Exposing Evil: Justice & Compassion

1. Counting Sleep Ephesians 5:11-21 Sunday, May 9, 2010

2. Ephesians 5:11-21 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.

3. Ephesians 5:11-21 14 For this reason it says, "Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” 15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

4. Ephesians 5:11-21 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

5. Ephesians 5:11-21 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

6. Exposing Evil: Justice & Compassion • Log & splinter • Individuals or systems

7. A Terrible Analogy Proverbs 5:15 Drink water from your own cistern, 
       running water from your own well.  16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, 
       your streams of water in the public squares?  17 Let them be yours alone, 
       never to be shared with strangers. 

8. Proverbs 5:15-20 18 May your fountain be blessed, 
       and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.  19 A loving doe, a graceful deer— 
       may her breasts satisfy you always, 
 may you ever be captivated by her love.  20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? 
       Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife?

9. A Better Analogy • One night stands vs. building a life together • Really, anything that places the bad or even the good in contrast to the best • These are forms of sleep that we need to be awakened from

10. But there are more . . . As hard as concerned Americans have had to strain to understand the Zapatista revolt and its confusion and sorrowful aftermath, we will have to work harder to understand Mexican issues in the future. (the following Quotes taken from Inside/Outside On-line Devotional)





11. Fighting to Comprehend Reality Our problem is not merely the media, or our notorious inability to learn another language. It is our entire evasive and mendacious culture, which (to the enormous profit of the mega-companies that feed it) makes our selfish decadence entertaining to us, sells us headsets that deafen us to crying injustices in our own country, and changes every real, complicated, painful struggle into a brief sensation of stars, or meteors, gloriously noble or wicked, always somehow erotically intriguing today, dead boring tomorrow.

12. Fighting to Comprehend Reality If in this culture we have to hide or fight to comprehend reality right here, we have to leave all that is familiar and comfortable to comprehend reality in Mexico.” Source: quoted in Paul Farmer, Pathologies of Power, by John Womack, Jr.

13. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is true that Old Man Segregation is on his deathbed. But history has proven that social systems have a great last-minute breathing power, and the guardians of a status quo are always on hand with their oxygen tents to keep the old order alive. Segregation is still a fact in America. We still confront it in the South in its glaring and conspicuous forms. We still confront it in the North in its hidden and subtle forms. But if democracy is to live, segregation must die. 



14. Martin Luther King, Jr. Segregation is a glaring evil. It is utterly unchristian. It relegates the segregated to the status of a thing rather than elevates him to the status of a person. Segregation is nothing but slavery covered up with certain niceties of complexity. Segregation is a blatant denial of the unity which we all have in Christ Jesus. Source: Facing the Challenge of a New Age

15. Back to Drunkenness Proverbs 31:1 The words of King Lemuel, the oracle which his mother taught him: 2 What, O my son? And what, O son of my womb? And what, O son of my vows? 3 Do not give your strength to women, Or your ways to that which destroys kings.

16. It is not for kings . . . 4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, It is not for kings to drink wine, Or for rulers to desire strong drink, 5 For they will drink and forget what is decreed, And pervert the rights of all the afflicted. 6 Give strong drink to him who is perishing, And wine to him whose life is bitter.

17. Distraction from Meaning 7 Let him drink and forget his poverty And remember his trouble no more. 8 Open your mouth for the mute, For the rights of all the unfortunate. 9 Open your mouth, judge righteously, And defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.

18. What of Life in the Spirit? • Too religious? • Or an invitation for God’s life to interpenetrate our lives • McLaren’s distinction between Charismatics and Contemplatives in A Generous Orthodoxy (p. 194-6)