Generous Justice

One of my Strengths from the Discover Your Strengths book is "learner." I love to learn. I love useless facts. I love useful facts. I remember obscure things but sometimes miss important things - like confusing my wife's birthday with the date of a former girlfriend's birthday. But only once!!

Reading is one way I feed this strength. It's one way I guard my heart.

I recently finished Generous Justice by Timothy Keller, an insightful author and deep thinker from a Biblical worldview. I like how Keller really wrestles with Jesus' words and how to live them out in today's world. He looks at our culture through the lens of Scripture, not the other way around.

Early on he establishes the Biblical lens, quoting multiple scriptures. I was drawn to his for today application of Zechariah 7:10-11:

This is what the LORD Almight says: Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the immigrant or the poor.

In premodern, agrarian societies, these four groups had no special power. They lived at subsistence level and were only days from starvation if there was any famine, invasion, or even minor social unrest. Today this quartet would be expanded to include the refugee, the migrant worker, the homeless, and many single parents and elderly people. (4)

I am challenged by that application but not in the way you might be thinking. I have no problem being a champion for the orphans at Fundaninos in Guatemala or the Starfish Kids in Haiti. I have no problem supporting Cornerstone's ministry with Serve City, serving the homeless. I have no problem serving the single mom who is our physical neighbor. I'm challenged because of the systemic problems that exist as barriers to many of these groups becoming self-sufficient. That is a part of justice - I can serve locally - I can go global - but to bring about the systemic change that is needed is where I'm at a loss. And I confess, I think some of what holds me back is selfishness. Do I want to put in the time and expend the effort?

John Wesley, the father of the Methodists said: "There is no holiness without social holiness." Keller puts it this way: 

The purification of the heart through grace and love for the poor are of a piece; they go together in the theology of Jesus. (51)

Whether I feel like it or not; whether I'm befuddled by what to do or not I'm called as a Christ-follower to be invovled.

Commenting on Isaiah 1:17 & 58:6-7, Keller writes:

A lack of justice is a sign that the worshippers' hearts are not right with God at all. (50)

Do something is my conclusion. Start somewhere - with my neighbors - in my town - in the community next door. Often what keeps something from happening is trying to solve all the problems at once. Not knowing what the end looks like can keep (at least me) us from getting started.

Evangelism & Social Justice

I really liked Keller's comments on the clash of those who lift up evangelism as the greatest need and those who lift up social justice as the greatest expression of the Gospel. As Wesley said, we need both.

I urge my readers to discern the balance I am seeking to strike. If we confuse evanglism and social justice we lose what is the single most unique service that Christians can offer the world. Others, alongside believers, can feed the hungry. But Christians have the gospel of Jesus by wich men and women can be born again into the certain hope of eternal life. No one else can make such an invitation. However, many Christians who care intensely about evangelism se the work of doing justice as a distraction for Christians that detracts from the mission of evangelism. That is also a grave error. (141)

It's not either or but both and. Social justice ministry is empowered with eternal rewards when it is married to the Gospel. The Gospel is amplified through the social justice ministries that "set the oppressed free."

Keller challenged me in expanding my understanding of justice. It's rooted in grace. It's rooted in the hope of eternity. Justice without the Gospel brings temporary freedom. The Gospel without justice can cause the Gospel to be muffled. I'm looking for ways to marry the two. It will guard my heart.