Do you remember the first “societal rule” that you were taught? For many of us, it was probably to MYOB - “mind your own business”. The more siblings you grew up with, the earlier and more frequently you probably heard this admonition. But this rule doesn’t just apply to juvenile tattle tales and the fairness police. In our society, “MYOB” is arguably as important a tenet as the Golden Rule (some might even say moreso). When it’s applied consistently and well, it’s one of our best strategies for living together in peace - if it doesn’t affect you personally, the rule says that you’re supposed to just let it go and move on with your life.
It might surprise you to know that this philosophy isn’t a modern invention. As is the case with the Golden Rule, the instruction to MYOB actually has scriptural precedent. In his first letter to the Thessalonians [4:11-12], Paul writes, “Aim to live quietly, mind your own business, and earn your own living, just as I told you. That way you’ll behave appropriately toward outsiders, and you won’t be in need.” Paul seems to be telling the Thessalonians that being a “good Christian” involves keeping your head down and focusing on yourself. At some point between then and now, this attitude became absolutely baked into the DNA of the white protestant Church. We’ve become defined by our “niceness” and unobtrusiveness, trying in all things not to draw undue attention to ourselves. It’s what we’re convinced a good Christian is - someone who minds their own business.
But as convenient as it is to see scripture validate our modern values, one line in one letter just isn’t enough to base our entire identity on. And the “MYOB” ethos is certainly not consistent throughout the Bible. Take today’s reading, for example - God seems to be directly contradicting Paul here. At this point, Moses had become a champion of minding his own business: not quite accepted by the Egyptians or the Hebrews, he’d fled to Midian and built a new life among a new people more than 300 miles away from where he was raised. When God first approached him, he was literally minding his family’s own business - their flock - on the very edge of the desert. He was as far away from other people’s “business” as he could possibly get, in every sense of the word. And yet, God specifically sought out Moses to answer the prayers of a people who were no longer his. God called him away from the very life that Paul would espouse more than 1000 years later and instructed him, on no uncertain terms, to get directly involved in other people’s business.
So God and Paul seem to be on opposite sides of the MYOB issue. Obviously, there has to be some reason for this discrepancy, and as usual, it has everything to do with context. Paul was writing to a tiny, vulnerable community belonging to a brand-new religious movement that was just trying to survive while living within larger Roman society. They had no power and no status whatsoever. They were constantly at risk and under threat, so of course Paul advised them to be on their best behavior so that their neighbors would have no excuses to persecute them.
Now, despite what some Christians continue to insist, this does *NOT* describe today’s Church. Modern Christians are readily accepted by the larger society - in fact, shrinking worship attendance notwithstanding, Christians still make up the vast majority of people in the US (almost 70%), and there are more than twice as many Christians in our country as there are those with no religion at all.[1] Even if this *WEREN’T* the case, the Church’s right to exist in the United States today is protected by the First Amendment of our constitution. Unlike the Thessalonian church, our determination to mind our own business has nothing to do with survival. So as much as we might want it to be, Paul’s advice simply isn’t applicable in our own context.
Our motivation for minding our own business is much closer to Moses’. We’ve worked hard to find our place in the world, to create a comfortable and safe life where we can support ourselves and our loved ones. We’ve steered away from conflict wherever possible, just wanting to live in uncomplicated peace. Sure, we can see the injustice around us, and we heartily disapprove, but in more of an abstract way - from a distance. We’re very respectful of the “MYOB” way of life - we’re “good Christians”, after all. And we’ve convinced ourselves that we’re doing the right thing.
But through Moses, God has made it clear that God’s people are not called to “MYOB” lives after all. As with Moses, God interrupts our peaceful existence to draw our attention to situations that we aren’t involved in, to respond to injustices that have nothing to do with us, and God refuses to take no for an answer. We cannot ignore the news of famine and death in Gaza, of children dying because of guns, of violence against people of color and the LGBT+ community, of immigrants being deported without due process, of social and legal attacks on women’s bodily autonomy. We would prefer if these matters would remain distant hypotheticals, but the Holy Spirit keeps forcing them back into our consciousness. A bush is burning before our very eyes, and while its flames may not touch us directly, God is challenging us not to look away.
Because here’s the bottom line, the lesson that Moses learned atop Mount Horeb: as God’s people, all injustice *IS* our business. Although we may draw artificial lines between ourselves - lines of geography, biology, culture, lines that separate the “deserving” from the “undeserving” - God’s concern transcends them all. We can’t “MYOB” our way out of our responsibilities towards our fellow human beings; God has clearly told us, from the very beginning, to do justice,[2] to seek justice,[3] to pursue justice, and only justice,[4] to let justice roll down like waters.[5] If we claim the Lord as our God, justice is not optional. We must always stand up for it, insist on it, fight for it, even when - especially when - it doesn’t touch us directly.
We are no longer the vulnerable community in Thessalonica to whom Paul wrote so many centuries ago. We’re a part of one of the largest global religious movements of all time, a movement with a powerful voice and a seat at the table. If we use what power we have to preserve our own way of life - or worse, if we don’t use it at all - then we’re betraying the very faith that both Paul and Moses handed down to us. We’re betraying our responsibility to the gospel. We’re betraying the very God of justice that we claim to serve.
Using our Christian privilege for the sake of others will undoubtedly make our lives more complicated, difficult, or even dangerous. Heaven knows that Moses’ life was never the same after his encounter with God on Mount Horeb. But that’s the reality of what Jesus means when he says, “take up your cross and follow me.”[6] The promise has never been that the life of a Christian will be easy. The promise is that it will be worth it.
I don’t know what, specifically, God might be calling you to do - I’m still trying to figure out exactly what God is calling *ME* to do about all this. I just know that we aren’t supposed to be the passive and polite people that we seem determined to be. We’re supposed to be meddlesome and annoying in Christ’s name, an absolute thorn in the side of anyone committed to systems of oppression and injustice. We’re supposed to be the Moseses, the Esthers, the John the Baptists, the Harriet Tubmans, the Oscar Romeros, the William Barbers, who loudly insist on God’s justice for ALL people, no matter how long it takes, no matter how risky it is, no matter how little we personally stand to gain - because now we know that even when we aren’t the ones suffering, it’s our business, too.
Even now, even as the world appears to be burning around us, God’s voice is calling from out of the flames: “My child! The people’s cries of injustice have reached me - so get going!” How will we respond? Will we offer thoughts and prayers to drown out God’s voice, justifying our indifference with calls for civility and unity? Or will we stand up and say, “Here I am, Lord - send me into the fray”? May God grant us the strength and courage to make justice our business - forever and always. Amen.
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[1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/358364/religious-americans.aspx
[2] Micah 6:8.
[3] Isaiah 1:17.
[4] Deuteronomy 16:20, NRSV.
[5] Amos 5:24.
[6] Matthew 16:24.
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