1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:06,120 Before I read scripture today I I need to issue an apology today 2 00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:11,400 is APG 13 sermon I and and you'll understand why when I 3 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:16,040 read the scripture, nothing graphic but but some some mature 4 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:20,200 kinds of themes and I usually announce that in advance and I 5 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:22,040 forgot to mention that last week. 6 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:24,400 So I apologize for that. I don't think it's going to be, 7 00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:29,160 you know, but just want to put that out there right up front. 8 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:34,000 So Genesis chapter 34 verses one through 7 is our scripture 9 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,680 reading today. Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, 10 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:40,440 the I'm sorry. Now Dinah the daughter Leah had 11 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:43,880 born to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 12 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:48,480 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, 13 00:00:48,480 --> 00:00:50,840 saw her, he took her and raped her. 14 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:54,520 His heart was drawn to Dinah, daughter of Jacob. 15 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:58,240 He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 16 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:02,760 And Shechem said to his father Haymore, get me this girl as my 17 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:05,600 wife. When Jacob heard that his 18 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:10,120 daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with 19 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,560 the livestock. So he did nothing about it until 20 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:17,280 they came home. Then Shechem's father Haymore 21 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:21,800 went out to talk with Jacob. Meanwhile, Jacob's sons had come 22 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:24,520 in from the fields. As soon as they heard what had 23 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:29,680 happened, they were shocked and furious because Shechab had done 24 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:34,520 an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob's daughter, 25 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,400 a thing that should not be done. May the Lord. 26 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:44,960 Lent is a season of slowing down, of stepping away from the 27 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,160 villains to face what's really going on inside us. 28 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:55,320 Lent echoes the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness, a place 29 00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:59,040 of hunger, testing and honesty before. 30 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:03,240 God. No crowds, just trust. 31 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:10,080 Lent reminds us that repentance isn't as much about shame as it 32 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:15,400 is about turning around, about laying down what distracts us so 33 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:17,520 we can pick up what gives us life. 34 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,720 It's a journey from ashes to hope, from the cross to 35 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:27,360 resurrection. A reminder that before Easter 36 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:45,320 joy there is surrender. As we continue our journey 37 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:51,240 together through Lent this year and this this pondering this 38 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:54,720 question of how are we, how can we be faithful in a system 39 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:59,160 stacked against us and situations where we lack power? 40 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:04,400 How can we be faithful to God and situations where we don't 41 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:08,240 have the capacity to do any meaningful strategic planning? 42 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:12,000 What can we do to be faithful to God? 43 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:15,000 And particularly today, we're looking at the question of the 44 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:20,000 struggle for justice. How can we pursue justice? 45 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:25,040 How can we go about engaging in this struggle for justice when 46 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:29,080 we're in a system where we seem to have so little power over so 47 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:32,720 many things? Preaching today from Genesis 48 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:36,720 chapter 34 and not next week, we're going to be looking at 49 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:40,720 Joseph and one of his early dreams and and how things worked 50 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:42,920 out for him. The week after that we're going 51 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,240 to be looking at at Tamar and for a couple of Sundays after 52 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:49,080 that, that the story of Tamar, which is just a couple of 53 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:51,560 chapters down the the road in the Bible here. 54 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:59,320 Both Dinah and Tamar are are are passages that I seldom, if ever, 55 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:02,080 have I heard preached on and taught on. 56 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:04,480 They're challenging, they are difficult. 57 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:09,520 They are are they? They raise some very serious 58 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:14,160 questions and they are. There's a lot of Gray area in 59 00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:18,120 the scriptures in both of these passages as opposed to clear, 60 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:22,920 clean cut, easy answers to difficult situations. 