ONE Lutheran Sermon Helps
JANUARY 11, 2008
Justice
Background
ONE Lutheran Campaign: What’s Justice Got to Do With It?
Working for justice, or acting to change the broken and
sinful conditions that create human need in the world, is a
foundational principle of the ONE Lutheran Campaign and the
Millennium Development Goals. Justice is not the same as
charity, or financial or material gifts which seek to respond
immediately to human need. Justice seeks to change unfair
systems and structures in the world so that acts of charity are
no longer necessary. Our faith gives us hope that another
world is possible. We are called to build the kingdom of God
on earth and speak out against systems that trap people in
poverty. Working for justice is the only way to make poverty
history.
The ONE Lutheran Campaign needs your voice and actions for
justice. This involves building a relationship with your elected
officials and faithfully urging them to support U.S. policies
that are more just and compassionate. Not only should our nation
provide more effective aid to the poorest countries in the
world, we must also continue to cancel the burdensome
international debts that stand in the way of development and
make changes in trade policy so that all nations have the
opportunity to participate in the global economy and reach
self-sufficiency. As Irish rock star Bono, from the band U2, has
stated in relation to his advocacy for Africa, “It’s not about
charity. It’s about justice.”
Scriptural support
Amos 5:24 – Amos cried out: “Let justice roll down
like the waters…”
Micah 6:8 – Micah said that the LORD required acts of
justice.
Matthew 25:31-46 - Jesus commended those who practiced
acts of charity.
Story
Debt cancellation is a good example of how global poverty
advocates work for justice. Many poor countries spend more each
year to repay decades-old debt to the world’s wealthiest
countries and international institutions like the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund (IMF) than they do on the fight
against poverty, including stopping the pandemic of HIV/AIDS,
putting children in school and ensuring access to clean water.
Moreover, many highly-indebted poor countries also spend more on
debt repayment than they receive in foreign aid. For example,
Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region in the world, receives
about $13 billion annually in international aid but spends
nearly $15 billion every year repaying old debts.
Many of these highly-indebted poor countries accumulated
their debt through unjust practices. In the 1960s international
currency prices and interest rates collapsed, which launched
banks into an international financial crisis. To avert the
crisis, banks sought to lend money – and lots of it – quickly.
Thus, significant amounts of money were lent to poor countries
with little thought as to how they would pay the money back.
Moreover, many of the loans were either lent to former corrupt
regimes that did not use the money in ways that benefited their
people (known as ‘odious debt’), or in the self-interest of rich
countries or financial institutions (known as ‘illegitimate
debt’).
Today, many poor countries are trapped in a deadly cycle of
indebtedness – forced to borrow more money to make payments on
the interest accrued from the principal loan that has long since
been paid in full.
Debt cancellation has proven to save lives and reduce poverty
because it frees up critical financial resources that
governments commit to investing in the well-being of their
people. For example, Mozambique has increased rates of childhood
vaccination by more than 80 percent; Uganda has provided clean
water for 2.2 million citizens; and Tanzania has eliminated
school fees for primary school, putting an estimated 1.6 million
kids back in school.
Raise your voice for debt justice today. See
www.elca.org/advocacy
or www.jubileeusa.org
for more information.
Quotations
“On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on
life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day
we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be
transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten
and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True
compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to
see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
- The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I don’t preach a social gospel; I preach the gospel, period.
The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is about the whole person.
When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say “now is that political
or social?” He said, ‘I feed you’ because good news to a hungry
person is bread.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu
ELCA social statement support
“We commit ourselves as a church and urge members to:
- Address creatively and courageously the complex causes
of poverty;
- Provide opportunities for dialogue, learning, and
strategizing among people of different economic situations
and from different regions who are harmed by global economic
changes;
- Give more to relieve conditions of poverty, and invest
more in initiatives to reduce poverty
Also, we call for:
- “Scrutiny of how specific policies and practices affect
people and nations that are the poorest, and changes to make
policies of economic growth, trade, and investment more
beneficial to those who are poor;
- Efforts to increase the participation of low-income
people in political and civic life, and citizen vigilance
and action that challenges governments and other sectors
when they become captive to narrow economic interests that
do not represent the good of all;
- Shifts throughout the world form military expenditures
to purposes that serve the needs of low-income people;
- Support for family planning and enhanced opportunities
for women so that population pressures might be eased;
- Reduction of overwhelming international debt burdens in
ways that do not impose further deprivations on the poor,
and cancellation of some or all debt where severe
indebtedness immobilizes a country’s economy."
-Sufficient Sustainable Livelihood For All social statement
Suggested hymns
“Let Streams of Living Justice” (ELW, #710
“Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service” (ELW, #712)
“Lord of All Nations, Grant Me Grace” (ELW, #716)
(Others in the “Justice, Peace” section of the ELW)
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