12/5/04

The Advent Promise of Justice

Isaiah 11:1-10
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12

As we continue our Advent journey this morning on the second Sunday of the season, we are introduced to John the Baptist, kind of a wild and crazy guy who follows in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets. John and the prophets were a bit non-conformist, often angry characters, who called folks to righteousness and repentance. John is the forerunner of Jesus, the ground-breaker, the advance man - kind of like the person who precedes a circus into town, putting up posters all over the place advertising the upcoming "Greatest Show on Earth." John cries out: "There is another one coming mightier than I - but it the meantime, you folks had better shape up. Don't think you can escape God's punishment by relying on your family tree that goes all the way back to Abraham. Repent, now!"

There's a cute story that's a clever take-off on John's words, and also appropriate on this day when our Trustees will be taking us through the church budget immediately following worship. It seems the fellowship hall at church needed to be re-painted, so a group of volunteers agree to do it. They are working furiously away when they realize there will not be enough paint to finish the last wall of the room. Concerned about the budget, one of the painters hits upon an ingenious idea - why spend more money for another gallon of paint, when they can thin out the latex paint they have left with a little water to make it go far enough to complete the job. So they do, and it works. The next day the paint crew returns to do the trim, but on examining their previous day's handiwork, it is very obvious that the diluted paint has not covered well at all. The wall is streaked and looks pretty awful. The chairperson of the Trustees, a wise and faithful person, knows that something has to be done, so, glancing critically at the last wall, she announces to the painters in her loudest John the Baptist-voice, "You must re-paint and thin no more!" (i)

John the Baptist is the transition between the Hebrew prophets and the coming of Jesus. At the heart of the message of the prophets - and certainly an important part of Jesus' teachings - is God's call for justice, God's demand for justice, God's promise of justice. A prominent Hebrew Bible scholar has commented that in biblical faith God expects the people to do justice. "God's justice," he says, "has a dynamic, transformative quality. It causes things to change, and it expects things must ... change if there is to be abundant life." (ii)

Isaiah in our reading today looks forward to a new king - whom Christians often identify as Jesus the Christ - a ruler who will be scrupulously fair in administering justice and in correcting the injustices of the past. He says, "With righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth." Throughout the Bible, but especially in the writings of the prophets, God consistently takes the side of the poor, the weak, the needy, the oppressed, the marginalized. And woe to those who are wealthy or powerful, who mistreat these unfortunate folks!

It is only after Isaiah calls for justice, that he then talks about peace - all the animals dwelling together in a peaceable kingdom, led by a little child - the Christ Child perhaps? Peace and justice are closely linked together, and for Isaiah, justice is a prerequisite for peace. He insists, and rightly so I believe, that if we are to have peace in our society, then justice must also prevail. Where the rights of others are ignored, abused, violated, or taken away, seeds of discontent are usually sown. Injustice and unfairness create bitterness and hostility, whether it's between one person and another, or directed towards a particular race, class, or category of people, or even a nation or part of the world. When basic fairness and justice are violated for any person or persons, peace is undermined. (iii)

We live in a nation where we proudly proclaim, "liberty and justice for all," and yet we know we live in a world where many are not free, where many are imprisoned with the chains of poverty, hunger, ignorance, where many are literally imprisoned in chains, not because they have done anything wrong, but because they have spoken out for a cause deemed politically incorrect by the ruling government. What we take for granted with our freedom of speech, others sometimes pay for with their lives or with their freedom. We live in a world, and sadly also in a nation, where justice does not always prevail, where the cries of the needy - the hungry, the homeless, the handicapped, the alienated, minorities of all kinds - are often ignored by politicians and others, even by the church. How our society continues to treat Native Americans, and how we still discriminate against those who have been afflicted with AIDS, for example, is shameful. God calls us to bring the promise of justice, to work for justice wherever we see injustice in the world, in the same way we are to respond to God's call to be peacemakers. We are called to be compassionate as God is compassionate, to be effective witnesses to God's love, to be signs of hope in the midst of a despairing world. (iv) Jesus had a special concern for the despised and the disdained. Can we who claim to be his followers do any less?

