This book is not free of agenda. It is an act of resistance. God is greater than any politician, political system, or nation. And now is the time for people of faith to act in tangible, costly, and courageous ways. This book calls upon the president – and all leaders – to live into wisdom, prudence, compassion, humility, and discernment. This book is a statement that we face a grave threat to the heart of God's kingdom vision: a society in which all are valued as individuals bearing God's image.
The title of this book contains an invitation to pray for justice, but this book contains no overt prayers. Many of the more than fourteen hundred Bible passages contained here are prayers or portions of prayers. To read these texts is to be invited to join them in prayer. The quotations in this lectionary are all penned by people of Christian faith, who have spent their lives thinking about, working for, and telling others about a God whom they believe to be radically on the side of the weak, vulnerable, and marginalized.
This book invites us to use each day's verse as a meditation or reflection for that day and each week's quotation as an examination of the ways in which your life images God's redemptive justice in the world.
This book is also a call to action. Now is not a time for Christians to sit and trust that others will take care of people on the margins of our society. Christians must not content themselves with mere social media activism or personal piety. Christians must act often. Christians must act publicly. Christians must act sacrificially. Christians must act with courage and compassion. Christians must act as if it matters – because it does.
Steve lives and works in Newberg, Oregon where he is associate professor of Christian Ministries at George Fox University. He is the author of Embraced: Prodigals at the Cross, and the co-author of The Bible: Ancient Context and Ongoing Community and Praying for Justice: A Lectionary of Christian Concern. He is married to Elizabeth Meeker Sherwood and they are the parents of two daughters.
Anderson lives and writes in Portland, Oregon. He is assistant professor of Christian Studies at George Fox University. He is the editor of and a contributor to Father Factor: American Christian Men on Fatherhood and Faith (I Speak for Myself vol. 5) and co-author of Praying for Justice: A Lectionary of Christian Concern. His writing explores contemporary cultural concerns and intersections with the Christian faith. He is married to April and together they have two daughters.
