Responding to Brokenness

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

—Matthew 22:36–40

God’s holy word tells us, “Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord …” (Psalm 33:12). Imagine an entire nation appropriately characterized as happy, blessed, full, satisfied, whole. Imagine a nation whose individuals live in communion with God and transparent unity with one another. Our nation seems far from this blessed state of being. How do we get to that place of happiness, wholeness and satisfaction? How do we discover happiness, individually and collectively?

We are broken people living in a broken world, crying out for help. I have heard it said that riots are the voice of the voiceless. If that is true, the voiceless scream by burning cities, crushing businesses and destroying property, spotlighting our brokenness while forcing us to discuss and confront underlying issues. A pandemic has us feeling alone, isolated, stressed and longing for social interaction. The murder of George Floyd at the hands of people who vowed to serve and protect leaves us feeling sickened and angry at our miserable state of being, wondering how many others like him have gone unnoticed. An early season tropical storm travels across the Gulf of Mexico toward our shores and unemployment soars and … the list goes on, but I will stop. The word brokenness continues to ring in my mind.

Given the uncertainty swirling around us, what do we know? Scripture describes the world, the realm in which we live, as a place of great contrast. It is the place where evil exists, where the devil, who steals, kills and destroys, roams seeking to devour people, and where people hate those who associate with Christ Jesus. It is also a place where God reveals His glory to people who have eyes to see. Scripture tells us that only God is good. God is the standard by which good and evil are defined.  

People who love Christ Jesus receive the Holy Spirit. As followers of Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells within us and while we may pray for and seek total spiritual transformation and we may be moving along the path towards sanctification, we are not yet holy, not yet pure, not yet perfect. We still have elements of evil within us, and while, with each step towards God, we may replace bits of evil with bits of good, we still have elements of evil. Only God is good. The most righteous human you can imagine, except for Jesus (who is God), possesses elements of evil within them and every human institution, comprised of imperfect humans, magnifies human imperfections. Yet, you are the light of the world (see Matthew 5:14) and you possess the power of the Holy Spirit within you (see Acts 1:8). You have the power to illuminate and transform the world within your realm of influence. We may not be perfect, but we are not helpless.

So we continue praying, we continue communing with God, we continue seeking God, we continue worshiping and praising God, we continue studying and meditating on His holy word, we continue seeing every human as a person who God created and loves and we continue stepping out in the world as His servants working towards fulfilling His mission on earth. We are light of the world and God calls us to act as His salt and light, because the world is a dark place in need of His unique flavor and light.

And it’s a little like our continuous hand washing in response to COVID. After returning home we quickly wash to remove contaminants we may have encountered. Similarly, while we should pray continuously, after returning from the world we must renew our deep communion with God and cleanse ourselves with Him.

We face unique symptoms of brokenness, but our problems date back to the Garden of Eden. Since that time, God has urged us to turn to Him, and He sent prophets and His Son pleading with us to turn to God, to love one another and to act as His agents of change in the world within our sphere of influence. 

Approximately 2,855 years ago, God called Joel to serve as prophet, and He gave Joel a vision of destruction. Joel sees the Promised Land destroyed by locusts and fire (see Joel 1:4 &1:19). He writes, “The fields are devastated, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails” (Joel 1:10), and he urges everyone to gather together to fast and pray (see 1:14).

Later Joel sees a vision of even greater destruction: a massive army preparing to attack.  He writes, 

Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come… Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.  Joel 2:2 & 12-13

Joel paints a vision of destruction, economic distress, starvation and imminent slaughter, and he explains precisely how we should respond when chaos and calamity swirl around us. God tells His people to respond by repenting, turning to God, fasting, weeping and mourning.  He tells us to begin by seeking Him.

Approximately 75 years later, God called Amos to serve as prophet. Through Amos, God describes His judgment of Israel. They were greedy people who mistreated poor people and disrespected those intent on worshiping God – they forced those who had taken the Nazarite vow to violate their vow and they ordered prophets to stop prophesying (see Amos 2:6, 7 & 12). Some who lived in indulgent luxury failed to notice people suffering around them (see Amos 6:4-8). They were blind to the plight of others, but if we truly love our brothers and sisters we are not blind to their struggles and we are not indifferent to their needs.

Through Amos, God says, 

I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amos 5:21-24 

They went to church and participated in religious rituals, but they were indifferent to injustice. They failed to see it. They failed to be grieved by it. They failed to change unjust systems, and God judged them harshly.

Twenty years later, God called Isaiah to serve as prophet. Isaiah begins the book bearing his name with a vision paralleling Amos’ vision. Through Isaiah, God proclaims, 

Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:14-17

God’s people attended church and they participated in religious rituals, but God was weary of them because they failed to seek justice and they failed to help people who needed their help.

Around the same time as Isaiah, God gave the prophet Micah a similar word. Micah raised questions regarding the proper form of worship and God answered. The exchange follows:

With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  Micah 6:6-8

God requires … please allow me to repeat that … God requires that we do justice, that we love kindness and we walk in humble relationship with God. This is worship. This is how we demonstrate our love of God.  So when Jesus condenses the law and the prophets to two commandments – to love God and to love our neighbors (see Matthew 22:36-40) – He is not introducing new concepts. He is restating what the prophets have already said.

God’s holy word tells us that He detests injustice. We are broken people living in a broken world, but we are not powerless. We are His light and we have the power of the Holy Spirit. So what are we to do? We feel sick and angry in response to Mr. Floyd’s killing, and we see rioting and looting and tremendous harm around our nation, and we continue to live in fear of the air we breathe, and storms threaten greater destruction. What are we to do?

Feeling sick and angry is good so long as it propels us to act as God’s agents of light, love and life, agents of change, within our sphere of influence. What does this mean?

Quite simply, we must love God and love our neighbor. It begins with God and continues with us acting within our sphere of influence to effectuate change. We must turn to God. We must renew and rebuild our relationship with God through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit by throwing ourselves at His feet, by fasting and praying and seeking Him in awe and humility. We must invite Jesus into our lives in a new and refreshed way and seek His spiritual transformation, His life, love and light, and grow in relationship with Him that we might walk humbly with Him. We must reach out to our brothers and sisters as peacemakers in and through love, and we must act within our sphere of influence to eradicate injustice and carry out God’s great mission here on earth.

You are salt and light. You have the power of the Holy Spirit within you. Happy, blessed, full, satisfied, whole is the nation whose God is the Lord. May you seize the opportunities before you to fulfill God’s great mission here on earth.