Genesis 12:1–9, Hosea 5:15–6:6, Romans 4:13–25, Matthew 9:9–26

Righteousness of Faith: Practice, Witness, Resistance

Paul's understanding of righteousness in Romans is not primarily about doctrinal correctness, moral perfection, or religious compliance. It is relational. It is participatory. It is a way of living that trusts so deeply in the promises and character of God that one's life begins to bend toward mercy, solidarity, restoration, and courage.

When viewed through the lenses of Migration with Dignity and liberation theology, righteousness by faith becomes even more concrete. It ceases to be abstraction and becomes accompaniment.

Liberation theology is a movement within Christianity that begins with the conviction that God is especially concerned with the poor, the oppressed, and those whose dignity has been denied. Emerging most prominently in Latin America through theologians such as Gustavo Gutiérrez, it insists that faith cannot be separated from the social, political, and economic realities in which people live.

Liberation theology reads Scripture through the eyes of those who suffer, emphasizing God’s liberating action in the Exodus, the prophetic call for justice, and Jesus’ ministry among the marginalized. Palestinian liberation theology, such as that of Naim Ateek, extends these insights into the context of occupation, displacement, and the struggle for self-determination, affirming that God’s justice is inseparable from human dignity and that peace cannot exist apart from justice. It challenges Christians to move beyond neutrality, stand in solidarity with those who suffer, and participate in the work of healing, reconciliation, and liberation.

In both traditions, faith is not merely a matter of personal belief or future salvation; it is a lived commitment to restoring right relationships—with God, neighbor, land, and community—and to embodying God’s compassion and justice in the world today.

Paul points to Abraham, whose righteousness came not through law but through trust—through "hoping against hope." Abraham trusted in a God "who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." That trust remains at the heart of communities living between promise and impossibility: migrants seeking safety, s seeking dignity, and countless people struggling beneath systems that normalize exclusion and domination.

This is not optimism.

It is covenantal resistance.

PRACTICE

The story of faith begins not with settled certainty but with movement.

Abraham leaves home without knowing where he is going. Israel wanders through the wilderness. Ruth crosses borders seeking survival. The Holy Family flees violence as refugees. Pentecost gathers scattered peoples into one Spirit-filled community.

Migration is not an interruption to the biblical story. It is one of its central realities.

Migration With Dignity reminds us that people are not obstacles to power, expansion, or national purity. They are sacred persons bearing the image of God. Faith, therefore, is practiced not through exclusion but through accompaniment. It asks whether we can move beyond fear and toward relationship.

Liberation theology deepens this understanding by insisting that faith cannot be separated from lived reality. The God revealed in Jesus stands with the oppressed, restores dignity to the violated, and calls communities into courageous solidarity.

Righteousness, then, is right relationship—with God, neighbor, land, memory, and community.

WITNESS

The prophet Hosea records God's challenge: "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice."

Religious systems can maintain rituals while ignoring suffering. Nations can preserve order while denying humanity. Faith can become performance rather than transformation.

Both Migration with Dignity and liberation theology challenge this contradiction. They call us to see what others have learned to ignore.

Jesus embodies this witness. He eats with tax collectors and sinners. He crosses boundaries of purity and exclusion. He heals those whom society has pushed to the margins. He restores relationship where systems have created separation.

Faith, in the Gospel, is never merely intellectual assent.

Faith is movement toward human suffering.

Faith is crossing lines others refuse to cross.

Faith is restoring dignity where it has been denied.

As one reflection puts it, "Resurrection is not meant to be watched. It is meant to be embodied."

To witness is to step out of abstraction and into relationship, risk, and presence. It is to become incapable of looking away. It is to allow suffering to interrupt our comfort and reshape our priorities.

RESISTANCE

This witness inevitably leads to resistance.

Not resistance rooted in hatred, revenge, or domination, but resistance rooted in love and human dignity.

Both Migration with Dignity and liberation theology remind us that compassion without action becomes sentimentality. Love without justice becomes abstraction. Prayer without solidarity becomes distance.

The world tells us that seeing is enough.

The Gospel does not.

Righteousness becomes visible when we refuse to normalize dehumanization. It becomes visible when we accompany rather than distance ourselves, when we choose solidarity rather than neutrality, and when mercy takes communal, political, and spiritual form.

Do we remain present?

Do we accompany?

Do we restore dignity?

Do we resist systems that crush human beings?

Do we trust that another world is possible even when empire insists otherwise?

That is Abraham hoping against hope.

That is Jesus eating with the excluded.

That is liberation theology's insistence that God's heart is compassion joined to justice.

And that is Migration With Dignity calling the Church beyond charity and into beloved community.

The righteousness of faith is ultimately this:

to trust God enough to practice mercy,

to witness courageously,

and to resist whatever diminishes the dignity of God's children.

In that trust, resurrection becomes visible—not merely as something we believe, but as something we embody.

Peace

Rex Mckee is a Deacon in The Episcopal Church in Minnesota, serving at Saint John the Baptist. He is a co-leader of ECMN Immigration Caucus, MWD Task Force, Caucus and Episcopal Migration Response Network. Rex describes himself as an aging radical hippie beat poet theologian philosopher peacemaker;  “If I start from a place of love, more times than not I will find what is "right," but if I start from a position of "right" I will rarely find love.” You can find more of his writings on Substack:  https://rexmckee.substack.com/