2021.07.11 | The Metrics of Justice
“The Metrics of Justice”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
July 11, 2021
Amos 7:7-15 (NRSV)
The Hebrew prophet Amos had an unenviable job. He was called to proclaim God’s impending judgment on Northern Israel to the rich and powerful during a time of national prosperity. His audience didn’t want to hear what he had to say, and there wasn’t much evidence to substantiate that what the prophet predicted would unfold.
Amos was a tradesman and a shepherd from Judah, the Southern Kingdom. He was also a teacher who used the tools at hand to communicate God’s message to the King and his court, by dropping a plumbline and holding it steady for all to see.
For those unfamiliar with the tools of a tradesperson, I’ll explain that a plumbline is normally made of a durable string with a pendulum tied to one end. Carpenters hold one end of the string, drop the weight, and use it to align a fence post or a cornerpost with the string, so that the post will be “straight with the world,” as my mother would say.
The prophet Amos used the term “plumbline” literally and metaphorically in chapter 7, in that he literally dropped a plumbline for Israel’s leaders to see, and he used the metaphor of a plumbline to describe God’s basis for determining just behavior and meting out judgment.
Like the other Hebrew prophets and Jesus of Nazareth, Amos asserted that God’s plumbline for justice was determined by the status of the most vulnerable. If the wellbeing of the poor, the sick, the infirm, orphans, widows, and foreigners was secure, then God’s justice was being meted out and all would be well for the nation. But if the converse were true, there was going to be hell to pay.
No person of privilege would have wanted to hear what Amos had to say in the early eighth century BCE, because things were going pretty well for them at that time. Prophesying doom and gloom in Northern Israel back then would have been like prophesying doom and gloom in Silicon Valley during the tech boom of the 1990s. The high fliers didn’t want to hear it, and there was little evidence that the judgment Amos described would come to pass anytime soon.
Despite the existence of immediate evidence to the contrary, both the Biblical record and archeological evidence from the Ancient Near East reveal that Amos was right. His prophecy was fulfilled. The Assyrians crushed the Northern Kingdom in 721 BCE, Amos’ ancient audience finally “got religion,” and his warning--though not always heeded--has become a haunting reminder of the judgment that befalls the unjust.
II
Let’s consider a few contemporary examples where the prophet Amos would be pulling out his plumbline and calling us to account, if he were walking the earth today.
The Center for Disease Control and the Alameda County and State of California Public Health Departments have compiled a tremendous amount of data and used it for assessing the health of our people--and the results are daming particularly when it comes to low income, African American, Latinx, and multiracial populations.
According to the ACPHD website today, the incidence of COVID-19 positive cases during this pandemic have been twice the rate or more among Latinx compared with all other racial-ethnic groups. The death rates have been proportionally the highest among African Americans, and persons with two or more racial-ethnic identities, so far, have the lowest vaccination rates (37%), followed by African Americans (58%), and Latinx (61½ %).
These health disparities are reflective of the racial-ethnic and economic disparities that have existed in California since the founding of our state, and they have worsened considerably in the past generation.
Anyone who thinks that the U.S. is on some grand upward trajectory toward social justice for all simply isn’t paying attention to current public health data, or the metrics of justice that Amos and Jesus were talking about, and that God employs.
This is one, among many reasons, why Eden United Church of Christ, in general, and our staff, in particular, have been working so diligently to provide accurate public health information, responding to the needs of patients and families who are isolating and quarantining, and vaccinating hesitant and underserved residents in our community. And that’s not all.
III
The performance metrics associated with our public schools are also an indicator of how we rank in terms of God’s justice metrics--and an indictment on the deciders in our nation.
Consider for example that poverty prevents students from accessing high performing public schools in the U.S. and around the globe.
In many countries, children—especially girls—don’t have equal access to schooling, because they are thrust into adult roles at very young ages.
Every year, 12 million girls are married before they turn 18, which means that instead of completing their basic education and preparing for advanced degrees, they are caring for their own children and other family members.
Research has shown that education is a key stepping-stone for low and very-low income students to advance economically. This is why the United Church of Christ and our sister denomination, the Disciples of Christ, have invested so many resources into the education of girls and women through our Common Global Ministries partnerships.
This is also one of the reasons that our forebears, particularly the Congregationalists, and our UCC denomination have invested so many resources in the development of quality public schools and institutions of higher learning in the U.S.
In addition, this is why Eden UCC has been engaged in public education since our founding more than 156 years ago, and why, in particular, we work closely and tirelessly with the Hayward Unified School District, which is currently ranked in the lower one-third of California public schools in terms of math and English proficiency.
The challenges that face our public schools, especially HUSD, are stubborn and profound, but as Christians, we cannot not give up the fight for more funding, smaller class sizes, state of the art facilities, linguistically and culturally competent educators, and more student and classroom support. High performing public schools are key to the economic improvement of our most challenged families, and to better health outcomes for these students, the families they form, and our nation as a whole.
Furthermore, to extrapolate from Amos, better performance metrics in our public schools also improves our community and nation’s overall justice metrics in the eyes of God.
IV
Today we are celebrating the 26th Anniversary of our Open & Affirming recognition by the UCC Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns--aka “the Coalition.”
Eden Church is out and proud to be on the forefront of the LGBTQQI justice movement, and part of the fastest growing welcoming church movement in the world!
In 1995 we received this honor in recognition of the year-long study and decision-making process that our church participated in, which included the adoption of our ONA declaration. We were the 159th congregation out of about 6,000 congregations in the United Church of Christ to complete this process and to be recognized in this way.
There are over 1500 ONA congregations in our denomination today. In comparison with other UCC congregations, and compared with other Christian denominations, Eden Church is what you might call a “high achiever” and an “early adopter” of this LGBTQQI-friendly identity, and yet we ought not sit our laurels or think too highly of ourselves.
Most congregations in our denomination haven’t yet begun the work that we slogged through 28+ years ago, and most Christian denominations have yet to create welcoming movements in their respective traditions.
So there are many opportunities for justice ministry still available and the mission field isn’t just in the public square. It’s within the Christian religion. It’s right here in our own backyards.
V
Some Christians will tell you that this justice-seeking public health, public education, and welcoming church work is not the work of God. They may even tell you that it’s the work of the devil, and that they’ll never be part of it. But the truth, as the prophet Amos reminds us, is that the work of love and justice is always God’s work, and it’s already underway. So it behoves us to get with the program.
Our sacred texts and the history of Ancient Israel reveal that there will be an accounting for our behavior as individuals and as nations; and, regardless of how we measure up, God will accomplish God’s purposes.
That’s right, regardless of whether we are wide awake and working to overcome the racial-ethnic and economic disparities in public health and public education, and regardless of whether we are--as my friend Michael Schuenemeyer says--“No way, ONA!” or “All the way, ONA!” God will accomplish God’s purposes.
The only question, then, is whether we are aligned with God’s purposes and enjoying the fulfillment of them, right here on earth, as God intends. Amen.