Focus Text: Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14

Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.  May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.

Pastoral Reflection by Rev. Robert Seymour, Minister Emeritus, Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church, Chapel Hill

I grew up in the South where my Church seldom addressed justice issues.  Most of the sermons were about personal behavior and the plan of salvation.  In fact, there was a common vocabulary used in churches that suggested Christians should not be “worldly.”  It was as if the task of the Church was to save people from the world rather than transform the world.  This was a theological way of escaping the justice issues of our racist, segregated society.

Instead, we white Southerners insisted that we practiced love. But, at best, it was a diseased love. We lived in a culture that was unapologetically unjust, never realizing that love can never take the place of justice.  Not until the Civil Rights Movement did we begin to understand that genuine love can never be less than justice.  We piously refused to be accountable.