Isaiah 59:9-20
Psalm 13
Hebrews 5:11-6:12
Mark 10:46-52

The Old Testament reading and the epistle reading this morning seem made to order to make both the preacher and the congregation uncomfortable. In the Old Testament passage, the prophet focuses on the problem of injustice and puts the blame squarely on his hearers: “For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities” (Is. 59:12).

The Hebrews passage threatens about the dangers of apostasy. The apostle warns that in the case of those who have fallen away “it is impossible to restore them to repentance . . . since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Heb. 6:4, 6). Should I preach a sermon to a chapel full of seminarians in which I accuse you of injustice whose “transgressions are multiplied” before God? Or rather should I go down the path of suggesting that you might be apostates who are guilty of crucifying the Son of God to your own harm? Best to stick to the Gospel story of Jesus giving sight to Blind Bartimaeus.

However, I think that both the Old Testament passage and the epistle are on target for where we find ourselves in contemporary culture. The problem of injustice is a concern that plagues not only the culture but the church. We approach a political election in a matter of days in the midst of what feels like the most politically divided period in my lifetime. And the rabid disagreements between both political parties are primarily moral. The resentment of both sides of the electorate against one another stems out of a kind of moral outrage that is rooted in mutual accusations of injustice.

And of course, the church itself has had to deal with issues of injustice in the past couple of decades, particularly connected to issues of clerical abuse, primarily sexual abuse but also leadership abuse that has led to the scandals of clergy being defrocked, but also disagreement about the nature of Christian morality that has led to denominational splits among the mainline churches.

Concerning apostasy, we are living in the midst of an abandonment of Christian faith in the last several decades that seems unprecedented. The brief religious revival of the Jesus Movement and the charismatic renewal of the 1970s was followed almost immediately by the rise of the New Age phenomena in the following decades, of the cultural popularity of the New Atheists in the early twenty-first century, and the recent phenomenon of Christian Deconstruction in the last decade.

If you are hoping that I will resolve any of these problems this morning, you are expecting far more than a seminary professor can offer in a chapel sermon. I am not going to tell you how to vote next week, how to resolve the disagreements that have divided the mainline churches in the last two decades, or how we can reverse the numbers of people who are leaving the church.

I do think however that the lectionary passages from Isaiah and Hebrews can tell us something about what the Bible has to offer concerning the issues of injustice and apostasy.

Turning to Isaiah 59, it helps to be reminded that problems of justice and injustice are not unique to the twenty-first century. Key to the understanding of injustice in the Old Testament is a proper understanding of the nature of justice. Justice is first rooted in the character of God. In the Old Testament, God is the good God who created a good world, whose very nature is holy and righteous, but who is also a God of compassion and mercy.

Israel’s ethic is a corporate or national ethic in which the entire people are expected to show justice, mercy, and compassion to one another because in delivering the nation from slavery, God has shown compassion and mercy on them as a people. The law in Leviticus tells Israel that “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” and “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:18, 34).

Correlated with the notion of justice and compassion is honesty or truth-telling. Leviticus correlated lying with theft: “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another” (Lev. 19:11). Psalm 15 says that the person who can dwell in God’s holy hill is the one who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart, who does not slander his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend. Truth-telling is connected with righteousness because God’s very character is that of righteousness and truth. The Psalmist writes “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is true” (Psalm 119:142)

If justice, compassion, and truth-telling are positive descriptions of what it means to walk in God’s covenant ways, then injustice, violence, and lying are their opposites. Throughout the Isaiah reading this morning, the prophet complains that God’s own people are not living lives of righteousness, compassion, and truthfulness. First there are claims of injustice: “Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us” (Is. 59:9).

What is the nature of this injustice? A few verses before the lectionary reading, the prophet makes this clear. It is violence and oppression against fellow Israelites: “For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil and they are swift to shed innocent blood; The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths” (Is, 59:3, 6-8).

Correlated with injustice toward the neighbor is deception in contrast to the truth-telling that is a correlate of justice and compassion. To lie to one’s neighbor is another form of injustice: “your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter” (Is. 59:3-4, 14), Because lying has now become normal – there is no truth in the public square – there is also no tolerance for those who tell the truth. The prophet writes: “Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey” (Is. 59:15).

Finally, the prophet draws a connection between injustice and apostasy. Injustice is a form of faithlessness that means a denial of faith in God: “For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words” (Is. 59:12-13). Injustice, untruthfulness, and apostasy. For the prophet, these three are connected. Injustice inevitably leads to deception, deception inevitably leads to apostasy.

