Tuesday, July 21, 2009

But to do Justly...

"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God" -Micah 6:8 (it's in the Bible)

You are now subject to my late night pondering, but this is current theme in our lives.

Lately Joy and I have had a lot of time to consider justice both in theory and in action. She is finishing a class on the Theology of Work and I am working on a project for the class I took in June dealing with faith based affordable housing. She works with the homeless and I am currently employed among the working poor. We are seldom on the receiving end of injustice. Sure, we deal with selfish people, opportunists, thankless tasks and the like, but we rarely know the plight of the oppressed. So, it is curious that justice would become one of the driving themes of our life.

People still ask, "Why Ireland?"

A clarification, of which we have only been asked by the Mulhollands who currently live in Dublin would be, "Why Northern Ireland?" It is an entirely different country with a different history, culture, scars and celebrations. We hope to be in Belfast come mid-October. Don't worry, we ask the same question of ourselves often.

It continues to be an incredible journey of faith as we set out on this adventure. Although a more pressing question is why is it always the underdog, why is it the oppressed, why do we seem to gravitate towards a counter-culture, why seek unrest when comfort has almost been handed to you on a silver platter?

I think that the short book of Micah, the life of the Apostle Paul, the prophet Isaiah, and the life changing message of who Jesus both said and was during his physicality leaves us with little doubt about what we are to be about and limitless questions about how it must play out in our lives.

What is justice?

It is that which is right. It is the foundation of human dignity. It is the mediator that brings uneven players back onto equal footing. It is so many good things and yet lacks many things that my humanity desires.

I want justice to be easy.
I want justice to be safe.
I want justice to be widespread, my first response, missed in its absence, accessible to everyone, inexpensive, prevalent, quick to be realized, the basis of each system I operate in whether it be family, employment, church, society, the world as a whole. I want justice and I am not unique in that desire.

What will make us different in life will not be our desire for justice. I believe that God imprinted us all with a desire for justice when we were uniquely designed. We become different when we act justly. We stand out when our pursuit for right is laden with mercy in a screwed up world. We will not be without hope in a losing battle when we learn to do all of these things as we walk humbly in the presence of our almighty Creator.

Why Belfast? Good question.
Why justice? You tell me...

3 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Hey, Bobby...

You didn't think you could blog without me reading over your shoulder did you? Thanks for sharing your thoughts! It's always good to get insights from you.

Questions about justice have weighed heavily on me for the past few years. Two books that have been formative in my understanding of justice, as well as its applications and limits, are:
1. "A Theory of Justice" by John Rawls
2. "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" by Robert Nozick

I'd recommend reading them in that order, too.

Best of luck!

Daniel said...

Deep. I like it. And I'm glad I had a cigar and beer in hand while reading it. Although someone in the distance is spoiling the moment by blasting "We all live in a yellow submarine...." Thanks for sharing what is on your heart.