This fall, I am preaching a sermon series I have entitled “Justice,” looking at what the Bible has to say about justice and how to evaluate the cultural messages on justice that are all around us. Each week, I have begun with three preliminary comments. First of all, this is not primarily a political sermon series or a social science lecture series. I will be trying to stay in my lane as a pastor, helping our church to know Jesus and to better love Him and love your neighbor. Secondly, I recognize that I will be addressing some sensitive subjects, and I do not expect everyone to agree with every word I speak. I do expect, however, that we will model speaking the truth in love. If you disagree with me on something I say, or have other insights or experience that you feel would enhance my understanding or my teaching, or if something I say does not sit well with you, please speak up. Consider this an invitation to a conversation. And thirdly, my goal in this series is not to help us wag our finger at the world for acting like the world, but to challenge the church to do better in the realm of justice.
As we look at what Jesus has to say about justice this morning, I want to camp out on that last point about wagging our finger at the world vs. doing better as the church for a minute. I have many concerns about the social justice movements of our culture. I think they are very dangerous in how they emphasize what divides us, labeling people by group identities based on skin color, religion, sexuality, gender, and so on, and then calling one group oppressors and the other oppressed. I am fairly confident that is going to make things worse rather than emphasizing what we have talked about in this series, that every human being is created in the image of God and therefore deserves to be treated with dignity and respect and to receive the justice they are due. I think the movements of our day are dangerous in how they often use mob violence, whether in person or online, to advance what they consider justice. Using threats and public shaming or canceling is more likely to advance something evil than something good. And I think they are dangerous in how they promote propaganda and certain agendas while silencing dissenting voices, not allowing for true freedom of speech and a seeking of the truth. This is partly why we are doing this sermon series, to give an alternate – and better – view of justice than what the world is offering.
