Do you ever feel frustrated with the problems around us? Think
of the way that Churchill has been cut off from the rest of Manitoba until the
railway was finally repaired. For over a year, the community had no rail or
other land link to the rest of the world, while the other stakeholders in the
railroad argued over who should pay for repairs to the rail line. How unfair!
How unjust – that the residents of Churchill should suffer because the owners
of the rail line prioritize their own profits over the people they should be
serving.
Perhaps you have experienced unfair family dynamics.
Sometimes, when a beloved older member of the family dies, the younger
relatives fall out over … who knows what? Behind the falling out, the breaking
of relationships, there lies a perceived injustice. Someone has acted unfairly,
and someone else feels the injustice deeply. My Dad experienced this dynamic
when he lost his relationship with his sister for some years, following my
grandfather’s death and the execution of the estate. They reconciled, but not
everyone does.
Perception of injustice is a powerful force. We respond to many
problems around us with a yawn, but when we see someone treated unfairly, when
we see a manifest injustice, we often respond with outrage. One notes this
dynamic in the way that companies respond to customer complaints. Consider the recent
CBC headline: “Bell sorry for $788 bill sent to man displaced by Parliament Street apartment fire.” Bell billed the man for their equipment, because he
could not return it after the apartment he lived in caught fire. He was not at
fault in any way, but Bell only reached out to cancel the bill after CBC broke
the story. This happens often: People respond with outrage to perceived
injustice, and then the offender tries to make things right.
Why is this? Not just why do people respond with outrage –
the answer to that is, I think, that a fundamental sense of fairness and
decency is a deeply human trait, placed there by God. But why does the company
wait until everyone knows about it to (as we say) “do the right thing”? I
suspect that there are many reasons, not least among them is the awareness that
not every customer who claims they have been wronged speaks the truth. That the
customer is not always right! I think that a deeper reason (this is an
unresearched hunch) is that acting justly may cost us. We wonder, “How much is
this rail line going to cost me, the owner? How much is covering this
customer’s loss to cost me?” In fact, the move towards justice is also itself
the result of a cost-benefit analysis. For example, Stella’s Restaurants are
revamping their corporate culture to become more just. Why? Because failing to
do so will cost them more than doing so.
What about God’s justice? Do we struggle in the same way
with issues of peace and justice around the world? Do we shy away from right actions,
because we recognize they are going to cost us? Perhaps so, but our response should
not just be to suck it up and do the right thing. Rather our response to our
failures should be to seek God’s face and to be renewed by God’s Spirit within
us. True justice flows out from the heart of God. With these thoughts in mind we turn to
Zephaniah 3 and to Luke 3.
Zephaniah 3: 14 to 20
Zephaniah was probably an early contemporary of Jeremiah. He
sounds a lot like Isaiah and may have prophesied in the Southern Kingdom of
Judah during the reign of Josiah. There still seemed to be hope that Judah
would repent and follow God, a hope that had faded by the end of Jeremiah’s
life. Listen again to the basic thoughts in the text.
- In verse 14, the prophet calls on Israel to celebrate and rejoice.
- Verse 15 gives the reason for their joy – their punishment is over; God is with them, and nothing bad will happen to them.
- Then verse 16 signals that the anticipated freedom and joy has a decidedly future shape to it. The phrase “in that day” lets us know that the fulfillment of this word of hope belongs to “the day of the Lord”, the end of all things. In Christian thinking, we connect this day of the Lord with the second coming of Christ.
- Verse 17 connects their salvation with the Warrior God who delivers them from their enemies. We can hear echoes of Moses’ song after the crossing of the Sea, “Yahweh is a Warrior! Yahweh is his name!”
- God’s judgment is now ended, and therefore Israel’s grief and mourning is also ended. This linkage suggests that at least some of the misfortune in their lives is the consequence of their rebellion. Applied to ourselves, this suggests two points: 1) Our troubles do not necessarily come directly from our rebellion – sometimes illness or job loss or other misfortune comes as part of life in a fallen world. 2) Sometimes our troubles are our own fault. As the proverb puts it, “Sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind” (from Hosea 8:7). We are responsible for the choices we make in life – good and bad.
