"And Will Come Again to Judge the Living and the Dead"

There was way too much to talk about in an hour.  Because of that, I'm not sure if I went in the right direction for this section.  We could talk about justice for weeks - well for the rest of our lives really.  However, we did have some good conversations about justice.  The role playing didn't go quite as well as I was hoping, but I think that had more to do with the scenarios than their participation.

Apostles' Creed Week 9

Review

Read Apostles’ Creed

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended to the dead.  On the Third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

"And Will Come Again to Judge the Living and the Dead"

First, I want to quickly talk about the first part of this phrase.  Last week, we talked about how Jesus ascended into heaven.  We said that this means Jesus is still alive and at work.  This week, we said that Jesus is going to come again.  One of the most important doctrines of Christianity is that Jesus will come again.  We don’t know when or exactly what it’ll look like, but Jesus is going to come back to earth.  But I want to spend more time today on the second part of this: Justice.

What is justice?
(One of my teens brought up the Justice League.  We had a good time talking about this kind of justice.)

How do you think the love of God and the Justice of God work together?

There are two types of justice that we talk about about:
Retributive Justice
Restorative Justice
For a great summary, see:
http://www.cscsb.org/restorative_justice/retribution_vs_restoration.html

What kind of Justice do you see in the American justice system? (Both, but mostly retributive)

Let’s look at some stories of the Justice of God - split up into groups.

Exodus story - all of it, but see Exo 12:33-37 (Justice for slaves and oppressors)
Where and how is Justice happening?

Deuteronomy 10:16-22 (justice for widows and orphans)
Where and how is Justice happening?

Psalm 9:5-10 (Justice is destroying the wicked and providing a safe place for the oppressed and all who turn to him)
Where and how is Justice happening?

Micah 6:6-8 (Justice is doing good, loving kindness, and walking humbly)
Where and how is Justice happening?

Luke 6:27-36 (Bless those who curse you…Be Merciful as your father is merciful)
Where and how is Justice happening?

Revelation 19:11-16 [“The Word of God” (v. 13)  wages war against the nations with the sword that comes from His mouth]
Where and how is Justice happening?
What is the weapon that Jesus uses to wage war? (words that are like a sharp sword)

Regather.

According to these passages, what is God’s justice?

When we’re talking about justice, and love for that matter, in a situation, a good question to ask is, who is the littlest person in the story?  Who is the “least of these,” a phrase from Jesus?

So let’s look at these four scenarios and ask yourself, what is God’s justice in this situation?
I used four scenarios which I bought from a study on Amos:
http://www.nph.com/nphweb/html/waol/itempage.jsp?itemId=BF-11272&catalogId=NA&catSecCd=NA&subCatSecCd=NA&subSubCatSecCd=NA

I won’t write them here for copyright purposes.  However, they were sticky and relevant to the life of a teenager.

Regather and debrief.

Justice isn’t easy.  It’s sticky, complicated, takes prayer, practice, and reading about how God has done justice in the past - i.e. reading Scripture.

It’s something that must be done.
If time, split up into the same four groups and have them discuss how to practice justice in their lives today.

Jesus is going to come back and set the world right.  He is going to restore completely what has been destroyed.  He is going to bring about reconciliation in all creation.  He is going to bring peace, real, true, long-lasting peace.  He is going to bring deliverance from those things that bring death - greed, lust, addictions, all sorts of sins.  Somehow, in some way, God is going to set the world right and, Scripture tells us, all people will worship him.

We have the awesome opportunity to participate in what God wants to do.  Eternal, universal justice won’t come about until Jesus returns and does it.  But we can see pockets of this justice now.  We can be a part of what God wants to do and help bring about pockets of justice in Baker City.  We can become signs of what God desires to do so that all of Baker City can see what kind of God God is, what kind of Justice God enacts.  That’s my challenge to you today.  Live your life leaning into the justice of God, leaning into what God is going to do, as if you can’t wait for Jesus to return.

Let’s prayer.