View as Webpage

Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

July 5, 2023

Invitatory

Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Reading - Psalm 119: 137-144

You are righteous, O Lord,

           and upright are your judgments.

You have issued your decrees

           with justice and in perfect faithfulness.

My indignation has consumed me,

           because my enemies forget your words.

Your word has been tested to the uttermost,

           and your servant holds it dear.

I am small and of little account,

           yet I do not forget your commandments.

Your justice is an everlasting justice

           and your law is the truth.

Trouble and distress have come upon me,

           yet your commandments are my delight.

The righteousness of your decrees is everlasting;

           grant me understanding, that I may live.



Meditation - Winnie Smith

We hear the word “justice” a lot. On its surface, this is not a complicated word: justice means fairness, the quality of being reasonable. Justice is an admirable goal - I want to believe that people can all be treated equally and fairly, that ultimately justice will “roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). But given people’s propensity to desire power, our own self-interest nearly always coming before the interests of others, and the widespread inequalities in our world, justice as Amos describes feels like a far-off dream.

The psalm appointed for today, a portion of 119, writes of God’s justice: “You are righteous, O Lord, and upright are your judgments…your justice is an everlasting justice and your law is the truth.” I think the perception of God’s justice and judgments are often misconstrued, and these words have taken on a negative connotation. To us, justice means evening the score and judgment means punishment. God’s justice, however, is less transactional. It is, instead, God’s promise of abiding presence and the fulfillment of His promise to be with all people forever and to bring them salvation. God’s justice is shown through unbounded grace and the hope of the world to come - for all.

I was struck this past Sunday by the words of our Gospel hymn, “Jerusalem.” The music itself is stunning (you may, like me, remember it being sung - albeit with different text - at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding years ago). Singing it on Sunday, just before Independence Day, I heard it as something of a patriotic hymn, as well as a Christian one:

O day of peace that dimly shines through all our hopes and prayers and dreams, guide us to justice, truth, and love, delivered from our selfish schemes. May swords of hate fall from our hands, our hearts from envy find release, till by God’s grace our warring world shall see Christ’s promised reign of peace (Hymnal 1982, #597).

This simple text holds justice, truth, and love together as standards by which we should all strive to live. It asserts that these are the antidotes to our naturally selfish ways and that if we can follow them as guiding principles, then peace can be achieved. I think the thing we often get wrong about justice is understanding it in individualistic and self-centered ways. What if, instead, we could really recognize and seek justice for all? What if we could recognize justice as a state of being in which everyone - every single person - is loved, cared for, and protected, the way we are by God? As we celebrate this week of Independence Day, I pray that every person in this country - Christian or not - can move towards this understanding of justice, towards this recognition of the value of every single human being. Then, perhaps, will justice truly roll down like waters. Then, perhaps, will we see that day of peace.

The Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

    hallowed be thy Name,

    thy kingdom come,

    thy will be done,

        on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

    as we forgive those

        who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

    but deliver us from evil.