The Christian Social Revolution
- Drew Goodmanson
- Jan 22, 2006
- Series: Social Justice
The Revolution of the City & Social Systems
Welcome, during the month
of January we pause from preaching verse-by-verse to communicate the vision we
believe God has given us for the year. This
year at Kaleo, we hope to continue moving from a community of people gathered
to learn about the Bible, to a people living out what the Bible teaches us. Today,
we are going to look at specific ways we can live out our faith in
I. God has brought us into Pagan Cities
[Open to Jeremiah 29] Let
me begin with an OT story… about 580 years before Jesus was born,
Jeremiah 29
4-7 (ESV)
4"Thus
says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent
into exile from
This passage applies to us
today. How do we live in
II. Our Response: Seeking
1. Live in the city – For many, cities are seen as a place
where
Christians go and 'lose their salvation'. Don't move into 'the city'
its dangerous and bad people live there. I don't think there are too
many people who
think this way and attend Kaleo. Some people may need to begin by
saying,
"I'm going to plant my gardens and have my kids here, even if I can't
afford a house or if I do by a house it will be much smaller that I had
imagined."
Others of you may live in
the city physically, but you've isolated your contact with the people of the
city. We are nothing but a separate
Christian sub-culture. We need to be
involved in this city beyond the boundaries of the church.
Vision: Art Journal, Friday Night Out, Bands
We need you here because
cities are important in our effort of spreading the message of Jesus. When Paul the apostle wanted to reach a
region, he went into the biggest city in the area. Cities were the center of
trade where people from the surrounding region would visit. Cities also attracted people who were often
open-minded to new ideas as they saw a variety of cultures and customs.
Cities are increasingly
more important and central to shaping people's views. Globalization is making major world cities
more powerful than ever. With
globalization, the culture/values set of world-class cities are now being
transmitted around the globe to every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. For
example, NY and LA are now more influential in forming the culture of, say,
teenagers in rural
2.
Pray for the city
Jer. 29:7
"…pray to the LORD on its behalf…"
Opportunities for prayer: Thurs.
nights, Saturday morning Sunday prayer group @ 9am or at Home groups.
3. Working for the social peace of our city. Many people
hate cities because of the diversity of cultures there is a fear of people 'not
like us'. Racial groups segregated and at odds, warring power structures
'liberals' and 'conservatives'.
The liberals are frightened
that the country has been overrun by conservatives. The conservatives are fearful because they
believe the liberals run the media and social structures…(Stranger Article)
Do
not despair. You don't have to
leave. You don't have to move to
In
Why? Christians see that God enjoys and wills the
diversity of cultures as bringing forth the richness of his creation. The gospel transforms hearts so that race, money, status,
and class are no longer idols, central things to our identity. The gospel, then,
removes racism, greed, social exclusion.
Vision: Then how better can we demonstrate the power of the
gospel than through a diverse community that shares its possessions and lives
as a community in love for one another? We need to become the 'beautiful mess'.
3. Authentic
Christianity: Have love for our city in word & deed
Going beyond church programs, we need to love people
in this city. Love
involves both word and deed. In Christ'
ministry, his preaching was always accompanied by (miraculous) deeds that
healed the sick, fed the hungry, and raised the dead. This is the role the
church is called to continue. Yet it is seeking this shalom in 'word and
deed' that many churches struggle in. Often, churches seem to lean in one of two directions.
The first direction I'd
call a 'conservative' response, which tends to emphasize the 'word'. This attitude stresses
the importance of personal morality and approves of evangelism and calling
people to conversion. Social justice is
often seen in terms of protesting abortion clinics and handing out tracks to
'unrepentant sinners'.
On the flip side is a
'liberal' response which focuses on 'deed'. This attitude stresses social justice and
rejects calling people to repentance. Social justice is feeding the poor, housing the homeless, caring for the
needy but, tragically the good news is never shared to bring true peace in
people's lives.
[One of non-Christians biggest
objections is the hypocrisy of Christians. We say we believe but don't act upon it.]
