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| Rev. Jeremiah Wright |
The passage below (Job 31.14-22, 31, 38-40) is from today's Old Testament reading in the Daily Office- the writer of Job connects the judgment of God with our response to the oppressed- the poor, naked, hungry, workers, aliens (travelers here). This passage correlates with Jesus teaching on the final judgment in Matthew 25.31-46.
Today, a person left this comment on an older blog post of mine featuring Liberation theologians: “The worst is how people still try to oppose this -(Liberation theology)- If 'Christians' really think that believing in Christ allows them to be rich and at the same time not help the poor, well, then God have mercy on their souls.” Could not have said it better myself.
It is the Bible itself that proclaims a message of liberation and social justice, it is not an innovation of liberals, social gospelers, or liberation theologians. It is very the Word of God, which we reject or ignore at our own risk.
As I have said before, I am a believer in Liberation Theology. Really, there should not be a need for liberation theology if we believe the Bible. But since people ignore the Bible's message of liberation and justice, God must raise prophetic voices, including the proponents of liberation theology. It is only from a context of wealth, power, and privilege that one can ignore the liberation announced in the Bible by Jesus and the Hebrew Prophets.
- Lance
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For what shall I do when God shall rise to judge? and when he shall examine, what shall I answer him? Did not he that made me in the womb make him also: and did not one and the same form me in the womb?
If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait: If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof: (For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother's womb:) If I have despised him that was perishing for want of clothing, and the poor man that had no covering: If his sides have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep:
If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, even when I saw myself superior in the gate: Let my shoulder fall from its joint, and let my arm with its bones be broken. For I have always feared God as waves swelling over me, and his weight I was not able to bear. If I have thought gold my strength, and have said to fine gold: My confidence: If I have rejoiced over my great riches, and because my hand had gotten much.
If the men of my tabernacle have not said: Who will give us of his flesh that we may be filled? The stranger did not stay without, my door was open to the traveller.
If my land cry against me, and with it the furrows thereof mourn: If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have afflicted the soul of the tillers thereof: Let thistles grow up to me instead of wheat, and thorns instead of barley.
- Job 31.14-22, 31, 38-40, Douay
The Favorite album I want to recognize in this post is Fish Out Of Water, a solo Album by Yes bassist Chris Squire, released in 1975. I probably bought my copy a few years later, perhaps 1979. I had gotten into Yes later on, after they were well established. One of the first concerts I ever went to was a Yes Concert, I believe in 1979. It was the first concert in the then brand new Cedar Rapids Civic Center. The gimmick Yes had for that tour was a revolving stage. I had just purchased a fender jazz bass, and I got to see my bass hero Chris Squire perform live in the arena.
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Track Listing 
Tonight, in his speech at the DNC, Bill Clinton brilliantly made the case for re-electing Barack Obama. 