Morning Prayer Homily
community would ensure that us, kids, were protected until we reached
Deaconess Heather Frank
our apartments and that we felt welcomed home.
Feb. 8, 2011
READING: MICAH 6:8
Doing justice is part of a three section command in Micah. It is
one of three requirements and cannot be done in isolation. The other
two parts are walking humbly with God and loving kindness. When
In these interactions, we became messed up in one another’s
lives and learned to recognize the Christ in one another. We spoke
often about the injustice we saw in the neighborhood and talked about
stopping it.
One Saturday, my brother was blamed for some damage to one
we walk with God our hearts become attune to God and we respond by
of the neighborhoods playgrounds for which he was not responsible.
loving kindness. Then when we see injustice, our hearts cry out.
After the cops arrived and read him his Miranda Rights in our living
Doing justice is a direct counter to sin and separation. In the
room, my brother told the cops who was responsible. That night after
beginning all was good, and through sin we separated ourselves from
the cops left that child’s house, he took a bat to the front and back
one another. Through this process, we learned to blame one another
windows of my mother’s car leaving spider webs across the glass.
and to be afraid to show our true selves. In Jesus’ ministry, he spent
As we walked out to our car to go to church the next morning,
time getting to know people by eating with them, visiting them in their
we cried. Knowing that the one place where things would seem to
houses and worshipping with them.
make sense, was the one place we would likely not be this morning.
One starts to do justice by spending time and getting to know
Our neighbor, Celina, came out of her apartment and found us crying.
one another. In the neighborhood where I grew up, people spent time
As soon as she realized what was going on she handed us her keys and
sitting, and often smoking, on the balconies in front of their
told us to go quickly so that we could get to church. She then caught a
apartments. As we all got off the school bus, parents and grandparents
ride with a different neighbor.
would call to children and the neighbors. These guides of our
Our neighbors came forward sharing news of what they had
Further, when we recognize Christ in a place, it is impossible
seen and heard that night. We were shocked by the willingness of
to say that the injustice there is okay or right. We find ourselves
people to speak to police, even those who had been targeted by police
saying things and having strength to speak out in ways where we
for years. They told us, that if they didn’t speak, no one would. They
would have previously been afraid. Because it just makes sense.
said, “it just made sense.”
We shouldn’t have been shocked. In getting to know one
another, we became messed up in one another’s lives. When you
know someone, it is difficult to not become upset when you hear that
something unjust happened to them. Friends who meet death
suddenly. Friends who are targeted by the police. Neighborhoods
where police refuse to go. Places where outsiders have given up hope
of anything good coming out of them and where insiders have given
up hope of leaving.
This is the kind of place where Jesus was born. People would
say, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” And we have these
places today. From the outside it may be easy to say this, but once we
get know one another it is impossible. When we get to know one
another, we come to love one another. Then, it is impossible to say
nothing good can come out of that place, because we know each other
and we recognize Christ in this place.