Category: grace

A Christian Lawyer’s Thoughts on Rights, Law & Justice: the Orientation of a Believer

Biblical justice for the common person is more about what you do than about how you are treated

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We live in a world punctuated with individual rights and laws that allow redress for nearly every possible wrong that might be conceived under the sun. American litigiousness is notorious, perhaps, because of this expansive construct of individual rights.  

Laws are intended to set parameters on human activity according to a basic set of societal values that are calculated to promote human flourishing. When we feel we have been unjustly or unfairly treated, we have the authority granted by our laws to assert our rights to obtain justice.

We roll our eyes at the frivolous lawsuits held up for the amazement and ridicule of a curious public, but many real injustices and real wrongs still occur in our modern world. People are still people, and we don’t always do right be each other.

Actual malicious intention is exhibited in the never ending scams perpetrated on elders and other unsuspecting victims. They get more and more sophisticated as time goes by. These scams target the most vulnerable people in our community, and these scammers intentionally rob people of millions (maybe even billions) of dollars every year.

People also do wrong against others less intentionally. Either through negligence (not caring enough to protect others from our actions or failures to act) or through protecting ourselves to the detriment of others. Injustices and wrongs are a part of every day life, unfortunately.

The legal systems of civilized societies exist to provide recourse in a controlled way that preserves order and achieves some measure of justice, however slowly those wheels turn. The alternative is the wild west where justice happens as quickly as a finger on a trigger or the time it takes to tie a noose. Such “justice” is often little more than a power wielded by the strong over the weak.

We are sometimes conflicted by these things, especially in the circumstances of egregious injustice. Hitler is the ultimate example. We want justice to be swift and unforgiving. We are willing to forgo the protocols intended to safeguard our system of justice when we feel the ends justify the means.

We would never want to be on the other side of that equation, though, especially if we didn’t do it! Beyond that, I like to say that no person really wants justice when we stand before God, because God’s strict justice would be unrelenting and unforgiving. It allows for no mercy, when what we really want (and need) from God is His mercy!

Fortunately, we have a God who is merciful and slow to anger. (Exodus 34:6) He is “compassionate and gracious … and abounding in mercy.” (Psalm 103-8) God desires to be merciful to us rather than to demand our sacrifice (Hosea 6:6), and He desire us “to act justly and to love mercy”. (Micah 6:8)

When we think of justice, we might immediately think of criminal justice and the punishment for committing crimes. We might immediately think of God’s justice and punishment for unrepentant sinners.

Biblical justice, however, focuses more on doing right by people (acting justly), and it is intimately connected to loving mercy. In the biblical system of justice, judgment without mercy is meted out only to the one who has shown no mercy (James 2:13), and that should change the way we view justice.

Continue reading “A Christian Lawyer’s Thoughts on Rights, Law & Justice: the Orientation of a Believer” →

Ode to the Church and to God Who Watches Over the Foreigner

O Church, remember who you are,
Called to love, to heal, not to bar.

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Once, in Eden’s light, they walked,
In fear, mistrust, and pride they balked.
Their own way looked better than God’s,
So He cast them out to the odds.

Though God walled them out, yet He stayed near,
He watched them roam this earthly sphere.
He clothed their shame knowing His plan,
To redeem them from the dusty land.

When Abraham heard the voice divine:
“Go to a land that I’ll make thine.”
He wandered there, a stranger still,
Seeking the City of God’s will.

From Abraham’s loins a nation grew,
In Egypt enslaved, four centuries through.
Bound and broken, crushed and torn,
Yet God’s eye watched, where hope was worn.

And when they were freed by God’s hand,
The law that God, would make command:
“Be kind to the stranger, love them as you—
For once you were aliens too.”

The psalmist sang of a just cause
To guard the stranger one must because
God watches over the oppressed and poor,
His mercy flows to the foreigner.

