"But let justice roll down like a river and righteousness like a never failing stream." Amos 5:24Evening the Scales
By Rev. William Dohle
There's a game we use to play in science class in school. One that I always found fascinating.
You take a scientific scale, one that has
a metal plate on either side suspended over a rod. On one side you put something heavy. Say a rock or a piece of metal. On the other side you place on it the various weights and you see how many weights measure up to your heavy thing. If one large weight and eight small ones balanced the scales, you can measure how much the heavy rock weighs. Evening out the scales was a simple way to measure the weight of a particular object.
Scales operate on balance. One side must equal the other. In society we call that justice. On one side are the needs, desires, wants, and arguments of one person or group of people. On the other side are the needs, desires, wants, and arguments of another. The goal of justice is to balance them out, never giving more weight to one than the other.
Ideally it works perfectly the first time, but sometimes weight must be added to one side in order to balance the scale out. One person or people must be favored in order that justice will prevail.
We see this kind of justice played out in the 27th chapter of Numbers where the daughters of Zelophehad (Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah) are given their father's inheritance after their father dies.
Now a few questions come to mind here...
#1. Why is THEIR story told? After all there must have been countless others who had questions about their inheritance after their parent died. Why is their story told?
#2. Why are they named? Why is THIS story so important? It seems odd that each and every one of them are named, doesn't it? Especially since they don't appear anywhere else in the Bible.
We may answer both of these questions with our scale of justice.
At Moses' time, a woman's status didn't matter. Not really. In a society centered around the son, where the firstborn son inherits everything, women really didn't matter much. If they had had a brother still living, their weight couldn't compare to that of his. With no brother, the lack of justice here was apparent.
Their story may have been dismissed in such a society. But it isn't. Instead it's brought before God and God rules in their favor. Their story matters to God! They matter a whole lot! And God puts God's own weight behind them to balance out the scales and provide justice.
And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "The daughters of Zelophehad are right in what they are saying; you shall indeed let them possess an inheritance among their father's brothers and pass the inheritance of their father on to them."(v. 7)
God puts God's weight on their side. Justice is served. And justice, in this case, favoring Zelophehad's daughters because Zelophehad's daughters matter!
In the United States, the question of which lives matter has come up. In the wake of racial violence in Ferguson and throughout the country, some have said...
Black Lives Matter!
Pointing to white privilege and an injustice inherent in our system, they have lent their weight to the black community in America. In an effort to balance the scales, they favor focusing on the black community. At the same time another voice has countered that voice...
No... All Lives Matter!
They argue that no life matters more than another. That we shouldn't pick one minority or another. That we should lift up all lives as mattering equally. That the scales of justice are already equal.
The problem with this second argument is that its countered by the facts. All lives don't matter equally right now. They just don't. It's not a matter of favoring one group over another, its a matter of recognizing that injustice is being done and the only way we can do justice is by lending more weight to the minority.
Black lives haven't mattered as much. They just haven't. Think about how much American history centers around white Europeans. How many notable black Americans living before the Civil War can you name off the top of your head? They were there! But they've been forgotten. Think about how many white Europeans are read in English class. Think about how many white scientists are celebrated.
If black lives matter as much as white European lives do, then why aren't they better represented in our culture and what our culture teaches?
Black lives haven't mattered to most Americans. And neither have other minorities. At the same time as we speak on behalf of the African-American community, we must recognize that other minorities haven't mattered either. Hispanics, Native Americans, Jews, Muslims. We don't know their unique histories or their contributions to our society. We don't study their culture. We ask them to assimilate into mainstream American life, forgetting that that mainstream America is centered on the white, European story. They don't matter as unique people. Not really.
A year ago or so, I took a two-year class on Jewish history. I was amazed! So many things I never even knew about. Why don't we teach Jewish history as a part of our history? Why don't we study their migration into Spain, their expulsion, the rise of Polish Jewry, and what led to the Holocaust. It could all be one unit even. And we can do the same for other minority cultures too especially including the black community without which we wouldn't be the country we are today.
Black lives matter because they need to matter. The scales need to be balanced. If justice is to flow like a flowing river and righteousness like an ever present stream, than the story of the white European has to diminish so that their story may be told. And once their story is told and their lives matter more, then the story of other minorities, the Hispanic, Native American, Jewish, Muslim, and other neighbors can be raised up as well.
And finally...finally we might live in a just society.
God of Justice, let the scales of our world be made equal. Diminish the majority so that the minority can speak and be heard, that all may find peace in this life and forever. Amen.
