This week, we continue reading from Romans (see Romans 8:26-39) to see how Paul helps us consider the notion of Justice. God's justice does not look like what we commonly think of as justice. As Christians, it is important for us consider this difference and to seek to be more Christ-like in our envisioning of justice. As a United Methodist deacon, it is important for me to help the rest of the church consider what we can do to work for justice wherever we find ourselves.
* * *
Our reading from Romans this week comes immediately after the verses we read last week. Paul continues to look at what it means to live according to the Spirit of God. What does it mean to live as the children of God?
In the last few weeks, as I have reflected on my ministry as a deacon, we have looked at ministry of word and ministry of service. Word and Service are the two areas held in common among all ordained persons in The United Methodist Church. While the ways in which elders and deacons approach these ministry areas may differ, it is still the ministry that we hold in common. Now we will turn to what is distinctive about the ministry of a deacon.
Deacons in The United Methodist Church are ordained to ministries that encompass Word, Service, Compassion, and Justice. With help from our Biblical texts, we will see how justice and compassion naturally flow from the concept of service. In a way, justice and compassion are forms of service in action. Compassion is about loving and caring for people simply because they are in need. It is easy to see how this connects to service, and we’ll talk a little more about that next week.
This week, we look at justice. In our society, when we hear the word justice, we often think of punishment, retaliation, maybe even revenge. Maybe we’ve all watched a little too much Law & Order on TV, so our first thought when we hear justice is to think about the criminal justice system. In fact, when I was talking about the concept of justice at a previous church, I had someone say, “you don’t mean like courts and police and jail, right?”
It is easy to understand why we might think this way about justice as it is the most common way we use the word. But this is not exactly what justice is about, especially not what we mean in this context. Justice is about fairness and wanting to make things right. It is about wanting to do what is right regardless of circumstances. It is about remembering that each of us is made in God’s image and treating one another accordingly. It's about speaking up in the face of mistreatment and oppression, pleading on behalf of those who are suffering.
Of course, we know that we do not always succeed. As Paul helped us consider last week, there are times that we fail to live up to our potential as God’s children. Sometimes we live according to fear and selfishness. We are human; we are weak.
But Paul reminds us today that “the Spirit comes to help our weakness” (Romans 8:26, CEB). When we get hung up on the word justice and our more common understanding of that to mean punishment, Paul gives us an important reminder. God knows that we are weak. And still, God reaches out to us. God does not turn away from us.
This is what God’s justice looks like. This is why Paul is able to say, “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31b, CEB). Yes, we have fallen short, but God is still for us. This is not to say that we should not strive to be better, that we should not do our best to live according to the Spirit. It is not an excuse to live according to the flesh, to live a life of selfishness. But it does mean that God continues to love us, no matter what anyone else may think about us. As Paul says, “Who will bring a charge against God’s people? It is God who acquits them” (Romans 8:33, CEB).
For many of us, this can be a difficult thing to comprehend or accept. Each of us knows our own imperfections. Each of us knows the ways in which we have fallen short. I would guess we have all had times in our lives when we have felt that we were not worthy of God’s love. Perhaps we have had others in our lives who have told us we were not worthy of God’s love. But Paul reminds us “that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, CEB).
When Paul asks, “Who will separate us from Christ’s love?” (Romans 8:35), the answer is no one. There is no one in this world that can make God stop loving you. No one. Not family. Not friends. Not pastors. Not politicians.
Not even you.
That is what God’s justice looks like. God’s justice is firmly rooted in love for us, love that does not falter or fail. God values us so much that we are offered love and relationship even in the midst of our sin and imperfection. And because we are children of God, because all of us are formed in God’s image, this is precisely how we are expected to treat other people. Just as nothing can separate us from the love of God, nothing should stop us from loving one another.
This is what justice means. It means that instead of judging others according to human standards, instead of making value judgments about people based on our own criteria, we learn to see others as God sees them. We learn to value others as much as God values them. And because we value others, we want their needs to be fulfilled. We want them to be safe. We want them to have the same rights and privileges that others of us enjoy. Simply because they are a fellow human being, another beloved child of God.
