{"id":132,"date":"2020-03-25T14:30:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T14:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covenantmoravian.com\/index.php\/watchword-reflections\/tuesday-reflection-march-24-2020-a-just-and-kind-god\/"},"modified":"2020-03-25T14:30:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T14:30:42","slug":"tuesday-reflection-march-24-2020-a-just-and-kind-god","status":"publish","type":"watchword","link":"https:\/\/covenantmoravian.com\/index.php\/watchword-reflections\/tuesday-reflection-march-24-2020-a-just-and-kind-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Reflection – March 24, 2020 A Just and Kind God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tuesday Reflection – March 24, 2020 A Just and Kind God<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

As the world scrambles to respond to the spread of COVID 19, many stories have been surfacing of persons using unjust ways to profit from the misery of others. One such story is of two brothers in Tennessee who mass purchased hand sanitizers, stored them in different states and when it became scarce, began to sell at an astronomically high profit margin. This caused public outrage as their practice was decried as unjust and therefore unkind. Today\u2019s Watchword describes a character of God which is opposite to human injustice.\u00a0Psalm 145: 17\u00a0The Lord is just in all His ways, and kind in all His doings.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0This is a potent reminder in a world where profit at any cost is king and where kindness is seen as weakness. Contrasting this world view or practice is the God we serve who is just and kind.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

To say that God is just is to say that God is perfectly fair in all his dealings. None of His creation is treated with partiality over another. Think of Adam and Eve, the crown of creation. When they disobeyed God by eating the apple, the sentence of death was passed on them but they were allowed to live and humanity was given ordinances to remind us of our sinfulness and our need for repentance. The sentence of death was carried out when God became flesh, lived among us in the form of His only begotten son who made the ultimate sacrifice of himself in our place on Calvary\u2019s cross. God\u2019s justice tells us that sin will not escape God\u2019s punishment no matter how long it takes. Note that the text says that God is just in all His ways, not some of His ways. Human justice is laced with favoritism, bribery, nonchalance, and a flawed sense of right and wrong. God\u2019s justice is completely pure and holy in every way. Life for us wouldn\u2019t be the same if God was not just. Thoughts of a just God causes even those at the highest levels of societal leadership to act with justice. That is what gives us hope in an unjust world. Thomas Jefferson said: \u2018My heart trembles when I think that God is just\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

We cannot speak of God being just and not also add that God is kind. In the same way that God is just to all creation, the text tells us that God is kind in all that God does. His kindness extends beyond those who are loving and obedient even to those who are \u2018ungrateful and wicked\u2019 (Luke 6: 35). It was this kindness of God that sent Jesus to the cross in Adam\u2019s place, in your place in my place. It was this kindness that David experienced when he penned Psalm 34: 6\u00a0This poor man cried out, and the\u00a0Lord\u00a0heard\u00a0him,<\/em>\u00a0And saved him out of all his troubles.\u00a0<\/em>David had run from the frying pan into the fire as we say. He had escaped Saul who wanted to kill him, only to be brought before Acish King of the Philistines at whose hands he also faced death. As he later reflected David knew that only the kindness or the mercy of God had saved him from both. God does not treat us as our sinfulness demands but tempers justice with kindness. As a result we who deserve the wages of sin which is death, are allowed to choose the gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ. For St. Francis of Assisi nothing is more humbling than knowing that in spite of what we have done against God, God still extends His kindness to us through the gift of eternal life attained by the sacrifice of His Son. This, friends is kindness, it is mercy, it is grace. John Piper says that it is a sin not to cherish the grace (or kindness) of God. Psalm 103 reminds us that God is merciful and kind. Vs 10\u00a0he does not treat us as our sins deserve<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>or repay us according to our iniquities.<\/em>\u00a0He is indeed a just and kind God.\u00a0As we reflect in the midst of this crisis I have heard many theories including some that says that God is punishing us for our sinfulness with this disease. This is not true as everyone is affected and God is merciful to all, not some. What we can say with certainty is that God is in the midst of all that is happening. He is leading the medical field as the search is on for a vaccine. He is in the neighbor who has noticed the others around them for the first time. He is present in acts of love and kindness that has increased because of this pandemic. He is present as the worshipping community finds creative ways of gathering together for worship without being physically together. I pray that we may praise God for being just and kind even as the world experiences that just and kind God through us.\u00a0\u00a0Amen
Bevon White\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the world scrambles to respond to the spread of COVID 19, many stories have been surfacing of persons using unjust ways to profit from the misery of others. 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