In the writings of the later prophets, there comes a realization that this problem of injustice is not simply a social problem in which one can clearly distinguish between good guys and bad guys – a problem that can be solved by moral exhortation – but a realization that there is something inherent to the human condition that leads human beings to exploit one another, and that this is a problem that we ourselves cannot solve. Rather than wringing their hands in despair, the prophets conclude that if the problem of human egoism is too big for us to handle, then it demands a divine solution. If the God of Israel was capable of rescuing Israel from slavery, then he must be capable of rescuing us from ourselves.

We see this in this morning’s reading. At the end of the lectionary reading, God himself steps in: “The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him” (Is. 59:15-16).

In the Old Testament prophets, God himself provides the solution to injustice. This happens in two ways, both of which are mentioned in our passage. First there is an eschatological solution. The prophet writes: “So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives” (Is. 59:19).

Second, salvation from injustice will involve a mediator, often identified with a new king like David who will rule in righteousness over a righteous people. The prophet writes: “‘And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,’ declares the Lord” (Is. 59:20).

Turning now to the New Testament, we ask ourselves the question: how does the New Testament incorporate and fulfill these Old Testament themes of an eschatological solution to injustice, and of the need for a mediator, a Redeemer who is a new David? If you have been at seminary long enough, you know that a safe answer to almost every question is “Jesus.” In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is the answer to the eschatological question. The Gospels and epistles speak over and over of the theme of the second coming in which Jesus Christ will rule as the new David, and in which there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and in which justice will reign. The very last book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation, speaks of a “new heaven” and a “new earth” and a “new Jerusalem,” where the dwelling of God will be with humanity. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:1-3). No more injustice.

And Jesus is himself the Mediator who will bring about justice. The incarnation of God in Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the prophet’s promise that “a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from their transgression” (Is. 59:20).

In the chapters surrounding our epistle passage this morning, the author of Hebrews speaks of the significance of Jesus Christ as the High Priest who can mediate between God and humans because he is himself God become a human being. Hebrews begins: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:2). In chapter 8, the author writes “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 8:1). And in chapter 9, “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (Heb. 9:15).

This is why the doctrine of the atonement is so important, and why the doctrine of the atonement makes no sense apart from the doctrine of the incarnation. There is more than one theory of the atonement, but at the least the doctrine of atonement means that in his life, death, and resurrection, the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, has himself taken on the problem of our injustice by himself becoming the victim of that injustice and has overcome it. Through his death on the cross, Jesus took upon himself our sin and our injustice, and through his resurrection from the dead turned death and injustice into life and justice.

This is why the warning against apostasy in Hebrews is important. To give up on Jesus is to give up on God’s way of dealing with injustice. As the prophet wrote in Isaiah 59: “There was no justice and no man to intercede, so his own arm brought salvation.” As God become human, Jesus Christ is God’s arm bringing salvation. In Jesus, God himself has solved the problem of injustice by taking injustice on himself and overcoming it through love.

In our epistle this morning, for everything that the apostle writes about the mediation of Jesus as High Priest, he does not conclude his warning against apostasy by only pointing to Jesus. He also writes about the community that does not commit apostasy because it remains faithful to Jesus: “Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:9-12).

In addition to an eschatological encouragement – faith and patience that inherit the promises – the writer of the letter to the Hebrews speaks of a community of love that has shown its faithfulness to Jesus by serving the saints. One of the ways in which we hang onto our faith in Jesus Christ is to hang on to our faithfulness to one another in a community that is faithful to Jesus..

Since the problem of injustice and apostasy is corporate, the solution must also be corporate, and while the gospel offers us no ultimate solution to the problem of community injustice short of the eschaton, it does offers us a penultimate corporate alternative to the problem of corporate injustice by inviting us to become members of a different kind of community here and now. As the Old Testament prophet contrasted a community of injustice and deception with the covenant community that reflected God’s own character as justice and truth, so the New Testament portrays a community ethic that is based on an imitation of Jesus Christ.

The church does not do this perfectly. Some wag once remarked that you can learn everything you need to know about original sin by being a member of a church choir for a month. The Book of Acts, Paul’s letters to the churches at Galatia and Corinth, and the Letter to the Hebrews make clear that the earliest Christians got lots of things wrong. But the New Testament also makes clear that there is a pattern of Christian discipleship – a way of justice and truth-telling – that distinguishes the church from the surrounding culture.

The first contrast has to do with the nature of justice and injustice. Contemporary society does indeed care about justice and injustice, but the way in which the culture pursues what it calls justice is through the exercise of power and coercion. Those with political and economic power use that power to get done the things they want done. Those who think otherwise find themselves on the receiving end of power, and either get out of the way or get stepped on. This means however that the only way to resolve disagreements about justice is through conflict, and that justice becomes a zero sum game. Justice for me becomes injustice for you, and my victory becomes your loss.

Jesus calls his followers to follow a different path. “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45).