When we look around our world, we know that is not always the case. Not everyone is treated fairly. Not everyone has enough. Not everyone is loved simply because they exist. That is why we are called not simply to pray for justice, but to actually work for justice. And just as we must learn to see as God sees and to love as God loves, we strive to do justice as God does justice. We must live into the example of Christ who pleads on our behalf. We must ourselves stand up and intercede for the rights of others.
In the late-70s, a rock band formed in Dublin that would become one of the most influential bands of the 80s and 90s. In Ireland at that time, particularly in Northern Ireland, the streets were often filled with violence. This violence was primarily about governance and right to rule, but it was given religious overtones. One side in the conflict wanted to rule themselves separate from England. They were commonly known as Catholics. The loyalists were pro-British and were often called Protestants. Their disagreements often erupted into violence. Like minded individuals lived in the same neighborhoods to the point that, in some cities, “peace walls” were built to separate neighborhoods in an effort to cut down on the violence, to keep the residents of the different neighborhoods from mixing and causing conflict with one another.
The story goes that in Belfast, you could tell everything you needed to know about someone’s religion, income, and political stance based on the name of the street they lived on.
Having grown up in Ireland and seen the violence around them, Bono, of the band U2, wrote the lyrics to the song, “Where the Streets Have No Name.” He had visited a village in Ethiopia where the streets had no names and the villagers all supported one another. He couldn't help but compare this reality to the world he knew in Ireland. In this song, he dreams of a world where we are not defined by the streets we live on. He dreams of a world where the divisions that humans have created between ourselves no longer exist. This is a dream of justice, where everyone has the right to simply be, to live as they are. This is a song of justice, where the differences we create between ourselves cease to exist and we can live together as God’s beloved children. We simply have to put aside the human created divisions between us.
This is what Paul points us to in his letter to the Romans. He points us toward our unity as children of God. He reminds us that even though we are weak, God continues to love us. He reminds us that nothing in all of creation can separate us from God.
And part of our calling as the Church is to show that same love and grace for others, to work toward justice for all people.
I know that is not easy. It may even be a little scary. We still have certain notions of what justice looks like. We've seen these notions of justice in practice. I think this is one of the reasons that the phrase justice makes us uncomfortable when people who we view as different from ourselves seek it.
Some people hear people talk about Black Lives Matter and the movement’s call for justice, and they become angry or fearful.
Some people hear the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights and the various calls for justice, and they become indignant.
Some people hear the water protectors standing in the way of pipelines and the call for justice, and they scoff.
But this misunderstands both these movements for justice and the very nature of God’s justice.
God’s justice is not one of hierarchy but equality. God’s justice is not about dividing scarce resources but sharing in the plenty that God has granted. God’s justice puts people ahead of profits. God’s justice is about grace in the midst of judgment.
When I hear Bono of U2 longing for a place where the streets we live on cease to define us, where we can live together as God intended instead of according to human divisions, I hear a longing for a world defined by God’s justice. I hear a desire for all people to have enough and not be denied their right to exist because of the street they were born on, the color of their skin, the body they were born in, the side of town they live on.
As a deacon, I serve the church and the world by reminding us of God’s justice and our call to seek it out in the world.
I serve the church and the world by leading us in the work of justice in our worship life together and in the world in which we live.
I serve the church and the world by extending to others the same grace that God has given me.
And I call on you to work with me to make Paul’s vision of a world united by God’s love a reality.
Work with me that like Christ we might intercede and plead on behalf of the oppressed and marginalized.
Work with me to make God’s vision of a world where everyone’s needs are met a reality.
To help us think about what this world can look like, I want you to listen to U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Listen to this dream of a world where justice has been realized and the divisions we create between ourselves cease to exist, where each of us can get beyond the world that seeks to beat us down and find instead a place built on love.