When Justice Becomes Love
This is an incredible time of year! It’s a season of chill in the air as we make soups and wrap ourselves in coziness…it’s a season filled with college football rivalries and spookiness, gearing up for the celebration of the distribution of candy and treats to costumed beings that go door to door…Nothing is as it seems…
It’s so much fun to see the different costumes and the creativity. Halloween is such an adventure with the scariest costumes handing out candy, and the most innocent-looking costumes causing the best jump-scares.
One of my favorite Halloween memories was of a first-grade Halloween party. Everyone in my class had costumes, there were treats and games…and my sister was tasked with telling a scary story. She chose a story from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
She was so skilled at telling this tale that we all leaned in…her voice got softer and slower…until…BANG! We screamed and jumped, my sister laughed, and we went on with the party.
I was unamused. She should be punished frightening us like that…innocent little first graders…she should be grounded or sent to her room forever. Something…anything! I wanted Justice…no…I wanted vengeance. It was weeks later that I was able to pull off the ultimate prank. I set up an inflatable snake that was pulled by a string from under a bush…and I waited for her to come home…and…I won!
I sought justice for wrongdoing and found vengeance…I took my revenge.
Our Gospel lesson implores us to examine the line between justice and vengeance. A judge who we are told neither fears God nor had respect for people is approached by a widow seeking justice.
The story implies that the widow has come many times to this particular magistrate. The judge eventually grants justice to the widow, but not after declaring that he didn’t want her to continue bothering him.
We could easily see the victory of the widow as one of justice and the judge as completely corrupt. Now this is where it gets interesting…When we hear the lesson in our English translation, it merely sounds like the widow is bothering the judge.
But wait…there’s more…the original text doesn’t simply describe the widow’s words as persistent, rather, the judge didn’t want to be presented with more work for he feared that she would give him a black eye.
The line between justice and vengeance is thin. The judge granted the widow justice, but not until he was threatened…The widow sought justice for something unknown and received it, but at what cost?
We live in a world where so many say they seek justice and yet incite violence…we live in a world where violence is then called justice…where the language of justice has been usurped by those who worship power…where fear is used to shape the story and attempt to change what is true and reasonable.
We then hear in the pastoral letter to Timothy that there is a time when people will refuse to listen to sound doctrine…to logic…to hear the true cries for justice and pleas for mercy…
When they will gather for themselves more and more power and wealth and things and will turn to worship idols rather than God…when they will worship the nation instead of the Godhead…when they will place leaders above even Christ…
Even when truth is being lived and preached and taught it will be called false…that people will only gather up teachers for themselves that suit their own desires…leaders and echo chambers that do not allow for the increase of knowledge or truth…that amplifies their own voice and power and perceived authority. It’s a dangerous path, with vengeance and fear masquerading as justice.
True justice, God’s justice seems like the bare minimum in a world with so much fear and pain and division. True justice is the desire for the people of God to be cared for and to live and hopefully to thrive.
God’s justice is for our migrant and undocumented neighbors is to live without fear.
God’s justice for our transgender and nonbinary siblings is to live without fear…
God’s justice or those who are unhoused is to find shelter
For those who are hungry to be fed
For the ill to find healing
For those who love one another to be affirmed in their love
For those who are most in need to receive what they need…
And on and on
We seek the justice of God and not of humankind. This justice is not about partisan politics…fear or vengeance…it is the duty of all who call themselves faithful christians. But it’s more than calling ourselves Christian…it’s about being Christlike.
We are to live as though Christ is among us because he is. He is our friends and neighbors. He is those with whom we disagree…Christ is those called unworthy under the guise of “Christian love” that is acted out as hatred and indifference…for we know there is no hatred quite like “christian love.”
We must pray always and not lose heart…we pray that we have the strength to persevere like the widow. We pray that we can be persistent in seeking God’s justice for the world. We pray that we can take better care of those who have no power rather than pander to those who have everything.
We must pray always and not lose heart…and pray for those like the judge who have the power to grant justice, not because they are threatened…but because they are persuaded by the strength and persistence of the justice of God.
It is our work to have heart and faith that we are able to live as Christ. Being a Christian isn’t enough to save the world, but being Christlike has the power to change the world. This is our work now…to be Christlike…to be persistent, to have mercy and seek justice…to pray without ceasing, and to love so deeply that the whole world is transformed one person at a time.
This is our work…and offering a saying from my childhood attributed to John Wesley – to do all the good we can, by all the means we can, in all the places we can, at all the times we can, to all the people we can, as long as we can.
It begins right now…one person at a time, one small action at a time…not as heroes, but as people called to love as Christ loved. Find your cause, seek out relationships with those who hold different views, break bread with every neighbor.
For when the Son of Man comes…then will he find faith? The faith we have is in prayer…and our prayers are action…and action must be justice…and our justice must be love.
AMEN.