April 15

Pure Religion

              Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

James 1:27

           

            Pure religion is not big church services.  It is not amazing sermons or powerful prayer times.  It is not awe-inspiring buildings or social justice movements.  It is not bringing the right people in and keeping the wrong people out.  Pure religion is taking care of the marginalized and keeping yourself in a right relationship with God.  That’s it.

            It is so easy for our churches to be consumed by capitol building projects and funding issues and responding to the news crisis of the day and growing our numbers and putting on effective programs and trying to influence the world and making sure that our theology is bulletproof.  Any time there is a group of believers gathering together, there will be differences of opinion and the potential for conflict over what their purpose together is.  Take care of the widows and orphans, the most vulnerable populations of the ancient world.  Keep oneself unstained by the world…unburdened by sin that separates us from God.

             How is it that we have such a hard time pursuing both of these at the same time?  One of the biggest criticisms of the religious right is that they have discarded the needy in their pursuit of piety.  One of the biggest criticisms of liberal believers is that they have embraced moral relativism in order to pursue social justice.  Scripture calls us into being believers that cultivate both righteousness and justice.  If either is missing then our faith is incomplete and our world, especially those who are marginalized, suffers.

            For the special needs community, it looks like this.  If the pursuit of personal righteousness is missing, then we have broken leaders: men and women who are not in control of their urges and appetites; leaders who can be manipulated by money and power and flattery; people who put their own personal gain ahead of the needs of the community that they are looking to serve.  Programs live and die based on what benefits they bring to the leadership and that results in our kids losing services and resources because our champions have been bought by other special interest groups.

            If the passion for social justice is missing, the special needs community also loses.  When the weak and the voiceless and the orphan and the widow and the marginalized are not a priority, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Those who believe that everyone starts from the same place and are only poor or unemployed or undereducated or disabled because of bad choices does not see that our systems of wealth and opportunity are not just based on merit.  They will incentivize special needs work programs but cut back educational and social skills programs as if you could get and keep a job without those two components.  And when members of the IDD community get fired because they are unskilled workers who have limited social abilities, there will be no other social services to assist them.

            The call of scripture is to pursue righteousness and love justice.  Be men and women of character and integrity and faith.  Work hard to provide opportunities for those who are less fortunate.

            This is what being a follower of Jesus is all about.

           

A moment to reflect:

Where would you like to grow in this next season?  Righteousness or justice?  How could you do that?