quality of their products
and/or increasing the prices, and eliminating the
opportunities customers have to buy such products
at lower prices from competitors.
If Amos is right, then, although businessmen may never
hear a word of it from their ministers or priests, they will
learn when it is too late...
The Lord has sworn: "I won't forget your deeds!"
{ Micah 7:3 }
"They go at their evil deeds with both hands, and how
skilled they are in using them!
The governor and judge alike [not to mention "legislators"]
demand bribes [and/or "campaign contributions"].
The rich man pays them off and tells them whom to ruin.
Justice is twisted between them."
{ Amos 2:6-7 }
The Lord says, "The people of Israel have sinned again
and again, and I will not forget it. I will not leave
them unpunished any more. For they have
perverted justice by accepting bribes and sold into slavery
the poor who can't repay their debts; they trade them for
a pair of shoes. They trample the poor in the dust
and kick aside the meek. At their religious feasts
they lounge in clothing stolen from their debtors, and in
my own Temple they offer sacrifices of wine they purchased
with stolen money."
{Amos 5:12 }
"For many and great are your sins. I know them all so well.
You are the enemies of everything good; you take bribes;
you refuse justice to the poor."
What's this? People in public office allowing
themselves to be persuaded by people with money to deny
justice to those with less money and prestige?
Maybe God won't consider all of those "campaign
contributions" and lobbying gifts given by the rich to
the politicians or our day as bribes and will not hold the
harm these politicians do to the poor against them.
Maybe God will forgive powerful employers for taking
enormous benefits for themselves and denying their
employees the right to even join together in unions to
demand safer working conditions and more just
compensation for themselves and their families.
Maybe God will smile on people who become billionaires
by exploiting those laborers least protected by their
governments and communities around the world.
Maybe the prophets didn't know what they were talking
about!
{ Isaiah 58:1-10 }:
"Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast; tell my people of their
sins! Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple
every day and are so delighted to hear the reading of my laws
-- just as though they would obey them -- just as though
they don't despise the commandments of their God!
How anxious they are to worship correctly; oh, how they love
the Temple services! 'We have fasted before you,'
they say. 'Why aren't you impressed? Why don't
you see our sacrifices? Why don't you hear our prayers?
We have done much penance, and you don't even notice it!'
I'll tell you why! Because you are living in evil pleasure
even while you are fasting, and you keep right on oppressing your
workers. Look, what good is fasting when you keep on fighting
and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere
with me. Is this what I want -- this doing of penance and
bowing like reeds in the wind, putting on sackcloth and covering
yourselves with ashes? Is this what you call fasting?
The kind of fast I want is that you stop oppressing those who work
for you and treat them fairly and give them what they earn.
I want you to share your food with the hungry and destitute.
Clothe those who are cold, and don't hide from relatives who need
your help.
If you do these things, God will shed his own glorious light upon you.
He will heal you. Your godliness will lead you forward,
goodness will be a shield before you, and the glory of the Lord will
protect you from behind. Then, when you call, the Lord will
answer. 'Yes, I am here,' he will quickly reply.
All you need to do is to stop oppressing the weak and stop making
false accusations and spreading vicious rumors! "Feed the
hungry! Help those in trouble! Then your light will
shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you shall be
as bright as day."
"Evangelical" preachers can tell you 'til the cows come
home that "works" don't matter, and that you are
"saved by faith alone", etc., etc., but the Scriptures
tell another story. This is just one of a multitude
of passages which make it clear that our deeds or works
DO MATTER, and that God will shed his own glorious
light upon you ONLY "IF you do these things"
What is important to God, if you believe all these
passages of the Bible, are not the ritual or churchy
things that clerics are inclined to emphasize, but the
behavior outside of church, in our homes, on
our streets, in marketplaces and workplaces, and
in the political arena ! When most people
hear the words "Organized Religion", they think of
church buildings and robes and hymns and the
kind of "fasting" repudiated by Isaiah.
But what if THIS is the kind of "Organized Religion"
that God wants :
- labor unions organized to fight for justice not only for its own members, but
for other oppressed people as well
- people organized to protect the environment we all depend on
- people organized to fight for poor, young, elderly, sick or other powerless people
- people organized to fight for any number of OTHER just causes
- people organized into fair and just governments
When Jesus preached to his fellow Jews, he knew that they were very familiar with all of these passages -- which cannot be said for many of today's audiences.-- Now that we are ready to build on the same foundations on which Jesus originally built his teaching, see what a difference this makes when we proceed to . . . |
to
