Leviticus 19:15 “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.”

Think about this. We are called to reflect the character of God as followers of Jesus Christ. True justice and mercy are not swayed by economics or ethnicity. We are to not show partiality to the poor simply because they are poor. We are not to show favoritism to the rich simply because they are rich. Justice is to be given on the basis of truth and nothing else. We are to DO justice, to LOVE mercy (which is the covenant love of God) and to walk humbly before the Lord God we serve and follow. Racism perverts justice. Critical Race Theory perverts justice. Pride and arrogance pervert justice. Self-righteousness will pervert justice. Following Jesus will never allow us to categorize people as “us-or-them”. All of us, like sheep, had gone astray. We ALL had turned from God and gone our own way. The Lord laid on Jesus the sin of us ALL. The Gospel will not give us any wiggle-room, if we are honest, to love those who can invest back into our lives, while marginalizing those who are poor: the refugee, the destitute who can offer us nothing in return. God reminds Israel (as well as us) that they had once been strangers and aliens, refugees, once “not a people”, but NOW as God’s people, so they were to reflect His character. But, you may ask, are there not nefarious things afoot at the borders of our land? Yes, there are. But I have to embrace the truth that Jesus died and rose again for every nefarious thug using people crossing the Rio Grande for evil, as He died for me. That doesn’t short-circuit justice, it focuses it. You do not ignore evil, but you remember that you cannot overcome evil by evil. You can only overcome evil by good. The Gospel is not about grasping the reins of power, but trusting in God’s power alone to save, rescue and redeem and acting with grace and truth.