I
find difficulties with this approach because even when we think of division in
that sense, ultimately we are dealing with the same person who lives in the
world and at the same time goes to church. Let
us look at the Bible passage from the prophet Micah 6:8 and see how the Lord
puts it across: “This is what
Yahweh asks of you on this, that you act justly, that you love tenderly, that
you walk humbly with your God.”
The
three demands made by the Lord in this text provide the basis for what I will
call a balanced spirituality. In
speaking about spirituality here, I do not mean just a set of theological
ideas. But
I am thinking
more of the outlook and attitudes we
have. By spirituality I would like
to mean the way one relates to oneself, to the world and to God. It
is all about the meaning and purpose of life, that hunger or that thirst to do
something within ourselves. Spirituality
is not something added to life but something from within. We
can now examine the passage from Micah.
EXAMINATION OF SCRIPTURE
I
will start with walk humbly with your
God. This refers to my
personal relationship with God. Each
person is called to a deeply personal religious conversion.
Love tenderly: the call to
love tenderly refers to interpersonal relationships, face to face
relationships with other people. Act justly: this is a moral matter in relationship to the area of
public life. When I proclaim that
I am a Christian, I am saying that in each of these spheres, I find that the
experience of Christ is in some way setting a standard for me.
When
we examine the life of Jesus, who sets a standard for every Christian, you
realize that Jesus was revolutionary. He
was found always condemning oppressive structures that he came across.
He even used strong language to unjust leaders like “you serpents,
you brood of vipers”, addressing scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:33).
Jesus
declares his mission statement in Luke 4:18 “the spirit of the Lord is upon
me, he has sent me to preach good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to
captives and recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go
free.”
At
one moment Jesus had to abandon his preaching after realizing that people
needed food. He then multiplied
the bread and fish and gave each of the 5,000
people a share. In these and many
other occasions Jesus shows that for people to be human, they must have both
body and soul. At no time or
moment can the two be treated separate before death because they affect each
other.
THE LAST JUDGEMENT
In
Matthew 25:40 Jesus talks of the last social judgment, “I tell you, whenever
you did this for one of the least important of these brothers or sisters of
mine, you did it for me.” Jesus also tells us in the famous story of the
rich man and Lazarus that by not helping those in need, we participate in the
sin of omission which can cost us the Kingdom
of God.
The only sin indicated in Luke
16:19 that the rich man committed was that did not regard the poor Lazarus as
another human being who needed help.
Looking
at all these issues and many others, you realize that the calling of our faith
as Christians demands involvements in issues of justice. A
true Christian therefore
should
not differentiate the behaviour of
his religious teaching and politics because it is the same person who is a
member of the religion and needs food to survive!
If
we look at the burning issues among Zambians today as raised by the church,
one realizes that these issues, as much as they are social issues, are moral
issues. Take poverty for instance.
People are going through terrible suffering and when we look at Jesus,
he always identifies himself with such people.
Jesus
throughout his mission healed people suffering from different diseases simply
to show the value of human life. Jesus
challenged unjust laws such as the attitude towards the observance of the law
of the Sabbath. He plainly said
the law was meant for humans and not humans for the law (Sabbath).
In confronting the unjust laws, Jesus ultimately paid a higher price
than anyone of us would contemplate to do.
He paid with his life.
CONCLUSION: ALL MUST BE INVOLVED
What
the church is simply saying is that all must get involved in the affairs of
the nation by getting to know what is happening around them and what
government is doing for them. People
in Zambia
today cannot just find employment. Much
as work is social, I think it is as well a moral issue. Jesus
was a worker and in the Old Testament we are called to be co-creators with
God. It is only through work that
we respond to this calling.
So
going back to the same question of why the church should be concerned with
social justice, I would like to say that the church should continue and even
strengthen its voice on justice issues. Moreover
it is the church that is the best moral teacher. Remember
that the people to whom the church preaches the Gospel are affected by
decisions and structures formed by politics.
It is only correct, therefore, that the church be in touch with the
world for it to reach out to the world. The
church should address what affects its members even if it means politics!
Collins Moonga
Emmaus Spirituality Centre
Lusaka
