September 8, 2012
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God’s Justice
We are a justice loving people. We have justice ministries. We love to quote Amos, “Let justice roll downlike water” and Micah, “What does God demand of you but to do justice, and tolove kindness, and walk humbly with your God?” We love the concept of justice and still we struggle with what isjustice. Justice is defined as actingwith fairness and without bias. Justiceis acting from moral righteousness. Justice is making decisions objectively and fairly. The difficulty with these definitions is theyuse words that are just is vague as the one we are trying to define. What do we mean by fair, moral, righteousness,and objectivity. We have a Department ofJustice for our nation but what the Department thinks is just varies dependingon who controls the hiring and firing of employees of the Department. What seems fair to one person will not seemfair to another, morality depends very heavily upon what one chooses for his orher moral code, righteousness depends upon what you believe to be right orwrong, and objectivity is a hypothetical concept as no one is ever completelyobjective, without bias or personal assumptions. In the recent litigation of California’s Proposition8, supporters of Proposition 8 sought to have Judge Walker disqualified fromhearing the appeal because the ruling would directly affect him as a samegender loving man. The argument wouldsuppose that there are Federal judges who have no preconceived notion of whatmarriage is. This would require a judgewho had never entered into a marriage agreement, never been the product of amarriage agreement, and had not officiated at any one else’s marriageagreement. Clearly all of theseactivities would pose the possibility of the judge not being objective. While this may sound like mental gymnastics,it goes to the core of how we live lives of justice.
Our sacred texts tell us justice is the ability to treatothers and equals, not giving preference to others based upon their power,their wealth, their nationality, their ability, or their gender. These were radical concepts at the times whenthey were written and some of them are battles we continue to fight today. We as individuals and as congregations arestill tempted to give places of honor to those we perceive as having the wealthor influence to affect our future. I wasrecently participating in a study group of MCC clergy. We were discussing clergy care and theimportance of setting reasonable boundaries concerning what the senior pastoris responsible to do. A senior pastor ofone of the larger congregations in our denomination offered the opinion thatwhile senior pastors should delegate the majority of pastoral care visits, theyshould also make time to visit major givers and congregational leaders. I was surprised at the comment, and surprisedthat no one, except me, challenged his assertion. I wondered why this attitude of giving greaterimportance to certain persons is so pernicious in our congregations and in ourclergy.
Perhaps we can find some explanation in the Gospel story fortoday. Jesus has been on the roadteaching, healing, and speaking truth to power. I imagine he has entered a home where he thinks he won’t be recognizedso that he can rest. However, heencounters a Syro-Phoenician woman asking him to heal her child. I believe Jesus had a very human response todismiss the woman because he was tired and she was outside his vision of hisministry. This speaks to me when I thinkof the times I want to define someone as unworthy of my time. I want to believe I have more importantthings to do. The woman confronts Jesuson what is just, what is fair, and what is morally right when it comes todealing with another person. I believeJesus understood how his narrow vision of ministry to only the Jews was notjustice and he consented to heal her daughter. The lesson for those in ministry is not that we must heal, comfort, andencourage everyone who asks. No, thereare other stories where Jesus moved on when the demands of the people grew toomuch, and there are times when Jesus equipped the disciples to care for thepeople. The lesson to those of us inministry is we should never fail to care for someone because we see them asunworthy of our ministry.
Doing justice is not something that comes naturally to us,flawed vessels that we are. We fall backon the rules of the world, where people are treated based on their station inlife. The truth is even deeper,sometimes we treat ourselves based upon our perception of our station inlife. We may believe we are not worthyto lead worship or sit in places of importance. We may accept the world’s opinion that we should not call attention to ourselvesbecause we are unworthy. Equally so, wemay believe we are more important than others, more deserving of God’sblessings. We may believe we have beengiven wealth and influence for the purpose of making sure the church runs theright way. The majority of people I havemet who give to the church do so unconditionally. They do not seek influence as a result of theirgiving or their service. Those who doare giving for the wrong reason and the congregations who acquiesce to thedemands have lost sight of who the church serves. The church must always seek to do justice,God’s justice. Where all are equal, allare of worth, and where our desire is not to control but to serve. Amen.
