Bible Text:

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”                                                                                  (Micah 6:8)

Justice is often an elusive and uncertain goal. Even “Christian” justice is unclear, though we speak of it often.

Last week, outgoing governor George Ryan of Illinois commuted all the death sentences in that state. Was that a just thing to do, or not?

The conflict with Iraq and with North Korea has raised the issue of a “just” war. Discussion of the just war concept began in the fourth century and continues to this day. Is there a just war in Christian theology? If so, what defines the just war? The United Methodist Social Creed is somewhat ambiguous, but it says this: "We dedicate ourselves to peace throughout the world, to the rule of justice and law among nations…” We hear a great deal about peace with justice. What does that mean? 

Health care has become a justice issue recently. What do those who stand for a just health care system believe? What is a faith-based word? 

Why should we be concerned about justice? Because it is a God-ordained priority. I recently read two books which had specific comments on justice. Neither of them was read for this purpose, but I couldn’t help noticing what the authors said. One was a writer named John Dominick Crossan, who writes as follows, “In my faith, the God of the Bible and the Jesus of the New Testament are about getting something done. That something to be done is bringing our world into union with God, who is justice itself…”[i]

 The other writer is Marcus Borg, who says the following: “[The voices of the Bible] are convinced that God is a God of justice and compassion. The God of the Bible is full of compassion and passionate about justice.”[ii]

Is the reading of these two things a coincidence? I don’t think so. Sam Keen, another Christian writer, asked the question, “Can there be any authentic spirituality without a concern for justice?” 

Somewhere I read that the word “justice” occurs over 2000 times in Scripture. It appears more often than the word “love.” 

This past week in a new men’s CBS group we began reading from the Sermon on the Mount. We got to the Beatitude which says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the good, or the right, to prevail.” Then we asked the question, “What is the good? What is the right?” I referred us back to the prophet Micah in the Old Testament, “He has showed you what is right, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) Notice what the first item is in that list. It is not walking with God. It is not mercy. It is justice. One translation of Jesus’ beatitudes says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst to see justice prevail.” 

RISKY BUSINESS 

Justice is sometimes risky business. I read a story about a man who stood at the gates of heaven when St. Peter stopped him and said, “Oh no, you don’t. You don’t get into heaven any more for just being good. You have to have done something truly great. Have you done anything in your life that you can say is really and truly great?” The man thought for a moment and said, “I saw a group of skinhead bikers harassing an old lady, so I kicked over the leader’s bike and slapped him and spit in his face.” “That’s great!” St. Peter exclaimed. “When did you do that?” “About three minutes ago,” the man replied. 

Sometimes justice is risky business. Martin Luther King, Jr. paid for his passion for justice with his life. 

Christian justice advocacy can be controversial and difficult. What shall we do about the call to justice? Shall we simply pray? Obviously there is nothing simple about prayer, but prayer is not really the call. The text says we must DO justice. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish theologian, tells a story about a man who saw a sign outside a window in a shop that said, “We press pants.” He went in and said to the proprietor, “I’d like to get my pants pressed.” The man said, “We don’t press pants here. We sell signs.” 

What do we do about Iraq and a just war, for example? The United Methodist Church has some guidance, but it’s not definitive. I suppose it is appropriately balanced. The question for me is this: where can I speak and act most consistently and clearly? Where can I act justly in keeping with Biblical standards? There are two areas that I can address with some confidence. 

THE POOR AND THE NEEDY 

First, justice has to do with the poor and the needy. This is a clear priority of God revealed in Scripture. Jesus did not ask what is the proper form of baptism. He did not ask what you believe about the Virgin Birth. Jesus did not ask what you believe about the Second Coming, or what you believe about the Apostles’ Creed. But Jesus did ask, “When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I was homeless, did you help find me shelter?” 

We spend a lot of time in the church debating things that did not interest Jesus, or God. Feeding the hungry did interest Jesus. Jesus wanted us to do something about hunger. 

