Justice
Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 12:59PM
Look around. Feel a little overwhelmed at times? I listened to a talk show with venting callers. Their basic message was, “Not in my back yard.”
You may be the victim of the unsolicited (unsigned) petition in your mailbox. Our’s was the neighbour’s attempt to remove a recovery house from the neighbourhood. It had been there two years. No one had ever visited the men inside. No one really knew anything about them except the fact that they were in our neighbourhood.
Few neighbours seemed willing to live with that reality. It didn’t matter that these men were responsible for having a marijuana grow operation such down and that they were the only ones who realized that it was even in operation. It was solely a matter of stereotypes winning out over reality. “Recovering addicts must be dangerous. Glad you’re trying to get off your addictions and recover your lives - but - do it somewhere else.”
We lost that fight and the house was closed down on a technicality. It was five meters too close to a school. Five meters. Nine lives.
When justice is undermined and injustice upheld—when evil has greater influence than good—then the foundations of the earth are undermined. The sustaining principles of God are no longer applied. Earth becomes vulnerable as the “glue” breaks down.
“God (Elohim) stands in the divine assembly. With him are his appointed elohim (judges). There he pronounces judgement.
How long will you judge unfairly? You favour the wicked.
Give justice to the vulnerable.
Uphold their rights
Rescue them
Deliver/protect them from the exploitation of the wicked.” (Psalms 82:1-4)
God’s judgement begins with a statement and charge. “You are all elohim. You cannot blame others for your dereliction of responsibility. You are responsible for both the mess and the solution. The solution is found in how you treat the vulnerable and how you call to account those who exploit.” Life at times asks if we are prepared to take that stand. Rise up Elohim. This earth and its nations are yours. Elohim, raise up elohim to guard against the temptation of power and possessions.
Reflection
How do you respond to obvious needs around you? Is there one thing you can do to increase your involvement?
“The way you are with others every day, regardless of their status, is the true test of faith.”
Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child
Reader Comments (3)
Who is more broken? Or more importantly, who is moving in the right direction?
Is it the recovering addicts, who are moving towards God's intentions for them? Or is it their neighbors, whose main preoccupation seems to be making it more difficult for these men to move in that direction?
Perhaps it is myself who is the most broken - a reader who, while moved by the story, is still unsure that he would have the "margin" in his life to even attend such a neighborhood meeting where Christ's Kingdom is built or undermined right on my doorstep.
Great comment John. Point taken. With the recognition of our own brokenness, is there any indication that we are prepared to do anything different? If we grow from this, tremendous. If we remain the same, doesn't Christ say we will be judged more severely? The reality for me though is that guilt is the worst of all motivators. My longing is to see my journey with Jesus move me to the place where response is nothing more than a natural bi-product of my love for him.
Thank you for your comment. You have made this article richer by it.
Sometimes we need to remember that the divine concept of justice is not always like the human concept of it. Thanks for the article David!