Fair

 Genesis 15:1-6, Luke 3:8, Matthew 20:1-16

You know the story.  The owner hires different workers at different times.  That means the workers work different amounts.  Yet, at the end of the day, each worker is paid the same amount.  And the laborers are upset about this.  They feel this is unjust.   They feel that those who have worked for longer should be paid more.  And they are angry.

We can relate to this right?  We want life to be fair, we struggle when it isn’t.  And, as people who have control sometimes over what others have or received, I think we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what is fair.  As parents, grandparents, and guardians, especially, we work to be fair.  To use some less serious examples: In our family, for example, Eldest got to go out with her grandparents for “special birthday time” starting when she turned 5 or six.  The grandparents felt that it wasn’t “fair” for the younger kids to get to go out that young so they made the decision to wait until each child turned 5 or 6 to have that “special time” with the grandparents.  Does this seem fair?  Well, from a different perspective, the grandparents aren’t going to be able to take the kids out forever and each child should have the same amount of time with them, so perhaps it is more fair if each child should start at the same time being able to have that special time with their grandparents.  Even with simple things, what is “fair” can be complicated.

Another less serious scenario – when I was growing up, the older child always got a bigger piece of pie or cake or whatever because they were “bigger” and needed more.  Does this seem fair?  With my own kids, it is my youngest child who needs the most calories and who eats the most despite being unusually skinny.  How do we define fair?

When we lived in San Leandro, Eldest went to Head Royce, a private school.  It was an amazing school that gave her basically a free ride.  They were committed to diversity, to taking care of others and the planet.  Part of their curriculum required each child to do some kind of community service, and they taught important values about caring for the world.  However, most of the kids who attended this school were filthy rich.  While Eldest got a free ride, fifteen years ago the tuition per child for kindergarten alone was $24,000 a year.  And while they taught great values, one day Eldest came home and said, “Why don’t we have a play castle in our back yard?  Why don’t I have my own pony?  Why don’t I have my own bedroom?  Why didn’t we go skiing in France for our winter vacation?”  It didn’t matter what the values were that were being taught.  She was put in a situation where those she compared herself to made her feel poor, made her feel that life was unfair in the way that told her that she didn’t have enough, didn’t have as much.  She could have compared herself to those in our community who lived on the street.  What I wanted for her was for her to realize our many, many blessing and riches and to realize that because of our blessings we have a great responsibility to care for those around us, to be as generous with others as God is with us.  But instead, she had the experience of being in a place where she was the “poorest” and she left that feeling that her life was “unfair.”

But it’s not just children who experience that.  I remember talking with a person who was a choir director at a large church during the time when I was the Associate pastor of music and family ministries at Bethel.  He was sharing with me about the Associate pastor at the church where he was working complaining because she was being paid about 3/5 of what the senior pastor was being paid though she believed she was working much harder than he was.  She was upset, but this choir director with whom I was speaking was even more upset because he said while she was complaining to him about her salary being much less than the senior pastor, her salary was much MORE than the choir director’s salary.  And as I listened to him I realized that I was also feeling that it was unfair because I was working for a small, poorer congregation at the time that was paying ME much less than HE was making though I was not only the choir director, but the pianist, and the Associate Pastor in charge of all the education and family programs, as well as music programs at my church.  Levels and levels of people feeling that life was unfair, unjust. 

               I think about the times when people have offered us grace: like the time I was pulled over for running a light that changed just as I entered the intersection, but was let off with a warning rather than being given a ticket.  I normally forget about that grace that I was offered, though, when I see people speeding in their cars and find myself wishing that they would get pulled over.  I find I can make assumptions about who they are, what their motives are.  I fail to see with God’s eyes, eyes of compassion and understanding and insight in those moments.  I want “justice” for others, by which I usually mean them having to pay, and grace for myself.  I don’t think I’m alone in this.