As the Old Testament pattern was based on the moral character of the God who was both just and merciful, so the New Testament pattern is based on an imitation of the pattern given to the church by the crucified and risen Jesus. Justice is not found in winning and losing, but in a call to peacemaking that involves a recognition that justice is better served by becoming a servant of the other rather than having your way with the other.

Those within the church are called to imitate the self-emptying in which through his incarnation the Son of God became our servant even to the point of death by ourselves becoming servants to one another (Phil. 2:1-10). Within the community of the church, the church’s internal governance has to be different from the way in which the world gets things done. As too many recent examples have shown, there are going to be cases of injustice within the church. When these occur, there must be a forthrightness, a willingness to make amends, to hear the voice of those who suffer injustice, not to protect those who abuse power rather than those who suffer abuse.

Earlier I mentioned a correlation in the Old Testament between God’s character as Justice and God’s character as truth. The New Testament makes the same connection. In Ephesians 4, Paul connects following Christ and speaking the truth: “[S]peaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Eph. 4:14). and a few verses later, he writes “For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, . . . . to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another” (Eph. 4:20-25).

Paul makes a direct connection between the “truth as it is in Jesus,” the way in which the church is to grow into Christ as its head, and the way in which Christians grow into true righteousness, speak the truth in love and speak the truth to our fellow Christians. All of this is grounded in the incarnation, and in the nature of the church as the body of Christ. We speak the truth to one another because through Christ we are members of one another.

In the case of contemporary culture, the contrast would be between the increasing practices of deception that are so prevalent, and speaking the truth in love. I remember how excited some of us were in the early days of the the internet that it would become an occasion for the sharing of knowledge. Instead, especially in the case of social media, the explosion of mass communication has made it easier for people to lie about one another and to verbally assault one another. Given that there is such a close connection between injustice and deception, the church again has a calling that is in radical contrast to contemporary culture. This means that insofar as coercion and deception are inherently connected, those inside the church have a necessary commitment to truth telling, A commitment to justice also means a commitment to truthfulness and refusing to manipulate one another.

In addition to justice and truth-telling, the New Testament adds an additional virtue to the mix – the reconciliation of enemies that echoes Jesus’ own sharing of forgiveness. On the cross, Jesus prayed for those who crucified him: “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). When Peter asked how many times he needed to forgive, Jesus responded with the absurdly mathematical “seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:32-22). Paul draws the connection between justice and truth-telling in Ephesians: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:31-32). Again, the connection is drawn to the example of Christ – “as Christ forgave you.”

The more seriously we take concerns about injustice and deception, the more that condemnation of those who damage others and who misleads others becomes an almost moral responsibility. The problem with sin, real sin, is that it really does damage to other people. In C.S. Lewis’s Reflections on the Psalms, he talks about some of the anger and curses found in the imprecatory Psalms (chapter 3).. Lewis warns us not to be too high minded here. Anger is a normal response to injustice, and if we do not find ourselves being offended when wicked people cause pain and suffering to innocent people, there may be something wrong with us. Lewis also cautions us to recognize that the prayers expressed in the imprecatory Psalms express a natural plea for God to intervene when no one else can. We should dread that anyone would ever pray such a prayer in response to something we have done to them.

At the same time, because we can all be both victims and oppressors, Jesus’ words from the cross offers us the only final way to move beyond mutual condemnation – the path of reconciliation and forgiveness. And this also means a contrast between current culture and the ethic that follows Jesus. After an entire generation of blaming Christians for loading people with burdens of guilt, contemporary culture has substituted shame for guilt. The problem with shame is that it is not about something you have done, but about something you are. And unlike guilt, shame can never be forgiven. To be that Hollywood celebrity to whom the finger of shame points is to move forever beyond the possibility of forgiveness. To be shamed once is to be shamed forever.

Jesus offers us an alternative, but it is not an easy one. Both offering forgiveness and receiving forgiveness are hard. Offering forgiveness means giving up on the pleasure of resentment, of hanging on to the wrong we have suffered. Receiving forgiveness means recognizing that I am in the wrong, that I am the one who has wronged another. Both are possible only because we have first been forgiven ourselves. As John writes: “We love because he first loves us.” But John also reminds us “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19-21).

If the church is to follow in the path of Jesus Christ who overcame injustice by undergoing suffering, and overturning injustice with forgiveness, discipleship of Christ means that we face injustice walking the path that Jesus Christ walked. In relationship to those outside the church, the church is called to forgiveness of and reconciliation with enemies. The church is to be a witness of God’s reconciling love to those outside the church who embrace the manipulative means of power. As Jesus said, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

Following the path of Jesus also means that in the same way that Israel was called to be a people of God who imitated God’s own character of justice and mercy, so the church is called to be a community distinct from the surrounding culture, a community where justice, truth, and reconciliation are central because we ourselves have been reconciled to God and one another through the reconciling love of God in Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ has loved us and forgiven us, we can be reconciled to and forgive one another.