- The reference to festivals suggests that a basic problem in the lives of the Israelites was connected to religious festivals. They worshipped God, and they also observed festivals and sacrifices to the gods of the land in which they lived (Baal, Asherah, and so on). Divided loyalties bring God’s judgment, and God’s judgment brings God’s grace.
- The last two verses remind us that final judgment and grace come “at that time”, when God inaugurates God’s reign in power and great glory. Zephaniah states that the Israelites are to live in their own time by the justice and peace of God that comes at the end of all things. God will come at the End, and God wants us to live now in light of the End.
As we hear the prophet today, I
remind you of this basic truth: God will restore all things at the End, when
Jesus returns, and God gives both judgment and grace as we show God’s justice
and mercy in our lives, in anticipation of Christ’s Return.
Luke 3: 7 to 18.
The Gospel reading comes from the ministry of John the Baptist,
as he preached in the dry desert-like countryside through which the Jordan
River flowed. People came out from Jerusalem to hear and see this remarkable
preacher; he seemed to them like one of the old prophets come to life. John
gave a baptism of repentance to those who repented, and more and more came to
him.
In the verses we read, he asks the people who came to him,
“Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” He calls them a “brood of
vipers”, which suggests that for many of them he was sceptical of their
repentance. He adds, confirming this impression – “Produce fruits in keeping
with repentance.”
The people recognize their shallowness and ask what they
should do. John replies, with words that sound a lot like Jesus in the Sermon
on the Mount:
- Tax collectors: “Don’t collect any more than you are required to.”
- Soldiers: “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.
- If we knew what he said to each group, we would probably find the same basic theme. Live justly, in whatever you do.
Two other points from John’s preaching: 1) He asks them,
“Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” This is a curious question,
and it suggests that God’s message comes to us through a variety of sources. 2)
He reminds them that their Jewish ancestry counts for nothing in God’s Reign.
“Do not say, ‘We have Abraham for our father.’” More than one person has
thought that the commitments made in their past mean that they don’t have to do
anything. John makes it clear that each one there must repent for
himself/herself.
The same is true for us. My parents’ commitment to Christ was
a good thing and has been good for me. But in the end, it is my own
relationship with Christ that matters. My father’s obedience is good; but now
God requires my obedience.
Our Sense of Fairness
Bring these two passages back to the question of fairness
with which we began. We see that life is unfair, and that bothers us, as it
should. We want things to be fair. We want life to be right. We want injustice
and corruption to be rooted out and destroyed. What do our passages tell us in
light of these deep human desires for justice? Further, what do these passages
say to us in the season of Advent, when we remember the theme of justice as we
wait for the coming of Christ?
One of the repeated themes of the Advent Season is that we
are waiting: Waiting for justice, waiting for light, waiting in hope, waiting
for God to come. One of my favourite Advent hymns expresses this waiting for
God to come (#175 in the Mennonite Hymnal)):
O Saviour, rend the heavens wide!
Come down, come down with mighty
stride.
Unbar the gates, the doors break
down;
Unbar the way to heaven’s crown.
The fact that we are waiting means that we know full justice
will not come today. Or tomorrow. When we complain that something is unfair,
someone will remind us that life isn’t fair. The reminder is good: Life is not
fair – neither now nor in Zephaniah’s time nor in the first century. This bit
of simple realism can set us free from becoming bitter. We know that life is
not fair, even as we work for justice. And we know that God will come and that
when God comes, everything will be made right. This is not “pie in the sky by
and by”; this is simple reality. Within this awareness this Advent Season,
then, I make several simple suggestions for how we act as we wait:
- Listen to John the Baptist. Our first step towards justice is to repent of our own injustice and live justly. If we want others to act fairly towards us, we must act fairly towards others. “Do the right thing” is a simple rule to live by; it’s also something we rarely do. We recognize that acting justly sometimes means that we are going to pay the price of justice. It’s hard to do the right thing when doing it actually hurts us. That’s why I asked the question in last week’s bulletin: “Living justly – is this going to hurt?” So this simple rule: If you want a just world, live justly, even when doing so hurts you.
- Depend on God for true justice. I can guarantee that, when you enter the political arena and fight for justice, you will lose even when you win. For example, when I was younger, the United States took steps to provide for poor people by building housing projects (nice apartments) for them to live. In the summer of 1969, I worked in some of those housing projects, holding Daily Vacation Bible Schools for the children. It quickly became clear that the political victory of providing housing led to longer-term failure, as the people in the projects had not learned how to care for the apartments. This basic factor – that even political victories lead to failure – has led many activists to give up. Instead, put your trust in God. Keep on working for true justice, but trust God; don’t trust your efforts or any other human efforts.