61 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:25,680 We're going to take a look at those things because that's part 62 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:27,800 of this struggle. When we're in this struggle for 63 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:30,520 justice, when we're in a struggle to be faithful and a 64 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:34,000 system stacked against us, sometimes there aren't clear, 65 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:39,360 clean cut easy answers or, or, or easily identifiable answers 66 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:43,040 that are easily identifiable as right answers and right things 67 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:45,560 to do. So this is what this is. 68 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:47,200 Our challenge is our struggle in front of us. 69 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:51,400 We're looking at Dinah today and, and I want to tell you 70 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:54,960 before we get too far into analysis, I want to give you 71 00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:58,000 the, the, the, a bigger picture of the story here. 72 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:04,520 Dinah, Jacob's daughter, as far as we know, his oldest daughter, 73 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:07,680 daughter born to Leah, his first wife. 74 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:14,520 And Jacob and, and Dinah's whole family, they are nomads in the 75 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:17,640 land of Canaan. They own no real estate. 76 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,240 They're very wealthy. We already know that Jacob's 77 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:23,160 wealth, he, God has blessed him with lots of herds, sheep, 78 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,360 goats, other livestock. He's got a lot of portable 79 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:31,760 wealth and he's got a very large household, which is also a sign 80 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:36,040 of and a part of his wealth, including having lots of sons 81 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:40,080 that he has. But Jacob doesn't own a single 82 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:42,520 acre of land. Well, they own, they own, you 83 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:45,880 know, a small plot of land where his grandparents are buried, 84 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:51,040 Abraham and Sarah, and that's the only land that his family 85 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:55,120 owns. They depend on the goodwill and 86 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:58,960 the grace of the people around them to allow them to graze 87 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:03,200 their livestock on their land, their economic arrangements that 88 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:04,760 are worked out. It's give and take. 89 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:07,080 You know, there's, it's not just they're not living on the 90 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:09,280 handouts. There's give and take going, but 91 00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:13,880 they don't, they don't have a big ranch where they own the 92 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:15,440 land. They control the land. 93 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:19,680 They control the boundaries. And right now there's near the 94 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:25,160 city of Shechem. And the city of Shechem is named 95 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:29,640 after the person Shechem, who is a ruler of the city. 96 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:32,880 And the city of Shechem is a real city. 97 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:35,480 Archaeologists have found this city. 98 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:41,680 It was a fairly large city, and it was a fortified city in 99 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:45,880 Jacob's day. Shechem had power in that 100 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:49,800 region. Shechem had real estate, Shechem 101 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:55,400 had military, economic, political and regional power and 102 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:58,960 influence. And his father had even more 103 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:05,840 Haymore. And this Shechem, who was a 104 00:07:05,840 --> 00:07:12,120 leader of the city, the son of the a leader of the city, with 105 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:15,560 all of this power and all of this position and all of this 106 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,960 influence, rapes Jacob's daughter, Dinah. 107 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:25,480 And all Dinah had done was go out to build some relationships 108 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:30,760 with women in the region, get to know people, make some friends, 109 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:35,840 engage with others. And she gets raped by a very, 110 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:40,720 very powerful person who then decides that he wants to marry 111 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:50,960 her, make her his wife. So the question then is where 112 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:54,360 can justice be found in this story? 113 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,840 How does Jacob pursue justice for his daughter? 114 00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:03,000 How did how does Dinah pursue justice for herself? 115 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:07,040 How do Dinah's brothers pursue justice for their sister, for 116 00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:10,080 their family? How can they do that? 117 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:12,800 The the you know, the Bible hasn't been written yet. 118 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:16,880 Moses has has not gone up on the mountain and received the law 119 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,960 from God. But even that would be of little 120 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:24,480 help to them Bible. And we got to be honest about 121 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:26,400 this. The Bible, particularly in the 122 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:37,280 Old Testament, is is gives very, I guess best possible way to say 123 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:40,240 it is challenging guidance on the question of rape. 124 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:43,840 There's one passage wouldn't which indicates that in some 125 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:46,840 circumstance, so when a man rapes a woman, the man should be 126 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:48,360 put to death, capital punishment. 