"Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or
dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your
relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back
and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor,
the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed." - Luke
14:12-14
The founding principles of the United States, declared in the
Preamble to the U.S. Constitution,include not only protection for our
people
from domestic strife and defense of the nation in times of war but also
establishing justice and promoting the general welfare.
While we like to define ourselves by these ideals of fairness and
generosity, we have spent much of our history trying to make the reality
resemble the words. Today—when millions are unemployed, and when many
jobs pay
too little to lift families out of poverty while other people have
unimaginable
wealth and proposals abound to cut taxes for those most able to pay—our
society
is failing to realize the ideals we proclaim.
Our laws and public policy are the
blueprints by which we set up the institutions that allocate people’s
chances
in life. They can provide opportunity
for all, and thereby promote justice, or conversely, they can create
opportunity
for some and deny it for others.
Reminding us that Jesus calls us to
attend to the needs of the least of these, General Synod 25 challenges
the
United Church of Christ to support policies that serve the common good:
“Our Christian faith speaks
directly to public morality and the ways a nation should bring justice
and
compassion into its civic life. In the
story of the last judgment, Jesus tells us that nations will be judged
by how
they care for their most vulnerable citizens, those Jesus describes as,
‘the
least of these who are members of my family.’ This story in Matthew
(Matthew 25:
34-35) is not about personal salvation; rather it is presented as a
story of
the judgment of nations.”
Today we are
called to address the disparity between our ideals and the reality of
rapidly
widening inequality—our poorest neighbors living invisibly and
un-cared-for
among us.
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