Jesus calls his
disciples both to ‘pronounce the message of the gospel’ (so, yes, we
should urge everyone to believe the gospel that [GOSPEL]) but also to
‘gospel-neighboring’ (sacrificially meeting the needs of those around them
whether they believe or not!) The gospel is not simply the good news that we
are spiritually forgiven by God’s grace, but that the whole world will be
renewed by God’s grace. That is why
deeds that alleviate suffering are so integral to the declaration of the
gospel. It is a reminder that God will
one day restore all creation to its rightful place.
The Early Church Response
One of the
remarkable examples of 'word and deed' is how the early church lived out their
faith in the cities. The Greco-Roman
world was struck by several huge plagues or epidemics. One occurred in 169 A.D.
Another struck almost exactly 100 years later. We are not even sure the nature
of the disease, but the best estimates are that 1/3 of the populations died.
Here is one eye witness
account:
[During
the great epidemic] most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and
loyalty, never sparing themselves. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the
sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ. Many, in
nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in
their stead ....The pagans behaved in the opposite way. At the first onset of
the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled even from their dearest,
often throwing them into the roads before they were dead....--Dionysius, Bishop
of Alexandria (260 A.D.)
Because of just
basic care (even without medication) many or most of the survivors owed their
lives to the Christian church. The
esteem of the church in the culture in general increased enormously, and many
people listened to the gospel message and became converted. When they
got better, after society had abandoned them they asked the Christians, wait a
minute, what are you here for? You're not here for money or physical safety,
you're not afraid of death, not afraid of being poor. Answer: We're here for you.
"The consequences of all this was that pagan survivors faced
greatly increased odds of conversion after they recovered because of their
greatly increased attachment to Christians." [Rodney Stark]
By 300AD most of the cities
of the empire had become Christian. This
was not a power struggle of people trying to elect people into office. They got power and influence by the radical
nature of their lives.
A few weeks ago, David
asked about people's fear of evangelism. Many people spoke about these fears from the fear of rejection to not
thinking they could answer the questions non-believers had. Yet, we know that "perfect love casts
out fear" (1 John 4:18), so instead of being focused on evangelism, focus
on loving people. This will naturally
lead to evangelism that is not being pushed on people, but they are pulling it
from you as they see something different in your life.
Vision: Living what we believe is one of the
most spectacular forms of ‘evangelism’--the declaration of the good news—but it
must be through both word and deed. This is how the early church flourished and
paganism crumbled in the face of persecution, famines and plagues.
5. Working for the physical/economic shalom.
As Christians,
we need to be concerned with the needs of the people in the city. The Bible is greatly concerned with the
economics of the poor and their wellbeing.
Proverbs 14:31
31Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker,
but he who is generous to
the needy honors him.
To begin to
seek economic shalom means we need to understand root causes of a person's poverty. The Bible reveals at least three "causal
factors" for poverty: Injustice and oppression, circumstantial calamity
and personal failure.
A.
Injustice and oppression. This refers to any unjust social condition or treatment that
keeps a person in poverty. (Ps.82:1-8; Prov.14:31; Exod.22:21-27) The main
Hebrew word for 'the poor' in the Old Testament means 'the wrongfully
oppressed.'
Examples of oppression in the Bible
include social systems weighted in favor of the powerful (Lev.19:15),
high-interest loans (Exod 22:25-27), unjustly low wages (Eph 6:8-9).
Example: Inner
city children receive very inferior schooling and often grow up in an
environment extremely detrimental to learning.
Daniel attends an inner-city school that has crowded rooms with
bad lighting and sagging floors. In Daniel’s classroom there is only one
computer; so the children must take turns to do research. Often the classroom is unable to provide the
necessary materials and books for the teachers to do an adequate job.
Mary Louise Martin, the young principal of the school, has been
given the challenge of bringing this troubled old facility up to standards.
“This school would not be allowed to exist in
Martin bemoans the lack of instructional materials, of money for
capital improvements. “I don’t want to take money that should be used for
computers and books to paint the school. I shouldn’t be asked to do that.” (The average graduating SAT score is 645
versus 1040 at
Responses: Conservatives argue that this is the parents’
or the local sub-culture’s fault while liberals argue it is the failure of
government and/or the fruit of systemic racism. I don't think anyone would
argue that it is the children fault. The reality is that some people,
through no fault of their own, grow up with opportunities for academic and
economic success vastly smaller than others.