127 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:53,120 There is another passage in the same chapter where if a man 128 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:58,640 rapes a woman, his punishment is that he has to marry her, so the 129 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:04,960 woman has to marry her rapist. But even if death penalty were 130 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:10,400 the thing, Jacob and his sons have 0 leverage to pursue the 131 00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:13,800 death penalty against Shechem. There's nothing they can do. 132 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:17,520 Where they're going to go to the leader of the biggest city in 133 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:23,800 the area that's behind walls and demand that he surrender his son 134 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:28,920 to be executed. What can they do? 135 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:36,400 What can they do? They have very, very limited 136 00:09:36,400 --> 00:09:41,280 options in the struggle for justice and no power whatsoever 137 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:45,360 to enforce the options. Well, maybe some power to 138 00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:47,520 enforce some options. We'll see that in a minute. 139 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:53,920 What is Jacob going to do? Jacob chooses a particular route 140 00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:59,760 in all of this, and it's a route that, as a husband and a father 141 00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:02,480 of a daughter, makes me sick to my stomach. 142 00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:09,200 Jacob chose appeasement and accommodation for the sake of 143 00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:11,640 familial protection and prosperity. 144 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:17,720 He agreed to let Shechem marry his daughter as a resolution to 145 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:24,280 the issue. I think it's a very, very 146 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:30,440 important that we not engage in chronological arrogance to from 147 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:35,440 2500 plus years distance, point a finger and throw stones at 148 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:38,560 Jacob. Although I'd like to like to 149 00:10:38,560 --> 00:10:41,800 throw a few big stones at Jacob. But think about Jacob's 150 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:45,400 situation. Jacob is a stranger and a 151 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:48,720 strange land. He doesn't have a military 152 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:52,400 force. He doesn't have a city with 153 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:56,840 walls around it that he can defend and find security behind. 154 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:03,400 He depends on Shechem and Hamor and other local rulers and 155 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:08,880 warlords like them to allow him to graze his livestock so that 156 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:15,760 he and his family can survive. Jacob has a daughter who has 157 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:22,120 been grievously wrong, horribly wrong, and he has an entire 158 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:25,600 family and household that he is responsible for. 159 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:32,800 And so Jacob decides that the pathway, the best pathway to 160 00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:36,880 justice and his mind is appeasement and accommodation. 161 00:11:37,560 --> 00:11:40,200 Not going to make waves and not going to insist and check and 162 00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:42,400 was punished. We'll go ahead with the 163 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:45,640 marriage. Then our families will be united 164 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:50,520 economically and socially and politically, and our family as a 165 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:54,240 whole will be stronger because we're joined with this powerful 166 00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:57,920 local family. Our family as a whole will be 167 00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:02,040 safer because we're joined with this powerful local family. 168 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:08,560 This is Jacob's decision, his path to justice, and his 169 00:12:08,560 --> 00:12:12,880 struggle for justice in a broken world where he cannot simply 170 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:19,320 demand that Shechem be punished. Jacob's sons choose a different 171 00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:21,760 route. They're out in the fields when 172 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:24,400 all of this happens. They come back in when they find 173 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:29,760 out what happened and and they on the surface, agree to the 174 00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:32,120 marriage that their daughter would be, that their sister 175 00:12:32,200 --> 00:12:34,280 would be married to Shechem, the man who raped her. 176 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:38,920 But they have a plan. And they say to Shechem, look, 177 00:12:38,920 --> 00:12:41,120 you know, it's, it's great you're going to marry our 178 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:43,600 sister. But culturally, religiously, we 179 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:47,240 have a custom and a tradition of every male in our family has to 180 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:50,240 be circumcised. So if you're going to marry our 181 00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:53,120 sister, if you really want our families to be joined, and 182 00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:58,080 there's Rib Jacobs of a wealthy clan in his own life, wealthy 183 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:02,040 household in his own right. There are benefits to Shechem in 184 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:04,840 this alliance and to Haymore in this alliance, if you want 185 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:07,040 those. In fact, we can marry, 186 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:09,880 intermarry our other other sisters and daughters with the 187 00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:13,200 men of your city as long as all of you get circumcised. 