Is justice individual or communal?

 Equal pay for equal work. That is a motto for today and has been for an extensive period of time.  Indeed it is or should be equal pay in the world around us for an equality in work and contribution. Yet it is often the case where some are more equal then others and where there is an inequality in power the likelihood of an inequality to exist increases. In Christ's parable about the workers in the vineyard (Matt. 20.1-16) there is an inequality in pay and work and power. Or is there. Yes, perhaps what the owner does is of consequence in levelling the playing fields but he is using an inequality in power to do so. I think if I had worked in the fields for longer than everyone else I would also be a little bit peeved in seeing the inequality that power has created to benefit the "lazy". Do I not have rights as well? I was able to be up at dawn and willing to work just as much as the others could have been. There is a certain amount of inequity in this situation even if the owner can do with his money what he likes. We always consider it from the owners point of view not from the viewpoint of the workers. What does this largess mean for those who have worked?

There is no question that the power of the owner is sufficient that he can do what he wants. That is not an issue. If we are to be concerned about equality what question needs to be asked in terms of those who have been employed? I am sure a rights lawyer would quite rightly say that one has to look at the contract before signing. True. We also know that the contract with the later workers was a bit loose as the wage mentioned was "fair".  From the later workers perspective the wage received was probably a very fair one but each group was probably somewhat miffed that each group after received the same.  The question I ask is what justice is there here when power is greater and it is at the whim of power that generosity is created?  Is the expectation then for us that no matter what we contribute we should receive the same reward?  That would certainly rock the economics of the system that we currently have.  If those with power were expected to have the largess to contribute equal wages to all. Then we could truly realise that any and all contribution to our own commitments should be as equal by all.

Did we come late and is our pay equal?

We would then ensure that everyone has the ability to contribute to our faith endeavours, our social endeavours and our environmental endeavours as equally as everyone else.  That would be an expectation which we could hardly deny and our ten percent would be equal to everyone's ten percent of giving. However, this is not the economic reality.  We live in inequality of both power and finances.  Our true dilemma is not one of equality but one of sacrifice.  How much are we willing to sacrifice to ensure that there is a semblance of equality or at least a striving for equality?  The Philippians author in his struggles of commitment (Phil. 1.21-24) brings this to the fore.  It is a struggle to determine what is the best for the community rather than ourselves.  Power inequality notwithstanding suggests a certain amount of "I" in decisions. In our circumstances the greater faith demand is for the "We".  Our sacrifice is for the greater good.  Those working early need to realise that it is there sacrifice to allow for a greater equality for all as they do not know the circumstances of the later arrivals.

Forgiveness begins in our selves

 Our present society is a society that is based on the rationale of judgement. If we take someone to court we expect a judgement to be handed down to us. If we take someone to task about a wrong doing we expect that there is some form of judgement to be handed down. If we malign someone with intent that intent is surely to bring the community's judgement upon that person. Our goal is to ensure that our petty squabbles are finalised with someone else's judgement and thus allowing us to move forward with our lives not caring about the other only about the fact that they got their just deserves. Often this seems to be the case even in the Hebrew scriptures that God passes final judgement rather than some form of forgiveness (Ex. 14:19-31). Is this solely the case when we look at this passage? The Egyptians have done wrong in the sight of the Lord and have refused God's openness and freedom only seeing the dictates of pharaoh. Dictates that constrain and curtail the freedom that comes from God.

Yet, in some allegorical way at looking at the Red Sea passage we can see it not as retribution on the Egyptians but rather a removal of the past guilt and excess that the Israelites had accrued during their time in Egypt. The washing away of their past is a symbolic understanding that is celebrated on the shores of the Red Sea by the women, immediately following on from this reading in Exodus.  The parable from Matthew (Matt. 18:21-35) seems to instantiate this powerful supremacy of God with a suggestion that God's retribution is still alive and well in the eschaton, if we do not follow God's offer of redemption through forgiveness. This is the power of the bully in the playground who loses face and requires violence to show their strength. It reflects our own judgemental attitudes when it comes to the actions of the other. The passage from Romans asks us "Who are you to pass judgement on someone else's servant?" (Rom. 14:4). God has accepted each person for who they are not for who we think they are. It is not our role to fall into the habit of upholding our power by judging others and utilising our power to condemn whether they have acted in a manner that is contrary to what we believe to be God's purposes.

