distributive justice

The well run peasant household… was the biblical tradition’s metaphor for both a well-run World at large and a well-run Country at home.  That is why God acts with “justice and righteousness in the earth (Jeremiah 9:14) and the King with “justice and righteousness in the land (Jeremiah 23:5).  From House through Land to Earth it should always be a matter of distributive justice and restorative righteousness.  Hence the biblical tradition can accept extreme poverty as sometimes necessary, but not extreme inequality.  Imagine, it thinks, of entering a peasant household and finding some of the children starving while others are overfed.  That is the obscenity haunting the biblical imagination, causing its God to demand adequacy for all and enough for each.

                               John Dominic Crossan

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The kingdom of God

a realm soaked in righteousness and justice

 

is like a home

 

it is like a home (idyllic to be sure)

where all are accepted, equally

where all are fed, equally 

where all are clothed

and protected

 

equally

 

it is like a home

where the parents don’t play favorites

and where love rules

 

it is like a peasant home

set in the matrix of want and danger

where the members of the family need each other and know

 

that the goal is not for one person

or another to flourish

but for the family to flourish

 

it is not enough for one to survive

at the cost of “others”

all must share, and give, and toil

so that all survive

 

we can work up from there

or down to there

 

The Kingdom of God is like

The world is like

A healthy, just, righteous nation is like

A community is like….

A church is like

 

a home

where love lives

where equality and equity rule

 

this is what I hope for

when I think of my home, my family

this is what I hope for

when I think of my church, my beloved community

this is what I hope for and work for

when I think of my country

 

I cannot live with an ideology of retribution

I cannot live with an ideology of essential selfishness

I cannot live with a strategy of domination and coercion

 

because the biblical imagination

sees such things as obscene

 

and so I strive for justice

not retributive justice, but distributive justice

 

I work so that all are included

All are accepted

All are fed

All are clothed

All are housed

 

I fight for not just equality, but equity

 

It fight for restoration and renewal

not domination and revenge

 

sometimes I fail to be restorative

sometimes I get angry

sometimes I stumble

 

but still I persevere

and

 

I do not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time there will be a harvest if God’s people do not give up.  (Galatians 6:9, loosely)