Suburban Justice

I'm in the middle of a four-week preaching series on compassion, mercy and justice in the suburbs and figured I'd use that as the reason for this month's article in The Oconee Leader. The print version won't be out for a week or two, but I'll go ahead and end the suspense by posting the article here:

I wonder sometimes if I actually believe the Bible. Not because I don’t think it’s true but because the true stuff in there really bothers me sometimes. I don’t mind hearing that God loves me (on my terms, of course) but I have to admit that I really don’t like all this talk about doing justice that you find in the Scriptures.

Maybe you’re not much for reading the Bible or maybe this one slipped by you, but God regularly and routinely tells us that life as a follower of Jesus includes a display of justice. When I think of justice, I think Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League. I think of legal justice. I think of Buford T. Justice from the Smokey and the Bandit movies. And because life in our quiet hamlet of Watkinsville doesn’t really require superheroes or Jackie Gleason, justice isn’t much on my radar.

But God keeps talking about it. A lot. So much that you have to quit listening in order to avoid it. I’ve thought about it – not listening – but have opted instead to just ignore God and worry about the really important stuff like if selling beer in the County will lead to strip clubs and whether getting a tattoo means I have the mark of Satan on me. But I have a hard time finding anything in the Bible that puts the kibosh on drinking and body art unless you completely ignore stuff like context, so I’m back to this whole issue of justice.

What I’m finding out is that you won’t understand justice until you understand that God created the world for peace. Not the kind of peace that the Plastic Ono Band told us to give a chance and not just the easy feeling that the Eagles sang about. Peace in the Scriptures is connected to this ancient word, ‘shalom’, which is the weaving together of God, humanity and all creation in a world in which all our needs are met and all our gifts are used. Peace in the Bible is a picture of life as it should be.

Anyone else noticed that life as it is doesn’t really look like ‘life as it should be’? Heart attacks disrupt the physical peace we call health. Divorce ruins the social peace we call relationships. Bankruptcy, alcoholism, dog fighting and soccer all represent an unraveling of the perfect world that God created.

Justice has everything to do with a world becoming threadbare in very real places and ways. Doing justice is simply our efforts at reweaving the fabric of society in those places where life is falling apart.

I can handle that so far but then I read in Proverbs 3:27 that justice is providing tangible good to others because they have claim on what belongs to me, and I’m now looking to show God the door because he sounds like a socialist and that’s not going to fly in the land of the free and the home of the brave(s). Doesn’t God believe in private property? Actually he does – he’s the one who came up with the whole ‘don’t steal’ thing – and God very much believes in creating wealth. He’s just not so hot on hoarding it beyond our basic needs. Instead, he intends for people like us who have more than we need to gladly leverage our lives for the sake of others so their needs can be met.

In fact, there’s another line in Proverbs (11:10) where God says that when people who have money and power and influence leverage disadvantage themselves for the sake of others, the entire community cheers like the Georgia football team just won the BCS National Championship. God even gives those people a name – he calls them ‘the righteous.’ I should probably point out that he calls other people ‘the wicked’ – that would be those of us who think our money and stuff exists to be spent on ourselves.

I’m still thinking through what all of this means but I’m pretty sure it means that life in Watkinsville should look different. It probably means that people and money need to leave here and go to places where physical needs are rather obvious. But I’m also pretty sure it means that this goes deeper than urban plight or global poverty – I have a sneaking suspicion that poverty exists in bad marriages, bad mortgages, bad parenting, bad ways of dealing with life like the abuse of alcohol, chocolate, shopping and sex. In other words, poverty and the need for justice exist here in Oconee County.

How do we become the kind of people that do justice – the kind of neighbors and the kind of churches where even people who believe differently than us are thankful that we’re around? I can assure you that guilt won’t do it. Justice is too hard and requires too much of our lives to just do it. I have a sneaking suspicion that the only thing that creates a life of justice is the beauty of the ultimate injustice that took place on a Roman cross.

Comments

[dhunt]

Yeah, where's the scriptural support that soccer partly represents an unraveling of the perfect world that God created? Right - I didn't think so.

[Matt Adair]

'In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands.' (2 Chronicles 15:5) Great disturbances = unruly soccer fans rioting because their precious team loses a gripping 1-0 goalfest.

'For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit.' (Psalm 35:20) Words of deceit = trying to convince people that soccer is the real football.

'I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse.' (Psalm 39:20) Distress = watching the world become consumed by 'Beckham-mania'

'The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.' (Isaiah 59:20) Crooked = Beckham bending kicks

'“Thus says the Lord: We have heard a cry of panic, of terror, and no peace.'(Jeremiah 30:5) GOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLL

[dhunt]

Don't you have a sermon to work on?

[Cheryl]

Just read this article in The Leader. Good stuff, Matt. Thanks for feeding us!