God’s Justice

You’ve seen this image: Lady Justice, holding scales, outside our courts of justice, often wearing a blindfold, a symbol of Lady Justice’s impartiality and perfect judgments. Lady Justice is an image seen all over the world, from the Indian Supreme Court, to Japan, to the Tehran courthouse in Iran, to the Shelby County Courthouse in Memphis, TN. 

Except, we live in a time where more than 70% of Americans question the impartiality of our justice system, especially as we see the rich and the powerful served by the court. It’s deeply troubling. 

And yet, even as I wish that we as Americans knew how to live justice better, I yearn for God’s justice, where to quote our psalm,  “God’s mercy is everlasting and faithfulness endures from generation to generation.”

According to the classical definition, justice meant giving everyone their just due. It’s even more than impartiality, more than getting what you deserve. When it’s enacted well, it’s the kind of equality where you don’t feel jealous, where you are free to love and appreciate the gifts of others, because you yourself are cared for and loved for.  

We hear about God’s justice in each of the readings. But first let me tell you about Mr. Bueher, my 8th grade science teacher. In that classroom, you never knew what would happen. Some days you could get away with anything. Other days, there was a razor thin margin. Expectations changed day by day, even hour by hour, minute by minute. 

That’s not what’s happening with God and God’s people, where we are in this story of God and God’s people. Just one chapter before, the people were thirsty so Moses struck the rock and water came out. Immediately after this story, Moses goes up Mt Sinai to be with God and eventually to receive the Ten Commandments. This isn’t a God who could be bribed by the highest bidder, who twisted justice to serve their purposes, who did what they wanted. Nope. 

This is a God who knows already. They know how to create. They know humans; remember how God talked to Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day? They know how to be in relationship with — remember the long stories of God and Abraham? They know how to save — God already brought God’s people through the Red Sea on dry land. They know how to work with — remember how God saved Moses — through his sister Miriam? 

The expectations are clear. Here’s what you have to do and you’ll be a royal priesthood and holy nation. Heed God’s voice and keep God’s commandments. That’s it. 

In this text, justice here is heeding and keeping, on both God’s side and the Israelites.

But let me tell you. The Roman passage extends God’s version of justice even further. With God, all bets are off.

• It’s not because God refuses to honor their part of the bargain. Nope.

• Or because God is slight of hand. 

• It’s not that God changes their mind, gets mad and stomps off, or leaves when things get hard.  

• It’s not because you lose touch somehow.

• It’s not because values changed and so dinners became awkward.. 

Here it is: you can’t even bring yourself to call your friend because the problem is you. You’ve done something so embarrassing and so wrong you’re completely humiliated. But that doesn’t even stand in the way. 

There it is. God’s justice! God’s love poured into your hearts through the Holy Spirit, peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  

All bets are off because with God the scales of justice got broke, and instead of love being something to be earned, instead of something to be grasped, to be demanded, it’s the free gift of God that comes to us overwhelming our senses, delighting our lives, and filling the world with wonder. 

Now it’s important to say that God’s love is poured on all, the righteous and the unrighteous. The rain falls on all of us, watering our gardens so that the flowers and vegetables grow, and giving us plentiful harvests.

God’s justice does not stop with us, God’s people. God’s justice is especially for the beleaguered, the struggling, the ones who are like sheep without a shepherd, the harassed. 

We all know these folx. They’re the ones delivering our packages in Amazon vans, the ones working at Jimmy John’s, the ones caring for multiple generations at the same time, the ones who work full time and still have insufficient income, the ones struggling with mental health, the ones who are lonely, sick, suffering. We know them. 

God’s desire for justice, for God’s justice enacted on this, our beautiful world, didn’t stop with the coming of Jesus. Jesus’ very life enacted was a call for all of us to participate in God’s justice, to join with the twelve apostles as the Church, doing the work of healing, casting out, curing, remind the world that there is another way, to live God’s justice as the kingdom of God comes near. Justice. It is God’s work to give everyone their due. 

All of us are empowered. Jesus gave this authority to all of God’s Church, so that means you. 

But let’s stop for a minute, before you have the “I’m not doing enough” panic, worrying that you’re not enough. Because when I look at you, I already see this work being done, and being done so beautifully and wonderfully. 

This is the work that you do day after day. You give into God’s justice, letting it lead you day by day. You offer that love poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit as a gift to those you contact with. You serve those who are harassed, because they don’t have enough money, enough resources, enough power. You care for those who would for otherwise be uncared for. You love your children and your family and you create community for others where they can be safe. You do the work of caring for the elderly, taking them where they need to go with patience and with love. You live a life of the gospel, as laborers, where the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. You teach, you serve, you care for, you listen, you pray, you cure, and most of all you love. 

But a reminder, an important one, for those who do this work of enacting justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God. That’s all of you, by the way. It’s a hard work, and you must let God and your community care for you. 

You know that place where the people of Israel camped, Rephidim? Rephidim is “resting place” in Hebrew. This work of justice does not come easily, and rest is part of the rhythm of this good work. Knowing how to Sabbath, how to exhale, to know  our limitation, it’s a must when doing this work of enacting justice. There has to be time of stopping, rhythms of Sabbath and then of action. God is God and we are not. 

Secondly, God’s love has already been and is being poured into our hearts. Y’all. When someone offers you that gift of love, of service, of affection, of reminder who you are in the world, accept it. Accept it with grace and try to see yourself as others might, not the grungy human part (which is also so very beautiful), but the luminous glory part that participates with the holy, or as God called the people of Israel, a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. It’s hard for us to see this in ourselves, but as your priest, one who reminds you of God’s goodness enacted in you, I see it all the time. It’s impossible for me to miss as you shine like the sun in our crooked and depraved generation (intentional misquoting of James).

Do not lose heart. Your work in the world matters, not just to me, not just to your community, but to the people you serve, those on whom you care for! 

The kindom of heaven is near. Let us proclaim God’s truth with boldness and minister God’s justice with compassion.