The Courageous Way of Love and Justice…

 St Francis is a Christian saint and a deeply inspiring figure for me. He 
lived and spoke out for an alternative path of simplicity, generosity, humility, and faith. 
Whilst he is respected and people leap onto his love of nature, I suspect most people would 
shrug off his commitment to the way of Jesus through simplicity and generous love for all 
people and creation. Equally, Gandhi, though a person of Hindu faith, was richly inspired 
by Jesus’ teaching and life of non-violence and standing against evil and injustice. For 
Gandhi, this meant persecution and suffering through racism and the rejection of ‘Empire.’  
There are significant reactions against someone who speaks and stands up for love and 
justice, inclusivity, equality and compassion. Others, such as Archbishop Oscar Romero 
and Martin Luther King jr, spoke the way of love and sought equality for different groups 
of people and both were cut down, assassinated, because of who they were and what they 
spoke out for. It does seem that the world can’t always deal with love or justice and many 
people can’t face being challenged over our own prejudices or place in the world. We feel 
uncomfortable being challenged about how we perceive the world or our place within it.  
In our world, some people and people types have less value than others. The wealthy 
and powerful have more privileges and control the systems of power that maintain the 
status quo. They are very hard to resist, and decision-makers listen to them very carefully. 
There are many people across our world who work incredibly hard to feed and house their 
families and they only just make ends meet. I know of people in West Papua, our nearest 
neighbours, who are oppressed and dominated by the powerful Indonesian rulers who 
‘own’ the land. The Indigenous West Papuans are wonderful people who struggle to live 
and provide safe and good lives for their families and when they speak out for justice, the 
powers rise up and resist with weapons and punishment. Their homelands are ruined by 
mining companies who wreak havoc on the environment and leave it destroyed and 
dangerous. Currently, in the USA, for those who are different, ethnically, culturally, in 
gender or orientation or other ways different, there is persecution and struggle. Some are 
locked up or expelled form the country and others have resources and support services 
denied. Donald Trump reacts furiously against reporters or others who disagree with him 
or call him out on something. In Russia, Vladimir Putin is known to imprison or murder 
those who oppose him in some way. In other regimes, leaders persecute or ‘terminate’ 
those who call out injustice or untruth or oppose power, greed, oppression and seek justice 
and equality. In Australia, we continue to struggle with the notion that non-indigenous 
people are new arrivals whose culture and governments took the land that belonged to 
indigenous people for millennia. We resist giving indigenous people some sense of a voice 
such that their ancient wisdom can be heard and embraced, or their culture valued and 
nurtured alongside western and other cultures that exist in this land. When they speak out, 
many want them silenced because it challenges or confronts, or makes us uncomfortable 
when a different and reasonable truth emerges. Truth is a kind of scalpel that cuts through 
exposing a deeper reality or even dis-ease that needs attention and healing for true peace 
to emerge and be a reality. Until we expose the falsehood behind the evils and violence 
that often predominate on the landscape of life, true peace, for all people, cannot and will 
not emerge. Conflict and suspicion will remain. 
So, when people speak out against evil and injustice there is resistance and violence.  
When politics, cultural expectations and assumptions are challenged, there is reaction and 
anger. When the church, or anyone, speaks out against injustice, racism, exclusion, 
violence and impoverishment, there are excuses and resistance and we are told to get back 
in our box and speak about God who loves and stop making trouble, dabbling in things we 
know nothing about.  
In the passage this week (Matthew 10:24-42), Jesus continues his speech to the 
disciples he is sending into the world. He wants them to go and proclaim the Good News 
of God’s Reign of love and justice for all, to heal the sick, cast out demons and evil, cleanse 
lepers, bring sight to the blind; to proclaim in words and actions that the Reign of God is 
here! It is a good message, one that ought to resonate in a world of struggle and hardship, 
but he warns them that they will be rejected by many, cast out of towns and brought before 
judges and magistrates. They will, if they pursue this ministry of love and justice, follow 
where he is going – to his death. Ultimately, some of these followers of Jesus will be killed 
because they dare to name the evils in society and proclaim another way that includes and 
loves and brings justice and peace – for all. There will be those who are the status quo, 
and they will resist with all their power. Jesus ended up on the cross! 
Jesus invites these ordinary, lowly people to follow his way because, although it will 
be harsh, difficult at moments, it will be a life lived. It will be a life lived in God who holds 
everything in grace and no matter what people do to these faithful disciples, they will never 
be able to separate them from the profound love of God. There is also nothing else that 
will ever be able to fill the yearning and hope in the centre of their being and give them a 
sense of being alive! I read a reflection called ‘Journey With Jesus’ by Debie Thomas. In 
it she says: “What should we be most afraid of? Not insult. Not change. Not persecution. 
Not death. What we should fear, these passages of Scripture tell us, is a life half-lived. A 
life of blandness and niceness, a life of disengaged devotion, a life of piety without power. 
What we should fear is any Christianity that is not cruciform.” 
I was struck by these words and wondered about them. How many of us live lives that 
succumb to the culture of our world and give up the dreams or hopes that lie within our 
hearts? How many of us give in to the powers of the world and believe the rhetoric that 
seeks to keep us all in our place? How many of us are confined by fear – fear of change or 
the powers or punishment…? How many of us glimpse other possibilities but aren’t sure 
about what we might have to give up and never follow where they lead? 
In this, Jesus is quite firm, saying that there is a way in God that requires courage and 
faith, that demands we take a stand and step forward into something deep, rich and 
confronting. When I read the stories and words of Paul in the New Testament, this is a 
man, alive. When I hear Jesus’ words, I recognise a wisdom and passion that draws me on 
to wherever he will lead and whatever that might mean. It is the invitation to find life in 
God and the recognition that God’s Spirit will guide and strengthen. Will we go?