A JUSTICE BEYOND FAIRNESS
Christ Church – 12.8.2001
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 – “...love sees the invisible” S Weil.
I don’t know if you’ve ever consciously taken note of it, but just about always within the important texts of the Christian Scriptures lies an invitation to look again; to see past a given reality, or to go beyond present attitudes and behaviour, and to do so in order to embrace something life-giving and new, yet (perhaps) not all that obvious.
We see this principle clearly in the Isaiah passage, when the prophet laments over a religiosity, brimming to overflowing with devotional prayer, songs, procession, banners, sacrifice, you name it, and yet seemingly empty of its essence, or its reason for being in the first place.
“You may multiply your prayers, I shall not be listening ....rather (re)learn goodness and search for justice...” A sentiment echoed by the prophet Amos: “Spare me the din of your chanting, let me hear more of your strumming on lyres and let justice flow like water and uprightness like a never failing stream.”
And it’s a challenging standard we see repeated over and over through the ministry of Jesus. “You’ve heard it said….”, however, there is still yet another way to see and respond.
So, a foundational principle of Scripture that would once again remind us of the growing and expanding nature of the Christian life. A growing of consciousness, a deepening of spirit, an expansion of mind. And a principle I want to address through our theme for today: A justice beyond fairness. My point being that faith can all too easily and readily stop at places which on the surface of things look highly acceptable, if not downright respectable. In today’s context that place might be called what is fair or what is right and wrong. A place of seeming order and fixed points of reference, yet in the imaginary language of Harry Potter, this is also the world of the Muggles; a time warp, where people ‘stay put in their photos’, oblivious to the enchantment and transformation that is always the potential gift of human life.
Now at the risk of presenting a plodding review at this point, I do want to say something more about that very helpful book I’m reading at present – alongside Harry Potter I might add – entitled “A Common Humanity.” The author, Raimond Gaita consistently describes life and thought in terms of growth and movement. A goodness beyond virtue, evil beyond vice and not surprisingly, justice beyond fairness. His thesis being that a common humanity, as a social and political goal, can only be achieved in the touching, in the experiencing, in the daring, in the immersing. It cannot be done from a distance, nor from places of defence and security. In more concrete terms, it cannot be done from our self-satisfied places of ‘rightness’ and others ‘wrongness.’ Or from our normality and other’s ‘lesser’ expressions of normality. This being the crux of racism in Gaita’s personal experience and estimation.
Now, lest you think this has nothing to do with us, or is totally abstract, I’d invite you to think again. Both on a daily basis so far as the people we meet or evaluate are concerned and also on a national/international scale. Where do we place ourselves in relation to others? Beyond, above, at arms length, or alongside?
In the chapter entitled Justice Beyond Fairness, Gaita looks again at the Mabo decision and why it was such a break-through in our thinking (or some of our thinking), so far as justice is concerned. For rather than Terra Nullius simply being a law, repromulgated on a fairly pragmatic level – an empty land into which Europeans were legally entitled to come by the King’s decree - Mabo embodied a justice based upon the impact of human dispossession and the human anguish experienced by a culture ultimately defined by its relationship to the land. In other words, a relational justice well beyond a legal fairness, thus being in itself the similar hope of Isaiah and the undying vision of Jesus. That is, a justice that goes well beyond the rhetoric of rights and wrongs, and touches the relational core of who we are – people to people, nation to nation. Human experience in respectful and honouring concert with other human experience.
Justice is therefore, not just a pragmatic, useful thing to neatly order society – often in respectable pecking orders. Rather, in the words of Simon Weil, justice is a “beautiful thing”, for love sees what is otherwise invisible and brings it to the fore and redeems/ennobles it. And to quote Gaita at this point:
A concern for justice in community should be, in critical part, a concern that its institutions enable and encourage us always to see, and in seeing to be responsive to the full humanity in each of our fellow human beings. That is why this kind of concern is called a concern for social justice and it is why it is so often connected with compassion.
Defined in such a relational and close at hand way, justice starts and ends here, does it not, and does by its very inclusive and believing nature extending well beyond this community. In such a light, social justice is not solely about causes out there to get involved in – and complex ones at that – but a way of being in relation to others; a non-condescending, understanding and open relationship. In other words, our language need not be couched in what is fair and what is not, who is useful and who is not, who is at fault and who is not – for logically such divisive and defensive language always results in divisive, defensive and petty behaviour. And surely our vision of the Gospel community is grander than that.; a vision of equality and compassion; a happy meeting place of a very diverse, yet common humanity that by its witness to a vital unity in Christ, is well qualified and able to speak in the midst of broader issues.
For example, to take that vision and wisdom into the present and pressing market place, so as to refute the dehumanising and crass language of the Immigration Minister and perhaps even to openly question the predictable or “muggle-like” rhetoric of the Prime Minister, for whom bottom lines and economy always seem more important than real human faces and (often) real human tragedies.
For each, there may be a right and convincing case for fairness, black and white ‘rights and wrongs’, but from a biblical/Christian perspective, there is precious little relational justice – the call to go beyond the obvious, to expand our own human capacity to care through the touching of another. For this is what biblical justice is all about and this is why the prophets and Jesus spoke so strongly to the leaders and institutions of their day and age. Appealing to them to move beyond the letter of the law to the creative and healing spirit of the law. To recapture the grand compelling vision of Shalom – the well being of the community and not just of the privileged comfortable few.
In an age of growing stress and anxiety, this is perhaps not an easy vision to hold and doubly difficult to live out. As we know, anxiety give rise to self-protection, self concern and of course xenophobia (the fear of strangers) – yet that is where the Christian faith can empower and motivate. It can swim against the tide, so to speak. For love, as embodied by Jesus and awash in our midst through the Spirit, can, and does, make a difference. In fact, daring, trust and journeying need no longer be cliches, but daily realities. That the love that finds us wholly worthwhile, precious and acceptable is the very love we are called to encounter and befriend others in and with. A just and strong love that takes our overriding humanity seriously and frees us to embrace the greater vision of a common humanity, wherein love makes others truly visible and we are able to reveal to each other life’s fullness, potential and beauty.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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