"It’s Not Fair!", March 30, 2025

 

It’s Not Fair!
By Rev. Jamie Green Klopotoski
Based on Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Trinity Congregational Church, Gloucester, MA
March 30, 2025

 

This year, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the birth of modern special education. In 1975, Congress passed what is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA.

 

NPR did a story this week about IDEA and they interviewed Stephanie Smith Lee, the policy and advocacy co-director at the National Down Syndrome Congress. She said, “It's interesting to think back before IDEA was passed in 1975. Back then, there were many students who were not allowed in school before the law passed. Over a million children with disabilities were completely excluded from school. There were states that had laws that would not allow children with intellectual disabilities like my daughter to attend school. And there were a hundred thousand institutionalized. So, if you think back 50 years ago where students were sitting, a lot of them were not sitting in schools. And over the last 50 years, we've made huge progress in getting those students in the schools and having the opportunity to learn. A student now has an individualized education program, which is a plan that determines where they're going to get educated and what kind of services and support they're going to have. This is critically important to students and their families.”

 

I heard this interview during a story, not to celebrate or commemorate the 50^th anniversary of IDEA, but to express the fear over how the dismantling of the Department of Education will also likely dismantle IDEA and how that will detrimentally impact students with disabilities.

 

Stephanie explained that the Department of Education oversees IDEA. The monitoring that takes place at the federal level makes sure that students sitting in the classroom get the services and support that they're entitled to under the law. The department issues regulations, guidance, and even offers technical assistance to help states understand how to follow the law, and there are a number of federal grants issued by the department to help fund these programs. All of this is now at risk if the Department of Education is eliminated. All of the progress that has been made trying to include children with disabilities will be destroyed.

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about why programs like these are now being eliminated. Special education, humanitarian aid, all kinds of federal assistance for people in need. I think it’s because if you are not a person in need, you don’t get anything tangible from these programs, and that doesn’t seem fair. With these federal programs, people in need get something, people who need nothing get nothing. That’s what makes equity different from equality. Equality gives everyone the same thing. Equity gives different people different things based on what they need.

 

Perhaps the best-known illustration of the difference between equal­i­ty and equi­ty is a cartoon drawn by Angus Maguire for The Interaction Institute for Social Change. The image is of three peo­ple stand­ing behind a fence, watch­ing a base­ball game. The three people are all dif­fer­ent heights: the tallest of the three is able to see over the fence while the oth­er two are not tall enough to see over the fence.  

 

In the Equality version of the cartoon, each person is given the same sized box­ to stand on to help them see. The tallest per­son, who didn’t need a box in the first place, now stands even high­er, con­tin­u­ing to enjoy a per­fect view of the game.

The sec­ond per­son can now see over the fence. But the third per­son, even with the help of the box, is still too short to see over.

 

In the Equi­ty ver­sion of the cartoon, the tallest per­son does not receive a box and is still able to enjoy the game. The sec­ond per­son is giv­en one box to stand on so he can see, but the third per­son is giv­en two box­es to stand on, so he can also finally see.

 

It doesn’t seem fair that one person gets one box, one person gets two boxes, and one person gets no box at all. But what is fair is the outcome—now they can all see the game. Equi­ty doesn’t give everyone the same resources; it con­sid­ers the spe­cif­ic needs or cir­cum­stances of a per­son and pro­vides the types of resources that they specifically need. Not everyone has the same needs so not everyone needs to same resources. I understand that that doesn’t feel fair. But just because it doesn’t feel fair, that doesn’t mean it’s not right.

 

The 15^th chapter of the Gospel of Luke begins with some Pharisees and scribes complaining about Jesus’ association with socially marginalized people. Actually, all throughout the gospels, the pharisees complain about Jesus. It’s not fair, they say. Jesus is not being fair. He’s spending time with sinners, he’s giving to the poor, he’s talking to women, he’s including children, he’s touching the untouchables, he wants us to give up all our wealth, and love our enemies, and give away our clothes and food. It’s not fair.

 

This time, after the pharisees complain about Jesus dining with sinful people, Jesus defends himself by sharing a parable. It is often called the prodigal son, but it really should be called the prodigal father. The word prodigal means "recklessly extravagant".  And while, yes, that does seem to describe the son’s lavish lifestyle after he left home, it also is an apt description of the father's welcome home party for his son. Reckless and extravagant! Even the father’s older son thinks so. It’s not fair that his little brother gets this big party thrown for him after he made every mistake in the book. The older brother did NOTHING wrong, and he never got a party. It’s not fair!  The older son played by the rules, and the prodigal didn’t. Yet the Father loves both sons, even if their deserving is unequal. It’s not fair at all!

 

That’s what God’s grace is like. Unfair. Some people do really really bad things. And others of us only do little bad things. But we all get the same grace bestowed upon us. God’s grace is recklessly extravagant. God gives us unconditional grace, all of us, me, you, our families, our friends, our neighbors, even our enemies. It may seem unfair and extravagantly reckless, but even the absolute worst people in this world are given God’s amazing grace. It’s not fair. And that’s the point. God’s grace is totally undeserved, unmerited, unearnable, and unexpected. If you do practically nothing wrong in your life or you do absolutely everything wrong in your life, you are forgiven. You are given grace by God. You are welcomed into God’s open arms. No matter what. And it’s not fair.

 

Jesus told this parables to the Pharisees to tell them that this is how God’s kingdom works. Jesus hung out with sinners and lepers and tax collectors and women and children and the lost and the lonely and the needy because that’s how God’s kingdome works. God doles out grace and unconditional acceptance and love to everyone, no matter what, no questions asked. God’s love violates the very principle of fairness. The same grace and love is given to all: to those who have many sins, and to those who have few. To those who have been “good” in our understanding of the term, and to those who have been bad. To those who are broken and to those who are perfect. To those who have special needs and to those who need nothing. It’s not fair, or deserved, or earned. It isn’t “right” in the sense that we see “rightness.” It doesn’t match our standards of fairness. But in God’s kingdom, we have to put those ideas of “fairness” and “deserving” aside, because grace obliterates them.

 

In the end, it does not matter what we’ve done or failed to do. We are loved, cared for, and met in our place of need without being identified as “deserving” or not. If you’re hungry, you’re deserving of food, no questions asked. If you’re without shelter, you deserve to be safely and properly housed, no questions asked. If you’ve made mistakes, you are forgiven, no questions asked. If you are lost, every resource imaginable is used to make sure you are found, no questions asked. If you need something, you are given what you need. No questions asked.

 

God loves us unconditionally and God invites us to love others as God loves us- Unconditionally. No questions asked. No proof required. Let us love unconditionally – by loving even if you won’t be loved back. Giving without expecting anything in return. Helping even if people don't deserve it. Picking up trash even if it's not yours. Fighting for special education, humanitarian aid, food stamps, and social security, even if you yourself do not need any of these supports. It won’t feel fair and that’s the point. Be reckless in your grace. Be extravagant in your love. Amen.