Some Thoughts After Reading
Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just
By Timothy Keller
(Dutton, 2010)
If you read a new book in the New Year, I strongly encourage you to take a look at Generous Justice by Tim Keller. It is this librarian’s first must-read of 2011 – I listened to it in the car on New Year’s Day! (Yes, for those of you who are “too busy to read,” it is also available in an audio version). However, I have not stopped thinking about its message and implications since the last CD whirred to a stop. It is a compelling book, one I might need to read repeatedly and refer to frequently.
Keller is a New York Times best-selling author – if those kind of accolades matter to you. He is also a PCA pastor in New York City. He wrote his doctoral thesis on deacons’ role and training in the church, so he has a strong background and biblical understanding of the topics of mercy ministry and social justice. But the call he sounds is not merely for church ministry staff, elders, or deacons – it goes out to all Christians. In fact, it is required of us! (Micah 6:8) I think Keller’s book is an excellent way to increase our understanding of what the Bible has to say about justice. Much of what he said spoke directly to my heart and mind, both encouraging and challenging me.
As I first sat down to work on this review, I also happened to be considering the season of Epiphany in the church. The word epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning to shine upon, be made manifest, in other words, light. This is pretty interesting to think about since this celebration takes place in the very depth of winter. Winter means short days and longer nights, hence much more darkness. This darkness can sometimes affect our spirits and state of mind. In fact, many people suffer from a condition known as SAD, or seasonal affective disorder. This is often all too real, even for those of us in places with warmer and blessedly shorter winters.
At this same point in time, we move into a brand New Year, even while hearing all around us reports of seasonal depression and post-holiday gloom. A new year brings with it all kinds of high expectations and frequently results in shattered resolutions – resolutions that are usually all about “ME” and my own personal betterment. What struck me most as I continued to ponder Epiphany and the New Year and our human tendencies to resolve to do more, work harder, and be better is that, while fresh starts certainly can bring about positive outcomes, if I try merely with my own willpower and effort to “do things differently this Year,” I am doomed to fail.
Yet it is also very important to remind ourselves and each other that the church calendar doesn’t just end with Christmas and Christ’s birth. We don’t need to be sad and downcast when we throw away the paper and bows and take down the Christmas tree. It’s not “all over for another year,”…it really is just the beginning of the story! I, for one, am so thankful that the new calendar year begins again with Epiphany – a time to remember the necessity of crowning Him (not myself) as King of our lives and truly seeing again how He brought Light, living and walking among us as He ministered in our dark & dingy world.
(Lest you think I have strayed way off course from Rev. Keller’s excellent book, stay tuned…)
Isaiah 58:10 - if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.
This has long been a favorite verse of mine, a touchstone, if you will, for me personally – reminding me how I need to do for others if I want to reveal myself as a follower of Christ (“let my light shine”) and, furthermore, if I am to have any satisfaction in this life (experience happiness, keep from depression, etc.). This interpretation makes sense on the surface but could become a trite cliché if I am not careful to dig deeper.
The verse also came to my mind in light of listening to Generous Justice, so I looked up Isaiah 58 to get the context. Reading this chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy challenged my thinking on many levels. It ties in quite well to Keller’s thesis (in fact, he quotes it in Chapter 3).
These words were written to God’s people – these were people who claimed they wanted to do the right thing, to please God. They were attempting to honor God by returning to proper worship, seeking to understand his word, and crying out to God (v. 2). But as Isaiah continues, they didn’t quite “get it.” They were still self-seeking and even cruel to those in their employ, who were their “inferiors” (v. 3). Isaiah goes on to tell them what God really longs for them to do (vv. 6 & following). In recent history, they themselves had been slaves and captives exiled to a cruel oppressor, and God freed them – now He wants them to live with grateful and liberal (generous) hearts towards others. In fact, their “lack of justice is a sign that the worshippers’ hearts are not right with God at all” (GJ, 50).
This is SO true of us Christians (especially me!) We have been freed from sin and death, but still we want to oppress others with it. We say we want to give and “help” others, but only as far as it is comfortable and “works for me.” Yet we pray and cry out to God and continue to ask him to fill our laundry list of needs and wants. We just don’t “get it” – this is just one of the ways in which Keller’s book has stirred my mind and heart – it’s not enough to just want to help and eke out a little here and there from what’s left to share with the poor and needy. “Justice for the poor (should be) connected not to guilt but to grace and to the gospel” (GJ, 107).
If I truly want to reflect the light of God’s grace in my life, I need to live a life that seeks justice (Hebrew, mishpat) for others with the ultimate end of shalom (“harmonious peace”). Is that not the gospel? Christ embodied justice for the undeserving (me) to bring about peace with God!
Keller explains again and again in this book that we should do justice because God commands it, but perhaps the foremost reason that strikes me is because He does it – God’s justice is an attribute and action that we may emulate and imitate (we will not be able to do so perfectly while we are on this earth, but nonetheless we are surely called to!) Throughout the book Keller gives clear Scripture references from both Old and New Testaments. He shares numerous examples of God’s love for justice, including the directions He gave the nation of Israel for perpetuating justice to the oppressed.
Reading Generous Justice has expanded my understanding of the biblical notion of justice. In the book, Keller also addresses the complexity of poverty (33-35) and reminds us that, because of its complexity, there are not always simple solutions and pat answers. He refers to the great preacher Jonathan Edwards to refute typical objections made by church members (common back in Edwards’ day and still heard today). He devotes an entire chapter to the parable of the Good Samaritan, reminding us that “We are all like that man dying in the road…(Christ) came to us and saved us (76-77)” - Thanks be to God! Keller lays out the basis for human dignity – all are made in God’s image. He addresses our notions of possessions – all (my) resources are in the end the gift of God (90), and he even introduces a “theology of grace and race” (125). As you can see, Keller covers a great deal of territory in a (relatively) short book!
Also, for those who are wondering, Keller does not take sides, as some have done, preferring the preaching/evangelism camp OR proclaiming the mercy/justice movement alone. This is not an either/or proposition, in fact he calls for both, stating they are “inseparable” (139)! This reflects what Christ Covenant proclaims as part of our vision – WORD & DEED ministry (142).
I sincerely hope those of you already reading this book will share your responses to Keller’s study and teaching on justice and the many issues they raise. I believe they are well worth discussing in small groups, in community groups, individually over coffee, and then perhaps, most importantly, not just dropped, but prayed for and lived out among us. For those of you who may not have heard of or read Generous Justice before now, I pray you will consider taking it up and that God will use it in a deep and eternal way, both individually and communally.
Victoria Penny
1/13/2011
Isaiah 58 (ESV)
1 "Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. 3 'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?' Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. 4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD? 6 "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. 11 And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. 12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. 13 "If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."