Thought for the Week - 27th March 2022

Dear Friends,

The American pastor and theologian Tim Keller in an article from 2020 writes that ‘Biblical justice is not first of all a set of bullet points or a set of rules and guidelines. It is rooted in the very character of God and it is the outworking of that character, which is never less than just’. He goes on to highlight four facets of Biblical justice: radical generosity, universal equality, significant, life changing advocacy for the poor, and both corporate and individual responsibility, saying that as the church and as Christians we are ‘a pilot plant of the future Kingdom of God, a place for the world to get a partial glimpse of what the humanity will look like under Jesus’ kingship and justice’. In the Bible we read in the prophet Micah the promise of a ruler from Bethlehem who will ‘stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord’ and who ‘will be their peace’. It is a prophecy about the coming of Jesus Christ, and we hear it most usually at Christmastime. But later in Micah we read of the Lord’s case against Israel. The people had once against lapsed in their obedience and commitment to the covenant with God and lost sight of him, and he longed for them to show the world what it meant for them to do right by each other and walk humbly before God, hence we read, ‘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). And it is in the life of Jesus that we see personified the kind of justice, love and mercy that people who are hurting, forgotten and helpless long for. Martin Luther King once said, ‘Stand up for justice, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side for ever’. We are around halfway through our Live Lent Embracing Justice 40-Day Challenge and this week we saw that justice is about people and the image of God within them. We are called as followers of Jesus to be just, merciful and walk humbly with him, so let’s check on how we are doing in these areas – are our dealings with others fair, do we show mercy and forgiveness, are we learning humility in all circumstances in life. May we live out lives thoroughly rooted in God’s justice and love and show to the world a better way, the way of Jesus.     

Grace and peace,

Neil       

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