All things justice, and Kenya

annamissionLast Sunday, we talked on the topic of justice just a bit before Anna got up to share her experience of God in Kenya. Often times we associate justice with salvation and measure success of "mission trips" more or less on the number of conversions. In the Hebrew mind, however, justice encompasses more than salvation of the soul, but of the physical body, all of nature, culture and society. Justice, salvation and peace is captured in one word: shalom. Anna mentioned about how she we inspired by Paul's body metaphor in 1 Cor.12 - "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." God suffered with us in Christ. And we are honored by God with Christ. That's something we ought to chew on. We did that literally through communion as we celebrated God's act of justice in Christ Jesus, "to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross" (Col 1:20). He was torn apart, so that the world could be sewn back together - spiritually, physically, socially, culturally.