I have also been thinking a lot about Justice. I have been hanging around with the Mennonites for nearly a year now and this is something they talk about a lot. I thought I knew about Justice. You know, as when Justice is served and the bad guys get their due punishment? I've spent most of my 46 years fearing the end of the world; fearing the Justice that God is going to serve up; fearing the punishment. It wasn't until this last prediction of the rapture to happen on May 21st that, if I were honest with myself, I was able to sleep the night before. But I digress.
While reading through Judges and the Prophets recently I noticed a pattern. God seems to be interested in people turning back. Several times it says, "If my people will turn turn from their evil ways... I will be their God." Exile and destruction are a last resort to get people's attention, not to make them suffer as a punishment. The Bible seems to say God's Justice is more about restoration than punishment. Instead of Christ's coming being something awful and bad, it turns out it is good news. It will be a "renewal of all things". God is going to set things right. Every particle of God's good creation will be restored. I guess it is something to look forward to.
Now this can be confusing with groups out there that believe it is their place to make clear certain doctrines of coming conscious punishment. Don't get me wrong. Sin is very real and the consequences are very real too. But, this word "indefatigable". I want some of that! Why would you spend your time sitting around talking about punishment when restoration is available?
There's more good news. This renewal of all things has already begun! And, we can get in on it! Some would like to have us believe it's not coming until later (after the punishment). But as I read it, nothing we do now for God's project will be in vain. God will use it all, every act of compassion, every drink of cold, clean water in Jesus name, every sustainable atom, in the new creation.
Sometimes I get to work with men who abuse. (i.e. "pedophiles" and "women beaters"). Most Christians will tell you there is no hierarchy of sins. That may be true with God, but not us. These are the unforgivable sins in our society, even among Christians. Justice, we think, is that the perpetrators of these kinds of crimes should be punished, period.
This was evident to me several years ago when I was asked to present an alternative Batterers Education Program (BEP) to a state corrections department gathering. This alternative approach had shown immense promise. The outcomes showed lowered recidivism, increased personal responsibility, and lower expulsion rates. No one was really paying attention until they found out it was 12 hours instead of 32. The outcry was incredible. I thought I was going to lose my job. My boss received a letter from the highest judge in the land reprimanding me and reminding me of the need for more hours of "rehabilitation" instead of fewer. There was definitely a discourse of punishment for perpetrators and not restoration in this sub-culture of society. Recently however, I have met fresh faces in the department with an openness to restorative ideas. This has been welcomed, good news.
In her book, Everyday Justice, Julie Clawson says, "If we respect the image of God in all people, then we need to not only heal the ways that image has been marred in the victims of injustice, we need to also heal the ways the image of God is marred in the perpetrators of injustice... so they too (can) eventually be restored as the whole and healed people God created them to be."
I remember hearing Jürgen Moltmann reply to the question asking if he was a universalist, "No, God may be, but there are some people I don't want to see again," he said, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. It is heartening for me to think that we are being indefatigably restored. God knows I need it. Here is a passage I came across about this kind of Justice.
If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places-firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. -Isaiah 58: 9-11 The Message