A more serious example: How many of you have seen the movie, “the Gods Must be Crazy”?  In it there is a native group of bush people who are filmed and who act in the film.  After the film was made, an article was written by an anthropologist who had lived and worked with the bush people about the devastation that the filming had created for this bush tribe.  There are rules, good rules, mostly that require that when anyone does work, he or she is paid for it.  If a person isn’t paid, it is a kind of exploitation.  But what happened in this particular case was that not everyone in the tribe was in the film.  So before the film was made, everyone in the tribe had the exact same amount; everything was shared, everything was in common.  It was very little, people had almost no material possessions before this film was made.  But still, all the people in the tribe felt grateful, felt rich, felt they had more than enough.  But then the filming crew paid some of the tribe members for their participation in the film.  In so doing, they introduced inequity into the tribe.  And that inequity led to a sense of unfairness on the part of those who weren’t paid.  Now some had things that were just theirs, and others were lacking in those things.  People began to feel poor, and eventually the tribe began to fight within itself and the tribal culture for this one group at least, was utterly destroyed.  Ironically, the film that destroyed them included a story line that told its own story about this very inequity and about the dangers of “things” being introduced into these cultures.

To take this to a more serious level, we tend to say that it is unfair when people are getting unemployment.  Even though the amount of money most people get through unemployment is not living wages, we still feel it is somehow “unfair” if they have not worked for that money, have not earned it.  We get so upset we call them names, “welfare moms”, being one example.

               The truth is from a personal perspective, in our definition of justice, nothing is EVER fair.  When we fail to understand or have compassion or care for others, when we can only see from our own desires for more, from our greed, then nothing is ever fair.  We don’t get what we think we deserve.  Others seem to get more than we think they deserve. 

But what I call us all to focus on today is the end of today’s parable, which reads, “‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.  Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

               The amount that each person was paid, a denarius, was basically just enough to feed one’s family for that day.  Each person was given what they needed.  It is not about “deservingness”. It is about what is needed.  This is a story about God’s justice which, once again, does not care about what a person has earned, does not care about how hard you’ve worked or how deserving you are or even WHO you are.  God’s justice is about each person having enough.  “Justice” or “fairness” is based on sufficiency of need, not all the things that we would say it’s based on.

               The truth is that in our world God has given us enough.  As a world, we have enough for every person, EVERY single person, to have what they need.  But because of greed, some people have much, much more than they need which means there are others who do not have enough.  Let me be very clear:  It is completely anti-God, immoral, unethical to have more than we need when other people are starving to death.  There just isn’t another way to say that.  But because we know that some take more than they need, that as a result there are others who do not have enough, we become fearful people and we worry and fret about what is “fair” out of fear that we will not have enough, or we will not have what we want, or we will not have what we believe we deserve more than others.  We have a mindset of scarcity.  But again, this leads to unkind and unbiblical behavior. As a result of that mindset, we begrudge people even enough to feed their families, as the workers in today’s story did.  They were not given less because others were given enough to eat for the day.  And yet they still were grumbling, still begrudged the fact that others were given enough for the day.  And that begrudging of others having enough to live another day – that is sin.

               This ties directly into the biblical story of Manna in the wilderness.  As Exodus 16:4- 8 says: Then the Lord said to Moses, “I’m going to make bread rain down from the sky for you. The people will go out each day and gather just enough for that day. In this way, I’ll test them to see whether or not they follow my Instruction.   On the sixth day, when they measure out what they have collected, it will be twice as much as they collected on other days.”  We know this story.  The people in the wilderness did not have enough.  So God provided for them.  But what God provided was just enough for that day.  If they took more than they needed, it would spoil.  When we take more than we need, it spoils our hearts, it spoils our knowledge of our connections to one another, to all things, it spoils our sense of the brother and sisterhood of all life.  Exodus continues, “Moses said to them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.  This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Collect as much of it as each of you can eat, one omer per person. You may collect for the number of people in your household.’ The Israelites did as Moses said, some collecting more, some less. But when they measured it out by the omer, the ones who had collected more had nothing left over, and the ones who had collected less had no shortage. Everyone collected just as much as they could eat.  Moses said to them, “Don’t keep any of it until morning.”  But they didn’t listen to Moses. Some kept part of it until morning, but it became infested with worms and stank. Moses got angry with them.  Every morning they gathered it, as much as each person could eat. But when the sun grew hot, it melted away.”  This, too, shows the justice of God.  A justice that is based solely on what people need, without any reference to what people “deserve.”

