And Justice For.....

So we pray. 

We pray for Ferguson. 

We pray for unity in the Church. 

Calls to prayer are always in order. Although prayers in the abstract seem to divert us from the moment that is. Calls to prayer also presuppose that people haven't been praying all along...which seems presumptuous. 

But what are we praying for? 

If the sum of our prayers is to match outcomes with our preferences then whatever it is we're praying, it's more like "our will, not Thine be done."

Micah tells us that the Lord requires us to "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God."

To "do" justice is not an act of passivity. It is to match one's engagement in the world with at least as much spiritual energy exerted in the utterance of the prayers in the first place. Jesus' prayer is that God's realm and will "be done on earth as it is in heaven."

It is an advocacy for a world where the justice we seek is not retributive...that's the justice we're wired to exact if left to our own devices. It's the kind wherein we want make sure the good guys and bad guys each get exactly what they both deserve. And guess who gets to determine that?

Justice we pray for is measured by how the least of us, the ones without voice and representation, the ones on the outside looking in have access, place, voice and value measured against those who, by nothing more arbitrary than their birth claim ownership to all of the above. 

It is not justice hoped for. It is justice worked for. 

Otherwise, as people in power, we are just like those to whom another prophet once spoke:

"For from the least to the greatest of them,everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
saying, “Peace, peace,”
when there is no peace.
They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;
yet they were not ashamed,
they did not know how to blush." Jer. 6.13-15. 

Lord have mercy. 

Christ have mercy. 

Lord have mercy.