The prophets warned with fire and might:
“Do not oppress, do not fight
The alien, the widow, the orphaned heart—
Deprive them not, lest from God you part.”

Then Jesus was born, in flesh, divine,
Refugee Son, in a troubled time.
To Egypt He fled, a stranger, a child,
God in the dust, both meek and mild.

He preached a kingdom for all men,
Every race and tongue and kin.
That he would save from cursed yeast,
According to how we treat the least.

And John envisioned a great throng,
From every tribe, with one great song.
Before the Lamb, all men unite,
Bathed in mercy, robed in white.

Yet now, the largest Church on earth,
Wielding wealth, claiming new birth,
Builds walls to keep strangers away,
Turning the poor from its doorway.

Refugees wander, oppressed and unseen,
Deprived of justice, crushed between
A gospel of love and hands that deny,
While heaven looks down, and angels cry.

O Church, remember who you are,
Called to love, to welcome, not bar.
For the walled-out Christ still calls to you,
“Whatever you’ve done, you’ve done to Me too.”

Come, O Church, to the narrow way,
Where love shines bright at break of day.
Lay down your walls, take up your cross,
And count the cost, not gain or loss.

Follow the One who bore your shame,
Who calls you now by His great name.
For hope is found in His pierced hands,
Where grace flows wide for all the lands.

The stranger waits, the orphan cries,
Will you reflect the Savior’s eyes?
Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God
Love deeply, with the gospel on your feet shod.

For Christ alone is our living hope,
A lifeline strong, a Savior’s rope.
Come back to Him, and walk His way,
Till all are gathered on that final day.

Contentment in Weakness

“‘My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’ …. Therefore I am content with weaknesses….”

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Last night, I was texting with a good friend who asked me if was OK.  The back story is that my wife of almost 40 years decided she was not happy in our marriage, and she left me about two years and three months ago. I tried for about 6 months to seek reconciliation with her, but she had made-up her mind.

Since she left, I have gone through cycles of grief, depression, and numbness. I have battled anger, bitterness, and resentment. I have alternately gravitated between guilt and in self-justification

She filed for divorce a month ago, but I have been in limbo for over 2 years. I have felt out of sorts, off balance, and stuck. Neither of us can afford to keep the house and maintain it alone, so I have been clearing out 40 years worth of stuff, and I am living right now in a house with very little in it but boxes, two cats and a dog.

Though it was clear that she didn’t want to try to salvage our marriage, I hoped that we wouldn’t have to involve lawyers. I was hoping we could talk and come to an agreement on how to unravel ourselves without lawyers, but she stopped communicating with me (for the most part) when she left. 

My attempts to open channels of communication have largely not been reciprocated, other than short, incomplete answers. Thus, I have felt stuck for over 2 years. Now the lawyers are involved, and it is out of my control (not that I was ever in control to begin with).

I have continued in my daily Bible reading. I could write very little for a long time, and whatever I wrote was a labor and a chore. I have continued to be faithful to the local church I attend, attending weekly small groups and Bible studies, as I can, and I continue to be involved in Administer Justice, a faith-based legal aid organization. I have continued to lean on God and lean into his presence in my life (more or less successfully at times), so I am doing OK

Thus, when my friend and sister in Christ asked me if I am doing OK, I said with honesty, “Yes, but I feel like I need to move on, and I need to regain my footing. I have been in limbo for over 2 years. I wish I could be content in my circumstances, but I am not there.”

As God would have it, read the following passage in my daily reading plan for the year this morning:

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with troubles, with persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NET

As I sit here stunned by the timing of this reading, I am struck that contentment is a choice that we make. It doesn’t just happen to us. We choose to be content in our circumstances. 

Perhaps, it doesn’t mean that we must feel contentment. Perhaps it simply means that we choose to be content, to stop complaining, to stop waiting for things to change, to “seize the day”, as the popular saying goes, to let go of the excuses for why I am not doing everything I can do to be who God made me to be today.

