Jesus and justice were walking up a hill together....

Jesus’ brother James, before he took a header down the steps outside the Temple, wrote this: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
Martin Luther had difficulty with this because he fought so hard for the idea of we are saved by grace alone. What we have had ample discussion about these last three days has been the idea above, that in building churches it is not enough to simply offer them an open door. We must, instead, offer them an open door with shelter for all, with clothing for all, with distribution of resources for all, etc.
I agree, and we’ve spent much of the past 10 years attempting to do just that.
But……….
My question is this:
Does justice lead to Jesus or does Jesus lead to justice?
By that I mean do we give those persons of need Jesus first or do we give those persons of need what they need and THEN offer Jesus?
I, an avid blogger, columnist, person of great opinion, have no answer here.
A sweet woman sitting next to me yesterday pointed out that Jesus fed the people before he taught the people. I smiled, and being the avid blogger, columnist, person of great opinion with a mind that has been going for quite some time, looked it up.
According to the scriptures, well, he didn’t. His sermon on the mount came (at least in the way that its placed in Matthew, came first.
The kingdom talk preceded the kingdom work, in that regard.
But can we take that to have meaning and purpose and planning?
I suspect now. It’s like this: if you are hungry, needing a home, needing a job that pays well, will you listen to the message of Jesus? And if you do, will you continue to listen to it if you are still just as hungry, needing a home, needing a job that pays well enough to feed your family?
This is the answer today as to why we are able to bring people into the side door of the church by clothing and such even more than we’re able to bring them into the front door of the church by simply inviting.
Does that mean everyone is due a job that pays well?
No, actually I don’t think that.
But everyone should be able to receive Jesus equally. Are they the same principle?
 Again, probably not.
But…
Again, it’s a large but ….
Though I maintain it is not government’s responsibility to make everyone share in resources equally, I maintain it is the church’s responsibility to make everyone have a life that removes hunger, homelessness, equal access to health care and clean water and a lack of malaria or disease in the world.
The real problem goes all the way back to the scripture.
We, who have faith, don’t do it. We just don’t do it. We do it more than government does, but we don’t do it enough.
And that, it seems to the avid blogger, is the reality.
When we do that, making lives much, much better by giving as much as need be given, we are indeed kingdom people. When we don’t, when we build buildings and dress well and make sure no one is invited into OUR walls, we are not.
Jesus and justice walk hand in hand. It is not, I think, an either or.
It never has been.