188 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:19,160 So Shechem agrees. Maybe a measure of how much 189 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:22,560 power he has is that all the men of the city got circumcised when 190 00:13:22,560 --> 00:13:24,760 Shechem decided they were going to get circumcised. 191 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:31,280 And then a couple of days later, when the pain is excruciating, 192 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:37,480 Dinah's brothers, Levi, Simeon and the others go in and they 193 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:43,760 kill every man in the city of Shechem and take captive the 194 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:47,200 women and children of the city of Shechem. 195 00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:51,600 Their wives and daughters are specifically mentioned as being 196 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:56,320 taken captive. Jacob chose appeasement and 197 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:59,360 accommodation for the sake of familiar protection and 198 00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:01,920 prosperity. His path to justice got to 199 00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:05,040 protect my family the most. The best outcome in this whole 200 00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:09,240 thing is that my family is not destroyed by a local warlord. 201 00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:11,640 I'll choose appeasement and accommodation. 202 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:14,720 Simeon, Levi and the other brothers chose violent 203 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:16,680 retribution for the sake of revenge. 204 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:22,520 How dare you do this to our sister? 205 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:28,760 You hurt one of us, We'll kill a whole bunch of you. 206 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:34,040 You rape our sister. We'll take your wives and 207 00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:42,720 daughters as our slaves. Violence and retribution, Jacob 208 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:44,840 said to them. We know Jacob was concerned 209 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:48,120 about safety because Jacob's response after this happened was 210 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:52,360 to say to his sons, you have made this a very dangerous place 211 00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:57,120 for us. Do you understand how dangerous 212 00:14:57,120 --> 00:14:59,160 this whole region is for us right now? 213 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:03,800 Because of what you have done, our family is at risk of their 214 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:07,000 violent retribution or the violent retribution of other 215 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:11,840 warlords in the area who may not want us around anymore. 216 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:16,800 We know that was his concern. We know the brothers concern was 217 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:19,760 revenge because their response to their dad was when were we 218 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:23,920 supposed to do nothing? Were we supposed to let him get 219 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:31,600 away with this? They wanted revenge and they 220 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:34,040 took far more than a pound of flesh. 221 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:40,320 And again, Full disclosure, as a husband, as a father of a 222 00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:44,800 daughter, part of me says, way to go Simeon and Levi. 223 00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:51,200 But when I think about all of those other men and all of those 224 00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:56,280 other women and girls that are now being forced into a life 225 00:15:56,280 --> 00:16:03,120 that they didn't want and we can't throw stones. 226 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:10,160 We can, but we shouldn't. What's the path to justice in a 227 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:15,040 broken world where you can't simply insist that the right 228 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:18,560 thing be done, that the criminal be punished in a way that is 229 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:22,680 appropriate for the crime? And everyone says yes, we agree 230 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:27,720 to that. This is the situation that that 231 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:31,480 Dinah and Jacob and Simeon and Levi and the other brothers 232 00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:34,560 found themselves in. They couldn't. 233 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:38,280 They had no leverage just to insist that one person be 234 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:43,360 punished. So one chose accommodation, the 235 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:46,880 others chose revenge and a vastly disproportionate 236 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:52,800 reaction. This is not theory. 237 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,880 This, this story is, is not just an old story that's that's 238 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:02,560 tragic and heartbreaking. This story is, is is I don't, I 239 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,800 don't think it's any less relevant today than it was back 240 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:12,200 when it first happened. The vast majority of people in 241 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:16,440 this world do not have the power or the leverage or the strength 242 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:20,560 or the wealth to get justice for the wrongs that are done to 243 00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:24,599 them. They are at the mercy of others. 