Judgment and Justice

Scripture Texts for Sunday, August 8th.

Isaiah 1:1-20


Psalm 50

Luke 12:32-40

Sermon

Justice and judgment. These are the two concepts that are central to the three scripture passages, and in many ways, central to all of scripture. And yet, they are concepts that people are not often comfortable talking about- at least not to talk about them together. Depending on the theology and ideological leanings of the church, often times only one of the two J’s get preached. In one church, you may hear quite a bit about God’s judgment for those sinners who fail to submit. You may hear about the wrath of God and repenting before it is to late. But, often times, little is said about the present injustices of the world; or, at the very least, little may be done to actually bring about change.

In the other church, you may hear quite a bit about seeking justice for the poor and impoverished on this earth. You may hear about seeking the common good and working to enact change in society. But, often, little is said about God judging individuals for their failure to follow the will of God, and less is said about the possibility of eternal punishment.

If I make a confession, I would probably tend toward the second camp rather than the first. But, neither message is a complete reading or understanding of scripture. Justice and Judgment cannot be separated if we are to truly understand God, the Bible, and specifically the scripture passages in front of us.

Though the passages in Isaiah and Luke take place hundreds of years apart, in many ways the people are facing similar situations. In both places, Jerusalem is central to the understanding of God’s plan. In the center of Jerusalem sits the temple where God is said to be most present in all of the earth. People stream from all over the world to give their sacrifices at the temple to honor God. However, Jerusalem and the temple are under dire threat by foreign invaders. In Isaiah’s time, the immediate concern is the powerful Assyrian army. The Hebrew people had been split into two nations at that point, Judah and Israel, and Israel had already been completely overthrown. Judah itself was ravaged so thoroughly that only Jerusalem remained fully under Jewish control. Likewise, Israel in the time of Luke was under the thumb of the Roman Empire. Here, they did not even retain control of Jerusalem, the chosen people, the ones to whom God made a covenant, were completely at the mercy of these invading armies.

This prompted considerable concern. How, if they were God’s chosen people, could this have been allowed to happen? After all, the people had built the temple according to the vision David and Solomon received. The people sacrificed according to the regulations laid out in the Torah. But, despite their piety, God rejects their sacrifices because they are hollow. They worship God with their lips, but they allow injustice to fester throughout society. For this, Isaiah says, they will be judged. Jesus asks, will they be ready to face the son of man when he comes back?

Because I struggle with the issue of God’s judgment, I wanted to take some time to explore exactly what that means. The bible seems to refer to two types of judgment. One is the type of judgment that is to occur at the end of ages. This is what tends to capture the contemporary imagination. How many have ever seen a movie or read a book that purports to describe what God’s judgment will be like at the end of the world? Or, that describes how and when God will judge us in the afterlife? There is no question that the Bible makes reference to some kind of ultimate judgment, though theologians throughout the centuries have disagreed on what and when that judgment will be. But the judgment referred to in Isaiah and Psalms is a different kind. It discusses a type of judgment that occurs within the earthly life of its listeners. It describes how real world events will occur that will punish those who fail to follow God’s command. The Assyrian army that defeats Israel is claimed to be operating according to the God’s will. This claim will also be made about the Babylonian army that eventually takes Jerusalem and destroys the temple.

So, how then are we to understand this worldly judgment? Does this mean that every time a nation loses a battle, every time a hurricane hits, that this is God’s will? I am probably not alone in being uncomfortable with that. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans several years ago, I recall that Pat Robertson claimed God had sent it to punish the United States for allowing abortion to occur. I scoffed at his claims, but is he justified based on this reading of Isaiah? On a wider reading of scripture?

Though there are many theories as to how God’s judgment on earth functions, I think they can largely be divided into three categories. The first is that God actively seeks to punish those who fail to bring about justice here on earth, or; that God’s protection is withdrawn from those who defy him. This certainly seems to be the position in the parts of the Hebrew scripture that show God striking down those who commit evil. Now this can be scary in the parts that refer to a vengeful God. But, if God is active in this way, then God could also provide direct comfort, healing and relief to those who are obedient. There is certainly some justification for this understanding. One note of caution, however. Even if we were to accept this explanation, that does not mean that we can claim to understand exactly when and why actions are occurring in the world. We claim too much if we can say that an earthquake occurred for such and such reason. This assumes a far greater knowledge of the divine then we can humbly assume. However, this also means that we have to grapple with difficult issues like the Holocaust. Are we really ready to claim that it was God’s will for it to occur?