I got out of bed this morning after reading these things and meditating on them, and I chose to worship God and praise Him instead of listening to a podcast, as I often do, while getting ready for the short ride into the office. God was with me as I offered a “sacrifice of praise”.

It was a sacrifice of praise, because I didn’t feel like praising Him! I often don’t, and it’s easier to occupy my mind with podcasts and music. There is nothing wrong with that, but I realized this morning that I need to be more intentional. I need to choose to be content and to praise God even when I don’t feel like it.

God’s Radical, Generous Unfairness

This theme is, perhaps, more prominent in Scripture than we might realize.

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If you are like me and most people I know, the parable of the workers in the vineyard is hard to understand and appreciate. This parable that Jesus told is recorded in Matthew 20:1-16. Jesus set the context of the parable with the statement,

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.”

matthew 20:1-2

The context of this is a parable is the kingdom of heaven.

According to the parable, a vineyard owner hired some workers for the day to work in his vineyard. Those first workers began early in the morning, and they agreed to work for a denarius. The comments in the margin of the NIV translation notes that a denarius was the usual wage paid for a day’s work at that time. This makes sense so far.

As the parable goes, the vineyard owner went back out to the marketplace throughout the day, and he continued to solicit people to come work in the vineyard, saying, “I will pay you whatever is right.” And so, additional workers began working at 9:00 AM, at noon, at 3:00 PM, and again at 5:00 PM.

When the work day ended at 6:00 PM, the vineyard owner told his foreman,

“Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Mathew 20:8

Beginning with the workers who started at 5:00 PM, each one was paid a denarius. The workers who began at 3:00 PM were also paid a denarius, and so on.

When the workers who began the day early and worked through the entire day stepped forward, they expected to get more than the other workers. Each one, however, only received a denarius.

They naturally began to complain to the vineyard owner about the unfairness of the vineyard owner. Why should the workers who worked only an hour (or three hours or just half a day) receive the same compensation as the workers who worked all day? Doesn’t that seem unfair?

The early workers agreed to work for a denarius; they got what they agreed to work for; and a denarius was, in fact, the going rate of compensation for a day’s work. From that standpoint, the wage they were paid was fair, but why should a worker who worked for only one hour be paid the same wage?

The relative compensation seems patently unfair to us. Though the first workers got what they bargained for and got what was considered to be a fair wage, the later workers got the same wage for less work.

One thing I had not noticed before is that the point of this parable is to provoke our sense of fairness. How do we know that?

Go back and look at verse 8: Jesus says the vineyard owner specifically informed the foreman to pay the last workers first … in front of all the other workers. If he had paid the first workers first, they would have gotten what they expected, been satisfied with it, and left – not knowing that the later workers were paid the same wage. Instead, he made a point of paying the last workers first.

This parable “works” precisely because it offends our sense of fairness. It seems God expects it to offend us! But what does that say about God?

Continue reading “God’s Radical, Generous Unfairness” →

The Way of Righteousness and the Holy Command: The Way

We escape the corruption of the world by the way of righteousness and the sacred command. But, what if we lose the way and don’t know the sacred commandment?

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I started this short series focusing on the second epistle of Peter where Peter warns his readers about false prophets with “eyes full of adultery”, greed, and depravity who are slaves to their own sin. These people seduce the unstable and entice others by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh. Peter says,

It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

These are fearful words of warning. Anyone who might feel enslaved to sin has likely felt angst when reading this words.

In the previous article, I note that the actions Peter describes are the fruit of people who have “known the way of righteousness” and the “sacred [holy] command” and have turned their backs and walked away. The fruits are the symptoms, not the cause.

The important thing for us, therefore, is to know the way of righteousness and the holy commandment, and not to turn our backs on them! In this follow up to that introductory article, I will focus on the way of righteousness.

Continue reading “The Way of Righteousness and the Holy Command: The Way” →