Just(ice) Thursdays
Google has been telling me that I am running out of storage. I need to either upgrade or clean up. Knowing movies take a lot of space, I clicked on a video from Jan 16, 2021 of Bianca urging us to take time to carefully read in full Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Did I ever follow through with that?
Listen here, mortal:
God has already made abundantly clear
What “good” is, and what YHWH needs from you:
simply do justice,
love kindness,
and humbly walk with your God.
Micah 6:8 (Inclusive Bible)
Where in my life do I set aside time to focus on justice? If I don’t intentionally carve out space, I don’t always get around to the resources that pile up on my shelves and in my email. There is more writing that needs to be done for the Reparations Pilot Project- a real intro letter to participants, an explanation of 529 requirements, a collection of feedback received, a log of what we are learning. Five more education saving accounts are in process and I have some catching up to do.
One of the Pilot Project grandmothers sent me a link to a PBS episode about reparations; I finally watched it. Vern shared an article about how one Mennonite congregation is doing reparations. How do we connect our fellowship with these resources in a way that is manageable and accessible?
I decided to designate one day a week as a “justice” day to encounter and share a resource. Just Thursdays. Reasonable. Intentional. (At least) one activity per week to simply do justice. A friend recently reflected to me that sometimes passion is expressed as a fire and other times as a candle. Each person’s calling to do justice may look different. For what has God given you a passion, and how is that expressed?
I am looking forward to our “first fruits” celebration meal on Sept 22, featuring apples from Curtis Orchard and (hopefully) lamb for lunch. We will also collect a special “joy-of-the-first-harvest” offering (similar to our Thanksgiving end-of-the-harvest offering) through the end of September. If you want to make a donation to a particular ministry (Reparations Fund, Family Fund, Spring Initiative, etc), you can note that in the memo line of your check to NCF.
Through our gifts of time and resources, may we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly together with our God. -Renée