Who will preach the Gospel to Glenn Beck?

There is no way around it. Today's post must concern the importance of justice. As a Western Christian with a Reformed background, the concept of justice calls to mind images of courtrooms with judges handing down sentences. This is one and only one element of the biblical theme of justice. This Hebrew concept of tzaddiq is described by Nicholas Wolterstorff as "rectifying justice." This justice concept involves meting out appropriate punishment to a wrongdoer and caring for the victims. An equally important element of biblical justice is represented by the word, mishpat. Wolterstorff describes this idea as "primary justice." This kind of justice is "behavior that, if it was prevalent in the world, would render rectifying justice unnecessary, because everyone would be living in right relationship to everyone else" (Timothy Keller, Generous Justice, 10-11).

Both of these themes are everywhere to be found in the Hebrew Scriptures. They are used to describe who God is and what He delights in (Deuteronomy 10.18-19; Psalm 33.5; Jeremiah 9.23-24). Tzaddiq and mishpat are also to be found in the man who can be described as faithful and righteous before Yahweh (Job 29.12-17; 31.13-28). Furthermore, Jesus himself rooted his mission from the Father in a text from Isaiah which promised good news for the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed (Luke 4.18-19). In this Lukan text we have clear indication from Jesus as to why the Father sent Him. The incarnation was motivated by the Father's concern for social justice.

This is why Timothy Keller says: "If I'm not generous with my money, I'm offending God, which means it's not an option and it is unjust by definition to not share with the poor. It's biblical that we owe the poor as much of our money as we can possibly give away."

So if you are a follower of Jesus and a believer in the Bible, the next time a preacher or a politician or a talk show host tries to discourage you away from addressing issues of social justice, go proclaim the gospel of Jesus to them.      

Who's afraid of Martin Luther King Jr.?

It’s the third Monday in January, so that means we are acknowledging the birthday of one public Christian for which we don’t feel the need to apologize. One of my “Significant Moments from the Day” was the realization that most of the Christians in my life, although they are thankful for holiday, don’t seem to celebrate or even acknowledge the day in any sort of public way. For example, of my 500 or so Facebook "friends," only three of them had any reference on their page to MLK. Now they probably do the same thing (nothing) on Columbus Day or President’s Day. But to me, this holiday should be different. The man was a devoted and public follower of Jesus. The man did an unimaginable amount of good toward equality in this country. These themes: justice, equality and peaceful resistance don’t seem to matter to many of the Christians in my life. But they mattered to Jesus (See his first pubic sermon in Luke 4). Why was this the first year our small Christian School chose to acknowledge the holiday? Why aren’t we more public in our acknowledgment of Martin Luther King Jr.? I’ve got some ideas. Anyone else?