               We also see this in the Old Testament commandment to leave enough in our fields for the poor to glean.  People were required by biblical law to leave enough produce for those who could not buy food to be able to eat each day.  It is biblical law.  As Deuteronomy 24:19 says: “Whenever you are reaping the harvest of your field, leave some grain in the field. Do not go back and get it. Let it go to the immigrants, the orphans, and the widows so that the Lord your God blesses you in all that you do.”

               As Rev. Sandhya Jha, the director of the Peace Center said it, “What we see in this story is a redefinition of justice.  Typically, we define justice as ‘what someone deserves’ based on their actions or particular qualities….But in this story, the landowner redefines justice to mean a state in which everyone receives what is fitting to a laborer, regardless of their specific actions as a laborer.  This is a radically different notion of justice form our common usage.  The question of deservingness is separated from action, or personal qualities, and instead centers on identity.  This means that all people, as children of God, are equally deserving of the fruits of labor.  In other words, it is a metaphor for God’s justice, which is a justice that gives freely to the measure that is sufficient to the needs of the person….justice or what is right is that status in which needs are met for all people equally….On God’s terms of justice, giving more to some and less to others based on merits is not right.”

What does this mean for us?  Well, first, we have a choice about how we look at life.  Do we focus on what is unfair?  It is unfair when we work hard for little while others don’t work at all and are given much.  It is unfair that we have to struggle with this challenge or that challenge while others seem to have charmed lives.  It is unfair that we do our best and still go through painful situations.  Life is unfair.  Or we can look at the many blessings that fill our lives:  Each of us seeing this, reading this, has more than enough to eat.  Each of us has a bed to sleep in.  We each have family and friends and a church that loves us and supports us.  We have educations and vacations and toys for all ages.  Our lives are filled with blessings and we can choose to focus on them and be grateful for God’s generosity to each one of us.  We have much more than we need, after all. 

               But more deeply than that, God’s definition of justice does not take into account what people deserve and instead focuses solely on what people need.  That is so hard for us to grasp, so hard for us to take in.  But Jesus presents this definition of justice to us and expects us to also stand up for this justice, this image of what it is to be just.  We are called not to award and discriminate based on what people “deserve” (and again for each of us what someone deserves will be different), but instead to care for and love all people, working hard to make sure they all have what they need.  That is a justice that leads to peace.  When people have what they need, there is room for peace, there is room for living.

               I know this is a really hard concept.  So I want to say it once more.  What scripture shows us is God’s definition of justice is about giving everyone what they need.  It is NOT about what people deserve.  EVER.  And we are called to strive for that same understanding of justice.  I again, understand that this is hard.  The good news in this is that God’s love for each of us is that we will have enough.  And if we work for a world in which everyone has enough, all of us will be richer for it.  God’s love is bigger than we can imagine.  And we are extensions of that love to one another.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Life Isn't Fair

