Sermon by Rev. Dr. Michael J. Hoyt Fourth Presbyterian Church 4th Sunday after Epiphany February 2, 2014 The Great Ends of the Church: The Promotion of Social Righteousness Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 6:9-13 Thy kingdom come. ! Thy will be done, ! ! on earth as it is in heaven. If we pray this prayer, ! then we are confessing that we are called to the Fifth Great End of the Church: ! ! the Promotion of Social Righteousness. But what exactly is the promotion of social righteousness? There is grandeur in the phrase, perhaps a little to much grandeur, ! so that it sounds on first hearing, a little affronting, or holier-than-thou, ! and might conjure up pharisaic images of self-righteousness, ! ! and looking down the nose at others. Social righteousness is not a term we use as much these days ! as our predecessors did at the turn of the last century, ! from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, ! a period known as the Progressive Era. To recall this period, think: ! the Monopoly Board game, and big top hats, ! the Community Chest, ! and the great philanthropists like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, ! whose philanthropy, while impressive, ! ! may nonetheless have been resourced on the backs of the working poor ! ! ! through economic arrangements ! ! ! that would likely have drawn the ire of a prophet like Isaiah. The Progressive Era was a time ! when Christians understood themselves ! to be transforming society as a whole, ! ! through temperance movements, antislavery movements, ! ! ! and suffrage movements. In 1896, Charles Sheldon published his book, In His Steps. By 1935 ! “The book had been translated into nearly two dozen languages... ! and was claimed by Walter Rauschenbusch,

! a leader in the Social Gospel movement, as the inspiration for his work. Some sources report that In His Steps ! is one of the top ten best-selling books of all time. In Sheldon’s story, ! a pastor named Maxwell is challenged by a homeless man ! to live in light of his Christian convictions. ! ! This pastor, in turn, ! ! exhorts the members of his congregation to ask themselves, ! ! ! before every decision, ! ! ! ‘What would Jesus do?’” Yes, this is the original source of the WWJD? phenomenon ! which became popular again in the United States in the 1990s. What’s interesting is that ! “the WWJD? movement of today addresses personal sin ! ! and is ardently embraced by political conservatives. ! In contrast, the politically liberal Sheldon ! ! was devoted to renouncing systemic, corporate sin. ! Optimistic about the capacity of human beings to change the world, ! ! he inspired action on the part of social progressives ! ! and was considered a socialist by some.”1 Now, before we get off on the wrong foot here… ! it would be wrong to oversimplify these origins ! and think that the promotion of social righteousness is just the domain ! ! of political liberals. In fact, in my experience, ! both liberals and conservatives, indeed people all across the political spectrum, ! are concerned with promoting social righteousness; ! it’s just that we all have different philosophies about the best way to achieve it. But we are all of us together praying ! Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Biblically speaking, ! we can clarify what we mean by social righteousness ! by remembering that the biblical word we translate as righteousness ! ! is also often translated as justice. ! So we are talking about social justice, ! ! which is, of course, a central biblical value ! ! since the days of Isaiah and before. A few years back ! you may recall the beginnings of the demise ! of talk-radio and Fox News celebrity Glenn Beck ! ! when he began bashing Jim Wallis

! ! and churches that speak of social justice. Jim Wallis is the editor of Sojourners magazine, ! a biblically-based, Christian publication focused on issues of poverty ! ! and how Christians are called to address those issues. Challenging Wallis, ! Beck told his listeners that they should leave churches ! ! that use the words “social justice,” ! ! which, according to Beck, ! ! are just code words for Communism and Naziism. Interesting. Both Communism and Naziism … at the same time? ! ! (Not sure how you do that) I was never clear on what Beck thought the options might be for a Christian ! since you’re going to have a hard time finding a gospel-preaching church ! that doesn’t care about social justice…even if they don’t use that term. As Jim Wallis pointed out The Catholic Church, the Black Churches, the Mainline Protestant churches, ! and more and more Evangelical and Pentecostal churches ! including Hispanic and Asian-American congregations ! ! all consider social justice central to biblical faith ! ! ! and for good reason. Beck was telling all those Christians to leave their churches. Of course, Christians may disagree about what social justice means ! in our current political context -- and that conversation is an important one -! ! but the Bible is clear: ! ! ! from the Mosaic law of Jubilee, ! ! ! to the Hebrew prophets, to Jesus Christ, ! ! ! social justice is an integral part of God’s plan for humanity. And so we hold it up today: ! The Promotion of Social Righteous [or Social Justice] ! ! as one of the Great Ends of the Church.

There is an old parable which has become traditional ! among those who are concerned with social justice. Once upon a time there was a town that was built ! just beyond the bend of a large river. One day some of the children from the town were playing beside the river ! when they noticed three bodies floating in the water. ! ! They ran for help and the townsfolk quickly pulled the bodies ! ! ! out of the river.

