Dear Friends, we are so grateful for the responses to our first blog post. Please keep those coming.
I’ve heard several stories recently of pastors facing vitriolic responses from parishioners who are politicizing the Gospel message. Those of us who utilize the lectionary have been given a steady diet recently from Luke of passages laser focused on generating justice in the world.
The word justice carries tremendous baggage in our contemporary vernacular as there are many ways to view and interpret the word. The Greek word dikaiosune can be translated as either righteousness, justification, or justice. I believe the preferred translation in most of the instances of “dikaiosune” to be justice.
I understand God’s justice to mean unleashing humans to live fully as the children of God we are created to be. I believe Paul, the evangelists, and other writers of the apostolic scriptures saw the church to be a community of people that live in ways that build, sustain, and perpetuate full and whole life for all from generation to generation. These writers weren’t concerned with what happens after we die. They were concerned with creating a just world and society where all could live into God’s vision of life for ages (zoen aionion).
“The Apostle Paul saw the church to be a community of people that live in ways that build, sustain, and perpetuate full and whole life for all from generation to generation.“
I have had my own recent experiences and heard from others regarding people responding negatively to preaching about justice. Certainly, the effects of media, social media, and political platforms are skewing people’s understanding of justice.
- Are you facing any pushback these days as you strive to proclaim the Gospel in its purity?
- Are you feeling pressure from congregational leaders or participants about what you can or can’t address in worship or bible studies?
- What are you doing to engage people of differing viewpoints in conversation within your faith community?
We encourage you to share your thoughts to these questions either below or in our Forum page on our website (https://illumin8collective.com/forums/). The connections we make through the Collective will deepen as we process these questions together.
Thank you, again, for participating with ILLUMIN8 COLLECTIVE. Please let us know if there are topics that you’d like us to address.
With abiding hope,
Doug
