Category: Uncategorized

It’s been an interesting week in the realm of pop court cases.  By which I mean, two completely separate trials – one of an ex-Governor of the State of Illinois, and one of a mother in Florida.  In this past week, there has been arm-pumping by Illinois residents, even by many who admit the punishment for Rod Blagojevich will probably not be adequate.  There has more recently been an outpouring of complaints over the “not guilty” verdict of Casey Anthony, a Florida mother accused of murdering her daughter.  I didn’t follow either case closely, with the pop-court-media-circus extending the entertainment value far beyond what was necessary.  But it seems both were guilty, even though the prosecutors for Ms. Anthony could not provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

It seems much of the work in these cases, and many more like them, is focusing the attention and desire for “Justice” onto a single person/act/verdict/punishment.  There is very little desire/pleading/mourning for the fact that things like this happen.  Crimes like these are committed.  We live in a broken world, one where we very much need for God to move, and move completely/fully/wholly.

So what of our response as citizens of the Kingdom of God?  There are plenty of verses that admonish us to “seek Justice”.  We are created by a Just God, and in His image.  Even though that image needs repairing, His fingerprint of what is “just” is among us.  Even as young children, fighting over a toy, there is a desire for someone to come and make things “just” once again.  Of course, we may respond differently if we’re the ones acting in an unjust manner.  Not quite as exciting.

I believe we are called to remind the world around us that it’s not as much about these individual cases as the media sometimes wants us to believe.  Of course these individual instances matter.  It’s horrible that Caylee Anthony was killed, and our prayer is that whoever was involved will experience the “setting things right” and justice that God offers.  But to limit our weeping to the Anthony family, or our own when we experience such horrors, is to miss out on connecting with the heart of God. 

A heart that weeps just as much that someone would commit such an act, as for the victim of it.  A desire for a world to be set right.  To be made whole.  To experience restoration and renewal in a way that we can experience in small ways here and now, but look forward to being flooded by, someday.

There are many looking at each other this week, asking the question “Where is Justice?”  May we, as followers of God – the author of what is “Just”, and who has promised to set all things right once again – speak as believers of that promise.  Justice is coming.  Not simply as punishment for those who murder and walk away.  Not simply as a supernatural “nod” to the “justice” we’ve administered ourselves.  But as a complete and cosmic renewal/restoration toward the Lord we’ve already begun to serve/declare to a universe in need of healing.

Recently Addison (our 4 year old) was playing with action figure Jesus among many other toys along with her younger sister, Sophie.  I enjoy watching them play, though usually it’s hard not to get invited in.  They were beginning to play with several “dolls” at the same time, and setting up what was happening.  That’s when it happened.

Addie stood up from where they were playing, and carried action figure Jesus all the way across the room, setting him down on a chair.  “Jesus is all the way over here, because he is far far away from all of us in the real world.”

Yikes.  All of a sudden, this topic about what God has in store for us, which has fundamental roots in “Where Heaven is” seems like much more central than previously thought.  We know that where the Son resides presently is not in some far off location, that only if we had a telescope powerful enough, we could spot.  Yet, without thinking about it, that is precisely the theology many Christians subscribe to.  That Jesus is somewhere “up there”, and that someday he will come “down here” to take those who love him to a portion of the galaxy somehow untouched by sin for all these years. 

How is that conveying the fact that many times in the New Testament, we find words describing our savior such as “Immanuel”, “God With Us”, or even bluntly “I am with you…”?

I’ve talked before, and better interpreters and theologians have said with better language, where Jesus is presently seems much more another dimension of the physical space as we understand it right here.  In the resurrected Christ, we see the marriage of these dimensions, and the possibilities of moving between these dimensions in our future “resurrection bodies”.  But at the moment, our connection to this ultimate “reality” is veiled until God determines to lift that veil, revealing and pouring Himself out completely.  Calling our present existence a veiled reality is not escapism.  For this is the very physical world that God desires to lift the veil, revealing Himself as Lord and pouring out his resurrection life, bringing about the complete restoration of.  We live here and now as citizens of that now and future Kingdom…announcing Jesus as Lord by our very lives. 

He is not crouched behind a dimensional rock, hiding in wait for “someday”, either.  He has given us His Spirit, so that we might actually be involved/freed here and now, to live in the way we will exist when the veil is lifted completely.  He actually IS Immanuel – God With Us.

So how to communicate that to our 4 year old?  No, actually, you don’t have to move Jesus across the room.  But she’s not slow enough to think he’s physically standing right next to her, albeit invisibly.  I suppose this is why we don’t depend upon one lesson, one moment of salvation, one explanation of Christ that forever exists in the mind of our children.  For now, perhaps we’ll buy a wedding veil, and throw that over Jesus….