SIM News

Marissa Sifontes' Law Day Homily

05/04/25

Law Day 2025
Amos 5:10-15
Matthew 23:1-12
When we think of the world’s oldest professions, lawyers may not immediately come to mind. But perhaps they should. Because God gave humankind the law, and we’ve been arguing about it ever since.
You see, the law has always shaped our common life. Laws of inheritance. Laws to settle disputes. This careful divining of what is right and what is just. We see this throughout scripture. When Moses stood before Pharaoh and pleaded for the ancient Israelites to be set free. In the ways their deliverance was anchored in the mandate to care for the stranger Through the time of those known as Judges — who led the people — imperfect
though they were. And especially through the words of Jesus who reminded the scribes that just because they could recite the law didn't mean they were applying it correctly... or in accordance with God’s will.
Even now, the law looms large in our common imagination. When a child has a penchant for arguing — we proudly say, you’re going to grow up to be a lawyer. If you’re not happy with a decision someone has made — ‘you sound just like a lawyer.’ Those who practice law are seen both as champion and defender — both lauded and reviled.
And these days, the law — and the lawyers who work with it — are in the public eye even more than normal. The practice of law has become the domain of the many. Between the pundits and the posts on social media, suddenly everyone has become a constitutional scholar.

But somewhere along the way we seem to have forgotten that our laws were never intended to be interpreted in a vacuum. Much like theology, the law is a living breathing thing — because it applies to living, breathing people. Which means those who work in law must remember that the basis for our statutes and regulations — and even the common law principles we apply — they all have a common root in justice. And what is justice if not the vision of God’s love made real in the world? It is putting into action the commandment Jesus gave us — that we do unto others what we would want done to us.
It is caring for the stranger because we, too, were once strangers in the land of Egypt. And making real the words of our baptismal covenant — to work towards peace and respect the dignity of every human being. But people — and governments — and even whole Departments of Justice —
sometimes lose sight of what’s most important. They pick apart words of both law and scripture, sculpting legal principles into finely honed blades designed to cut down God’s people, instead of building them up.
Or ignore the law completely.
Much like the corruption called out by the prophet, Amos, and the hollow legalism of the Pharisees — somewhere along the way, there are those who have forgotten that the underpinning of our entire legal system rests not on might — but on compassion and empathy. Even as a nation that believes in the separation of church and state, our laws are designed to mirror the same principles that God sets before us. And in that way, the highest and best role of lawyers is to help us be the people God means for us to be.
But I must confess, I’m most troubled with one particular verse in our reading from Amos —how he says the prudent will keep silent in an evil time.
Those sound like dangerous words because some might hear them and see them as a reason to throw up their hands or keep their heads down. Because, as we’ve seen, speaking up and taking action carries real consequences. In the playbook of authoritarianism, no one is immune from overreach - certainly not those who stand against it.
But I suspect many of us gathered here this evening instead hear those words as an invitation to action. That we have taken and will continue to take our places among those who speak the truth and make God’s justice real. That we give thanks for schools who fight to protect their students.
For the witness of people who stand up with signs and voices to remind us that we are better than this. For companies that continue to show that our God-given diversity is not a weakness, but a strength. And especially for the lawyers who with their words and deeds show that their oaths are more important even than their paychecks. 
As much as it has always struck me as a bit ironic to defend a constitution that would have considered me three-fifths of a person, I draw strength that the laws we live under now recognize that women can vote; that two adults who love each other can marry; and that separate, but equal, was never a balanced equation.
That was the work of many — but especially those in the legal profession who lifted their pens and raised their voices, and refused to accept what was set
before them. And if we soon put to bed the fact that due process under the law means just that. That, too, is the work of those in the legal profession — as they protect those in need of protection, and give voice to those who would otherwise have none, all the while, pointing us towards justice. For the lawyers among us, and I am proud to count myself among that number, know that we walk in the footsteps of those from the earliest days of our faith, with examples both to follow, and to take as lessons. Know that the role we play is one no one else can. And know that others are not just looking to us —but
counting on us —to continue to make real God’s love in the world around us. 
For we may live in an evil time.
But most surely, we will not be silent.