       A few weeks ago my sermon focused on why bad things happen to good people.  This is the age old question in theology.  If there is a good God, why do these terrible things happen? Personally, I believe God chooses genuine relationship with us which requires that we are given free will.  I believe that, as a result, people have the ability to make bad choices and do things which really harm others.  But in reality that is only a partially satisfying answer.  I believe that the place God is when bad things are happening is with those who are suffering.  But this, too, is an only partially satisfying answer.
       I find myself looking at people's lives a great deal and noticing themes.  There are some people who truly have what I would call a "charmed" life.  Their lives seem incredibly blessed.  They have an abundance of gifts, resources and opportunities, and when they share their stories I'm always amazed at what doors open to them and at what they are able to accomplish just by wishing things into existence.  And then there are others who seem to never be able to catch a break.  Everything they touch seems to crumble, to fall apart, to create chaos and devastation.
       Most of us are somewhere in between.  I tease my kids that I have two special "karmas".  I have an amazing parking karma.  It doesn't matter how crowded a parking area is, I always find a parking spot and usually it is in a prime location.  It's something we can count on, to the point that other people ask to ride with me places because they know if I'm driving, a parking spot will be found.  I also recognize that I seem to attract free gifts.  Wherever I go and whatever the circumstances, gifts seem to come my way.  Well over half of what I have has been a gift (and usually a very unexpected gift) from someone else.  I am deeply and truly blessed by the generosity of folk around me, often and in abundance.  On the other hand, I have one big negative "karma" - anything electronic that I touch breaks down.  What's more than all of this, though, is that the hard stuff that has come my way is always big and painful.  Hard and intense childhood. Difficult and painful situations as an adult. Big things. Catastrophes. Humiliations and losses and traumas and victimization.  The threat of financial devastation, homelessness (always having a place to stay with friends and family, but without a home base of any kind for several months at a time); an extremely public, humiliating, scandalous and horrible situation that led to a painful divorce.  So constant is this kind of stuff in our lives that when my daughter and I were on a small trip together and we had someone trying to break into our hotel room, pounding on the door, rattling the handle and looking under the door in the middle of the night, my daughter just took it in stride.  The next day when I asked her how it was possible for her to immediately go back to sleep once the guy had left, "Well, it's just one more thing and in the scheme of what we've been through, not so bad."  At some level that broke my heart: that her life has been so full of trauma that when someone is trying to break into our room in the middle of the night, it seems minor to her.
      In the face of this, my "whys" sometimes deepen.  Why are the lives of some people so very charmed and the lives of others so hard?
      This need for life to somehow be "fair" is so ingrained in humanity that throughout history we have tried to create explanations for life's great inequities.  The Bible talks about the "sins of the fathers" being carried down seven generations.  So, if something was wrong with someone, and the community couldn't see an obvious reason for their suffering, it was assumed that someone in their history misbehaved, causing their pain and struggles.  For many, karma described how a person's past deeds in past lives dictated how this life would be experienced: if you were born poor it was because of mistakes in your past life.  If you were born rich and powerful, it must be because you did it right in your past life.  We want life to be fair.  And it so obviously isn't.  So we've created ways to make it fair so that we can bear the injustices.
       But more and more I am letting go of the searching for a way to make life fair, and I'm coming to just accept that life is what it is.  It is unjust.  It is unfair.  Some people suffer deeply.  Others don't.  We can always find someone whose life is better and we can always find someone who has suffered more.  But no one can say that life is fair.  And the work we go through attempting to explain or justify the struggles in life for individuals have a greater potential to add damage to another person's suffering than they do of helping us to understand.  If we assume that each person's suffering is somehow their fault, we add to their pain when we should be easing it with compassion and care.
       But at another level, I do believe there is responsibility here.  I believe that we have been given enough, as a world, for all.  I believe that we have the resources, talents and abilities to ease suffering and to minimize it.  But we don't do this as a people and all of us suffer as a result.  That is not about God or about Karma.  That is about us as flawed people who forget that we are all connected and that all are our brothers and sisters.  We forget to love the other as much as we love ourselves and we act, therefore, in selfish ways that injure other people, damage our world and create immense suffering.  We are greedy and want what we want for ourselves and our loved ones.  We forget that others' needs are also our responsibility and that we have the ability, as the human race, to help one another.  But this is where we are right now.
       So what do we do with this?
       First, I believe we all need to keep working for a world that is more just.  We need to honor and lift up sharing and caring so that others are inspired and moved to do the same.  We need to see one another with eyes of compassion and grace, to forgive often, to give more, and to love without ceasing.
       Second, as I have said many times before, I do believe in a God who is there, always, to bring resurrection out of death, to bring the highest good out of the lowest low, to help us to use our experiences and even our struggles for the good of ourselves and others.  It isn't an easy path to choose to bring good out of suffering.  It is an uphill climb.  But the views are amazing, both during the climb and on those occasional peeks.
        I look at my life, the things that we have gone through.  I would not have chosen any of the really hard stuff.  But I am also so very aware that without those experiences I would not be who I am today, I would not have what I have today in terms of friends, community, family, work; I would not be able to address things in the way I can now address them.  I am so deeply grateful for the experiences that have challenged me to see with eyes of greater compassion and less judgment.  I am thankful that I am becoming more the person I want to be, with greater ability to self-reflect and to choose how I want to act when faced with difficulties.
       Finally, we have to hold on to the knowledge that all things pass, everything is temporary and whatever we are experiencing now is just another step in our journeys.
       Life is not fair.  But we can make it more fair by bringing good out of bad, by working for justice for everyone, by appreciating and loving all that life has to offer.

