No Justice. No Peace.

They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. —Jeremiah 6:14

I woke up in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning. With the weather being in the 60s and sunny, I decided to take a long run. Along the way, I came across an old train car with a screen print message spray painted on the side, “No Justice. No Peace.”

The prophet Jeremiah cries out that there is no peace because, “everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely” (Jeremiah 6:13). In the absence of justice—where the whole community thrives by caring for one another, and centers its most vulnerable people in that caregiving—there is no peace. Real peace, true peace—like we share in the passing of the peace in worship—depends on community that is inclusive, nurturing, affirming, and life-giving.

That “no justice, no peace” message stayed on my mind today, which brings me to why I am in Minneapolis. I am here with more than 100 faith leaders from across the country for a clergy training hosted by the national multi-faith movement Faith in Us. The purpose of the event is “to equip and unleash clergy leaders across the country to be ready to powerfully lead to protect our right to vote and to choose our leaders during our elections and through the seating of our incoming congressional leaders in January.”

I was at a table with about eight Muslim men, half of whom were imams, all of whom were Somali. At our tables, we were prompted to talk about what is at stake for us regarding the upcoming election and the possibility of it being stolen. One imam from Des Moines, Iowa, said that when the president calls the people in his community garbage, which he did in a cabinet meeting in December, their safety and well-being are at stake. “Who is in power and what they say matters,” he said.

No advocacy. No peace.

Another imam from Rochester, Minnesota, explained that the YMCA in his neighborhood, frequented by the children and youth from his mosque, had been destroyed to make room for a high-rise apartment complex. “Our young people have no place to gather and play,” he said, “and the guy whose leading in the polls for mayor speaks unfavorably of Somali Americans. If he wins, there’s no way we can push for a new gathering space to be built where our people can have community again.”

No community. No peace.

We love to say that God is love, and we should. In a world full of divisive hatred, we need to shout it from the rooftops: God is love! But God demands justice. The God of love requires that justice be done in our communities—justice that affirms the humanity of every person regardless of their country of origin, and justice that advocates for everyone’s unfettered access to communal belonging—because only then can we have real peace in our communities.

And one need not be a faith leader nor attend a democracy defense clergy training to do justice. Any of us can look around and see what is at stake for the most vulnerable neighbors in our community if nothing were to change, and then do what we can to change things. That’s what love does. And it makes justice possible. As Cornel West says, “Justice is what love looks like in public.” And without it, there is no peace.

“Blessed are the peacemakers,” says Jesus. So, let’s get to work by doing justice for all our sakes. No justice, no peace.