Restoring justice, intimacy

Many years ago John Lennon recorded the song "Imagine." The song was a melancholy fantasy of a world where we all lived together in peace. In that idealistic realm, issues of hunger, politics and religion no longer separated us. Those issues simply didn't exist in his melodic utopia.

This blissful existence lacks one essential ingredient. Justice.

Modern day prophets would have us believe that man is intrinsically good, that hearts are infected by time and circumstance, not from any latent seed of darkness inborn. If that were true, then Lennen's longed-for nirvana could one day be realized.

However, anyone who takes a long hard honest look at a two-year-old caught in the center of the universe syndrome so common to that age, knows better.

Indeed, anyone who can say with Paul in Romans 7:19, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing." has begun to understand the woeful and wretched condition of the heart of every man.

And so, justice is required. And since our history; as a world; as a nation; and to a man, is filled with wounds inflicted, one man on another, our souls cry out for justice. And God promises that justice will be done.

Another song that has enjoyed great popularity also obscures an essential need.

Bette Midler sings "From a Distance" in which she details how God must view the world from his heavenly realm.

Photographs from outer space reveal the very picture of serenity. Blue oceans gently lapping the greens and golds of land, there is no outward evidence of man's inhumanity to man. From that distance it is hard to imagine the strife and the struggle that is a part of each man's existence, to one degree or another, nearly every moment of every day of his life. Distance does not cure but only obscures the truth of a fallen world.

With my apologies to Ms. Midler and to Julie Gold, the songwriter who penned the lyrics in 1985, I cannot comprehend living in a world where God only watches us from a distance. For if the chorus to that song is true, then where is our hope? Where is our strength? Our refuge? Our very-present help in time of trouble?

The missing but essential ingredient is intimacy. Knowing God and being known by him, intimately, deeply, and well.

Obviously, there is a deep yearning in the hearts of men for peace and for harmony. In this yearning we discover a portion of the heart of God, for in the beginning, the life, hope and future he created for us was one of peace and purpose. When that covenant was broken, the yearning began and has only increased with each succeeding generation. Created in his image to inhabit that perfect garden, of course our hearts long to return to that idealistic and, by all accounts, brief time in the history of man. Simply wishing it to be so, however, will not make it so. But God, who is right here in the midst of our days, our tears, our joys and our fears, has made the ideal possible again. Having formed us, knowing our hearts intimately, deeply and well, God has restored the harmony and the peace for which our hearts unceasingly hunger.

Come, again, to the stable and see God's good answer to that heart-yearning. See the peace of Christ revealed in the face of a newborn babe and while looking there, contemplate also the journey this child takes, and see essential justice and essential intimacy wedded, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger.

F or to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)

Audio from KNGN 1360 AM:

http://www.kngn.org/mp3/Restoring%20Justice%20and%20Intimacy.mp3