Month: June 2020
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Individual vs. Corporate Justice
In his fifth woe to the Pharisees, Jesus contrasts justice, mercy and faithfulness to a fastidious accounting of tithes, and assigns not just qualitative superiority but quantitative superiority as well. Weight is a measurable commodity. Jesus places more weight on justice, mercy and faithfulness than he does on tithing; though he is quick to add,…
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Justice: The Book of Nehemiah
In his book Journey to the Common Good, Walter Brueggemann wrote: “The great crisis among us is the crisis of the common good, the sense of community solidarity that binds us all in a common destiny. It keeps together—the haves and the have nots, the rich and the poor. But we face a crisis about…
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Justice Sacred and Profane
To understand what Jesus means about the weightier matters of the law, today we will break down the components that Jesus mentioned, and look at them individually. What is justice? What is mercy? What is faith?—as they are taught by Jesus? Our focus will be on the first of these, on justice—where it comes from,…
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The Law I: Misdemeanors and Felonies
Today, we’re moving on to the fifth of the “woes” Jesus conferred upon the Pharisees. We are not leaving our former topic of blindness behind entirely, because as we’re going to see, over the next few woes Jesus repeats the indictment that they are (spiritually) blind men, blind fools. Here is the context: “Woe to…