viewoutsidethepew

Part of my call from God is to justice. Most of it is on a tiny scale, but on rare occasions it has had national exposure. I have been puzzled, though, that when it comes to justice for myself I have no success.

Some years ago, when my pastoral ministry was suppressed into a footnote of history, I spent a lot of energy seeking justice. The bureaucratic religion did not follow its own regulations, it spent thousands of dollars hiring an investigator who ignored the Bible, and the matter was driven by overt racism.

When the investigator’s report was compiled I responded in detail. When the final report was adopted he hadn’t even corrected the spelling errors (much less the errors of fact). In other words, my response meant nothing.

So we looked to a Christian lawyer (a Baptist deacon) to prepare a complaint before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. This took a lot of effort. Finally, my wife and I concluded that, even if we won the case and recovered the huge financial losses we had incurred, the religion would simply do it again anyway, if they got the chance. Since justice is not winning, but making a difference, we dropped it.

Well, as I was awakened by coughing and sinus trouble (I inherited a flu bug from my Mother and wife) a blinding revelation grabbed my soul even as I was grabbing for another tissue.

Jesus was also falsely accused based on, really, nothing. The proceedings had everything to do with power and nothing to do with morality or legal concerns. That we all know.

What did Jesus do? That we also know – nothing. God was to be glorified in the death of Messiah Jesus, not in any clever court case.

Between coughing and wiping, God made it clear that my justice should only focus on God and the salvation Jesus brought, not my vindication (proving the falseness of the whole matter).

What?!

Jesus was vindicated by the resurrection. Can mine come by anything except my resurrection?

I could write a chapter of my autobiography to explain how important reputation is to my whole clan. But it isn’t important to God.

I was crushed under the weight of carrying a cross made of religion’s malice, but the cross I was called to carry was of service with God’s love.

The bottom line is, when persecuted, we find ourselves in a forum to represent Jesus, not ourselves or our case.

All this is but a mere sketchy summary of a big conversation. That’s all I can say for now.