Peace and Justice

                                                          Isaiah 58:6-9

                                                            Matthew 20:1-16

               The Oakland Peace Center, where we have been part of a couple mission projects, building bunk beds, doing some painting, etc, asked the congregations that support it to focus on peace and justice this Sunday.  As one of those congregations, we have chosen to be part of that.  In particular we’ve been encouraged to focus on the connections between peace and justice.  Do you see connections between the two?

               What images or ideas come to mind when you think of peace? Doves, calm, nonviolence, non-conflictive, everyone getting alone.

               What images or ideas come to mind when you think of justice?  Courts, laws, punishments for those who did wrong, retribution, fairness, giving people what they “deserve.”

               These two can seem contradictory, or hard to reconcile.  Justice brings thoughts/images of violence, wrong doing and “pay back” in equal amounts.  Peace seems to exclude conflict at all.

               But today’s story about the laborers shows us something very different, something that is difficult and hard for most of us to grasp, let alone for us to feel good about.  You know the story.  The owner hires different workers at different times.  That means the workers work different amounts.  Yet, at the end of the day, each worker is paid the same amount.  And the laborers are upset about this.  They feel this is unjust.

               We can relate to this right?  Parents, grandparents, guardians spend a lot of time sometimes, trying to figure out what is “fair”.  To use some less serious examples: In our family, for example, Eldest got to go out with her grandparents for “special birthday time” starting when she turned 5 or six.  The grandparents decided though that it wasn’t “fair” for the younger kids to get to go out that young so they made the decision to wait until each child turned 5 or 6 to have that “special time” with the grandparents.  Does this seem fair?  Well, from my thinking, the grandparents aren’t going to be able to take the kids out forever and each child should have the same amount of time with them, so I think that each child should start at the same time being able to have that special time with their grandparents.  You see, it is a little complicated.

Another less serious scenario – when I was growing up, the older child always got a bigger piece of pie or cake or whatever because they were “bigger” and needed more.  Does this seem fair?  IN my family, it is my youngest child who needs the most calories and who eats the most despite being unusually skinny.  How do we define fair?

When we lived in San Leandro, Eldest went to Head Royce, a private school.  It was an amazing school that gave her basically a free ride.  They were committed to diversity, to taking care of others and the planet.  Part of their curriculum required each child to do some kind of community service, and they taught important values about caring for the world.  However, most of the kids who attended this school were filthy rich.  While Eldest got a free ride, the tuition per child was $24,000 a year.  And while they taught great values, one day Eldest came home and said, “Why don’t we have a play castle in our back yard?  Why don’t I have my own pony?  Why don’t I have my own bedroom?  Why didn’t we go skiing in France for our winter vacation?”  It didn’t matter what the values were that were being taught.  She was put in a situation where those she compared herself to made her feel poor, made her feel that life was unfair in the way that she didn’t have enough, didn’t have as much.  She could have compared herself to those in our community who lived on the street.  What I wanted for her was for her to realize our many, many blessing and riches and to realize that because of our blessings we have a great responsibility to care for those around us, to be as generous with others as God is with us.  But instead, she had the experience of being in a place where she was the “poorest” and she left that feeling that her life was “unfair.”

               I think about the times when people have offered us grace: like the time I was pulled over for running a light that changed just as I entered the intersection.  I normally forget about that grace that I was offered, though, when I see people speeding in their cars and find myself wishing that they would get pulled over.  I find I can make assumptions about who they are, what their motives are.  I fail to see with God’s eyes, eyes of compassion and understanding and insight in those moments.  I want justice for others and grace for myself.  But again, my definition of justice is subjective.

