A Question of Justice

“What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God” Micah

It is one of the most basic element of the Christian faith, justice. Justice is a theme which echoes from Egypt, through the prophets, Christ to the present day. Yet why has it become the aspect of our faith so often abandoned and ignored?

Now most mainline churches have good language about justice. Yep they love to preach it, but in practice . . . Lets look at the facts. When the United Church needed to cut back recently it was their justice department that got the vast majority of the cuts. And for my own Lutheran church, who was the first to go, well the person working on our justice work. What is interesting is that this has been the reoccurring pattern. Consistently it has been the justice related work that is cut first, or the staff person working in that area is pushed out. . . .

Yet what is interesting is the need. Our world is facing some of the largest crisis in its history. Environmental degradation, never ending wars, HIV/AIDS, abandoning of human rights principles by former supporters, and our growing agricultural crisis, small arms sales and that is just the beginning of the list. What is equally interesting is the yearning to address these. There are so many people who are yearning to address these challenges. Lets face it most people are not dumb. They know the brokenness of our world, but as isolated individuals it is hard to do much beyond a token response.

This is precisely where churches could come in. For not only is justice a part of the deep belief system of Christianity, churches are also a point where people can join together, and take action together to transform theses crisis of the world. Governments or businesses take little notice of an individual letter or one person's refusal to buy a product. When thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people respond they take notice. Likewise it is very hard for me, on my own, to address poverty half-way around the world. When we join together we are able to send not just assistance, but develop relationships, work beside people and share with others almost anywhere.

This is the potential of the church. It could be a place where our invitation into the passion (suffering) of Christ and the world is combined with our ability to join, organize and work together to bring healing to the world. Churches could be the place where people are invited to take concrete action in their lives and in their community. Churches can also be a place where we develop a shared voice which can walk in and speak with world leaders and bring the voice of compassion and justice to those with power. Churches could be a place, where justice is lived out and shapes a community and in the process transforms the world around them. I know so many who yearn to be a part of such a church.

Yet when churches cut, they cut the justice work first. In their own practices, where there is the greatest opportunity to act with justice and compassion, so often they chose not to. This is not just a question of my dismissal, it is a question of a congregation which will spend over a million dollars on renovating a building, but not a few dollars on fair trade coffee. It is about churches which instead of inviting in the diversity of the world, lock their doors and keep leadership to the old boys and girls club. It is about churches which forget to preach about the children who die each day because we fail to act. It is about a future lost because we are too concerned about driving our own car to church instead of the air that others will one day breath. It is about the reality that 11:00 Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week. Where is justice?

First it is best to begin by explain a bit about the biblical notion of justice. Our understanding of justice has been quite coloured by our legal system in which justice has basically come to mean that people get what is coming to them. In the Christian scriptures justice is much more about restoration. Specifically justice is about the restoration of life and society to God’s intended fullness and wholeness. Something which is expressed by the word shalom or peace. It is also important to note that in the New Testament’s Greek there is one word which is translated both as justice and righteousness. Which means what we have separated out as personal vs. social is in the biblical view the same thing. So justice is just as much about the restoration of who we are to that original goodness of God’s intention as it is about social transformation. Likewise one cannot separate individual transformation from social transformation. If you want to be whole, you must also work to make our society and world whole.

So where do we begin? Like so many things of faith, it hard to point to a beginning point. We are already on the journey. We begin by asking where are you now. What are the needs of the people around you? Where is there a need for reconciliation and healing? Where have you or your community been given gifts to help others? Where does your passion guide you?

It also begins with perspective. It is one of the great practices of faith to look at people differently. To look at each person you come across, especially the least, the last and the lost, not as some bum, but rather as Christ. There is Christ sleeping on that bench. There is Christ going hungry, there is Christ holding her dead child with a bullet in his head. There is Christ. Then slowly we begin to see God. God in all creation, not brining forth destruction, but rather walking in our destruction urging and inviting us to healing and new life.

It begins in action. In having a cup of coffee with a person from the wrong side of what ever. It is in writing a letter, or even speaking with a person in power. It is in dancing and crying with people who suffer. It is about saying no and not buying. It is in voting and it is in giving and it is in walking and not driving. It is in us being called to be Christ to others, offering not just water and food, but a shared hand on a shared journey and standing together against the many who would rather destroy and consume.

There are so many who yearn for such healing. To be apart of that love which speak truth to power and greets the broken with healing. Many are in churches. There are so many, who work so hard to make a vision of justice the vision of the church. So often now though churches instead of enabling get in the way. They marginalize those who walk with the ones on the margins. They protect institutions over people, emphasize structures over compassion, and turn their heads and resources from what could transform. In the process what is forgotten is that salvation means healing and Jesus came “to bring good news to the poor. To proclaimed release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free” Maranatha.