Living the Word

Securing Justice
By Peter B. Price

"God’s saving justice is never served by human anger," points out James in his letter to Christians struggling against the power structures that threatened to consume the Christian community. The readings of the next few weeks reveal the struggle between the forces of sins in the human heart, the principalities and powers, the saving grace of God, and the vision of a restored and renewed creation.

We shall have to face choices: whether to place our trust in the political, economic, social, and eccleisal structures that offer us the promise of security now, or to opt for the One who has the words of eternal life. We too will need to face our sin, our complicity, our own betrayal of the One who "came to bring the good news of peace" (Ephesians 2:17). The only justice worth securing is that of God’s saving justice. May God’s strength be made perfect in our weakness.

August 3
Deserving of Death
Psalm 51:1-12; 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13; Ephesians 4:1-16; John 6:24-35

The man who did this deserves to die, declares David, as the prophet Nathan tells him a parable that exposes David's guilt for the murder of Uriah, following his seduction and adultery with Uriah's wife Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:5-6; see also, "Abuse of Command," p. 22). Tyrants know when they have done wrong. When massacres occur—whether in the clinical holocaust of the European concentration camps, the butchery in Rwanda or Burundi, the long legacy of South African apartheid, or the death squads of Latin America—the perpetrators cannot escape the dark knowledge of their sin.

King David holds a significant place in the story of God's dealings with humanity. His status as ancestor of the Messiah, and the comparison of his throne to the defining movement of founding the Jewish state, reveals that significance. We should perhaps not be surprised that one of the two great psalms of lament over personal sin (Psalm 51) is attributed to David's realization of the magnitude of his wickedness. Personal responsibility for wrongdoing is something we all need to face. But with forgiveness goes the steadying power of God to "create...a clean heart...and renew a right spirit" (Psalm 51:10).

Witness to the rule of God in our lives has credence when we accept Paul's injunction "to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you were called." Individual integrity is essential to the witness of the body. Witness is to be marked by "humility, gentleness, patience, and the supporting of each other in love" (Ephesians 4:1-3). Jesus challenges us to understand that "the bread of God which comes down from heaven gives life to the world" (John 6:33), as it calls for rejection of scapegoating violence that threatens to consume humanity as it consumed King David.

Reflection and Action

How is your life worthy of the vocation to which you were called? How does your church life measure up against the virtues of humility, gentleness, supporting in love, and belief in God who gives life to the world?

PETER B. PRICE is general secretary of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, an Anglican mission agency based in London, and practices—with his wife, Dee—a ministry of hospitality.