Justice

Scripture Readings

New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition Isaiah 42

42 Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

I have put my spirit upon him;

he will bring forth justice to the nations.

2 He will not cry out or lift up his voice

or make it heard in the street;

3 a bruised reed he will not break,

and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice.

4 He will not grow faint or be crushed

until he has established justice in the earth,

and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition Matthew 23

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.,* 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

16 “Woe to you, blind guides who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.’ 19 How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it, 21 and whoever swears by the sanctuary swears by it and by the one who dwells in it, 22 and whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so that the outside also may become clean.

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of uncleanness. 28 So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, 30 and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors. 33 You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape the judgment of hell? 34 For this reason I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, 35 so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation.

WWTW- Me!

Introduction

This is the way

We are continuing a series today called “This is the Way”

Star Wars fans rejoice!

But the series is about how Christianity is, in addition to a religious and spiritual idea, a movement, a way of life.

So far, we’ve discovered that the Way of Jesus means practicing

Grace for ourselves, and grace for our neighbors.

And gratitude, both when things are going really well and also when things are not, like when there’s a gas leak.

Today we’re going to look at something that often folks think of in theoretical, kind of abstract ways.

But this is a practice, something that we can do.

Because when it comes to Justice, this is the way.

And so let us begin with a moral quandary.

Cut the cake

Suppose for a moment that you live in a house with twin 8 year olds.

And some how, probably as a result of parental ignorance, there remains only one slice of cake in the entire house.

Both boys want the piece of cake, and in this example we will leave their father’s ravenous appetite to the side.

What do you do?

Wiser parents than me came up with the solution a long time ago:

One boy gets to make the cut in the slice of cake

The other gets first choice of piece.

It turns out when you employ this method, that 8 year olds suddenly become masters of trigonometry to make sure that the piece of cake is exactly even.

Because, this is justice, is it not?

Truth, Justice, and the American Way

Justice Defined

John Rawls- Justice is a situation that any reasonable person would agree is fair before that person knew what part he or she played in the situation.

It’s the social equivalent of the piece of cake.

When you don’t know what role is yours to play in a situation, when you could easily be on either side of the situation, would you think it was fair?

Examples:

In a courtroom

When all is said and done, when the gavel comes down at the very end of the trial, you can know that justice was done when you’d think it was fair whether you were the prosecutor or the defendant.

But that’s too easy…

Let’s try an example that’s sure to upset no one.

At the border

So much of the debate I hear about that is a liberal perspective, and a conservative perspective.

One side wants there to be a wall and far fewer people to come in to our country illegally.

Another side wants to make sure that folks are treated humanely, and think that means letting more and more people in.

And of course both sides think that the other side is the total devil and wants to destroy our country because we have forgotten how to argue well, but that’s for next week’s sermon.

The point is, when you’re imagining what justice looks like at the border, it’s got to be something you would think was fair before you knew if you would be a farmer in Texas, or whether you were a migrant child.

Racism

I’ve been reading up a lot on racism, because it’s something we’re going to take a look at during discovery hour in February.

And this is another one where we’ve made up our minds most times.

So I’m encouraging you to think big for a second:

A truly just system of laws, social norms, and civil rights, would be a system that we would agree was fair before we knew what color our skin was.

Obvious Problem:

We already know what role we play in all of these situations!

We know what side of the court room we’re on before we walk in.

We know where we stand on the border.

We know what color our skin is.

And sometimes, of course, when it’s not fair it benefits us.

As a former boss and pastor of mine by the name of Jim Gilchrist put it, that gives us three options when it comes to injustices when we’re on top:

Responses to injustice:

1) Admit it’s unjust, but cling to our advantage anyway.

This is what leads to a guilty conscious.

Last summer on the last day of the GAP ride, I was talking to a young man who was new to cycling.

This was his first ride of any distance, and to his credit he was absolutely crushing it!

But I knew a few things…

So I challenged him on the last day to race.

Then, when he took off to try to get ahead of me, I used my advantage as an experienced cyclist, and just drafted him the whole way to the finish line.

I had an advantage, and it was extremely unfair. But I did it anyway.

And I still kind of feel guilty about it.

Kind of.

2) Give up the advantage, but it costs us something

In the example above, I could have given up my advantage.

I could have taught that young man about drafting, and made sure that we took turns so that he had as much time on my wheel as I did on his.

But, if I would have done that, that would have meant that I had to work harder.

It would have cost me time and muscel and fatigue.

When we have the advantage and we want things to be just, it’s absolutely going to cost us something.

By the way, just so you don’t think I’m a total monster, that’s exactly what I did after just a couple of miles to teach him how to draft with me.

But there is a third option.

3) Deny that things are unfair.

It turns out, this is the choice most of us make most of the time.

I could have just said “Hey, it’s not unfair that I’m drafting this kid! It’s not my fault he’s new at this!”

But there are other versions of denial:

There is a rather difficult process to becoming a pastor in the PC (USA), where you get grilled by other pastors and theologians on your faith and theological understandings.

It can get brutal!

But just about any time someone suggests that we make it a little less brutal, someone will inevitably say “Well I had to go through it! Why shouldn’t they!”

Some how the idea that you survived an unfair process means it’s ok to make it unfair for the new kids.

Or there’s everyone’s favorite version of this right now: Whataboutism.