Open arms embrace the hurt in the other as we forgive the hurt in ourselves

We do not enter into the cycle or circle of forgiveness as more often then not we seek judgement on those who have created the issue for us. In the parable the pain of bearing a debt of such worth and being allowed to let it go is too much for the servant as he attempts to retrieve his own self pity by passing judgement on those that are unable to fend for themselves. Michael Lapsley reminds us that we need to turn to our own frameworks or faith to find healing and a response to hurt. Often it is not only the other that we need to blame but also ourselves who are guilty. We blame all manner of outside influences and people rather than looking first to ourselves, even as Christians, and forgiving our own faults that may have given arise to the situation in which we seek judgement. Our own failings may be a remnant of our own histories that we fail to acknowledge and leave in the past or they may be the result of an in built prejudice gifted to us from our community and our growth into adulthood. No matter which it is these chains also need to be broken through seeking our own forgiveness before we can make the amends that is required to form community in the present.

God's power comes from forgiveness and the setting of things into right order without the need to resort to violence as love is not violent in nature. We need to avoid the trap of judgement and enter the cycle of forgiveness. The first step on that cycle is to forgive ourselves and to understand that it is often our own faults that bring about the trap of judgement rather than faults in others. By embracing the presence of God's love in our hearts we are able to embrace the love of the other that is inherent in our faith journey. In taking that step and opening our arms to the other we allow God's love to flow and improve the community to which we belong. We also decrease the animosity of the other within the community as they are not judged but rather welcomed and listened to by those around them so that their woes and our woes are eased in forgiveness.

Festina lente

  Festina lente I was told by my father. This is what the Israelites do on the night that God leapt over them as they initiated a celebration of the past before the fact (Ex. 12:1-14). It is something we sometimes forget to do in our haste to accommodate or pursue something that appears to be important to us. Often we understand what we want to do and leap into action before making some form of understanding as to how we can get there. There are some people who are able to do that because they see the end result without having to see the way there but for most of us we have to be careful as the end result may not be the one we expect to come from the actions we take.

There is a sense of urgency as the story progresses, from the Egyptians. A wish for the Israelites to disappear from their land as quickly as possible and indeed in a later text (Deut 16:1) it appears as if the Israelites leave in the night. Yet, they stay in their houses waiting as if with bated breath, for the morning when they leave with the gold of their neighbours. In this stillness before the action of leaving takes place they undertake the pesach meal prior to God's leap yet undertaken in remembrance of that leap that is in the future. There is a tenseness in their waiting, girded for flight but not moving in their established dwellings. Only when morning comes does the action of flight take place and with it the recovery of wealth from their neighbours. There appear to be all sorts of paradoxes inherent in the text a remembrance meal before the event, a need and pressure to go yet a waiting in tenseness. All of these things point to a need to control our haste our need to jump in and flee the horrors of life to attempt a plan without that first hesitant stop.

Decide only when we swim like a dolphin whilst being anchored in God

This is perhaps distinguished to a certain extent in the passage from Matthew and our response to those things that occur around us (Matt. 18:15-17). There is a sense of going forward in a manner that is both fast and slow, a paradox. So often in today's world our first response is to go directly to some form of judgement, either a court or tribunal, before even beginning to sit down with the people supposedly in opposition to try and work out the issue. Often times the issues are around how we perceive things and our interpretation of what is required. Unless we can firmly state exactly what is required our words are indistinguishable from threat and violence. Each step in the process that Matthew outlines is a step that slows everything down. In our modern age we will, like Trump and other Americans, go directly to the courts. Everything we do is around how quickly can we involve the court system. This does not speed the process but rather slows it till it crawls like a snail and we are left wondering for years as to what the outcome will be. Taking our understanding from Exodus, we still ourselves before God and wait for God's response in our hearts and then follow with the slow response. How often in the past have our actions been quick leading to poor repercussions? The quick response to the insult, the quick response to violence leading to more violence, the quick response to someone pushing an agenda with an opposite response. All of these things we can see in our lives and in the various power levels of the world. China in a hissy fit America responds with one of their own; Liberal policies and Labour spins the opposite way. These are like young teenagers who squabble over the slightest defamatory remark that is perceived to have been aimed at them. No wonder we cannot move forward either in our own lives let alone the lives of our communities.

It is often the consequence of leaping ahead of ourselves that devolves down to a split or a division where there should actually be none. By moving to fast and without understanding we fool ourselves into believing that we are moving forward. We have been fed the illusion that we need to complete everything in the quickest possible time to reap the reward. Just as with any growing thing in nature, maturity takes time, there are no shortcuts either in growing plants or in relationships. If we want a community that is based on the precept of God's presence then we need to take time to listen. to hear, to see, to contemplate and to mature our relationships. Only when we can truly give ourselves can we truly become true citizens and able to obey the laws not only of authority but of love. In order to forward ourselves and grow as a child we must open ourselves to the other in harmony and in understanding which takes time and a hesitancy before action to ensure the consequences are the ones that we desire.