Truth & Justice 2019 Advent series | 25 Steps Toward Justice

25 Steps Toward Justice

Learn, reflect, pray, act, and be transformed.

Exploring issues of injustice—and their toxic effect on our world—can be uncomfortable. But we believe that God Emmanuel, who sends us as his agents into the world, will accompany us with his boundless grace, reminding us that we "belong to God and the Spirit in us is far stronger than anything in the world." (1 John 4:4)

Day 26: PRAY

Teach Me to Listen

Teach me to listen, O God,
To those nearest me,
My family, my friends, my co-workers.

Help me to be aware
That no matter what words I hear,
The message is,
“Accept the person I am. Listen to me.”

Teach me to listen, my caring God,
To those far from me –
The whisper of the hopeless,
The plea of the forgotten,
The cry of the anguished.

Teach me to listen, O God my Mother,
To myself.
Help me to be less afraid
To trust the voice inside –
In the deepest part of me.

Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit,
For your voice –
In busyness and in boredom,
In certainty and doubt,
In noise and in silence.

Teach me, Lord, to listen.

Amen.

-Prayer of John Veltri SJ 

REFLECT

Take a moment to reflect on the past 25 days. Talk with someone or write about what parts of this advent journey have left an impression on you. Looking back, what stands out to you? What did you struggle with? Did anything prompt you to explore or research in more depth? Did you feel moved to get involved in anything or take action in a certain way?

Here is a list of the 25 Steps Towards Justice 2019. 

1) A Blessing of Hope

2) Quality of Mercy 

3) "Biased" 

4) Representation and Beyond 

5) Diversity vs. Equity

6) “Undoing Racism” 

7) Decolonizing our theology 

8) The Thrill of Hope in a Weary World

9) “This Land” The History of Native Lands

10) Living on Duwamish Land

11) “The Lord loves the homeless”

12) Death by Gentrification

13) Poverty, Income Disparity, and Immigration

14)  “Fishers of Men” ICE Tactics

16) Time to listen: Recentering History

17) “A Great Cloud of Witnesses” 

18) Courageous and Costly Living

19) Why We Can’t Wait 

20) Reparations 

21) Asian Misrepresentation in Media 

22) Letter Writing: Throwing Breadcrumbs at Mountains

23) Climate change 

24) The “Cultural Genocide” of Uyghur Muslims 

25) Keeping Watch Over Bethlehem

26) Prayer: Teach me to listen

Thank you so much for participating! Any feedback is welcome and appreciated. (Email truthandjustice.union@gmail.com.)

 “Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.” -Romans 12:10 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Jan 11, 2020: World Relief Volunteer Orientation 9am @World Relief (Kent)  Free
Jan 20, 2020: MLK Prayer Breakfast 7am @The Sheraton
Jan 24, 2020: Power with not Power Over: Accountability in Action for White Women All Day @2100 Building (Mt. Baker) $150-$300
Jan 30, 2020: The True Cost (film) 6:30pm @Mt. Baker Community Club  Free

Jan 15 - Mar 4, 2020  Kitchen Table Conversations | Unpacking Indigenous Issues Wednesdays, 6:30-8 PM @ Kakáo (415 Westlake)
A space to examine settler-Indigenous relations in our region, engage with literary and expressive arts created by Indigenous peoples, and learn how to become an ally of Indigenous rights. Discussion topics include: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women #MMIW, Contemporary Native Arts, Duwamish Land and Land Acknowledgement. 
Facilitated by Lydia Heberling, instructor of American Indian and Indigenous Studies at University of Washington. Email Adrienne for more info/sign up.

Advent 2019. On God's Road

Dear Lord God, Emmanuel – God with us,

Open the eyes of our heart that we may see our world as you see our world.
Open the eyes of our hearts that we may allow our hearts to be broken by that which breaks your heart.
Open the eyes of our hearts to receive your comfort and consolation.
Open the eyes of our heart to see that you are our God who entered the world in all its messy – to reveal that we are never alone.
Open the eyes of our heart – we want to see you.

During the season of Advent and Epiphany we are focusing our time on what are called the Beatitudes, as found in in Matthew 5.  At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus invites us into a new way of being. We are calling this whole focus:  On God’s Road. 

