The Church and Injustice

Last Sunday, I talked about how social justice is the church’s responsibility. (You can listen to it here.)

If you were to ask your non-Christian friends what they think the church should be doing in the world, you would most likely hear something along the lines of, “taking care of the poor.” Jesus spoke repeatedly about the same thing, and many of the descriptions of God in the Old Testament highlighted His heart for the widows, orphans, and victims of injustice. In fact, this is the one thing Jesus and the world agree on: that social justice and care for the hurting is the church’s responsibility. It would seem the only group who doesn’t agree is the church.

Why is that?

After I preached the message last week, I had lunch with Mike Steffens, our children’s pastor. Since he didn’t hear the sermon, I gave him a quick recap. He responded with an illustration that I think is brilliant:

He said, “It’s like one time when I broke my leg. I wore the cast for weeks, and it was itchy and smelly. Then, when they cut the cast off, my leg was pale and weak and it took another couple weeks before it was strong enough to use normally again. That’s the problem with the church and justice. We’ve cocooned ourselves in our little Christian bubble, like a cast, until we itch and stink. As a result, our muscle that’s designed to care for those outside of the church is all weak and pale. It’s not a matter of apathy, it’s a matter of atrophy.”

I think he hit it right on the head. Most Christians I know do have a heart for the poor. We hear sermons or see commercials about AIDS in Africa or 150,000 kids dying each month for want of medicine or clean water, and we really do feel compassion. And I don’t know anyone who reads the words of Jesus about “the least of these” and says, “Yeah, that’s someone else’s problem.” It’s just that we don’t know how to start. And we’re not sure we can really make a dent. We feel compassionate, but powerless.

It’s not a matter of apathy, it’s a matter of atrophy.

We don’t need a wake-up call so much as physical therapy. And the best way to strengthen our social justice muscle is to exercise it…in small doses at first. Read an article or two on orphans in the Sudan. Learn about political oppression and human rights violations in China. Research the health crisis in central Africa. The more you know, the more you’ll be moved to act. And then make a small contribution. Write a letter. Adopt a child through Compassion International. Just because we can’t do everything doesn’t mean we can’t do anything.

Here are a few websites you can check out to start exercising your compassion muscles:
Reach Global
The Hole in our Gospel
World Vision
Compassion International
One
Clean Water
Voice of the Martyrs