“When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” John 6:12

The hard work of justice comes when we are not concerned with the fragments it creates characterized here as the lost and the left-behind. The lost and left behind are the many who fall through the cracks wherein nascent potential is squandered in the traditions of survival unique to a penal lifestyle. Such is the microcosm of American lessons of excess, which is built on a calculus of dross: the scum or unwanted material left behind in which the masses are to wade through in their attempts to survive in the arena of American success. It is learned behavior peculiar to many for whom success is a (uneasy) given to mischaracterize the dross through which the masses wade with the people themselves. As such, anyone wading through the muck and mire of what is left of the American ideal of success and the concomitant fragmented life is most likely to have their potential swallowed up and hidden under the cloak of survival.

Because we are trained to leave crumbs behind, to leave meat on the bone, a little bit of water in a glass, bits and pieces of our meals on the floor; we easily walk over the fragmented lives in our community, because we find no value in what is left behind. But we are called to pay attention to fragments, to bits and pieces because they are part of the whole and not just cast offs. It all has worth and it all has value.

This is true outcome of justice: that none be lost - lost to the injustice indifference in any form for everyone. We are responsible for the fragmented: those who remain subject to the possibility that they may be lost. How you understand justice is directly proportionate to your response to injustice and determines whom we deem worthy of justice. Amos 5:24 reads,“but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Justice is about fulfillment: it is the standard of equity that ensures the remnant that suffers injustice is not lost, and accessed by all. Justice for all is essential. It is a means by which God delivers hidden potential: potential that is buried under the dross of injustice.

There is a tendency to think that because you are on the right side of justice you don’t have to be concerned about injustice Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

The fragments are vital: fragmented lives, fragmented dreams, fragmented families, fragmented hope, fragmented hope; it is all important and this is why we need to fight that none be lost! This is why we must all be involved in securing justice for all.

Faith is the force of justice: it is the best way understand justice. Without looking at justice through faith most of the injustice in the world cannot be undone. This means that we have to leave or depart the level of judging with the senses and use faith to see all of those whose lives need our faith to ensure they are not lost. We must invest generously in the idea none should be lost to injustice; that justice should roll down like waters; that a fragment of injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere; and that it is important for us to believe that we are called to use our faith to ensure that a single garment of justice is woven large enough to cover us all: especially those threatened most to be lost in our indifference to the work of gathering the fragments on the fringes of waiting for justice on the fringes of our society.