244 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:28,880 And if systems that are beyond their control and systems that 245 00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:33,760 are often stacked against them, our legal system and our justice 246 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:38,800 system in this country, not perfect, not perfect for sure, 247 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:43,240 light years ahead of what they had then, so much better than 248 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:45,040 what they had did, but not perfect. 249 00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:51,200 We have very, we have, we have a very different justice system 250 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:55,040 for poor people and for rich people, very different. 251 00:17:56,720 --> 00:18:00,440 There's two stories about that. One is, is the story I heard 252 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:03,520 years ago, and this was decades ago of a, of a pastor in 253 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:06,960 Chicago. And it was a time when, when 254 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:10,720 there were slumlords in Chicago. And it was, was when lead paint 255 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:14,400 came to be understood as a real issue and as a real problem. 256 00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:17,000 And there were these slums in Chicago and these these 257 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,000 landlords, slumlords that had these, and there was lead paint 258 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,680 in the apartments and, and parents had their children. 259 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:26,200 And the children with, you know, chew on a window sill or flat 260 00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:29,160 pit of paint painted flake off and they put it in their mouth 261 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:32,040 and LED LED. It apparently works so quickly 262 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:35,640 you can almost watch a child change when they've consumed 263 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,920 lead and they receive permanent brain damage. 264 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:44,640 And these tenants were suing their landlords and their 265 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:48,080 slumlords. The pastor went into court a day 266 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:50,120 when many of the cases were being decided. 267 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:55,600 And he said in case after case after case, the judge ruled in 268 00:18:55,600 --> 00:18:59,560 favor of the landlord or simply dismissed the case. 269 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:05,080 And the pastor finally, at a break, stood up and said, your 270 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:08,080 honor, I don't understand. Is there no justice here? 271 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:12,360 And the response of the judge was this is not a Court of 272 00:19:12,360 --> 00:19:14,680 Justice. This is a court of law. 273 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:22,840 If you want justice, change the law terms of wise jurisprudence. 274 00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:28,240 That is absolutely true in terms of justice for the poor families 275 00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:34,640 who had no capacity to change the law, and changing the law 276 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:37,360 would do nothing for their child and for their family. 277 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:41,880 It was a struggle for justice in which they had very few options. 278 00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:49,360 It's another story I heard of a of a lawyer young man from the 279 00:19:49,360 --> 00:19:54,520 South African American who graduated top of his class at a 280 00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:56,560 prestigious Ivy League university. 281 00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:59,560 I cannot remember which one. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, one of 282 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:04,760 those big ones. Columbia was courted by a lot of 283 00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:07,480 large law firms for very high paying positions. 284 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:12,360 And he declined all of the invitations to go back and be a 285 00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:14,200 public defender in his home city. 286 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:23,160 And when he was asked why, he said because we don't execute 287 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:27,080 criminals in this country. We execute poor people in this 288 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:29,320 country. I first heard that story. 289 00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:31,520 I got upset. I was in law school at the time. 290 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:34,440 What do you mean? We just guilty people? 291 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:36,520 We got to have the death penalty for guilty people. 292 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:43,320 Do a little research, see if you can find any case where a 293 00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:45,600 wealthy person has been given the death penalty. 294 00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:51,160 In our country, we have a very different system of justice for 295 00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:58,400 the poor and for the wealthy. Justice is a struggle today. 296 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:03,440 And I think of folks like the the people in Iran, women there 297 00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:07,280 that for 50 years have been imprisoned, brutalized, 298 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:12,720 tortured, sexually, sexually abused simply for showing their 299 00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:16,760 hair in public or too much of their face in public. 