Inspiration:

Ah! justice is a virtue bepraised and full of worth,
It castigates the sinner, and peoples all the earth,
And kings with care should guard it–instead they now forget
The gem that is most precious in all the coronet.
Some think they may do justice by cruelty, I wist;
But ’tis an evil counsel, for justice must consist
In showing deeds of mercy, in knowledge of the truth,
And executing judgment it executes with ruth.

  — Pedro Lopez de Ayala.

What Color Is Your Jersey? Your Neighbor’s?

We cannot live justly without training and preparing ourselves to counteract all of these other influences we undergo every day, often without awareness. Religion can only be a force for good in the world as we help and encourage one another – individually, as families, as communities – to live justly and to bring a merciful justice into fruition.

When it comes down to living justly, it helps to have simple guides that we can hold onto in those times when fear and hatred and greed are most likely to guide us. Love mercy. Love your neighbor. Love God. Love this earth. This is a path of true love of self, because reverence for life, for the Holy, for our neighbors cannot help but grow reverence for our self.

By Rev. Naomi King, City of Refuge Ministries TO READ MORE

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Inspiration:

 

“Justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

Small Steps

Most of us benefit from some kinds of social privileges, and suffer from the absence of privilege in some other ways. You, too, are my heroes, living an examined life as you attempt to use the privileges you have to stand up for the common good, as you take small actions where you see them.

Whoever you are, whatever your situation, you have the opportunity to create justice. “Justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love,” said Martin Luther King. “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.” …

Justice is not a giant abstraction that will someday roll down upon us like waters, even though we sing out the ancient words longing that it will. Justice is daily, mundane, one breath at a time. Love and power are the tools with which we can bring it to life. May we practice using those tools daily.

BY MEG RILEY SENIOR MINISTER, CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP  TO READ MORE

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Inspiration:

 

Spirit of Peace, help me to build justice, which is the root of peace.

Restoring Justice

The Hebrew notion of teshuvah, or returning to God through repentance, is closely connected to the ancient notion of shalom. Usually translated merely as “peace,” shalom’s full meaning has to do with a reign of justice, healing, and righteousness. Scholars tell us that the purpose of Jewish law was not the meting out of vindictive suffering, but the restoration of balance, and a renewal of the promise of abundant life between humans and God. …

When people come together to seek reconciliation and forgiveness, the God of love and justice is near. The presence that transforms, the presence that forgives, the presence that makes us new—that presence is near. It is in the places of transgression and return that we will learn what it means to be human. It is in the places where we are broken that we will encounter a sacred and transforming power.

BY SUSAN CONRAD, CHAPLAIN AND ASSOCIATE SUPERVISOR OF PASTORAL EDUCATION, ALTA BATES SUMMIT MEDICAL CENTER, BERKELEY/OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA   TO READ MORE

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Inspiration:

 

What does it mean to be in solidarity?

How Much Do We Deserve?

Globally, we are six billion people now on this planet. According to the UN, at least two billion live on $2 a day or less. Two-thirds of those live on less than one dollar a day. Issues of covenantal commitment to the common good and to distributive justice are everywhere. On my shelf at home I keep a painted papier-maché chalice given to me by the banghi women of Ahmedabad, in India. Banghis are those who by caste custom must earn their living in the villages cleaning out other people’s latrines, and in the cities gathering refuse in the streets, as “paper-pickers.” With help from the UU Holdeen India Program, 17,000 banghi women in Ahmedabad were organized into a union – which now has a contract with the city to provide all its recycling services, and for a living wage.

I say that our support for those women illustrates the principle, “from those to whom much has been given, much is expected.” Ethicist Peter Singer, in an essay on famine, goes so far as to suggest there should be an economic formula for our responsibilities. If we really lived out a sense of social solidarity with others, then someone with $50,000 in income, he says, would have to devote more than $20,000 of that to helping the neediest. As children’s writer Shel Silverstein once said in verse:

I’ll share your toys, I’ll share your money
I’ll share your toast, I’ll share your honey,
I’ll share your milk and your cookies, too.
The hard part’s sharing mine with you.

BY JOHN BUEHRENS, MINISTER, FIRST PARISH IN NEEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS TO READ MORE

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Inspiration:

 

When I find wholeness in myself I contribute to the wholeness of the world.

The Marker’s Meaning

For some of us, salvation comes, historically at least, in “salvation by character.” We believe there is something wonderful inside us—you could call it inherent dignity and worth—that allows us to work toward good character, wholeness, healing, and all that is good. We have within us a little core of natural hope—some bit of life that lies waiting to spring into action. And even better, we don’t have to just sit and wait: we can act to realize that hope, that life, that wholeness. In spite of the difficulties in both our own experience and of life in the larger world, we do what we can. Therein lies our salvation.

by Jane Rzepka, minister emerita of the Church of the Larger Fellowship TO READ MORE

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