A more serious example: How many of you have seen the movie, “the Gods Must be Crazy”?  In it there is a native group of bush people who are filmed and who act in the film.  After the film was made, an article was written by an anthropologist who had lived and worked with the bush people about the devastation that the filming had created for this bush tribe.  There are rules, good rules, mostly that require that when anyone does work, he or she is paid for it.  If a person isn’t paid, it is a kind of exploitation.  But what happened in this particular case was that not everyone in the tribe was in the film.  So before the film was made, everyone in the tribe had the exact same amount; everything was shared, everything was in common.  It was very little, people had almost no material possessions before this film was made.  But still, all the people in the tribe felt grateful, felt rich, felt they had more than enough.  But then the filming crew paid some of the tribe members for their participation in the film.  In so doing, they introduced inequity into the tribe.  And that inequity led to a sense of unfairness on the part of those who weren’t paid.  Now some had things that were just theirs, and others were lacking in those things.  People began to feel poor, and eventually the tribe began to fight within itself and the tribal culture for this one group at least, was utterly destroyed.  Ironically, the film that destroyed them included a story line that told it’s own story about this very inequity and about the dangers of “things” being introduced into these cultures.

               The truth is from a personal perspective, in our definition of justice, nothing is EVER fair.  When we fail to understand or have compassion or care for others, when we can only see from our own needs, our own experiences, then nothing is ever fair.  We don’t get what we think we deserve.  Others seem to get more than we think they deserve. 

But what I call us all to focus on today is the end of today’s parable, which reads, “‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.  Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

As Rev. Sandhya Jha, the director of the Peace Center said it, “What we see in this story is a redefinition of justice.  Typically, we define justice as ‘what someone deserves’ based on their actions or particular qualities….But in this story, the landowner redefines justice to mean a state in which everyone receives what is fitting to a laborer, regardless of their specific actions as a laborer.  This is a radically different notion of justice form our common usage.  The question of deservingness is separated from action, or personal qualities, and instead centers on identity.  This means that all people, as children of God are equally deserving of the fruits of labor.  In other words, it is a metaphor for God’s justice, which is a justice that gives freely to the measure that is sufficient to the needs of the person….justice or what is right is that status in which needs are met for all people equally….On God’s terms of justice, giving more to some and less to others based on merits is not right.”

So what does this mean for us?  Well, first, we have a choice about how we look at life.  Do we focus on what is Unfair?  It is unfair that I work hard for little while others don’t work at all and are given much.  It is unfair that I have to struggle with this challenge or that challenge while others seem to have charmed lives.  It is unfair that I do my best and still go through painful situations.  Life is unfair.  Or we can look at the many blessings that fill our lives:  Each of us in this room has enough to eat.  Each of us has a bed to sleep in.  We each have family and friends and a church that loves us and supports us.  We have educations and vacations and toys for all ages.  Our lives are filled with blessings and we can choose to focus on them and be grateful for God’s generosity to each one of us.  We have much more than we need, after all. 

               But more deeply than that, God’s definition of justice does not take into account what people deserve and instead focuses solely on what people need.  That is so hard for us to grasp, so hard for us to take in.  But Jesus presents this definition of justice to us and expects us to also stand up for this justice, this image of what it is to be just.  We are called not to award and discriminate based on what people “deserve” (and again for each of us what someone deserves will be different), but instead to care for and love all people, working hard to make sure they all have what they need.  That is a justice that leads to peace.  When people have what they need, there is room for peace, there is room for living.

               I know this is a really hard concept.  So I want to say it once more.  What scripture shows us is God’s definition of justice is about giving everyone what they need.  It is NOT about what people deserve.  EVER.  And we are called to strive for that same understanding of justice.  

               Next week we will be looking at judgment and God’s call to us to not judge.  That fits in well here.  If our understanding of justice is about giving people what they need, there is no room for judgement in that.  Judgement only confuses and confounds us because it throws us back into thinking about what people deserve.  This is so humanly natural that striving for a different way of looking at the world takes work.  But it is what we are called to do: to look with eyes of love and care, no matter what a person has done, no matter what we think they deserve.  The good news in this is that God looks at us the same way: with eyes that see past whatever we have done or failed to do that has been unloving.  And God wants justice for us as well: for us to have what we need.  This day and every day.  Amen.