The church is
called to fight against this injustice:
Isaiah
1:15-17
15When you
spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though
you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
16Wash
yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my
eyes;
cease to do
evil,
17learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice
to the fatherless,
plead the widow's cause.
Isaiah
58:6-10 (English Standard Version)
6"Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to
let the oppressed[b] go free,
and to break every yoke?
7Is
it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when
you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own
flesh?
8Then
shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your
righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear
guard.
9Then
you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
If
you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking
wickedness,
10if
you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then
shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
Verse 6 famously calls us to “set the
oppressed free” and to “break every yoke.” But what does that mean
specifically? In the text God tells them to stop: a) paying their
workers too little (v.3,) b) settling disputes with violence (v.4.) He also
tells them to begin sharing the a) food, b) shelter, c) and clothing
they have with others. This illustrates that ‘doing justice’ consists of a
rather broad range of practices. Some have more to do with changing social
structure. For example, it means working for fair wages and against domestic
and civil violence.
B.
Circumstantial calamity. This refers to any natural disaster or circumstance that brings
or keeps a person in poverty. The Scripture is filled with examples such as
famines (Gen.47), disabling injury, floods, fires, etc.
Example: Injured
No affordable housing
John, an injured Vietnam War vet who is unable to get meaningful
jobs rents in downtown
Responses:
Conservatives will say that construction and higher rents create jobs for the
poor. Liberals will argue that builders
should be forced to build low-income housing even if they lose money. [Unfair
because poor unable to find reasonable housing in our city.]
C.
Personal failure.
Poverty can also be caused by one's own personal sins and failures, such as laziness
(Prov 6:6-7), other problems with self-discipline [drinking, gluttony] (Prov
23:21).
1. Unconditional to Conditions
How do we work with prostitutes, criminals
and beggars who are there because of sin?
Example: Street Person
Sam, a
homeless man approaches you for money after you exchange pleasantries; he
confesses he plans to use the money for drugs.
Response: In the beginning, we must
recognize we offer 'mercy'. No one
'earns' mercy. Our goal in giving mercy
is to spread the
We may cut off our aid only if it is unmerciful
to continue it. It is unmerciful to bail
out a person who needs to feel the full consequences of his own irresponsible
behavior.
Practical Example: You tell Sam that you
can help him break the habit and will provide a free place for him to
stay. He accepts and after a few nights
you tell him that to continue to provide free housing, there is additional
information and accountability that we ask, because we believe this is the only
path toward a long term change. We will
want to work with you through what we believe are the only principles that
offer hope, and these are based on the Bible.
If Sam person is unwilling to accept these
terms, mercy is limited by their decision.
Often, it is not just personal failure
but these three factors intertwined that cause poor. An example: a person
raised in a racial/economic ghetto (factor #1) is likely to have poor health
(factor #2) and also learn many habits that do not fit with material/social
progress (factor #3).
Vision: We see the Bible
emphasize both 1) radical personal generosity and 2) involvement in
local communities in order to be both a) generally accountable for one's
'lifestyle level' and b) specifically aware of the needs of others.
1.
Radical Personal Generosity
I'd encourage you to look at last week's
sermon on Radical
Generosity.
2.
Involvement in Local Communities
Craig Blomberg wrote an theological work
on wealth, Neither Poverty Nor Riches. Here is the recommendation he came to after thorough
study through the Bible:
"Christians should form communities that establish a
voluntary consensus on minimum levels of income and resources below which
people in the community should not be allowed to fall, and maximum levels of
consumption and expenditure on self, above which people ought not be allowed to
continue...Christians should focus on the creation of small local groups of a
cross-section of major political, economic, and religious leaders of individual
communities, taking the needs of their local settings into their own hands, as
an alternative both to the impersonal and often ruthless policies of
multi-national corporations that dominate global capitalism and to the large
interventionist and statist machines that often characterize western and
particularly European governments."-- Craig Blomberg
What would it look like to set these
types of levels of poverty and wealth? This quote goes against much of what we think it is to be American.
