One of the most vexing questions facing the church today is, “What should be the relationship between the Church and justice issues?” Simply flipping through the television channels or opening a newspaper alerts us to all of the injustice that is around us. In fact, it can be quite intimidating. Where does one begin? In his book Preaching Justice, James Childs suggests that preaching justice is a good way to address the issue. Drawing on his own experiences as a seminarian and a young parish pastor, Childs explains why justice not only belongs in preaching, but it fills an important role, “. . . the preaching of justice in parishes where preaching is heard is as urgent a need as ever. Now, as in much of the past, justice has been a sidebar to the main text of personal salvation . . .”[1] This is especially true of contemporary American society which, even with reference to how it treats God, is focused on the individual. As a society, we have a much greater interest in a God that serves us that we do in a God who asks us to serve others.
Childs is careful to draw a distinct line between preaching justice and moralizing. He is quick to point out that simple lecturing which calls us to stop one action and begin another is not preaching justice, it is moralizing. The responses which are produced by this method are not self-motivating. The effect of moralizing is to stir up enough guilt to create change. One preaches justice by pointing to the self-affirmation which occurs when one works toward justice. As Childs puts it, “We are affirmed and motivated to seek the good because the affirmation of our worth is based on that understanding of the good. At the same time, our hope for the ultimate good gives meaning to our moral striving.”[2] When we take actions which work toward the wholeness of our neighbor, we also contribute to our individual wholeness.
Through his understanding of the theology of hope, Childs forms his call to justice issues by exhorting the reader to grasp the future, because it holds the promised reign of God. The future is not just about individual salvation; it is just as much, if not more so, about overcoming the injustice brought about by sin, death, and evil. If we know that in the reign of God the injustices of this world will be no more, then when Christians work to eliminate injustice in this life, they bear witness to God’s promised future. Childs writes, “When Christians uphold the sanctity of life against all that threatens it, they anticipate the triumph of the reign of God.”[3] This witness to the coming reign of God makes preaching justice a critical part of the gospel witness of the church.
Today’s increasingly post-modern context invites us to ask, “From where does the Church derive the authority to speak on issues of temporal injustice?” Christians are not the only ones in society that call for moral living. There are also the voices of other religious traditions, humanists, and pragmatists who would also posit a preference for moral living. What makes the Christian call to justice unique is the correlation between the cause of justice and the Easter message. As Paul writes in II Corinthians 5:18-19, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” The reconciliation accomplished on our behalf in the resurrection frees us to work for reconciliation in our time and place. We echo the actions of Jesus and simultaneously participate in a foretaste of the coming peace and justice associated with the reign of God.
Preaching justice changes one’s orientation from self to other. While moralizing may focus the hearer on their individual shortcomings or inabilities, preaching justice requires both and understanding of who we are and an understanding of the promises which God has made to us. The grace which is found in the claiming of God’s promises frees the believer from the need to attend to self. Grace casts off the believer’s need to justify himself under the law. It gives the believer the opportunity to work toward the reconciliation of humanity because her own reconciliation with God need no longer be a consideration.
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