A Time for Breathing

Classes have ended at my institution, as have the weekly chapel services at which I officiate. So, I will not be working on weekly biblical texts for a while. However, I will still write here on occasion over the summer months, as topics come to mind, or as times occur when I feel like just spouting off! In the meantime, may you enjoy the coming days of warmth and flowers and summer showers. Peace be with you.

If Not Now, When? Revelation 21:10, 22- 22:5

I teach a religious studies course on Christian social justice, and one of the topics we address is restorative justice. Unlike our criminal justice system, which seeks to punish only, restorative justice seeks to bring all parties together: offender, victim and a mediator. Three central questions frame the proceedings: Who was harmed, what are their needs, and whose obligations are these? The majority of my students do not like restorative justice, they think that it lets a criminal off too easily. Fact is, we have all been so inculcated with the idea that criminals should get what they deserve that it is very difficult to get beyond that thinking and on to a new way of dealing with crime and punishment. The lesson from Revelation continues the theme of the new Jerusalem, and makes the point that those who reside there will not even need the sun or moon, for God's glory will provide adequate lighting. The new Jerusalem will be nothing like what our life experience has been so far. It will be so radically different, in fact, that I think it can only be summed up in a phrase that comes from an old spiritual slave song: When you get to heaven, rub poor lil' Judas's head, (Delores S. Williams, The Christian Century, Oct. 24, 1990. So, the new Jerusalem will be so unlike what we are used to that even someone such as Judas can be accepted and forgiven there? What gives?
Actually, this is nothing new. Christians tend to forget that Jesus forgave even his executioners. Sadly, many people who speak in the name of their faith, saying, "An eye for an eye" when asking for punishment for an offender forget a vital truth: Jesus took that phrase and changed it by continuing on and encouraging us to "turn the other cheek." But that part of the passage is never repeated when folks are seeking revenge, or crying out for criminals to "get what they deserve." Recently, our home was burglarized, and, in addition to computers and other electronics, the thieves took a good deal of heirloom jewelry that can never be replaced. Those items represented gifts that I had given to my wife, the rings for our daughter's upcoming wedding, and items handed down from relatives, now deceased. Just this week came word that the burglars had been caught in the act of robbing another home in our area. The charges are being consolidated, since they committed many robberies. They sit in jail now, awaiting further charges and action. I am haunted, constantly, by the questions that restorative justice asks. Even if we were to drop our charges, they will still go to jail because there are so many other charges against them. But I cannot help but think that some kind of effort in the name of restorative justice can have even a small positive effect. It may be something as simple as visiting one or the other in prison, risking their rejection of my effort. Most people with whom I have spoken say that they deserve jail time, and alot of it.
We are not yet at the point when we can imagine rubbing "poor lil' Judas's head" when we arrive in heaven. We are not yet at the point when we can embrace willingly the precepts of the restorative justice movement. We are not yet ready for the conditions of living that are a part of the new Jerusalem. Even as I write these words, I cannot forget the words uttered first by Gandhi, and echoed by Dr. King, "If not now, when?"