- Put these two together: Expecting and working for justice in world begins and ends in worshipping God. This brings us back to Advent. We wait for the Messiah. We pray and sing and worship, and we wait. This worship in waiting is the most profound action towards justice that we can take. Live lives of prayer. Live lives of hope. Live lives of anticipation for God’s coming. The old saying runs like this in Latin: Laborare est orare. In English: To work is to pray. [Compare the Benedictines: Ora et laborare (work and pray).]
I have told you in the past about our family’s time in a
place of great peace: The Taizé Community in the village
of Taizé, near Macon, France. The rhythm of life at Taizé
centres on three times of prayer daily – at 8 am just before breakfast, at
about noon just before lunch, and at 8 in the evening after supper. Each prayer
time includes singing together, the reading of Scripture, sometimes a short
word on the Scripture (the shortest homilies I have ever heard!), and then,
most importantly, a ten-minute silence. When our family was there, I wondered
how we could sit silently for ten minutes. By our last day, ten minutes felt
like too short a time! The grounds and conversations were drenched in peace and
prayer. It is truly the most peaceful place I have ever been to.
I don’t recommend the theology that the Brothers of Taizé
have constructed; there is some good and some bad there. I do recommend their life of prayer, as well as the lifestyle
that has grown out of that life of prayer. The Taizé Community is invested in
justice ministries around the world. The community was born in Brother Roger’s
vision. In the 1940s, he sheltered Jews caught in France during World War Two.
Following the war, he sheltered former German prisoners who found themselves
trapped in a France that was now hostile against them. Over the years, Brother
Roger developed friendships with people like Mother Teresa, supporting the
cause of God’s Reign wherever injustice was found.
A scan of the Taizé website reveals a surprising list of
justice efforts that have grown out of their life of prayer:
- Relief and reconciliation in Northern Lebanon and in Syria;
- Working with war-affected children in Ukraine;
- Working in Haiti;
- Assisting refugees in Europe;
- An eye-clinic in the Congo;
- Schools in Bangladesh;
- Caring for the sick in Cambodia;
- Medicine for Cuba;
- Humanitarian aid for North Korea;
- Medical treatment in South Sudan;
- One million Bibles printed in China;
- Clean water and milk in Burkina Faso.
Wow! Several hundred brothers gathered together at Taizé
have generated all that!
As Mennonites, we have a good track record working for
justice. I fear that we do not have as good a record of grounding our work in
worship. This Advent, I am reminding us all that “to work is to pray and to
pray is to work”. We ground our search for justice in a patient waiting for God
to come in. We ground our desire for justice in our desire for God’s Spirit to
live among us. What I am describing is a complete re-orientation of our lives
around the person of Jesus Christ, whatever that looks like for you:
- Revival services and altar calls (as were important to me in my youth);
- Prayer and meditation à la Taizé;
- Personal devotions in the morning or evening;
- Praying while driving your car – or your tractor.
We ground our very lives in the presence and worship of God
who comes from Heaven in the baby of Bethlehem.
Steinbach Mennonite Church
16 December 2018, Third Sunday in Advent
Texts:
Zephaniah 3: 14-20
14 Sing, Daughter Zion; shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and
rejoice with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has
taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you
fear any harm.
16 On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp. 17 The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but
will rejoice over you with singing. 18 I
will remove from you all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals,
which is a burden and reproach for you.
19 “At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I
will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and
honour in every land where they have suffered shame. 20 “At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring
you home. I will give you honour and praise among all the peoples of the earth
when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the Lord.
Luke 3: 7-18
7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptised by him,
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin
to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out
of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The axe has been laid to the root of the trees, and every
tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the
fire.”
10 “What
should we do then?” the crowd asked. 11 John
answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none,
and anyone who has food should do the same.”
12 Even
tax collectors came to be baptised. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told
them. 14 Then some soldiers
asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t
accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.”
15 The
people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John
might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John
answered them all, “I baptise you with water. But one who is more powerful
than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will
baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his
threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And
with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to
them.
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