Last week I went on a ride along with one of our cities finest. It was a K-9 unit, with officer Moll & his loving dog Renzo (loving? well he loves to bite). Moll asked me, “so are you going to take a bite tonight chaplain?” I said sure, & we were on our way. Well, we got talking, working, & busy with different stops, & well, we both forgot about the bite. Maybe next time.

Would you have put on the bite sleeve & takin a bite?

Is there anything lately where you we’re challenged to take a risk, but choose instead to play it safe?

I’m reading a book right now called “Just Courage” by Gary Haugen (check out On My Desk) & in one of its chapters it has a subtitle called “Death in a Cul-de-sac” it said, “In Suburban housing tracts Cul-de-sac’s were designed to address homeowner anxieties about dangers of automobile traffic that might be threatening to their children. Ironically several decades later, studies reveal that cul-de-sacs are the most dangerous residential configurations for children. Studies showed children aren’t injured by forward-moving traffic nearly as much as by cars backing up.”

Many Western Christians find themselves trapped in a dead-end street. We’ve sought safety from a dangerous dirty world & made ourselves cautious cul-de-sacs, all around our lives. But decades later the church is full of spiritual atrophy, mediocrity, & boredom that is lethal to the soul. I grew up on Trumball Street in Whittier, Ca. The street just north of us had a cul-de-sac,…but it also had a pathway leading out of it for bikes & pedestrians.

The Bible laid out a path out of our cul-de-sac lives thousands of years ago. It’s a route to rescue for us, & a path to life for millions who are suffering in our world.

Is.1:16b,17 says, “Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.”

The sin of injustice, as we see it in the bible, is defined as “the abuse of power by taking from others the good things that God intended for them, namely, their life, liberty, dignity, or the fruit of their love or their labors.” It’s when a stronger person abuses his/her power by taking from a weaker person what God alone has given the weaker person God judges this as sin. When a more powerful person abuses their power by stealing those good things, they commit the sin of injustice.

Biblical stories of injustice:

• Cain stole Abel’s life through murder.
• The Egyptians stole the Hebrew’s liberty, dignity & well-being through forced slavery.
• King David stole Uriah’s wife & then Uriah’s life.
• Amnon stole Tamar’s dignity, well-being & personal wholeness by raping her.
• King Herod stole the lives of all the boys of Bethlehem 2 years & younger.
• The religious leaders in Jerusalem stole the lives of Stephen & other believers through the abuse of their civil-religious power.

In each of these stories, one that is weaker is being abused by one stronger, & are being deprived of the good gifts that God has given. This is why the bible says, “those who oppresses the poor insult their Maker.” Prov.14:31

KEY: Allow me to steal a few more of Gary’s thoughts. In each of these stories the weaker person isn’t suffering because of random unfairness, an uncontrollable act of nature, or a patch of bad luck. Rather, the weaker person is suffering because of the very intentional abuse & oppression of a stronger person. This is injustice!

The biblical response to injustice is to “seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Is.1:17

The poorest people in our world suffer from hunger, homelessness, illiteracy & sickness. Response: we bring food, shelter, education, & medicine. They suffer from bad luck, bad storm, bad harvest, bad bacteria, bad famine etc. And these are all massive needs worthy of our urgent attention!

But here is what is different! When the root of the problem is cause by Aggressive Violence! Bullies!

Violence is different, it’s intentional, it’s scary, it causes deep scars (of betrayal, humiliation, shame). Violence fights back! And for every dollar the Christian community spends on addressing injustice, it spends 100 dollars on traditional programs of poverty alleviation, compassion ministry, evangelism & discipleship. (I’m not saying we’re spending too much on the later, just not enough on the former)

Given the magnitude of the need & urgency of the biblical mandate to “seek justice & rescue the oppressed” there is no justification for the gaping disparity.

Prov.31:8,9 Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and needy.

Are you ready to take a bite?