Disciples in the first century did not sit in a classroom to learn, they traveled alongside the rabbi to learn and act and grow. 

When Jesus says blessed in these beatitudes it is not a momentary good wish like when someone says “bless you” when you sneeze. Jesus is saying that as we live into these beatitudes we are on the right road, with Jesus accompanying us and leading us into participating in what God is doing in the world. Even in the midst of hard times and pain there is a comfort present; ; there is transformation and there is hope of new creation.

To live these beatitudes of Christ is to swim against the current culture and to seek God’s wholeness.

To live these beatitudes is to discover the heart of God .

To embrace these beatitudes is to discover our identity as a people – together – who can find another way of being that defies the polarization around us and brings new life for ourselves and those around us.

Matthew 5

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Advent Begins. 2019

The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.  Isaiah 9:

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,
 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
 to guide our feet in the way of peace. Luke 1:78-79

In these darkest of days, it is now the season of Avent.

Advent. A time of waiting, anticipating, preparing, hoping. But, also a time of responding & acting through listening, praying, and acting.

What was it like for the people more than 2000 years ago to wonder if God heard them and saw them? Slowly it dawned on some that God loved them enough to not only hear their needs, but to come into their world and provide a new way of being. HOPE is real.

In these darkest of days, how do you see God’s great light dawning?

Sunday we lit the first Advent candle, the Hope (also called Prophecy) Candle. As our one candle flickers forth its light, there are candles across the world, shining their light into the darkness May we be aware of the global reality of Advent. How can we pray, listen and act on behalf of people throughout our world that they too may experience hope that is real?

Jesus is the true light – the Life-Light- that has blazed into the world and the darkness CANNOT put out the light of Jesus. The first candle of Advent invites us to hope. 

Invitation of Love: Loving as Christ Loves Us. Part 1

As we spend time  this fall, reading and learning from the First Epistle of John, our deep prayer is that you will take time to read this letter.   To not only read it – but to live in it. To let the words come to LIFE for you. 

·       First, read and hear this as a letter written by God through John to YOU – What does God want you to know? To trust? To hold onto?

·       Secondly, we  invite you to ask the question – what is the letter of my life that God is writing to the world? John’s letter invites you to discover that God’s invitation of love does not stop with Jesus but continues to be written on all of our lives. What is God writing to the world through your life?

The First Letter of John was written as most assume by the Apostle John – near the end of his life – around 85 AD or later.  It was most likely not his FIRST letter. Rather it is the first of three letters that are a part of our Scriptures.

In this letter John writes many times, I am writing these things to you. …

The first reason John writes is to invite us to share in JOY. We desperately need joy in our world so that we can pursue what is most important. John reminds us that our faith begins with JOY.
The beginning of the letter possesses language that is reminiscent of the Prologue of the Gospel of John:

I John 1:1-4 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

What is this shared joy? --That the incarnation AND resurrection of Jesus Christ is true.  In the time of John’s writing, years now have passed by since Jesus’ death and resurrection. Theories have evolved and new enticing philosophies are emerging.  There is the beginning of a belief called Docetism – Jesus seemed to be human, but he couldn’t possibly be. John’s sees the danger in this growing teaching which holds it is not necessary to believe that Jesus was  human. If Jesus was not human, only seemed to be, then love did not take shape in human form. This call to love is only and ideal – something to aim for. Impossible to do!

John handles the dangerous teaching, by speaking of the JOY of what he witnessed.  And, his JOY is now our JOY. Jesus’s life and death and resurrection was real. And, that means that Jesus Christ – our Risen LORD IS REAL Today.   Jesus – is the Word of LIFE that shapes our lives. What they witnessed is true: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.

This is the good news John shares from his life story that impacts our life stories:

·       Jesus was with the Father from the BEGINNING – (In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God).

·       Then JESUS was with us (John says).  You wonder how John is reflecting upon his memories – I walked with Jesus and I did not fully understand, I watched him die, I entered his empty tomb – I then put my fingers in his side where blood had poured out.  And, with Thomas, I exclaimed, “My Lord and My God.”

·       Now, John writes fervently and passionately about our radical new reality.  Jesus is God’s self-communication to the world. Do you want to know God? Then you want to know Jesus.

