Where Is the God of Justice?

Oyez, oyez!  Hear ye, hear ye!  This court is now in session.  The Honorable judge Malachi presiding.  Case #  517.  Post-exilic Israel vs. God.   The attorneys for the litigants may give their opening statements.

Thank you, your honor.  Our contention, our grievance is this:  Where is the God of justice?  Can we be sure there IS a God?  We propose that, if there is a God, that God is a liar.  Prophets have come saying, “This is the word of the Lord. Israel will be great again!  It will rival the days of kings David and Solomon.  The temple you rebuild will be more glorious, more splendid than the temple built by Solomon. There will be prosperity throughout the land, a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.  (So to speak)  All nations will flock to your door; THEY will be the subservient ones.”  We are suing for breach of promise.  “The word of the Lord” is evidently a word not to be trusted.

It’s easy to commiserate with the Israelites returning from exile in Babylon.  A couple of generations after deportation from their beloved land, after living as second class citizens in Babylon, Israel is suddenly under a new regime.  Derision and suspicion of their religion is replaced by a tolerance for their God.  Persians have conquered Babylon, and King Cyrus is more accepting of differences. And, in fact, sanctions Israel’s return to its homeland.

Imagine the joy of those who chose to return.  The 350-mile trek is passed in rejoicing with traveling companions, and singing, “We’re marching to Zion.”  (sing?)  Zion, (that is, Jerusalem) is a place of refuge and safety, a place one may live the good life.  Parents and grandparents of the returnees had rhapsodized about HOME.

Imagine their shock when they climb the hill and find the “holy city” pretty much as it was when war prisoners left.  Piles of rubble where a wall once stood.  The temple had been stripped of its gilded altars, rich hangings and silver candlesticks. Then set fire to.  Ashes still lay clumped amongst the stones that did not burn. —  Picture western NC after Helene, communities in Los Angeles after wildfires.

Another generation later, the temple is finally almost finished.  Life was hard.  It was difficult to work on rebuilding city walls and a temple along with taking care of everyday needs.  Families needed to erect their own shelter, secure food.  The soil was rocky.  Some years rainfall was insufficient for growing.  Little to eat meant little energy.  When one did find time to spend on community rebuilding, they found resistance from neighboring communities, who didn’t want a viable Jerusalem.  In addition to political maneuverings, there was physical intervention.  What was built during the day was pulled down at night.  Additional human resources were needed for someone needed to stand guard every night.

Maybe Israel had a point?  Was there evidence that God loved them?

Malachi is written as a court drama.  Israel’s usual form of judicial proceedings was held at the city gates.  Disputations between individuals were usually decided there. Property issues and transactions were decided there.  But more complex issues were taken to the temple to be adjudicated by a priest.  Malachi images himself as the priest/judge and also acts as God’s advocate.

Back in the courtroom:  Malachi does not defend; he stands defense on its head and becomes the plaintiff, speaking for God.

Malachi as the accuser:  Excuse me, excuse me!  You have called yourselves the people of God and yet you question my existence, you ask for concrete evidence of my love for you? You want to know why inequity exists?

You call good that which is evil.    You consult horoscopes and fortune tellers to plan your future.  You find it okay to commit adultery .  You accept lies as truth. You commit perjury and fraud and make false oaths, putting yourself first, not caring who is harmed as a result.  You don’t pay fair wages. Exploitation is the name of the game.  You act unjustly—demonize the stranger in your land when I have expressly said to treat them as one of your own; you ignore the plight of the disenfranchised, create social outcasts.  You withhold aid from those who are in dire need:  the poor, those with no means of support such as widows and orphans.  Women are nonentities, are used and abused.  You take the goodness of the earth for granted and misuse its resources.

And priests (BTW, as Baptists, we are all priests; no distinction between clergy and Everyman/Everywoman), what is your excuse?  You accept contemptuous offerings.  Instead of bringing the best they have, people bring in roadkill!  And you say, “That’s fine, just throw it up there on the alter!  We’ll burn it after awhile.  (Just as an aside:  There’s a difference between the smell of a grilling steak and the burning of offal. Are people going to continue accepting offal which offends the nose of God? )  ”You have become indifferent to the plight of your congregants, You have failed to instruct in right living, have failed in transmitting who I am, what I require.  (Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God).

