social justice

February 9, 2014 – Let Your Light Shine from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.

A sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on February 9, 2014.

Isaiah 58:1-12
and Matthew 5:13-20

So many times this week, I thought to myself:

I never want to see an ounce of salt again.

Don’t get me wrong. Every time I fry up some Eggs in the morning,

I have to use a dash or two to get them just right.

But I’m not talking about that salt.

I mean rock salt. Salt that is used to clear our roads of snow and ice.

The salt that seeps into cracks in the road

and helps to create potholes the size of small animals in the road.

Snow. Ice. Cold.

Its only the first few weeks of February,

and apparently they’re already running out of salt

to keep the roads clear.

I can see how some of you sitting gingerly in your pews

because your backs still feel the effects of all that shoveling.

Maybe in addition to trying to clear your driveway and your sidewalks,

you put down a layer or two of rock salt

to keep them from refreezing.

Its enough to make you cry after all that work,

just to see it snow again a few days later. [Read more…]

2013 10 20 Persistence from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.

A sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri on October 20, 2013.

Jeremiah 31:31-34
and Luke 18:1-8

One of the things that gives me life,

is turning again and again to the stories of the Bible.

I say this not just because we encounter God there… in that engagement

though that’s a big part of it.

But these stories in the Scripture are endlessly fascinating.

So many twists and turns and nuances and layers.

Take, for instance, this Parable:

the parable of the Unjust Judge, some call it

or the parable of the persistent widow.

There is this judge, says Jesus. We know about judges in Israel.

Their role is to maintain a reasonable harmony in the community,

to decide disputes fairly and impartially.[i]

Jewish law is clear, however: there is a particular responsibility

for such judges…and the whole nation

to protect the rights of the poor—

often described through the shorthand of the

widows and the orphans and

sojourners in the land.

So there is this Judge, says Jesus

and there is this widow. And here lies the plot:

the widow as the main character immediately

raises the stakes for this judge.

Any God-fearing jurist would feel obligated by the law, by Torah

to take particularly good care of her.[ii]

The problem is that this judge is not God-fearing.

This judge, the text tells us, isn’t particularly interested in justice at all.

He really just wants her to go away.

[Read more…]