But, it doesn’t stop there.  God has spoken in Jesus – Now God wants to speak through you about a joy that transforms the world.

Eugene Peterson: “Jesus was radically reconfigured and redefined by resurrection.

And, now we are invited to be radically reconfigured and redefined by resurrection.”

Jesus is real – and it is through Jesus that you know who God is.  This is critical because as we ask the question, how do we know how to find our way – how do we know who God is and what God wants – we look to Jesus, we listen to Jesus, we walk like Jesus.

John may be referring to the very words he heard from Jesus found in John 15 when Jesus speaks of shared joy.

Jesus – “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.  This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

The world cannot take away this joy; a joy that has discovered the secret that all of life is best lived when we love one another.

What is the message of joy that God is writing through your life?

A Better Way: Finding the Life of God in Jesus, Ourselves, and Others

Jeff Fisher, Music Worship Lead

This morning I used my phone to check in on a news website, as I do most days. Based on the headlines you would think the world was on fire. Certainly there are plenty of terrible things happening in the world, and there are a lot of reasons to be concerned. However, it is also true that media outlets (whichever you prefer) profit off of keeping us in a perpetual state of agitation. We become addicted to news cycles that remind us we need to live in constant fear, and we buy into the implication that our neighbors who think, look, or act differently from us could be the perpetrator of the next heinous crime. If we are to move forward, this needs to stop.

 This week at Union Church we started a new sermon series on the book of 1st John, and I had the privilege of writing a song to go along with the messages. (Lyrics below.) For inspiration I leaned into the mystical heart of John’s writing which emphasizes Jesus as “the infinite Life of God [who] took shape before us.” (1:2) Throughout this letter we see John drawing lines between our personal connection with God and the way we act in relationship with one another. This is nowhere more clear than 1st John 4:17-21:

This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

This is a critical word for our time, but it is also a hard word. There are often legitimate reasons to harbor anger and resentment against others, and consequently our withholding of grace can sometimes feel like justice. It is one thing to know that we should love everyone, but it is quite another to do it. And when the people who have wounded us most deeply are those who are closest to us the task can seem impossible, but it is the task we are called to.

Throughout these next weeks I hope you receive John’s invitation to see the life of God in Christ, and consequently in yourself. And I also hope that we can all take on the hard business of starting to see it in everyone else as well, even when we don’t want to.

A Better Way

In times like these it’s hard to keep your head

We flex our might and pick our fights when we should’ve stayed in bed

And what did all our vitriol accomplish in the end?

In times like these it’s hard to keep your head

In days like these we always feel alone

Though we reprise our happy lies through Facebook on the phone

Constantly connected, but do we ever feel known?

In days like these we always feel alone

Chorus:

There’s a better way

Love has taken shape

We have seen it with our own eyes

In Jesus Christ

When you see me face to face

Will you see me with his grace

Will you look into the eyes

Of Jesus Christ

In a world like this how do we relate

When we villainize the other guys with the fictions we create?

There’s Christ in you, and Christ in me, so let’s let go of our hate

In a world like this how do we relate?

Bridge:

Perfect love means no fear of each other

Perfect love means we belong to God

And now we belong to one another

Because we all belong to God

In the year to come we can walk within the light

When darkness falls and demons call we can stand up for what’s right

We can lock arms with each other and put the shadows all to flight

In the year to come let’s walk within the light

Living into Wholeness

During the spring and summer months of 2019 we asked the question how do we move into Living into Wholeness? The creation of God is rich, colorful and multi-faceted.  How do we help one another live into God’s intention for humanity – to live as an integrated community that honors each living being as “uniquely and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139)?

Here are some discoveries for the journey of life as we respond to God’s Spirit. Living into wholeness involves:

• Venturing out into the unknown with God--not striving for sameness and control.

• A family embrace of all nations and tongues--to do anything less is to miss out

• Living by God’s wisdom not our own

• Practicing the three interrelated commitments Jesus gives: Love one another, Remain in Me, Go into the world (Externally Focused…)

• Trusting the Holy Spirit is speaking (and you do not have to be super human or spiritual to hear the Spirit)