Malachi as judge: Here’s the verdict.  God loves you.  In spite of your inconsistency, in spite of your rebellion, your mockery, your disbelief, God loves you and has plans for saving creation.   It is God who convicts, cleanses, and revives– gives new life.

In the  Hebrew scriptures, Malachi and other prophets pointed to a new way.  The time of the prophets was over, but someone else was to come.  One to inaugurate a new era, one to more effectively mirror God’s character, to more effectively communicate God’s deep and abiding love, One who will more faithfully live out God’s blueprint for right living.

Some five hundred years later, in the Gospel of Luke, a baby, Jesus, is presented at the Temple by his parents.  Good, practicing Jews, they carry out the regulation of dedicating their first-born to the Lord.  “God, we’re giving this child to you.”  And then were amazed at all the affirmation they received about Jesus.

I was born to a teen-age mother, not as young as Mary, but not 20 yet.  While pregnant, she dedicated me to the Lord, looking for a boy she hoped would be a preacher.  I was female and that hope was redirected.  Mama was amazed when, well into middle age,  I was ordained to the pastorate, even though she had been totally sincere in giving me up to God.  God honors holy yearnings while working through the circumstances of a life.

But—back to the Jerusalem Temple:  An old man named Simeon is there.  He believes implicitly in God’s promise of a Messiah and has prayed fervently, “O God, I want so urgently to see your anointed one.  Just let me live until the promise is delivered.”  He comes to the Temple as Mary and Joseph arrive and takes Jesus into his arms.

“Lord, now I can die content! For I have seen the Savior you have given to the world.  He is the Light that will shine upon the nations, and he will be the glory of your people Israel.”

As Simeon was talking to Mary and Joseph and giving thanks to God, a prophet Anna was in the Temple, too.  She also began thanking God and exclaiming to her whole world:  “The Messiah is here, the Messiah is here!”

While still a baby, Jesus already had witnesses to who he is.  Angels appeared to Mary, to Joseph and to a bunch of shepherds, who added their own testimony.  Sages from further east appeared, witnessed,  and verified the witness of the heavenly bodies as to who Jesus is.

Others would witness to Jesus’s identification.  “You are the Christ,” affirmed Peter.  The Roman centurion at the cross cried, “Surely this man was the Son of God.”  As Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River, he was also baptized by the spirit of God, who witnessed, “You are my much loved Son.”

My witness to Jesus is this:  I know that the Greek “Christ” and the Hebrew “Messiah” mean “The anointed one.”  I learn from the gospels in the Bible that Jesus’ s idea of “anointed one” was different from the perception of his disciples.  I read in The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible in an article by David Bauer that Jesus , contrary to popular opinion of political and military rule, believed the Christ to be one who emphasized “salvation from the forces of cosmic evil, such as [estrangement from God], sickness, death, and uncleanness by an obedience to God that involved the repudiation of the power systems of the world.”

Jesus was really into God – all in.  He was consumed with revealing the heart of God.  As he responded to John the Baptist, “…those who are blind can see. The lame are walking without a limp.  The lepers are completely healed.  The deaf can hear again.  The dead come back to life.  And the poor are hearing the Good News.”

Jesus presents himself to the world as being wholly dedicated to God.

He told his followers, “Greater things than these you will do”

To be a follower means to be a copycat!

Jesus also said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”

Are we, too, asking Where is the God of justice?  Three points.  1.Jesus told his followers, “Greater things than these you will do.  2. To be a follower means to be a copycat!  3.  Jesus also said “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.

Where we plead for, insist on, demonstrate    justice   — THERE we find God.

Prayer:  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our Strength and our Redeemer.  You are the one who saves as we yield to the Holy Spirit, working in and through human flesh.  In the name of the one who showed us how God is incarnated.  Amen.