e Justice, Righteousness & Unity I bring you greetings from Ron Gettlefinger, President of the United Auto Workers of America, Vice President Terry Thurman and by my Brother in Christ, Regional Director Gary Casteel. I want to talk to you tonight about Justice, Righteousness & Unity, which is of very fiber that the United Auto Workers of America are made of. Seduced, insulated, lured away these are the effects of indifference. It is simply easier to look away from victims than it is to open your hearts and give them a hand. Making a difference in someone's life can be an interruption to our own. It can be terribly inconvenient to be involved in another person's pain and despair. Sadly, many of us dwell in the place of indifference. Indifference causes the sufferings of others to be of no consequence to us. To the indifferent individual, the life of another is somewhat meaningless. Tonight as we gather here in pursuit of cooperation and unity, I am compelled to briefly discuss some of the prerequisites if you don't mind. In the book of Amos Chapter 5 God uses strong words to call us to repentance. In verse 21 of that chapter, it says "I hate all your show and pretensethe hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies." As we move through the last few verses of chapter 5, it is clear that God will accept nothing less that genuine repentance and right living from all who claim that He is the "head of their life". God does not leave us wondering what it is we must do, He goes on in verse 24 to tell us what it is He expects of us, He says... 24 "Instead,I wantto see a mightyflood of justice, an endless river of righteous living." God is telling us that He wants to see a mighty flood of fair dealing, honesty, integrity and impartiality! A mighty flood that will rush over our communities like a title wave taking with it back out to sea; spiritual weakness, wrong doing and impure thinking! And as the flood recedes it leaves in its place an endless river of righteous living. Living according to God's moral code; living that is virtuous, just, upright, honorable and decent.
eech.doc 2 You see, in order for there to be Justice and Unity, there must first be men women boys and girls who are willing to live according to the standard that God have set forth. Forgiveness is an important factor in living according to God's standard. The key to forgiving others is remembering how much and how many times God has forgiven you! It becomes difficult to hold grudges and un-forgiveness in your heart when you take a moment to reflect on how good God has been to you doesn't it? Love is the cord that binds all of us together and if we will allow that Love to penetrate our hearts, mind and soul, then and only then will there be real justice and unity. For I ask you, how can prejudice, bitter people administer justice? And how can a divided, unyielding people, lead the way to unity? You see many people - even Christians live to make good impressions and do not have genuine care for others. But this is selfishness and where there is selfishness, there is discord. The Apostle Paul stressed spiritual unity. He said to love one another and to one in spirit and purpose. Love leads to unity in the Spirit, and is then translated into unity in the natural. When we work together, caring for the problems of others as if they were our problems, we demonstrate Christ's example of putting others first......and it is the act of putting others first that allows us to experience unity! We are commanded by God to live in peace. This does not mean that we will never disagree. What it does mean is that we will always seek to resolve matters with the intentions of peace and love as the primary focus. Such action is a choice, not a feeling. You must choose to put the needs of others first. Another major step toward justice & unity is the creation of one Vision; one primary focus, the determination to come together. As I look around tonight, I see men and women of vision, and perhaps even there are those of you who are functioning within the vision that you have.....but are we truly together on one accord? Have we discussed and adopted one vision for the good of all? Is the vision plain? Can the people of the community see that vision, understand
it and then run with it? If not, we as leaders have not done our jobs. It takes more that meetings, conferences seminars and workshops to accomplish the tasks of visioneering. It is a process in which some must lead and the rest must aqree to follow. Together we must agree on a common approach, then and only then will we be able to galvanize vision into action. But somehow, we lost our way - some leaders' loose sight of proper leadership protocol, selfish ambitions begin to dominate and insubordination sprawl undermines the best of plans. We've built soulless organizations, based on the grand ideas of a few and gradually forget about the needs of the many. It is time to rediscover the art of making communities by identifying the true vision, make it plain and get to work. We know what to do, we are well aware of the necessary ingredients for justice and unity; our problem is that we haven't always brought those ingredients together into