But, this is not the only understanding that is possible from scripture. Indeed, in the book of Job, Job loses his wealth, his family, and his health even though he has always been a righteous man. When his friends try to explain that God is punishing him for being a sinner, Job protests that they are wrong. By the end of the book, God appears and condemns Job’s friends for making these claims. However, when Job challenges God to explain why this has occurred, God responds that this is not for any human to question. It is only God who has the perspective of the entire world; thus we could never understand God’s actions if we tried. This seems to be a middle ground claiming that while God may act, we as humans have no way of understanding where, how or when. Under this understand, we would shy away from making any claim on God. Though God might have acted, we would never make a statement that “God desired for someone to die so that they might be in heaven.” To say this is to make a claim to understand the workings of God.

The third way to understand God’s judgment on earth is called natural law. This means that God has set up a world where cause and effect operate according to a certain set of rules. For instance, if I were to through this book, the rules of gravity say that it will eventually drop and fall. Furthermore, if I hit Ted down there while throwing it, he’s going to have a predictable reaction of being upset with me. Do I need to test this theory, or can we just assume Ted doesn’t want me to hit him with a book? The point is that we live in a world that is predictable, through so complex that we can often misunderstand the effect of the actions we might take. So, on the plus side, this would resolve the issue about a loving God actively punishing people. We can say that God always wants us to do good, influences us to make the best decisions possible, but does not actively intervene. This too has basis in scripture- in the book of Esther, humans are at the center of the action. Though they operate morally according to what they believe God wants them to do, God does not intervene at the time of crisis but instead leaves things in the hands of humanity. Furthermore, in the New Testament, it is clear that many righteous people, including Jesus himself, face the natural consequences of challenging the powerful Roman Empire- they are executed. They were not punished because of what they did wrong, but the response of the empire to their challenge took a somewhat predictable route.

So, why take this detour into trying to understand God’s judgment? Partly because I think we often struggle with the issue of why bad things happen. If we take the time to explore just how God functions, it can help us in a time of crisis. But, I think it’s also important to point out that multiple ways in which scripture understands God acting. Rather than allowing one particular understanding of God to become entrenched, scripture actually encourages dialogue and preserves disagreement. Thus, no person should be able to claim an absolute understanding of God that cannot be swayed, but we must instead follow our fathers and mothers in faith in being open to how different perspectives might challenge and enrich our understanding of God.

This brings us to the second J- justice. When we talk about justice in the Bible, we can generally all agree in theory to the demands- we believe in humility, we can applaud Isaiah’s call to “do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” We might squirm at the command to “sell our goods and give alms,” but we at least applaud the theory. But what happens when we try to talk about justice in the here and now. Well, it gets us into sticky concepts like health care, immigration, welfare, unemployment, abortion, world hunger, torture, and issues of war and peace. Given the volatility on these issues, we are sometimes tempted to remain silent. In fact, in the psalm, God says that when the people committed injustice, they thought he would remain silent like they usually did, but instead, God speaks. If we are to mold ourselves in the divine image, it means we must not be silent about issues of injustice.

But, how do we do that without treading on to sticky issues where many of us will disagree? Won’t discussing these issues mean disagreement and possible discord within the church? My answer to that would be- yes, absolutely. It is much “safer” to say that such and such is a political issue and has no place in the church. But, God is not a God of the church. God is lord of all of creation. When we say that Jesus Christ is Lord, we are not saying he is lord of our prayers, of our singing or of our sermons, but of our entire lives. So we must not be silent on these issues; and we must not avoid them simply to keep the peace.

But, what we can do, is come at them with a bit of humility. If the writers of scripture are content to leave multiple interpretations of the work of God’s judgment, might we be open to the expression of multiple understandings of contemporary issues of justice? If my understanding of God can be enriched through multiple viewpoints in scripture, cannot our understanding of immigration, abortion and the like be enriched through really and truly listening to those with different opinions?

Now, I can be as guilty as the rest. When I get going on issues, my mind and ears can shut out others. But we’ve got to try. If we can’t figure out how to talk about these things as Christian people who love one another, what hope is there for the rest of the world? How can we answer God’s cries for justice if we refuse to talk, or listen? Let us see if we can make this church a place where we can talk and work for God’s justice. Otherwise, our inaction will lead us to the point of dealing with God’s judgment- in whatever form that takes.