300 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:22,960 There's documented cases in past years of of women who who the 301 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:25,640 morality police, when they would see a woman that was exposing 302 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:29,040 too much hair, too much skin, would throw acid in their faces 303 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:34,040 permanently and horribly disfiguring them and scarring 304 00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:38,480 them. It's difficult to know accurate 305 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:41,520 numbers, but some reports say that just just in this past 306 00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:47,040 January, maybe 10s of thousands killed as they stood up against 307 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:52,160 their government struggling for justice and the response of the 308 00:21:52,160 --> 00:22:02,000 government was to kill them. Struggle for justice is real and 309 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:07,200 and in that struggle for justice, sometimes our options 310 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,840 are limited in what we can do, Jacob said. 311 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:15,280 The best I can do for my family is to protect my family and 312 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,680 maybe make their situation a little safer and a little better 313 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:21,400 after this horrible thing that was done to my daughter. 314 00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:24,800 I can make my family a little, the whole of my family, a little 315 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:33,000 safer and a little better off. Is that an evil thing to do, 316 00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:37,480 Sons? The brothers said. 317 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:39,640 You know what? We don't care what the outcome 318 00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:42,280 is for the rest of the family. We're getting revenge for what 319 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:45,880 was done to our our sister. Is that an evil thing? 320 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:50,400 Struggle for justice is challenging. 321 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:52,360 It's difficult, but it's important. 322 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:55,880 It is essential that we be involved in the struggle for 323 00:22:55,880 --> 00:23:00,960 justice because part of the promise that we have from God 324 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:06,200 himself is that one day God and Jesus will as God through Jesus 325 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:09,840 his Son, God in the flesh, Jesus, they will establish true 326 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:13,760 justice on the earth. Prophet Isaiah said this about 327 00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:15,560 the Messiah who we know is Jesus. 328 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,680 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, and whom 329 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:23,080 I delight. I will put my spirit on him, and 330 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:25,400 he will bring justice to the nations. 331 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:29,320 He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. 332 00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:33,040 A bruised Reed he will not break, and a smoldering wit he 333 00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:36,640 will not snuff out, and faithfulness he will bring forth 334 00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:39,320 justice. He will not falter or be 335 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:42,840 discouraged till he establishes justice on the earth. 336 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:48,520 Justice too, too often in in some traditions of Christianity, 337 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:51,120 particularly in the United States, justice and social 338 00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:54,960 justice are treated like sort of weird, irrelevant side quests 339 00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:57,760 for the church. Our goal is to save souls and 340 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,440 get people into heaven. And we this, this whole social 341 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,360 justice thing is just a distraction. 342 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:05,960 Justice is the core of God's purpose. 343 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:09,880 It's the heart of what God is going to do. 344 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:16,440 You got to Bible online that you use Bible Gateway or Bible Hub 345 00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:18,560 or Blue Letter. Whatever you use, do a search 346 00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:22,800 for justice and see how often justice comes up in the 347 00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:28,800 Scripture as being God's quest, God's intention, God's plan, the 348 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:32,600 thing that God scolds his people for not doing, providing 349 00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:37,480 justice. It's at the heart of who God is 350 00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:39,160 and what God is doing in this world. 351 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:42,640 The promise that we have in Jesus is that one day he will 352 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:44,840 return and he will establish justice. 353 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:49,320 Three times in one verse or 4 verses about the Messiah. 354 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:53,560 We're told that the Messiah will bring justice to the whole 355 00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:58,400 earth, to all the nations of the earth, and as Jesus, as 356 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:00,800 followers, that's part of our task. 357 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:02,760 Now we're never going to finish it. 358 00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:07,120 We, I am firmly convinced I could be wrong. 359 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:12,320 Maybe I am wrong, but I am, I am firmly convinced that we as 360 00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:16,080 human beings on our own do not have the capacity to establish 361 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:17,720 full and complete justice on earth. 362 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:19,440 I just don't think we're good enough. 363 00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:21,240 I don't think we're smart enough. 