What God Wants: Do Justice

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Dominique and one of the pastors here. And if you don't know us very well, you might not know that I'm also married to Danny, who was just up here a moment ago. And Danny and I have two sons who are just a few years apart from each other in age. Now it would make sense, wouldn't it, that if we've got two boys, that we would bring them up in the same way. That we would have the same rules in the house, that we would discipline them the same, that we would spend the same amount of money on their presence and have all the same guidelines for them. It would seem fair, wouldn't it? Our younger son, Jacob, when he was much younger, that adults now, because those of you who don't know us, when Jacob was much younger, he would every now and then come to us and say, "It's not fair." Matthew gets to go on the computer more than me, or Matthew doesn't have to do this and you make me do it, or how come you pay me to do this and you don't pay me to do it? It's not fair. And on a surface level, he was right, it didn't seem fair. But Matthew has autism, an ADHD, an anxiety, and for many years life was very, very hard for him. And we would say to Jacob, "You're right, it's not fair." It's not fair that he has to deal with this, and so things have to be different. And so to be fair, things had to be different. Fairness wasn't about being treated the same. Have a look at this image on the screen. On the left, yep, on the left, we have three children trying to watch sport, and they've each got a box to stand on. But as you can see, height can be an advantage, or a disadvantage. I know all about that, I've lived with that my whole life. Treating these three people the same is not fair. Treating them differently is actually fair. So these terms, fair, right, terms like justice, equality, they need a little unpacking because we all have different things in our minds as to what they mean. And so we've got a series for these three holiday weeks called What God Wants. And the verse we're basing the series on is Micah 6 verse 8. He has shown you a mortal what is good, and what does the Lord require of you to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Today we're looking at this first concept to act justly. And depending on which translation you're looking at, it might say to act justly, it might say to do justice, to do what is right. There's different versions of what that means, and I'm going to use today to do justice because I think that encapsulates what it means the best. So it's the first thing in this verse that God says that he requires of us to do justice. And so I think that means we should really consider how we apply that. What does it mean for us? And I'm going to put to you today that to do justice actually means it's about making someone else's problem, my problem. Justice is about making someone else's problem, my problem. I wonder what you think of when I say that word justice. What comes to your mind? You might think of our legal system in the courtroom, a judge, dispensing or a jury, dispensing justice. You might think, "Oh, justice is when people get what's coming to them." That's justice. You might think of social justice, looking out for those in the world who are at a disadvantage and need help. In our own legal system, we have Retributive Justice, which is the fit punishment for a crime that's been committed, and then there's restorative justice, which is more about making up for the harm that's caused by injustice. There's all different types of justice. And the English word for justice means upright, upright, not crooked, or fair, or right. That's what the English word means. In the Bible, we have two words that are translated justice and righteousness and they are often together in the Bible. And our verse in Micah doesn't have them together. It only has the word justice. But the readers of Micah or the heroes, the people of Israel that Micah was speaking to, they would have linked these concepts. They would have known that from their scriptures. And so we need to look at both to understand what we're looking at here. Now, we think of righteousness often as something inside of ourselves, our own inner moral compass that we need to live by. But throughout the Bible, righteousness is actually about how we relate to other people. There's a standard that God has set for how we relate to other people. So I'm defining today righteousness as the standard, we've got the wrong slide up. Can we go back one? Hmm, I haven't got that slide. The standard that God has set for how we relate to people. Hang on, I'm going to read it properly because I'm being distracted by the slides. No, I don't have that slide. Righteousness and justice. Okay, I think I've given you the wrong PowerPoint. Not to worry, we'll just go with it. So righteousness could be defined as the standard of right relationship between all people. I'll say it again since it's not on the screen. The standard of right relationship between all people. That's righteousness. And justice is taking action to restore that standard. So this idea of justice, it's about how we relate to each other. And it's shown in who God is too. It's part of His character. So let's hope we can look at this passage from Psalms. I don't think it's in there. No, okay. Thankfully it's in my notes. Let me read it to you. It's very frustrating. Somewhere at home there's a different memory stick. He gives justice. This is from some somewhere and it's not on the screen, but it's not in my notes either. He's justice. And this Hebrew word for justice here is Mishpah. And it's actually the same word that's in our Micah verse. He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The Lord frees the prisoners. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down. The Lord loves the Godly. The Lord protects the foreigners among us. The Lord is the best of us. want from us. And I think it's a question we probably should always ask in every generation, every person, what does God require of us? And this is not asking what do we need to do to be saved because Jesus did that for us. Jesus has given us that righteousness. Instead it's, we're saved, we're the people of God. What does God want us to do? So Micah firstly says, what can we do? What does God require? God has this case of injustice against us. Can we bring more offerings? Can we bring rams? Can we bring thousands of rams? Thousands that's a big offering? 10,000 rivers of olive oil. This is not the right slide. I decided that should not be on the screen in school holidays. Micah says, Micah basically goes through this list and it becomes more and more precious and more and more impossible for the people to actually do. He's basically going, what do you want? What can we do? And the answer? Can we do that? Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with your God. This Hebrew word for justice, Mishpat. It's used in the Bible, or in the Old Testament, over 400 times. And most of the time when it's used, it's got something to do with mercy. So this is not a justice about making rules and making sure everyone follows the rules. It's making sure that everyone can actually do well, making sure it's fair for everyone with all the differences that we have. We're going to look at a couple of examples of Mishpat in the Bible to help explain it. So we talked about the 12 tribes of Israel, how they were all given land and they were all able to provide for their families and their community. Except that there was a group of people who were designated to look after the temple. So there were priests, groundskeepers and whoever else that took to look after everything to do with all those tribes coming together and worshipping God. And these people were called the Levites. They didn't have land to farm. They didn't have the time to farm. They were busy looking after the temple. And so it was agreed that each tribe would bring a tithe. That they would bring 10% of their income and their food and they would provide for the Levites. And we read in Deuteronomy 18 that this temple tax, if you like, is called the Levites Mishpat, the Mishpat of the Levites, the justice of the Levites. So Israel, the Levites have no income, but I want you to make their problem, it's providing for the Levites. It would be an injustice to not provide for them. And so this tax was justice for them. Another group of people talked about in the Bible in relation to their Mishpat is the vulnerable. And we saw it in our verse about God from the Psalms, the widow is the orphan, the immigrant or the foreigner and the poor. And there's a verse in Zechariah that says, "This is what the Lord Almighty says." We'll go with that version. This is what the Lord of Heaven's Army says, judge fairly and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners and the poor and do not scheme against each other. We find vulnerable people all through the Bible. And we find God saying that his people need to show true Mishpat. So where it says, judge fairly, it actually is show true justice, true Mishpat, with mercy and kindness. And when this happens, all those people are looked after, the poor, the fatherless, the foreigner, the widow, they're not oppressed and they don't have to worry for their safety and their well-being. And that's a hallmark of a just society. So we don't need to limit this merciful justice to the widow, orphan, foreigner and the poor. That's who the vulnerable people were in the society in Micah's day and in Zechariah's day. Those people were not connected in to a family. There was no provision. So who were the people who fall through the gaps? It was these people. And God wants us to ensure justice by ensuring that everyone has a fair go. By noticing vulnerable people and making sure that we make their problem, our problem, making their problem, my problem. Something we also find in Micah is prophecies about a future Messiah who we know is Jesus. And in Jesus, we see the fulfillment of this justice, this Mishpat. Jesus said in Luke 11, 42, "What sorrow awaits you Pharisees? For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things." It was similar to when Micah was suggesting all the offerings they could make to bring justice back into their lives. And like Jesus says, we should make offerings, but more importantly, do justice. Now you guys, if you know me, know that I love to sing in church. I love to sing to God and offer myself in worship. It's a form of worship. And I offer myself in humility and for the love of God. But look at this verse in Amos. "I despise your festivals." Listen to this verse in Amos. "I despise your festivals and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your offerings, I will not accept them. Take away from me the noise of your songs. I won't listen to the melody of your harps, but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. I think God would say to me, you should sing to me, yes, but don't neglect the more important things. Don't forget to miss part. Don't forget to have a merciful attitude towards justice. Don't forget to make other people's problems for your problems. We need to care and we need to act on it." I heard a quote from Christine Cain the other day saying, "I think we're confusing compassion and sympathy. We see injustice and it makes us cry. We feel it deep down. It's horrible, it's awful, but then we walk away or we keep scrolling. We don't do justice." This word, "mischpart" is not about a feeling. It's not feeling bad for someone's situation. It's doing something about it. It's stepping into the injustice that we come across. It's about making other people's problems, our problems. Now, Christine Cain, who I just quoted, she's doing that by leading an organisation that frees people from human trafficking. It's amazing. Our church family here did mishpart over the last few weeks by sponsoring another 37 Compassion Children. We made their problem, our problem, not just today, but for many years. We also get the chance in everyday moments and in conversations to do justice, to make someone else's problem, our problem, to do what we can to make sure the vulnerable people in our community are getting mishpart justice. Sometimes justice is simply noticing someone on their own, maybe leaving your friends to go and be with this person and be a friend, or inviting someone into your friendship group. They're on their own. Who's problem is it? We need to make it our problem. So sometimes justice is just a walk across a room, or the school yard, or wherever you find yourself. And for us as a church, there's a broader sense of what doing justice means. How are we looking out for the vulnerable people in our community? Who are they even? None of us are perfect. None of us get it right all the time. You and me, we're all just human. Where all mortal? And Micah says, "Yeah." And God has shown you mortal, human, what is good, and what God requires of you. Do justice. Do justice. So in our church, in our families, in our everyday lives, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. And let's make other problems, other people's problems, our problems. Let's pray together. Father God, we're sorry for when we don't get this right. We don't want to be hard-hearted towards other people God. Suffer our hearts. Help us be willing to make other people's problems, our own problems. Give us the strength and may your spirit flow through us to do justice in your way, God. Amen.