The promise that the coming...
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The promise that the coming Servant will bring and establish justice is made no less than four times in this short passage. Justice, it seems, stands at the top of God's priorities for human life. The call of God is always a call for justice to be done. The call of Christ is a call for us to identify with those who suffer under the burdens of injustice. But do we have any idea, really, what it feels like to be on the short end of the stick of justice?
Rev. Terry Kawata gives us a taste of what it's like on the bottom of the heap. He shares his memories of growing up as a Japanese-American in Delano, California, in the early 1940s. He has memories of how his parents were laughed at, ridiculed, taken advantage of and exploited because they couldn't understand the language and were afraid. He has memories of killings; but the killers were never found. He has memories of not being able to sit in the center section of the local movie theater because that area was reserved for whites. And he has terrifying memories of the days just following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. how he and his family and friends were herded into trucks and trains, like so much cattle, by armed U.S. soldiers. And then off into the night they were taken, not knowing where they were going or what was about to happen to them. What did all this feel like? Terry reports that you live with three emotions simultaneously: fear, anger and rage. Fear, "because you never quite know if and when they might decide to come at you." Anger, which you must constantly suppress, "because you know they will beat hell out of you." And rage -- the rage that is born of helplessness and hopelessness; a rage that "churns in your belly and you can't do anything about it."
Rev. Terry Kawata gives us a taste of what it's like on the bottom of the heap. He shares his memories of growing up as a Japanese-American in Delano, California, in the early 1940s. He has memories of how his parents were laughed at, ridiculed, taken advantage of and exploited because they couldn't understand the language and were afraid. He has memories of killings; but the killers were never found. He has memories of not being able to sit in the center section of the local movie theater because that area was reserved for whites. And he has terrifying memories of the days just following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. how he and his family and friends were herded into trucks and trains, like so much cattle, by armed U.S. soldiers. And then off into the night they were taken, not knowing where they were going or what was about to happen to them. What did all this feel like? Terry reports that you live with three emotions simultaneously: fear, anger and rage. Fear, "because you never quite know if and when they might decide to come at you." Anger, which you must constantly suppress, "because you know they will beat hell out of you." And rage -- the rage that is born of helplessness and hopelessness; a rage that "churns in your belly and you can't do anything about it."