364 00:25:22,120 --> 00:25:25,120 I don't think we're wise enough. I don't think we can do it. 365 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,720 It's going to take Jesus coming back and establishing his 366 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:33,280 Kingdom fully and completely. But in the meantime, where we 367 00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:38,760 lack the power to to to instigate a strategic plan to 368 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:43,600 bring global justice, we do have the power to engage in tactics 369 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:48,520 to attack injustice and bring a little more justice and places 370 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:50,680 and people's lives around us in this world. 371 00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,120 And that's our call. It's the heart of what we're 372 00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:58,800 doing as a church. Yes, yes, we want to see people 373 00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:02,400 give their lives to Christ and live for an eternity with Jesus. 374 00:26:05,120 --> 00:26:07,240 Part of that living for an eternity. 375 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,160 The central tenant of that living for an eternity is it a 376 00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:17,280 Kingdom of God that is just that God establishes here on earth. 377 00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:20,760 And so pursuit of justice is part of the call that we have as 378 00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:23,560 Christians and as the church. And how do we do that? 379 00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:26,520 How do we pursue justice when the system is stacked against 380 00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:28,120 us? Where'd it go? 381 00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:31,240 Wow, that was weird. Now I keep hitting the blank 382 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:33,680 button. First, we've got to recognize 383 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:37,760 the importance of justice. The, the, the, the, the, the 384 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:41,320 struggle for justice is not an irrelevant side quest. 385 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:46,720 The struggle for justice is is is at the heart of God's calling 386 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:51,200 on our lives. When Jesus announced his mission 387 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,880 on the earth at his first recorded public sermon in his 388 00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:59,080 hometown in Nazareth, you can read it in Luke chapter 4. 389 00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:03,480 His announcement of his mission and his purpose was all justice 390 00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:08,120 language, good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, 391 00:27:09,120 --> 00:27:11,880 freedom and release for the captive and the prisoners and 392 00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:15,600 the oppressed. That's all justice language from 393 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:20,120 the Old Testament in the heart of Jesus's mission, and so the 394 00:27:20,120 --> 00:27:22,840 heart of our mission. Second, then we have to 395 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,000 prioritize the care and healing and restoration of those who 396 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,840 have been wronged and those who are most vulnerable to 397 00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:34,680 injustice. One of the, I think, most tragic 398 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:39,000 things about this story in Genesis 34 is that we never hear 399 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:45,120 from Dinah. No one ever says, Dinah, what do 400 00:27:45,120 --> 00:27:48,480 you want? How would you like us to 401 00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:51,480 respond? What would you like us to 402 00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:53,240 pursue? We never hear that. 403 00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:58,760 We never hear from the voices of any of the women in that story 404 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:03,920 involved. I I think that's telling in 405 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:08,400 terms of the mindset of the culture at the time where women 406 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:12,080 didn't have a voice and probably it never would have even 407 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,560 occurred to them to ask Dinah what she wanted done. 408 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:21,800 But the fact that the story is there, that silence Ling rings 409 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:26,880 loud in the absence of her voice, rings loud in the full 410 00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:31,960 context of the Scripture where we see that Jesus values women 411 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:35,480 as much as he values men, that women are made the first 412 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,800 evangelists, that women are called into leadership in the 413 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:42,480 church as well, that women do have a voice. 414 00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:49,280 But the simple reality is, and sometimes in places in the 415 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,400 history of this world and human civilization, including 416 00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:57,880 sometimes in places right now, there are women or others who 417 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:02,960 have no voice in the justice that happens to and around them 418 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:05,760 or the injustice that happens to and around them. 419 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:11,280 They don't have power. They don't have muscle. 420 00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:14,280 The the way to flex their muscles to, to arrange 421 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:17,960 circumstances, to initiate, you know, strategic plans to bring 422 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:19,520 justice for the people around them. 423 00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:26,240 And God calls us to give priority to those voices, to 424 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,680 listen to the vulnerable people, the people that lack the power, 425 00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:34,440 and to do what we can to bring more justice into their lives. 