On one of the occasions where Jesus and his disciples were doing some teaching in front of a great crowd, the disciples came to Jesus and said that they were hungry. Jesus’ first response to the disciples was this: “You give them something to eat.” 

A great deal of world chaos is rooted in hunger, poverty, and homelessness. Someone said about the Middle East, “Hopeless poverty brings mindless violence.” I think that’s exactly right. What else can suicide bombers be but mindless violence? One voice from the Middle East said this to a reporter one time, “There is no work, there is no money, there is no peace, there is no hope.” 

In far-off Iraq there have been more than 10 years of boycotts. Thousands of people have gone hungry and many have died of hunger. Paul says in the New Testament (and we don’t know what to do with this): “If your enemy is hungry, feed him,  thereby heaping burning coals upon his head.” (see Romans 12) 

We may not be able to alleviate poverty and homelessness in the Middle East or in Iraq, but we can do it closer to home. In about six weeks, 25 or 30 persons from this church will be going once again to North Carolina to help build homes where the hurricane struck several years ago. That work will continue to lift people out of poverty and homelessness at a very difficult time. 

I was recently in a group where a minister said that 60 people were going to be in Naples, Florida this week to work on homes for Habitat for Humanity. Every head in the room turned. “Naples, Florida needs Habitat homes?” they said. It was then that I learned that one of the largest Habitat projects in the United States goes on in Naples, Florida. Thirty to forty new Habitat homes are erected each year. 

Justice has to do with poverty and homelessness. 

THE LEAST AND THE LOST 

Justice also has to do with what we call the least and the lost. Justice is rooted in Jesus’ words in our New Testament reading for today: “When you do it for the least of these, you do it for me.” 

One of the burning issues in this country is health care for the very young and the very old. Is this not a justice issue? And is it not thus a spiritual issue? 

Here at Christ Church we are beginning to break through the red tape for some health care in Zimbabwe, Africa. Our United Methodist missions there have survived strife and civil war. Leaders in that country have seen the value of the United Methodist mission stations. Now we have learned, just this past week, that we may be able to put a physician in the Nadire, Zimbabwe by July of this year. That physician will be in place for two years at a very modest salary. It is one way in which we can reach out to the least and the lost. It is a justice decision for Africa from United Methodist believers in Bethel Park. 

Even health care in the United States is struggling. Millions of Americans (some of you here as well, I am sure) are without health care. We need to be a voice for adequate health care especially for children and older adults. I think it was the late Senator Hubert Humphrey who said, “You can discern the quality of a nation by how it cares for the very young and the very old.” Can you hear Jesus saying to you and me, “When you do it to one of the least of these, you do it to me.”? 

What kind of people do we want to be? I think we want to be a just people. What kind of society do we want to be? I think we want to be a just society. 

Woodie White is the United Methodist bishop of the Indiana area. He is 67 years old. Each year Woodie White writes a letter to his colleague, Martin Luther King, Jr. This year he concludes his letter with these words: “Martin, on this anniversary of your birth, I can think of no better time to re-commit myself to work harder, pray longer, sacrifice greater, until America is in fact one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”[iii] 

Last summer I read for the very first time Charles Sheldon’s book, In His Steps. It’s a classic book from the late 19^th and early 20^th century. It’s the story of a minister who asks members of his congregation and eventually the whole town to live their lives for a day or a week or a year according to one question: what would Jesus do? The letters WWJD, What Would Jesus Do, have become a byword for many people. Somewhere I received a coin with an inscription with those four letters on it. I now carry it in my pocket. WWJD—What Would Jesus Do? Recently someone asked the question, “What Would Jesus Drive?” as a way of trying to deal with the environment. But I read of an alternative meaning for those letters that I like even better. WWJD—What Would Justice Demand? 

I like that double meaning. I think those two questions belong together at the heart of faith. WWJD—What would Jesus do? What would justice demand? In asking those two questions, a relationship with God is built that is strong and durable and true.

 Because, you see, spirituality and justice are a part of one integral whole.