I recently attended a community meeting about domestic violence. The point of the discussion was how it is everyone’s obligation to make sure that this kind of violence doesn’t happen – In other words, domestic violence is not just the problem of the person being abused, or the abuser, but that it is a societal problem, and that it is our job as a society to make it stop. Any one of us that lets a disparaging remark or a joke about violence go unchecked is part of the problem. The discussion moved into broader topics and we agreed that oftentimes, in these situations, it can be very difficult to be the one who speaks up to challenge remarks that are hurtful, especially if the speaker didn’t realize the remarks were hurtful and inappropriate, or if the speaker is someone you know and respect.
These thoughts were still bouncing around in my head when Geraldine McLellan was our guest preacher. In her sermon, she talked about how God had called us to be the “salt” (not the sugar), and how it was our job to act as a preservative against the evils that try and rot our communities. I went back and looked at the verses of Matthew right before the section she referenced in her sermon where Matthew also says:
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake ofrighteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:9-10
We are called to stand up for justice in our world – You don’t have to be part of a protest or a parade or a sit-in to work for justice – stand up to injustice in your everyday live. Be the person who acts as the salt and stops the spread of sexism at your office, or racism in your school, or injustice in any place you find it. Be the person who is not afraid to be a peacemaker, or to be persecuted for righteousness, because if you are that person, you will be blessed, and our world will be a better place.
Dorothy Thomas
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