Whenever someone brings up an injustice, rather than defend their position, they’ll ask about some unrelated issue.

When Suzy pushed Tommy on the playground and gets in trouble for it, she says “Well what about Bobby? He cheated at kickball!”

Of course, there’s also revisionist history.

If you or your tribe have been on top of the justice scales for a long time, you can go back and re-write the history that got you to this point.

That’ll take away the sting of guilt.

This is what the Pharisees are doing in verse 30.

They know that happened to the prophets back in the old days.

And they like to pretend that if they had been there, it would have been a lot different.

If we had been involved, history would have looked a lot different.

It turns out that the Pharisees have a lot of problems with Justice in our text today.

Matthew 23: Religious Leaders

Pharisees

We have to be careful here.

The Pharisees are often Jesus’ bad guys in the Gospels.

And so we can kind of write our own justice story, and say “Well, we’re not Pharisees, so we’re ok right?”

The reality is, the Pharisees are a group within the Jewish faith.

And at the moment, they’re the most powerful and influential group in the faith.

They are the religious leaders.

They are the ones who set the rules.

They are the ones who build the establishment.

They are, gulp…the pastors of Jesus’ day.

Where the Jesus Movement Starts

This is where the idea of the Way gets going.

The Pharisees, they’re about looking good.

Jesus wants them to be more about doing good.

The Pharisees think they have it all figured out.

Jesus wants them to engage in curiosity and exploration.

The Pharisees imagine a kingdom of a select few who build walls to keep people out.

Jesus wants them to actively get out and invite more people in.

The Pharisees think they’re on top because they do ceremonial things like tithing spices.

Jesus wants them to make sure to give the proper weight to Justice.

Our problem: We’re on top

We have to be honest about this:

While there are a few folks above us in the social advantage ladder, there aren’t many.

As a Church that is situated to serve some of the wealthiest areas in certainly the wealthiest country on the planet, we are at an extreme advantage over many if not most of our neighbors.

We know what role we’re going to play, and it’s a role with a lot of advantages.

How do we follow the way of Jesus when we come to a place where we recognize that’s true?

The Way of Jesus: Justice is on top.

Justice is more important that tithing.

The Pharisees have convinced themselves that if they come to church on some kind of regular basis, and throw a couple of bucks into the plate, that they are essentially good people.

Not that such a thing is a popular notion today!

But Jesus says that justice needs to be a higher calling than our church attendance.

Justice needs to be a higher calling than what we throw into the offering plate.

Justice can’t just be writing a check and sending our resources to a far of place to help people we’ll never meet.

Justice needs to be substantially bigger than that!

None of that is to suggest that we shouldn’t come to church or stop putting money in the offering plate.

It is to say two things:

Firstly, it’s super important for those of us in leadership here at the church to be justice minded when we’re thinking about what to do with the resources we’re entrusted with.

But secondly, it’s to say that we as a community ought to be interested in justice on a weightier level than just giving our cash.

We should be invested in meeting the people we’re helping.

We should be interested in advocating for more fair and just systems in the world, no matter which side we might find ourselves on.

We should be interested in pooling our resources so that we can make a dent in justice work here in our community and around the world.

Justice is more important than looking good.

Jesus is all over the Pharisees because they were doing a pretty great job of putting on a show.

They were cleaning the outside of the cup and plate, making sure everything had a good sparkle to it.

But inside they were full of greed and self-indulgence.

They were like whitewashed tombs.

Maybe pretty to look at, but the substance on the inside was no good.

And so I’ve pondered what the modern equivalent might be on this one, and I think I found it.

Let’s be more interested in Justice work than we are in social media posts about Justice work.

I’ve come across more than a few folks who will post endlessly about various injustices in their world, both real injustices and perceived injustices.

If all I had to go on was their online presence, I’d probably assume that they were deeply committed to Justice work.

And yet for a lot of these folks, I know that posting on social media is about all they’re willing to do in the work of justice.

To post about injustice or unfairness, but then do absolutely nothing to work to correct it, that to me feels like a whitewashed tomb.

Looks pretty good, but it’s not going anywhere.

Justice work is just that…work.

We have to engage in making sure that the system would be fair, no matter which side of a system we might find ourselves on.

And of course, that might cost us something.

But it’s the work to which we are called.

Justice is more important than winning converts or growing membership

Apparently the Pharisees were pretty good evangelists!

They would cross sea and land to make a single convert.

Presbyterians, man sometimes we have a hard time crossing the aisle to make our case of hope to someone!

And yet Jesus would even say that this means nothing if it’s not tied to Justice.

If you’re going to do all that work just to keep up a membership that isn’t interested in Justice work, then what are you really doing?

It doesn’t matter how big your church is if your church isn’t working hard to make the world a better place.

By the same token, it doesn’t really matter how small your church is either.

In this era of ministry, the American Church has gotten so worried about declining attendance and membership that I think we’re starting to loose sight of what’s really important.

If we want to stay alive, we can just live by what the prophet Micah told us matters:

Do justice.

Love kindness.

Walk Humbly with our God.

It doesn’t seem to matter how big our crowd is to do that work.

It’s the work we are called to.

Because when it comes to doing justice in the world, of course we know…

That this is the Way.

May we continue in the way of Jesus by

Accepting Grace from God.

Giving Grace to our neighbors.

Living lives of gratitude.

And practicing Justice wherever we go.