He does state while the Bible is not
anti-wealth per se. It all depends on a) how it was acquired (Is. 3:14),
b) how much is spent on oneself vs. given away (5:8), and c) whether it is an
alternative idol-security rather the Lord (2:7-8.)
Yet, the Bible does present some
challenging concepts about economic shalom. We see gleaning laws that require land owners to leave a portion of
their crop un-harvested to allow the poor to eat. We see the Jubilee year every fifty-years
that removes debts owed. We see social
structures that limit profit-taking and income production. When you add them up, some would say there is
a picture of a socialistic economy presented.
Several prophets' proclamations sound
like a Marxist or liberationist movement.
Amos 5:11-12
11 You trample on the poor
and force him to give you grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,
you will not live in them;
though you have planted lush vineyards,
you will not drink their wine.
12 For I know how many are your offenses
and how great your sins.
You oppress the righteous and take bribes
and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
Vision: A REVOLUTION of how we live and view
our lives in connection to the community around us. How would we do this?
Direct Relief.
This is direct aid to meet
physical/material/social needs. The Good Samaritan provides physical
protection, emergency medical treatment, and a rent subsidy (Luke 10:30-35).
Common relief ministries are temporary
shelter for the homeless, food and clothing services for people in dire need,
medical services, crisis counseling, and so on. A more active form of relief is
"advocacy", in which people in need are given active assistance to
get legal aid, help them find housing,
and find other kinds of aid. In general, Christians are fairly open and active
in these kinds of ministries. They are the most obvious, the most concrete and
easy to define, provide the quickest emotional payoff, are the least expensive,
and require the least effort and skill to carry out.
Kaleo: Tutoring homeless students,
building a home in
Partners: Relief funds, assistance,
participate in recovery of affected areas through gospel-partners.
If you have a 'vision' for a particular area we can
provide relief, please contact me or one of the Deacons.
Community development.
This is to move beyond the simple development of
individuals and to look at a neighborhood as a whole, as a series of systems.
What is needed is to bring a person or community to self-sufficiency.
In the OT, when a slave's debt was erased and he was
released, God directed that his former master send him out with grain, tools,
and resources for a new, self-sufficient economic life (Deut.15:13-14).
"Economic development" includes education,
job creation and training, housing development and ownership, capital investments
in a community, and so on.
Traditional private charity and government
bureaucracy tend to look on poor individuals as "cases", people to be
served. Both tend to simply put money into the hands of the needy.
John Perkins wrote that simply putting welfare
checks in the hands of the poor in small towns only ended up transferring
capital into the accounts of the wealthy bankers and store owners on the other
side of town. When Perkins helped people form farming co-ops, housing co-ops,
and credit unions, they were able to develop their neighborhoods, keeping
money, jobs, and training there. Reweaving
looks at a neighborhood systemically and aims to heal those broken systems and
lift up the whole community.
Kaleo: San Diego Rescue Mission [job training, budgeting
skills, and interviewing]
Reform.
Social reform moves beyond relief of immediate needs
and dependency and seeks to change social conditions and structures which
aggravate or cause that dependency.
Job tells us that he not only clothed the naked, but
he "broke the fangs of the wicked and made them drop their victims"
(Job 29:17). The prophets denounced unfair wages (Jer.22:13), corrupt business
practices (Amos 8:2,6), legal systems weighted in favor of the rich and
influential (Deut.24:17; Lev.19:15), a system of lending capital that gouges
the person of modest means (Lev.19:35-37; 25:37; Ex.22:25-27). Daniel calls a
pagan government to account for its lack of mercy to the poor (Dan.4:27).
This means that Christians should also work for a
particular community to get better police protection, more just and fair
banking practices, zoning practices, better laws, etc.
6. Spiritual Shalom: Remember the Gospel
The last shalom we seek, is a peace with
God. We know this is only through the
work of Jesus Christ, who, while we were sinners, died on the cross in our
place that whoever believes in Christ will be adopted as a child of God and
have eternal peace.
[Brining the Gospel to
Communion &
Prayer
NEXT SERMON: The Christian Social Revolution - Part 2
Credit: Much appreciation to Tim Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian in New York for his work on this subject and for his book, Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road
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