How is justice related to our relationship with God?

Is 58:1-9; Ps 37:1-15; James 2:14-26; Lk 10:25-42

We are continuing our Epiphany sermon series today. We are dealing with questions that have come from our congregation and today’s question is, 

“Why do so many people focus on themselves and their ‘relationship’ with God rather than on Jesus’ message to love others and to strive for equality/justice/etc? Where did things go wrong? Is it that humans are inherently selfish and that was the purpose of Jesus’ message, to try to counter that?”

Maybe we can look at this through two extremes. This is a bit of a false dichotomy, but it can help is explore the issue a bit.

On one extreme, we can focus on worship and ignore justice. That is what Isaiah is talking about in our reading today. The people are worshipping. They are fasting and praying, but they feel like God is not connecting with them. Through Isaiah, God points out that they are oppressing their workers, and quarrelling and fighting.

Then He says, 

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” 

“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am” (Is 58:6-7, 9).

Jesus echoes this when he says, 

“So when you are offering your gift at the altar [worship], if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift” (Matt 5:23-24).

 If we are not doing something about injustice, then this has an effect on our worship.

Our reading from James points this out as well, 

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. … For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead“ (James 2:14-19, 26).

 So, our faith should express itself through good works towards those in need. …

We might also point to Matthew 25 where Jesus judges the nations on the basis of how they treated him, through how they treated those in need. …

In our Gospel reading we have the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus makes the hero of the parable to be a Samaritan. Samaritans were essentially considered heretics. And this was mixed with a kind of racism as well. In the parable, this hated Samaritan was the one who did good to the Jewish man when the good religious people walked right past him. The Samaritan was the hero of the parable, not the religious people who didn’t get involved.

There is a lot of support in the Scriptures for the idea that we should be people of justice. …We haven’t always done this perfectly. Christians have done some pretty nasty things. The Christian message doesn’t transform societies overnight, and it doesn’t immediately transform every mean person. … But, we do want to recognize that Christians have acted for justice throughout the centuries.

Christians gave dignity to people who weren’t valued in ancient societies. Christians created housing for the poor. They founded public hospitals, and orphanages for children. They created public schools, and homeless shelters, soup kitchens, medical missions, and numerous relief organizations. The ending of slavery was spearheaded by Christians, and took hold first in Christian majority countries.

Even the concepts of Human Rights, and economic and social justice, can be argued to have their roots in Christian ways of thinking. For example, the belief that every human being is made in the image of God, and that God identifies with the poor and vulnerable, have been thoughts that have dramatically changed the way human beings are valued, in comparison to the ancient world.

At a talk in Toronto, Brian Stewart[1], the former CBC foreign affairs journalist, says he became a Christian because wherever he went in the world, he found Christians doing good and helping the hurting. He said, 

“I’ve found there is NO movement, or force, closer to the raw truth of war, famines, crises, and the vast human predicament, than organized Christianity in Action. And there is no alliance more determined and dogged in action than church workers, ordained and lay members, when mobilized for a common good.” … “I've never reached a war zone, or famine group or crisis anywhere where some Church organization was not there long before me...sturdy, remarkable souls usually too kind to ask ‘what took you so long?’”[2]

Christians are called to do good in the world. They have done good in the world, and they continue to do good in the world. For Christians to focus only on “worship”, and to not help hurting people is to fall into an error.

On the other extreme, we could ask if we are wasting our time in worship. Shouldn’t we all be out there doing good instead of being here at church? Shouldn’t we be taking the energy and resources we spend worshipping, and put them towards some good work to improve the lives of the poor? … There are some who might suggest that.

What I want to ask in response to that is, what does justice look like? How do you know what justice is? How do you do justice? What is our motivation for creating justice? … Often, we think of justice as something that is just assumed. But where do those assumptions come from?

I’ve seen people on social media film themselves with their phones giving money to a homeless person on the street. Is that the kind of justice we are looking for? They seem to be using the opportunity to get likes on their account. They are essentially using the homeless person to show everyone how generous and compassionate they are. …

To them I want to speak the words of Jesus from Matthew 6, 

“Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (6:1-4).

Does our motivation matter?

Moving to something a bit more serious, the Communist regimes that plagued the world in the 20th century were done in the name of justice. Lenin’s USSR, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Mao’s China, and the present North Korean regime were attempting to incarnate Marx’s idea of justice. They were trying to create a just society.

We could say the same thing about the Nazis. They had an idea about a utopia that they wanted to make into a reality. They had an idea about how to make humanity stronger using the latest scientific ideas of Social Darwinism, or Eugenics. They wanted to promote what they saw as the ‘strong’ of humanity, and diminish what they saw as ‘weak’ from contributing genes to the human race. In a sense, this was a Nazi vision of a just society.

The blood that was spilled by the guillotines during the French Revolution was spilled in the name of freedom. It was done to create a more just society.

And we could go on with many other examples. Much harm has been done in the attempt to create just societies. … I think it is important that we ask, what does justice look like? Where do our ideas about justice come from? What corrects our vision of justice if we get it wrong? … I want to suggest that worship corrects our mistakes about justice. …

True justice is a reflection of the character of Christ. If we don’t know Christ, then our vision of justice will become twisted. (I know that isn’t a popular thing to say in a pluralistic society, but I think it’s true). When we look at Christ, we see justice. When we love Christ, we have proper motivation for doing justice.

The other part of our Gospel reading shows Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to what he was saying. Her sister Martha was busy with many things and was frustrated that her sister wasn’t helping her. Jesus responds to Martha’s frustration by saying, 

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her’ (Lk 10:41-42).

Jesus desires us to have a deep relationship with him. He wants us to know him intimately, to know his character, to meditate on his teachings. He wants his character to grow within us, as we abide in his presence. Being people of justice is a side-effect of abiding in Christ.

We read in Isaiah that God has a particular vision of justice that includes treating employees fairly; sharing bread with the hungry; sheltering the homeless; clothing the naked; and caring for relatives. To anyone who reads the Old Testament this is not surprising or new. … The ancient Greeks had a sense of justice, but Zeus didn’t direct people through the oracles to care for the widows and orphans. Zeus didn’t say that their offerings were nullified by their lack of care for the poor. … The concept of justice is universal throughout humanity, but the particular image of justice can look very different depending on whose image we follow.

Doing justice is important. But without knowing and loving Jesus I think we can make grave mistakes when it comes to justice. We can do incredible harm to people in the name of creating a just society. … We need the vision of justice to be consistent with the character of Christ. And we need that vision to be motivated by our love for Christ. … “What would Jesus do? And how would Jesus do it?” Are not bad questions when we seek to do justice. … And if we truly know and love Christ, then justice will matter to us. … Having a deep relationship with Christ, and doing justice in the world, work hand in hand. They are not opposing realities. They are both expressions of being followers of Christ. AMEN

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[1] Brian Stewart is one of Canada’s most experienced journalists. He is

host of the foreign affairs show, CBC News: World View, as well as

Senior Correspondent of the CBC flagship news hour, The National.

Stewart has received the Gemini Award as Best Overall Broadcast

Journalist as well as numerous other awards. As a foreign correspondent

he has covered many of the world’s conflicts, reporting from nine war

zones from El Salvador to Beirut.

[2] Brian Stewart, “On the Front Lines”. An address to Knox College in Toronto in 2004.