Missional Dynamics: Righteousness & Justice
Last year, when representing YWAM at local church on their missions weekend, Kim & I had the opportunity of listening the guest speaker, James Cantelon. During his message he shared a story about his time pastoring a significant and large Evangelical congregation in Jerusalem. An all too common experience in his position was to respond to Christians showing up at his door with “prophetic words” from the Lord, most of them bizarre. Inspired by one such encounter (where God supposedly spoke to a woman in Texas through her teddy-bear telling to go to Jerusalem), Cantelon decided make a thorough study of the Old Testament prophets/prophecies, a common source cited by these delusional fanatics.
What emerged for him was a surprise. He already knew that Biblical prophecy had far more to do with “forth-telling” than “fore-telling”, but he saw two themes consistent throughout- a call for Israel to a) return to right relationship with God and b) return to a right relationship with their neighbours. In essence, the message was about righteousness and justice. (For a fuller exploration of his ideas, get his excellent book “When God Stood Up: A Christian Response To AIDS In Africa”).
I believe that this is clearly reflected in the Jesus Creed (ht: Scot McKnight) to love God and love your neighbour. It is easy in our culture, where the word “love” is thrown around so flippantly, to fail to see the connection between love and justice. Certainly we know that being unjust would be unloving, but we fail to see how significant the connection between the two is. In a study of Scripture, we begin to see the theme of justice being central in its emphasis on protecting, serving and loving the marginalized and standing against the systems/powers of injustice in the world.
When we consider, then, what it means to fulfill Christ’s command to love God and others, we must read it through this more thorough Biblical understanding. No longer are we able to see the so called “social gospel” as secondary (or wrong) compared to the “salvation of souls”. Without the whole message of the Gospel and the transformative life of righteousness and justice it requires, we end up preaching and living an anemic expression of faith.
Of course, just as we in the Evangelical church have erred with out under-emphasis on justice, so too can we risk swinging to the opposite extreme of under-emphasizing righteousness. Notice, I am not saying over-emphasizing or over-valuing either, as I am not sure, ultimately, that is possible. It is should never be one at the expense of the other, but both mutually being the life blood of missional, incarnational living.
Therefore, as we seek to discover and live out all that it means to be missional, I believe it is critical that we see these two foundations as critical within that. To incarnationally fulfill our vocation as the Body of Christ, the Church, we must remember and embrace the mutually dependent dynamics of righteousness and justice.
What do you think?
