A Righteous Branch

 Jeremiah 23: 1-6

A Reading for Christ the King Sunday

“A righteous branch … will deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land …The Lord is our righteousness.”

Jeremiah preaches against the people of Israel and Judah in images of human connections; unfaithful spouses, unfaithful children, cheating neighbors, as well as worship of personal idols. We can get lost in the weeds of specific (pet) sins that we find particularly bad, but I don’t think that is the point here. Jeremiah reveals a “core” problem which is reflected in the way people were treating not just God, but each other; how they (we) treated, or ignored, the marginalized and how they (we) tried to take advantage of each other for personal gain. 

The issue is self-interest, me first living. The specific sin is different for each person, but the core problem is the same; tension between God and tension among ourselves created by our self-interest (sin). The problems this kind of living causes are clear throughout the Bible. 

Into this, Jeremiah is moved to proclaim hope. Hope that one will emerge who will be righteous (God-interested and other-interested) One who will not deal with the people (us) in a self-interested way; rather, whose core will be God-interested and other-interested. The righteousness of that one will become our righteousness. A new Adam appears; Christ is our righteousness, our righteous branch.

This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday. We celebrate that we have one who would transform us to people who are God-interested, people who live justice for others and for God’s creation. 

Aside:

I have come to use the term self-interest as synonymous with the term sin because today society doesn’t really think in terms of “sin”, but self-interest is something we all get. It is the bedrock (the idol?) of modern culture; the self-made man, the individual, personal responsibly, personal rights… It is the language of our economics, our politics, our personal relationships. But, self-interest as one’s only or primary guide can lead to all sorts of things, some not so positive. It seemed only logical, then, to continue that motif when talking about our relationship to God, or maybe God’s will for a relationship with us. I have often been heard to comment that Jesus boiled down God’s law to; Love God - Love others. Thus, you will hear me refer to God-interest - Other-interest. I started thinking about this several years ago as a result of a discussion in my Issues in Economics class. We were discussing the concept of self-interest in economics, and a young lady asked the question, “ Would you say that the original sin (Adam and Eve) was self-interest?” Wow, from the mouths of children. I have found this a useful way to look at my life and with which to understand Scripture. I hope you can get some use out of it as well. 

Some thoughts on Justice

 

What is Justice?

The devotion I read this morning was based on Amos 5 which has some pretty strong accusations against a culture that is both successful and religious, a culture which sounds a bit like ours with its flourishing economy, recreational life-style and nods to public religiosity. Lately, I have been playing with the idea of God’s justice and what it means to be righteous, so several passages in this and surrounding chapters jumped out at me.

    “Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground!”

     “...who afflict the righteous, take bribes and push aside the needy in the gate” 

    “Seek good and not evil,...establish justice in the gate.”

    “...,I despise your festivals,...the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon.”

    “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” 

    “But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood”

It seems to me that we often expect (want?) God to mete out justice on the “unrighteous”, assuming that we are the righteous and others are the ones who deserve God’s justice, the ones who have sinned in ways that we find to be particularly egregious. But, as I read scripture, I find two ways of seeing God’s justice. One is a reference to judgement, but the other and possibly the one that pops up more is something quite different. In this second way of seeing justice, God’s people (and creation?) get what is needed, protection, shelter, necessitates of life, and it appears that God expects those who have been blessed with greater abundance to carry it out- make sure that it happens. Is this, then, a glimpse of what it means to be righteous, to be just; applying our blessings to the welfare of others, not taking advantage of the weak, rather helping the weak, caring about the marginalized?

In Amos, the writer charges the people with turning this idea of justice on its head. Those who had power seem to have considered it justice to take advantage of those not as well off, and to mock those who would act righteously. Are they presenting their wealth and power as evidence of their righteousness? (And possibly the others lack of it as their just desert?) The writer declares that God doesn’t want these “offerings of well-being” Rather, God wants people to live justly with each other as their worship - their sacrifice.

“Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”