Last week I spent a few days in downtown Seattle hanging out with my daughter, Victoria. I had not been in downtown since before the pandemic. And the protests. And the riots. It was sad to see businesses closed due to COVID-19. It was heartbreaking to see stores boarded up for protection against rioters. It was heartrending to see peaceful protests seeking social justice hijacked by criminals claiming violence as their right. Cries of the spirit for economic justice, social justice, and criminal justice are being drowned out by the screams of fascist agitators and provocateurs of both the radical right and the extreme left.
As distressing as all this is, the most distressing thing I was dealing with was the overflowing crowds of homeless people. It seemed every street was strewn with the homeless: Overpasses serving as shelter from the elements; Green spaces intended to beautify the city and give respite to the soul of the city-dweller have become homeless camps of weather-beaten tents and stolen shopping carts.
I was not angry. I was broken over their condition. And I was overcome with the feeling of helplessness in the face of such overwhelming need. What can I do to fix homelessness?
Homelessness is a complex ecosystem that includes unemployment, poverty, mental illness, family and societal alienation, drug addiction, criminal acts, anti-social behavior, free will, economic injustice, bad luck, and bad choices, all emerging together in lockstep to beatdown and dehumanize image-bearers of God and to further the alienation of human beings from one another. Not knowing what to do, I did nothing, even when a homeless man asked me, “can you help me get something to eat?” I did nothing…
I felt overwhelmed by the immediacy of the perfect storm we are facing: Health care, race-relations, immigration, social justice, police and legal reforms, poverty, and economic justice, all summing a day of reckoning. I simultaneously felt like throwing my hands up in surrender, running to the mountains to hide, and jumping into this mess to make a difference.
The chaos and confusion around me were equally matched with the chaos and confusion within me. I wanted to throw up my hands and say, “What can I do? Am I my brother’s keeper?”
While I was walking around Seattle and thinking these dark thoughts, I was also being haunted by Matthew 25:31-46: You know, that passage that says, “in as much as you did it to the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.” I have always wrestled with this passage because it is about God judging the nations. Individual judgment I understand, but how will God judge nations? Do we get in the “individual judgment” line, then once we are judged individually, do we get into the “Nation judgment” line? What if I am a dual citizen? Do I get into the line for the United States and then Canada? Lame, I know. But those are some of the questions running through my mind.
Early on that Friday morning, I was sitting in my hotel room drinking coffee and thinking about these societal ailments and the judgment of nations. I was not thinking about them being connected. I was bouncing between the two issues, like flipping between channels on the TV, when suddenly they snapped together like two magnets: God will judge the nations on how they treat the poor, the powerless, the accused, the incarcerated, the stranger (those “other” than “us” in nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, religion), and the sick because it requires the nation to fix these areas.
Economic, social, and legal justice, along with caring for the sick, are not only current pressure points in society: they are the cries of Jesus to the nations, “in as much as you have done it unto the least of these you have done it unto me.”
The whole nation is accountable because no one individual or group can fix poverty, homelessness, race relations, criminal justice, and health care. It will take the entire spectrum of human participation to bring about justice and healing in these areas. The full spectrum: Liberal to conservative; free-markets to government taxation and regulation; for-profit businesses and not-for-profit institutions; families; churches; synagogues; mosques; community centers; private initiatives; government programs, all working together for economic, social, legal, and health care justice for the poor and the powerless.
This is not a liberal thing, a conservative thing, a political thing, or a religious thing: It is a human thing. And Jesus takes it very personal, “for in as much as you have done it unto the least of these, my brothers, you have done it unto me.”
I am not advocating a specific policy, but for an over-arching value system that shapes all policies and practices. If we get the value-system right and we have open, honest discussions and debates based on truth, integrity, transparency, and accountability, we can become a more perfect union, a more just society. It is what He requires of the nations. It is what He requires of me, “For He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8),
Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