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One body was dead so they buried it. One was alive, but quite ill, ! so they put that person into the hospital. The third turned out to be a healthy child, ! who they then placed with a family who cared for it ! ! and took it to school

From that day on, every day, ! a number of bodies came floating down the river ! ! and, every day, the good people of the town ! ! would pull them out and tend to them – ! ! ! taking the sick to hospitals, ! ! ! placing the children with families, ! ! ! and burying those who were dead. This went on for years; ! each day brought its quota of bodies, ! ! and the townsfolk ! ! not only came to expect a number of bodies each day ! ! ! but also worked at developing more elaborate systems ! ! ! for picking them out of the river and tending to them. ! ! ! !

Some of the townsfolk became quite generous ! in tending to these bodies and a few extraordinary ones even gave up their jobs ! so that they could tend to this concern full-time.

The town began to feel a certain healthy pride in its generosity ! and indeed they were very generous. ! However, during all these years and despite all that generosity and effort, ! nobody thought to go up the river, ! beyond the bend that hid from their sight what was above them, ! ! and find out why, daily, ! ! ! those bodies came floating down the river. The parable is illuminating in a simple way. Taking care of the bodies as they come down stream ! is what we might commonly call “charity” or “mercy.” Whereas going up stream to find the source of the suffering, ! and to work to change it at the source – ! ! that would be the work of “social justice.”

The important thing for us in considering these Great Ends of the Church,

! is to recall that no single End by itself ! is capable of providing the sole focus of the church. All of the six Great Ends work together to provide a fulsome vision ! of who Christ calls us to be. Reducing our life and ministry to any one of the six Great Ends ! would be to distort the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These Great Ends work together, they flow one from the other. And there is perhaps some wisdom in the way our predecessors ordered them. Beginning with the Proclamation of the Gospel, ! the seed from which the church grows, ! we are called together to find shelter and nurture and fellowship, ! we are called into the act of divine worship of God ! ! ! who is at the center of our fellowship ! ! and who is the source of our proclamation. We are then, in turn, in our worship and fellowship, ! encountered by the One who is the Truth, Jesus Christ. And Jesus teaches us about the coming kingdom of God, ! and calls us to participate in his ongoing healing transforming work ! ! in the world. There is both an inward and an outward dimension to our Great Ends, ! a vertical and a horizontal movement to our spirituality. To uphold any of the Great Ends at the expense of the others ! would be to misunderstand what it means to be the church. It is this distortion that the prophet Isaiah cries out against When the people complain to God, saying ! ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?  ! !   Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’ The God responds, saying, ! Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day, ! !    and oppress all your workers. ! Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight    ! ! and to strike with a wicked fist. ! Such fasting as you do today ! ! will not make your voice heard on high. ! Is such the fast that I choose, ! ! a day to humble oneself? ! Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, ! !    and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? ! Will you call this a fast, ! !    a day acceptable to the Lord? The Lord is dismissing their worship practices,

! not because there is anything inherently wrong with them: ! ! indeed they are prescribed in the scriptures. But they have not led to an outward change of life. ! That is, ! “The Maintenance of Divine Worship ! has not led to the Promotion of Social Righteousness.” And so the Lord calls the people to renewal: ! Is not this the fast that I choose: !    to loose the bonds of injustice, !    to undo the thongs of the yoke, ! to let the oppressed go free, !    and to break every yoke? ! Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, !    and bring the homeless poor into your house; ! when you see the naked, to cover them, !    and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then, says the prophet, ! Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, !    and your healing shall spring up quickly; ! your vindicator shall go before you, !    the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. ! Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; !    you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

In closing, ! let us recall the prayer of our Lord Jesus. ! Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Our prayer is to “let come God’s kingdom.” And praying so ! reminds us that the fulfillment of all social righteousness ! ! if finally not an End we can accomplish ! ! but which only God can accomplish. ! Social righteousness is the work of God. Departing from Charles Sheldon and his fellow progressives ! who looked ahead at what was they believed would be The Christian Century, ! we do not believe it is within mere human capacity ! ! to achieve perfect justice. But we believe God can and God will achieve it – ! and so we pray, fervently, ! Thy kingdom come.

Meanwhile, we commit ourselves wholeheartedly to doing what Jesus would do ! and seeking with all our energy to do God’s will, ! and to see God’s will being done, on earth as it is in heaven. And in this prayer, Jesus defines that will ! as Bread for us and for all people ! as Forgiveness of one another, and God constantly forgives us, ! and as Deliverance from the evil one, ! ! freedom from every shackle that would bind the human body ! ! ! or the human spirit. So now let us gather at this table, ! where bread is broken and shared, ! ! where forgiveness is known and embodied, ! ! ! and where we are set free ! ! ! by the grace and love and justice ! ! ! ! of the One who meets us here...

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Cynthia Rigby, The Promotion of Social Righteousness (Louisville: Witherspoon Press, 2010. p 2-3.