SAINT Bartholomew Anglican Parish

We may wonder where God is in today's world, and this psalm may well be our prayer as well. Just as wickedness prevailed in the days of the psalmist, it appears to prevail today. The weak are still hunted down and caught in schemes that often enslave them. For the greedy, there will never be enough. They will continue to amass whatever they are greedy for whether it is money, land, power or fame. They don't care who they climb over to get what they want. There is no room in their hearts or thoughts for God because they consider themselves the gods of their lives. Some of these greedy and wicked men and women also consider themselves to be good Christians. As we know, many of those who were the advisors to the kings of Israel served themselves rather than God. The High Priest and the Jewish leaders were the ones who challenged Jesus and brought about his death. There is a long history of religious leaders and so-called religious leaders who have only thought about themselves and what they can get. It does us well to look for those whose behavior is consistent with Christian values. As Jesus said, "By their fruits, you shall know them." There have been scandals in recent years with those who proclaim themselves to be of God and then amass fortunes and live extravagant lifestyles while continuing to ask for donations for prayer. Most of those who answered their calls for donations were the elderly and others who were desperate for help and thought that this would make God help them. I don't know about you, but I've never charged anyone who wanted me to pray for them! Let us not fall into the traps of the wicked but work against anyone who would deny the rights of the poor and the vulnerable.

What does God expect us to do? This makes it pretty clear! When I read Scripture, I notice how the sentences often run long with anywhere from three to five clauses at times. Here, we have commands. There is no misunderstanding of what God wants! Although God is speaking to the Israelites, he is also speaking to us. Here again is the main theme of justice. I know that I have mentioned this before, but in my travels I have found those who have the least are the most generous. I have been very fortunate to visit both Haiti and Tanzania on mission trips. The people in these countries, especially in Haiti, do not have a lot. The people need to hunt for drinkable water. There are areas where there is little or no electricity. When we visited, people shared what they had. They cooked meals for us, killed their animals to supply us with meat for out meals, and were more than willing to help their neighbors who had less then themselves, even taking in the children who were left orphans. I know that there are people who live in wealthier countries who reach out to others, but not on the scale that I witnessed in those two countries and not with the attitude that this kind of behavior was normal; they did not see it as extraordinary or themselves as heroes. With all the things they did not have, they were happy. Life was a struggle, but the people were happy. I also found that they had faith. Not always Christian faith, but they believed in God and felt that they were blessed by their God that they were able to help one another. We have a lot to learn about loving our neighbor.

Yesterday we considered the role of a disciple, and today we are warned against the challenges. Christianity today is under attack from many different sources and some of those sources are from people or organizations who consider themselves Christian. Sometimes the most difficult enemies to see are the ones that look and sound like us! A few years ago, a minister declared "war" on members of a certain religion and disrespected both toe members of that religion and the religion itself by burning their sacred books. This is an atrocity! An organization to which I belong collected money to replace those sacred books to anyone who asked. This is the Christian way of behaving. There are so many people who are more concerned about themselves than the welfare of others, that anyone who preaches justice or mercy is suspect. The same goes for anyone who would like us to protest the current moral state of affairs. Get rich quick, no matter who gets stepped on; take all the pleasure you can, no matter who gets hurt; lie, cheat or steal, if it gets you what you want! These are the wolves we must overcome. Jesus was right to tell us to be wise as well as harmless because the only way change can come is if we can see trouble and injustice coming and be able to recognize it for what it is. We also must figure out how to do no harm as we work to make the changes that God wants. As we continue our mission of discipleship, we need to be careful not to injure others in our pursuit of justice. Remember the wheat and the weeds, it's God's job to judge and we don't want to destroy any wheat by pulling up the weeds.