The Beloved Community
We have come to the eve of another King Day holiday. And as we reflect upon what that day ought to mean for all of us, I submit to you that maybe we should set our minds on something that Dr. King spoke of often. He called it “The Beloved Community”. It was his vision of the goal of the nonviolent action movement. And he called for us to embrace the vision of The Beloved Community as we build a global community of people committed to principles that have justice and mercy as its foundation. In Exodus 23:1-12, God continued speaking to Moses at Mount Sinai, to issue forth the laws that His beloved community (the nation of Israel) were to live by. This passage in particular, focuses on God’s laws regarding justice and mercy. I pray that God will speak to your heart and you will embrace His love for justice and mercy among His people.
“Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness. “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit. (Exodus 23:1-3) God gave these laws to His people to ensure just judicial proceedings. The 9th commandment prohibits the bearing false witness. This passage builds upon that, with God telling His people not to spread false reports (we should read that to include gossip and spreading rumors), or succumb to being crowd pleasers or going along with the crowd when they know that the crowd’s promoting something that is wrong. Finally God warned His people against showing favoritism to the poor just because they are poor, if it is not in line with what is just. Our country is divided because of lies about voting and vaccines. God calls you to check your heart to make sure you aren’t guilty of spreading any false reports, or of letting the crowd influence you against what is right.
“If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it. “Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty. “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent. “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt. (Exodus 23:4-9) God wanted His people to show justice and mercy even to those who were their enemies or hated them for whatever reason (think of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan and how he helped someone in need who might have hated him just for being a Samaritan). False witness can lead to the harm of the innocent through unjust judgments, up to and including capital punishment. In essence, God considers that to be murder and He will not acquit (find innocent) someone who is guilty of that. Judges and witnesses were not to accept bribes because of the perversion of justice that causes. Finally, God’s law prohibited oppression of foreigners and reminded the Israelites of what it felt like to be mistreated when they were foreigners in Egypt. How do you treat those who are “foreigners” to your circle, community, etc? Are you welcoming to them or shunning them?
“For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed. (Exodus 23:10-12) These are the Sabbath laws that God gave His people. They are meant for us to adhere to a time to refresh, renew and regenerate. Whether our fields, our workers, our means of production or ourselves, God knew that everything in His creation needs a time to rest. So He included it in His law and He called upon us to take this Sabbath time to renew our minds by focusing on Him and His holiness in worship. When I renew my mind and spirit in worship, I can recalibrate and focus on what God wants of me in relation to Him and to other people.
We live in a nation and a world that is a far cry from the people that God called Israel (and us) to be. Justice and mercy are seemingly in short supply. And wherever we look, we can see corruption, greed, discrimination etc. But God will not be mocked, so leaders, regimes and governments continue to be toppled because of injustice and lack of mercy towards people. As we look to honor Dr. King this year, let us realize that what he was really calling us to do is to honor God in our dealings with one another. Jesus summed up all of God’s laws as this: love God with everything you have within you and love your neighbor like you love yourself. When we live like that, justice and mercy have no choice but to reign in whatever we do…and we become part of God’s beloved community.
Blessings,
Rev. Glenn
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
~Micah 6:8