426 00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:37,120 We'll never get it perfect. We will never get it perfect, 427 00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:43,840 not this side of Jesus's return, but to do what we can to make 428 00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:46,760 their lives safer, to make their lives better, to make their 429 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:52,000 lives more just. I think that's the best possible 430 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,160 outcome that can happen from the military action in Iran right 431 00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:58,320 now. If if women and other vulnerable 432 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:03,120 people in Iran are a year and a or a decade from now, safer and 433 00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:09,040 in a better position than they were a month ago, I think that's 434 00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:10,440 the best outcome we could hope for. 435 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:19,720 I don't know what will happen, but this is the call that we 436 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,960 have to to give voice to those Jesus over and over again and 437 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:27,360 God over and over again talks about care for the orphans, care 438 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:30,320 for the widows, care for the foreigners, the strangers among 439 00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:33,800 you, care for the poor, the people that are vulnerable among 440 00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:37,880 you. This is how God measured the 441 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:41,200 justice of his people and the faithfulness of his people of 442 00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:43,720 how well they prioritized those voices. 443 00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:47,680 And then to be aware of both vengeance and self-serving 444 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:51,040 accommodation. It's a lot of Gray areas and the 445 00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:55,320 struggle for justice because we can't always get true justice. 446 00:30:55,320 --> 00:31:00,280 We often can't get true justice and sometimes, sometimes the oh 447 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:02,720 the best thing is going to seem like just getting as much 448 00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:06,040 revenge and as big a pound of flesh as we possibly can. 449 00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:09,840 We have to be aware of those tendencies to do that. 450 00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:15,200 Sometimes self-serving accommodation is going to seem 451 00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:16,880 like the best we can possibly do. 452 00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:21,240 You see that a lot in our court system today and you hear about 453 00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:26,600 non disclosure agreements in lawsuits so that we know someone 454 00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:29,680 did something and they paid a lot for it, but we never know 455 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:31,880 the details because no one's allowed to talk about it. 456 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:39,840 And that may benefit the victim, but whether it brings justice to 457 00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:41,440 the people around them, we don't know. 458 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:44,840 That happens. And sometimes that's the 459 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:46,960 sometimes that's the best folks can do. 460 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:54,520 But but to beware of settling for those things, vengeance or 461 00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:58,200 self-serving accommodation, to beware of settling for those 462 00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:01,760 things as true justice. They sometimes they're the best 463 00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:03,680 we can do, but they're not true justice. 464 00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:06,560 And we always need to be struggling for true justice. 465 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,840 But because sometimes that's the best we can do, we need to be 466 00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:12,720 slow to judge those who choose a different path than we would 467 00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,600 take in their struggle for justice. 468 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,320 Whether they fall onto the side of vengeance or fall on the side 469 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:23,040 of accommodation, Be slow to judge. 470 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,200 We'll pursue justice as we hear God calling us to do that, 471 00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:31,000 recognizing that we're not the judge of our neighbors or our 472 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,160 relatives or other people around us, that they're God is their 473 00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:35,800 judge. We will do what God has called 474 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:39,800 us to do as best we can and leave their judgement in God's 475 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:44,280 hands, and then never stop seeking after justice. 476 00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:48,800 That whatever happens, we don't give up this quest. 477 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:53,800 We don't give up looking for opportunities to use the power 478 00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:57,600 that we have to bring a little more justice into the lives of 479 00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,680 people that don't have it. For whatever reason. 480 00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:06,160 The struggle for justices is at the heart of God's call to the 481 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:14,160 church to, like Jesus, seek the recovery of sight, freedom for 482 00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:19,720 the oppressed, liberation for those in prison, justice in this 483 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:22,000 world. We won't ever get it all 484 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:22,960 complete. We won't. 485 00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:26,320 We won't. But to do what we can on a daily 486 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:31,080 basis in that struggle, in Jesus name, Amen. 487 00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:32,000 Amen.