Sunday, June 21, 2009

Children's Sermon

We shared worship with another congregation today, and the Children's Sermon was based on Micah 6:8. She asked what is justice, and then explained that it is making sure that everyone has enough.

That's not true was my first thought. That's generosity, or kindness, or mercy or something. My wife accurately pointed out that I had been asked to do the children's message and declined, so was in a really weak position to complain. That is also true.

It's been interesting to think about, though. It certainly ties into my current series, though it's something of a discussion for later. It's true and it's not. There is an important truth for Christians there, yet it also misleads. If one tries to prove it either true or not true, one runs into contradictions. This'll be fun.

5 comments:

jaed said...

"What is justice?" may be too difficult a question. One that works backwards, like "How can you tell whether or not a decision is just?", might be easier to approach.

(Interesting that "does everyone get enough?" might be one criterion for certain sorts of justice, even though it's a terrible definition of justice.)

I always wince at seeing kids taught nice, easy, and wrong formulations like this, though. Justice is a foundational concept and these kids are having their understanding of it flattened out, distorted, corrupted. Some of them will do some hard thinking in a few years and retrieve the idea of justice, but I suspect some won't, and will go through life thinking justice means no more than "making sure everyone has enough".

Donna B. said...

I was taught to pray for mercy, not justice.

The blindness of justice is not understood well, is it?

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Anonymous said...

I'm interested in what you would have said differently? How would you discuss justice with little children? It is easy to point to something that wasn't good - but I challenge you to offer a differing opinion.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Justice would be replacing something you broke. But a small child, with few resources, might be unable to do that, and would need mercy.