Life is not fair. Do we really get that?

      It is from a place of privilege that we hold on to the belief that life is fair.  People who are not in a place of privilege cannot tell themselves that lie with any hope of convincing themselves it is true. But from a place of privilege we continue to trumpet the mistaken belief that life is somehow fair. We lie to ourselves in many ways about this.  Some of the most common include:

1.  Well, everyone goes through good times and everyone goes through bad times.  It all evens out.  
No.  No, it doesn't all even out.  There are people I know who lead truly charmed lives. I can think of one man in particular - white, heterosexual, extremely good looking, gifted musically, athletically, intellectually.  He married another charmed life and together they have children who are all also gifted in terms of being athletic, musical, smart.  I asked him straight out once - "have you ever gone through a difficult time?  Have you ever really struggled with anything?"  Well, no, not really.  He was given their house which is huge and sits on five acres of land.  Not that he needed that gift since he is successful in his career as well.  He has been given amazing opportunities for no other reasons than that he is likeable, good looking (yes, that does make a difference in how people treat you!), and just has always been at the right place at the right time.  Things just fall into his lap.  They always have.
In contrast I met someone yesterday who grew up in the projects.  There wasn't money for shoes, let alone for the equipment needed to succeed in school.  School wasn't the priority anyway.  Surviving was the priority.  He works now for minimum wage, which is not a living wage in CA.  At $10 an hour, he cannot possible afford any kind of housing out here.  So, he works two full time jobs meaning that he works 4 times as hard as the CEOs of the company he is serving but is paid 1/350th what the "boss" makes.  He cannot possibly raise himself out of this hole because he spends every waking minute working.  There is no way to get further education, there is no way to get out of his own situation.  He has survived family members being shot by random shootings and gangs.  He has survived imprisonment for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  He still can't afford to live here, even with two jobs, so he slips from bridge to bridge, from street to street, occasionally being able to stay in a shelter or with a friend.  From this place, though, of recognizing that life is not fair, he was able to tell me how much better off he is than those in war torn countries, than the refugees fleeing their homes, than those experiencing torture or rape.  Life isn't fair.  He knows this.  And all he can do is tell his story and work towards change that will make it "more" fair.

2.  Karma tells us you reap what you sow. So those who are struggling deserve it and will have better things come to them as they live better lives.
Again, I don't see this playing out in real life.  Those who were born into poverty, war torn countries, into violent households or violent political situations haven't somehow 'deserved' it, unless you believe they messed up in a previous life and are therefore reaping the punishment from a past life. This sounds to me, again, like a very fancy way for privileged folk to feel okay about the many good things they celebrate while not worrying too much about the fact that so many others are struggling. If it's their own fault then there is nothing I need to do about it.  If it's just 'karma' then I would be irresponsible to interfere with what the universe has handed out to them.
No.  I can't buy this.  We've been given a world to make "right" and to make "fair".  We are simply doing a horrible job of bringing that about.

Life isn't fair.  But we are given all the tools to make it work for everyone.  Making it work for everyone has to start with the acknowledgement that life ISN'T fair.  We have to start by seeing that reality for what it is.  Only by first seeing that the inequalities all around us, the struggles, the suffering of others are not because they deserve it, not because of karma, not because of Divine providence; only with that vision, that insight can we start to own our part.  Our part is that those with privilege, those whose suffering is "less" are called to ease the suffering of others - not just through charity, but through systemic change.  We've set up a world where some are winners and some are losers.  This isn't what God wants or envisions.  Divine imagination is abundant, and the world we've been given is full of abundance as well - enough for all, if we only work to make that reality.  God has given it to us to make right and God won't just "fix" it for us.  We have responsibility in this.  We've been given a call, a job, to help.  That has to start with seeing, but seeing is not enough.  Life isn't fair. But we have the tools to make it more so.  If only we would step into that call.