a coherent approach. Its time to break down the reinforced walls of procrastination that hinder us and like the Healing of the City Coalition promotes, make the connections between Vision, Integrity, Structure and Accountability. HOTCC offers a coherent, comprehensive approach to help deliver the agenda of justice and unity. But it takes all of us working together to make any plan a reality. We must be willing to be responsible to each other for the tasks we put our hands to. There is no excuse for those who are not willing to be answerable for their share of the work load. When men and women agree to work toward a common goal, in honesty, around a cohesive whole and be answerable to one another....great things can begin to happen. You will recall in the Scriptures that when the people came together on one accord to build the tower of Babal, they were unstoppable. Only God Himself could hinder their plans. I submit to you today that if mankind, all people can ever truly come together on one accord and get to work...there won't be anything that we can't accomplish. I feel that I would be remiss if I didn't take just a few minutes to fully share with you what's in my heart tonight, so please indulge me a bit longer. I want to take a look at the book of Deuteronomy. As many of you are well aware, the primary purpose of the book of Deuteronomy is to remind the people of what God had done for them and to admonish them to return to Him as the head of their lives. How many of you know that there is a time to remember? There is a time to Speech. doc
reflect on mistakes that should not be repeated; a time to strengthen commitments that must be fulfilled and of course a time for the remembering of special events in our life. Remembering should encourage us and move us to action. Deuteronomy was to remind the new generation of how their forefathers had failed and what now lied ahead for them in the Promised Land. It calls Israel to remember who God is and what He has done. Lacking faith and vision, the old generation had wandered for 40 years and died in the wilderness. They had left the bondage of Egypt behind, but never knew the Promised Land. The faithless, visionless generation had to die off before God could bless the new generation to enter into His promises and possess the land. God had done great acts on behalf of the people of Israel and He has done great acts on behalf of you and me. We should not fail to let one day go by without remembering and demonstrating our eternal gratitude to God. Demonstrate your gratitude by remembering. The Bible tells us to "be careful not to forget the Lord". So remember where you came from, remember the blessings of God in your life that came without explanation or justification. And forget not the Lord God who delivered you out of the hand of the enemy time and time again. God wants our minds to stay focused on Him because prosperity more than poverty can dull our spiritual vision. It tends to make us self-sufficient, selfcentered and eager to acquire still more and more.except more God! I admonish you to remember that the judgment will come my brothers and sisters. According to the Word of God, those who diligently prepare by investing his or her time and talents to serve God will be rewarded. The person who has no heart for kingdom business (which includes that of service unto others) will not be rewarded. Those who bear no fruit for God's Kingdom cannot expect to be treated same (by god) as those who are faithful. The Lord says that He will separate his obedient followers from pretenders and unbelievers. The real evidence of your belief is the way you act. Jesus said 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' What we do for others demonstrates what we really think about Jesus' words to us; feed the hungry, give the homeless a place to stay, look after the sick. These are all acts of mercy that we all can do everyday. How well do your actions separate you from pretenders and unbelievers? Let's put spiritual maturity, social justice, unity and economic prosperity at the heart of all that we undertake. As Rev. Blount so eloquently states; let us work together to restore humanity back to what God intended in the first place. United we can stand and divided we fail. So remember the heart of the Lord as He speaks to us in Amos Chapter 5..... Speech. doc
21 I hate all your show and pretensethe hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. 22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won't even notice all your choice peace offerings. 23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. God is not impressed with our pomp and circumstance, He is looking for genuine love from genuine people... and genuine love produces a mighty flood of justice and an endless river of righteous living. As I close, I'll leave you with this thought: "Isn't it strange that princesses and Kings and Clowns that caper in sawdust rings, and common folk like you and me are builders for eternity, to each is given a bag of tools, a shapeless mass and a book of rules, and each must build before life is flown a stumbling block or stepping stone" -unknown author........iets all be stepping stones for one another.