Judging Justice

We hear a lot about ‘justice’ right now. Hardly a week passes that we don’t hear President Bush, or some other Western leader say they will seek out and find some individual, group, or other and ‘bring them to justice.’

The word ‘justice’ is often used as a euphemism for revenge or retaliation. Recently America’s National Public Radio carried an article on the events surrounding a number of US Marines who were shot at along a road in Basra Iraq. Sadly, one of their soldiers was killed. The Marines reacted and as a consequence, scores of Iraqis died, including women, children and babies. The military report listed those deaths as ‘collateral damage.’ (Another interesting euphemism!).

But now a third investigation is suggesting that the Marines deliberately massacred people in this village, despite an earlier investigation that dismissed such allegations by the Iraqis. The reactions to this event, regardless of where you stand, are understandably emotive.

We’re often placed in paradoxical situations. On one hand, the ‘human instinct’ is to react and seek ‘justice.’ On the other hand, the spiritual side of us says we are to not judge.

In our journeys through spiritual living one of the blemishes we can incur is that of false humility. Sometimes, in order to avoid doing what is right, we either ignore or pretend we are too ignorant of God’s will to know what to do. CS Lewis wrote ‘The trouble with trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you can often succeed.’

During these turbulent times it’s a condition in which we often find ourselves, unable to render elementary justice to outrageous crimes, because we believe we shouldn’t judge.

Failing to judge does not mean abandoning the call for justice. It means not arrogating God’s authority.

May your views be just, your heart full of mercy, and your life humble before God.


Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God…But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others, as you would have them do to you. Matthew 5:9; Luke 6:27-31

Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice? Micah 3:1

I Am Not A Judge

Freedom For All...Almost

Just Doing our Jobs

Excess Baggage

Ever broken up with a girlfriend or boy-friend under less than the best of terms, vowing never to see one another again, only to run into the ex years later and not quite know what to say and how to respond? You both may still have wounds of hurt. And if you were the sole instigator, you may have grown in wisdom but still bear more than a few seeds of guilt.

Each of us carries baggage from earlier parts of our life journeys. Not only our physical bodies, but our spirits can bear wounds, some self-inflicted, others the result of misunderstandings or just pure bad luck. And there are those who suffer from the deliberate actions of those who wish us malice. These can be heavy burdens to bear, and too often they present sizeable barriers to our ability to move forward in our journeys. How can we ever be free?

How can we be done with the hurtful parts of our past? Those are questions we all ask eventually, and intuitively we know the answer. Jesus wants to take our hands and share His healing and His strength with us. We have only to give Him our hands, but they have to be open, not shut and holding tightly onto our old baggage.

Before you ask for His healing and His freedom, first check your hands. If they’re still full and still closed, you’ve left no room for Him and your prayer will go unanswered. Because it is no prayer at all.

Forgiving Lord, create in us a clean heart and restore our joy in living. Cleanse us that we may always be living examples to those who have hurt us. Grant them the same peace that we ask for ourselves. In Your name we pray. Amen

Take heart daughter your faith has healed you. Matthew 9:22

Thank You Sarah!

Music is A Gift From God

When Traditions Become Weights

How Good A Neighbour Are You?

Most adults and, indeed, most of their children know the story of the Good Samaritan. And most of us would have a ready answer to the question, ‘According to Jesus, who is my neighbour?’ Our answer would be simple and clear: ‘Everybody,’ and our answer would be right. But that doesn't close the matter. There’s a further question: Is our right answer surface knowledge or dynamic knowledge? Is it strictly correct information, or does it actually affect and determine the way we live?

That’s the crucial question for us all, and it can be phrased in another way: How Christian are we, in fact? Does Jesus’ teaching determine our priorities, our lifestyle, the way we do business, the way we treat one another, our willingness to forgive, and our readiness to help? It’s a chilling thought to remember that Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini were all baptised Christians who knew their prayers by heart.

So how Christian are you really? Check the patterns of your daily choices, and you’ll know right away. The patterns never lie.

It's Life Jim, But Not As We Know It

When Traditions Become Weights

Anger

As Jesus showed us by His own life, true love takes many shapes. But we are blind to too many of them. We feel comfortable with the Jesus who cured the lepers, gave sight to the blind, healed the crippled, and brought the dead back to life. We feel at ease with the Jesus who gathered the little children around Him and blessed them, and we are comforted by the Jesus who forgave the most notorious sinners over and over again. We like the kindness that Jesus shows to His mother, in changing the water into wine at the wedding feast, just because she asked. And we’re touched by His tenderness to her as He hung upon the cross.

But there is another side of Jesus that makes us want to avert our eyes, because we don’t exactly know what to do with it. And that is the angry Jesus, we see, casting the chiselling moneychangers out of the temple, or denouncing the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who were no leaders at all, or reprimanding Peter who wants Him to take the easy way out and run away.

We have learned to be afraid of all anger and to make no distinction between its good and bad varieties. Jesus made that distinction clear for us. Bad anger contains hate and wishes another person harm. Good anger is always aimed at behaviours not persons. It hates the sin but not the sinner. Indeed, good anger can be for the good of those who are in the wrong, because it can wake them up - if they’re willing to listen.

Anger is a powerful tool and it can be misused so easily, but so can our inclinations toward passivity even in the face of great evils. Hate the sin, but love the sinner, and you’ll never go awry.

Thank You Sarah!