"Justice"

            For the past several weeks we have been exploring this question, “How are we to live as a Resurrection People in this interim period?  By “interim period,” I am referring to the time between Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter morning and the parousia, or end-time when God’s Reign will be fully established.  This interim period can be described as an “On the one hand…..On the other hand” period.

            On the one hand, Christians believe that Christ’s Resurrection was a cosmic tipping point in God’s plan of love and reconciliation for the universe.  With the Resurrection, we see that death is not our termination point, but rather a point of transformation.  We can look forward to that time when we will become transformed into New Creatures, healed and redeemed through Christ’s love and God’s power.  In that New Creation, God’s Reign will be fully and completely established throughout the universe. 

And yet, on the other hand, we live in a time where God’s Reign is far from being fully established.  Humans continue to fear pain and death.  Further, we live at a time when injustice and oppression prevail throughout much of the world, a time where the environment suffers from our neglect and abuse.  So, we can see through Christ’s Resurrection a glimpse of what God’s coming Reign will be, but we remain in an almost-there-yet-not-quite-there limbo.  God’s Reign begins with Christ’s Resurrection, yet God’s Kingdom is not yet fully here.  We are an interim people.

So, as an interim people, how does God intend for us to live? We are exploring the attitudes and life-style which define what it means to live as a Resurrection People in the interim.  We began this series of sermons by looking at two key attitudes:  Resurrection People live lives filled with hope and joy because we have seen a sneak peak of the end and we know that God is already working to redeem us as part of a New Creation.  Last Sunday, we began exploring the distinctive life-style of a Resurrection People.  I suggested that God calls Resurrection People to live in a community of faith, where we feel accepted and secure—and, where we are loved and supported by this community of faith which we call the church. 

In the final three sermons in this series, I will suggest that, as a Resurrection People, God invites us into a partnership, where we become “created co-creators,” working with God to establish God’s Reign throughout this planet by becoming agents of justice, compassion, and environmental stewardship.  This week, our focus is on justice.

            Justice is a central theme in the Hebrew scriptures.  God clearly expects that as God’s chosen people, the Hebrews will be fully committed to working for justice, not just for the marginalized and oppressed persons within the Jewish faith, but for all people, including the stranger or sojourner, living among them.  For instance, in Amos 5:  21-24, the prophet proclaims to the people of Israel that God hates and despises their worship services and offerings because they lack justice.  He proclaims:

“I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them…

Take away from me the noise of your songs;

I will not listen to the melody of your harps.” (Amos 5:  21-23)

It is not that God disproves of the worship style of the Hebrews.  No.  Instead, God rejects the hypocrisy of the Hebrews who come to worship, without caring for those who suffer in society from injustice and are marginalized to the edges of society by oppression and exploitation.  The prophetic words of Amos continue:

“But let justice roll down like waters,

And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5: 24)

For God, worship is pointless if the worshiper is not sincere and fully committed to living a faithful life, which includes working for justice on God’s behalf.  Those who do not take justice seriously are hypocrites and imposters who have not earned the right to worship God.  Since justice is so important to God, only those Hebrews who have worked diligently for justice have the authenticity and the right to enter into worship.  This theme is central to Jewish theology and it is carried over into the life and ministry of Christ Jesus.

            In popular culture, and actually even among many Christians, there is this image of Jesus as meek and mild.  In this view, Jesus loves and affirms everyone, and he is basically non-confrontational.  This view suggests that perhaps Jesus is not as interested in justice, as the Hebrew prophets, such as Amos.  However, there is a story from Jesus' ministry that provides strong contradictory evidence against this image of Jesus as unconcerned about justice.  It is a story which all four Gospels include and I believe that it gives us an insight into how important justice is for Jesus.  This is John’s account of the story:

“The Passover of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.  Making a whip of cords, Jesus drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle.  He also poured out the coins of the money changes and overturned their tables.  He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here!  Stop making my Father house a house of trade!’”  (John 2:  13-16)

            In their telling of this story, all four Gospels emphasize that Jesus’ actions occurred near the Jewish religious observance of Passover.  Passover was one of three “pilgrimage holy days” during the year, when devout Jews were encouraged to gather in Jerusalem so that they could worship in the Temple.  So, there would have been many Jews who had traveled a substantial distance from their homes to the Temple.  Given the travel, many Jews would not have brought animals with them for the traditional sacrifice in the Temple.  Instead, they would have tried to purchase their sacrificial animals after arriving in Jerusalem.  Similarly, the mandated temple tax could only be paid with certain types of coins.  Greek or Roman coinage would not be accepted because those coins contained the image of the emperor.

            With this background, it is easy to see how the selling of animals and changing of money got started in the Temple.  Initially, these practices began for the convenience of the worshippers.  However, what began innocently enough soon morphed into very lucrative businesses.  When Jesus drives out the livestock and turns over the tables of the moneychangers, he is prophetically challenging the Jewish religious authorities and their worship because they have made profit-making more important than worshiping God; they have taken the Temple which was intended to be a house of prayer and made it into a commodities market.

            Shifting our attention to the contemporary world, it is clear that God’s Reign will not ever be fully established, until justice is fully established and racism, sexism, xenophobia, hatred, exploitation, oppression, and bigotry are eradicated.  Therefore, working for justice must be a central component of living as a Resurrection People.  God expects the followers of Christ, both individually and collectively as communities of faith to join with God as created co-creators to work for justice so that God’s Reign may come.

Come, join us this Sunday, May 22nd, at Christ United Methodist Church, as we explore justice-making as a critical dimension of working with God as created co-creators to establish God’s Reign here on planet Earth.  Christ United Methodist Church is located at 4530 A Street in Lincoln, Nebraska.  Our classic worship services are at 8:30 and 11:00 on Sunday mornings. 

Everyone is welcome and accepted because God loves us all.