Wednesday 24 June 2015

Justice, Righteousness, Holiness and Love



Scripture:


Isaiah 5:15-17

15 People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
17 Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture,
fatlings and kids[c] shall feed among the ruins.

Observation:

Isaiah's prophecies are uttered into a culture and time where individuals and the society as a whole had lost their way. These verses are followed by a series of gasping accusations testifying how the people of God have failed to be a lighthouse to the nations. People have marginalized God and put themselves, their hobbies and obsessions at the centre. This does not bode well for the people of God - never has, never will. The meaning of the statement, "For I AM a jealous God" is this: God doesn't suffer marginalization. When God ceases to be the centre for us as individuals and as communities we can expect events to "bring us low" in a hurry.

Here's the thing I love about this passage, though: it subverts our twisted understanding of justice and righteousness. Far from being an execution or eternal banishment in the name of justice, the events that humble us are not meant to cut us off from God, but to restore us to right relationships with God (and each other and ourselves). For, the "Holy (dramatically other than we ask, imagine, or expect) God shows himself holy by righteousness." The key to understanding this passage is that righteousness doesn't mean vengeful or "being right at the expense of continuing to be in relationship." Rather, to be righteous is to stand in right relationship to God, to self, and to other. This is the crux of Luther's great (re) discovery: God's righteousness is not limited to a punitive, or controlling "tough on crime" definition of justice. God is love. Therefore, God's righteousness is communicated throughout creation in patient, suffering, transformative, costly love.


Where we expect (and deserve) death sentences, 

we receive life sentences.


Sound too good to be true? Look again at verse 17. 

There in the midst of the levelling of the city, 

new life is taking hold. 

It is wobbly-kneed, ridiculous and vulnerable; but, 

justice has broken up ground and hearts formerly 

infertile in their hardness.


You see? 

The breaking, the correction, is not the goal. Nor is it required 

to soothe the fiery will of a wrathful god. 

The breaking, even the dying, happens so that life might 

prosper again ... in a good way.

Application:

I no longer dread God's correction. No, it isn't pleasant; but, it won't kill me. And, it creates a world with a real future, a world where the Centre holds.

Prayer:

Healer of Our Every Ill, 
Never forsake us.
Take us.
Break us.
Remake us.
Wake us,
to the life abundant you prepare and unfold before us.
Amen.

1 comment: