The Discipline of Seeking Justice

In the past several posts, I have explored five disciplines for living richly and creatively in our less-than-perfect world. Here is #6 . . .

the discipline of seeking justice.

Despite the intrinsic beauty and joy of our world, nations and societies are rife with injustice. The clever and the powerful have always been adept at seeking their own advantage even at the expense of the poor and the weak.

But one of the foundational stories of our culture asserts that we are inextricably inter-dependent and that each of us is our brother's and sister's keeper. Ignoring the welfare of others is not an option. Living ethically in our downstream-from-Eden world means seeking justice not just for ourselves, but also for our neighbors.

The Hebrew scriptures reverberate with this call for justice; Moses and David, Isaiah and Amos and all their fellow prophets repeatedly called their people to uphold laws and practices that protect rich and poor equally, elite citizens along with their weak and powerless neighbors, the aliens, widows, orphans and the poor as well. Jesus expanded the circle to include our enemies in our sphere of concern as well.

Amos described Justice as the plumb-line that measures the moral integrity and conscience of the nation. In another dynamic metaphor he called out on behalf of God and the poor-

I want to see a mighty flood of justice,

an endless river of righteous living.

Amos 5:24 - New Living Translation

This metaphor is especially apt because communities ebb and flow like rivers. Unless we are vigilant, justice will dry up like a stream under the summer sun; injustice will assert itself like a river in flood and overwhelm the vulnerable. Sometimes it’s the poor who suffer, sometimes the children; sometimes it will be the natural environment because we are not adept at listening to its language of protest or lament.

God created the natural world as a vibrant life-sustaining gift for all. God designed for all of us to share in the largess of the earth and to steward its resources on behalf of our neighbors and descendents. That would be the world of God's shalom, but shalom calls for compassion and sacrifice, responsible ecology and justice.