This piece by Howard Thurman expresses it well: "When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, the work of Christmas begins [or we could say, the work of Christians begins]: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among sisters and brothers, to make music in the heart." (v)

Being God's compassionate people, witnessing God's love to a despairing world, bringing music to someone else's heart, can be done in many different ways. I heard about an attorney, Lee Shapiro, who has a zest for life and warmth for other people that he expresses in a way most of us would find a bit unusual. He often greets people by giving them a bear-hug, and then sticks a small adhesive-backed red heart on their lapel. When Shapiro once visited a facility for mentally challenged persons, he noticed a young man eating his lunch. Leonard's meal was smeared all over his face and spread across his chest quite disgustingly. Shapiro's initial response was to pass him by and catch him later after they'd cleaned him up. To be honest, I think that's how I probably would have responded. But instead, Mr. Shapiro, ignoring the mess, went over to Leonard and gave him an enthusiastic hug, and stuck a red heart on him. The young man grinned from ear to ear, and made some guttural sounds as if were trying to say something. As Shapiro smiled back and then turned to seek out another patient, he noticed two staff members wiping tears from their eyes. "I'm sorry," he said, "did I do something wrong?" "Not at all, Mr. Shapiro," they said. "But, until just now, Leonard hadn't smiled or tried to talk in more than ten years." (vi)

God's concept of justice goes way beyond fairness, way beyond even-handedness, way beyond equity or parity. God's promise of justice is centered in God's amazing grace. Sparky Anderson, former manager of the Detroit Tigers, who I didn't know was such a wise theologian, once said, "Grace is getting something you don't deserve. Mercy is not getting something that you do deserve." (vii) Obviously God apportions to us both grace and mercy, favoring us when we're not favorable, loving us when we're not loveable, and accepting us when we're not acceptable.

No discussion of justice would be complete without at least mentioning so-called "poetic justice" - that which always happens to someone else, when they get what we think they deserve. A doctor and a lawyer are chatting at a party, when they're interrupted by a woman who insists on telling the doctor about this persistent pain she has, and asking him what she should do about it. The doctor reluctantly advises her, but after she's gone, he asks the lawyer, "Do I have the right to send that woman a bill for my professional services?" "Absolutely," the lawyer replies. So, the next day the doctor sends the woman a bill. But he also receives one - for professional services - from the lawyer. (viii) That's poetic justice.

Finally, our ideas of justice and God's promise of justice are nowhere better contrasted than between John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ. One of my favorite authors, Frederick Buechner, has this to say about them in a commentary on today's Gospel lesson: "Where John preached grim justice and pictured God as a steely-eyed thresher of grain, Jesus preached forgiving love, and pictured God as the host of a marvelous party, or a father who can't bring himself to throw his children out even when they spit in his eye. Where John said people had better save their skins before it was too late, Jesus said it was God who saved their skins, and even if you blew your whole bankroll on liquor and sex, like the Prodigal Son, it still wasn't too late. Where John ate locusts and honey in the wilderness with the church crowd, Jesus ate what he felt like in Jerusalem with as sleazy a bunch as you could expect to find. Where John crossed to the other side of the street if he saw any sinners heading his way, Jesus seems to have preferred their company to the Women's Temperance Union, the Stewardship Committee, and the World Council of Churches rolled into one. Where John baptized, Jesus healed." (ix)

What more needs to be said? We know the one to follow. In Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God-with-us, we have the good news of God's unlimited love. In Christ we are assured that all of God's promises will be fulfilled, and that peace and justice will yet prevail in our world. And so we sing - "Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!" Amen.

The Pilgrim Church of Duxbury
Rev. Kenneth C. Landall