The Laments in Midlothian, like so many laments across the globe and throughout time, come from a pain at injustice, and honestly, a doubt that justice will be done.
In the first three posts of this commentary series (you can start with the forward here) I highlighted some of the factors that led to the Laments in Midlothian. I plan to conclude this series by looking back over some of the themes of those three posts through a different lens, shaded by the law of love.
Forgive my poor communication, for failing to have defined a key term until now, but I think I should dig deeper into what could be meant by the word justice.
Tim Keller, in his book Generous Justice, says there are two Hebrew words that are often used for justice (or in the context of justice) in the Bible.
There is mishpat, which is the most common, and can be (in part) understood as rectifying or corrective or responding justice. This justice serves as an answer to mistreatment or abuse, or the direct impact of unrighteousness on another. It is often translated into or tied to the word judgement in scripture.
And this is the word for justice that I was thinking of when I wrote the Laments. This is the heart cry for justice that so many lamenters long for.
This is the type of justice that does not need to be taught. This is the type of justice that a child understands when its toy is taken away, or when it is bullied. It is the type of justice that reflexively says “there is something wrong here”. It is the type of justice we naturally long for.
This is also the justice of the Repairer and Restorer God we see so many times in scripture.
Then there is the type of justice that I did not know about as such, until it was taught to me. The original Hebrew word for this justice is tzadeqah and it can easily be understood as primary justice.
I learned about this justice from friends and brothers in the faith like Vincent, and John Kovacs, who shared Tim Keller’s Generous Justice with me, and other friends in the faith who also spoke highly of the book.
“Primary justice, or tzadeqah, is behavior that, if it was prevalent in the world, would render rectifying justice unnecessary, because everyone would be living in right relationship to everyone else. Therefore, though tzadeqah is primarily about being in a right relationship with God, the righteous life that results is profoundly social.”
By Tim Keller from the book Generous Justice via https://relevantmagazine.com/god/what-biblical-justice/
This tzadeqah justice is like preventative medicine, like lifestyle choice (and the abundance of resources for lifestyle choice) to prevent the need for corrective surgery, or procedures, or pharmaceutical interventions in the first place. This is the justice of long standing and consistent righteousness, (right standing in relationship) between humanity and God and humanity itself, and ultimately humanity and nature. This justice obsoletes the corrective or rectifying aspect of mishpat in so many ways, if it permeates culture and society.
It’s the type of justice that comes naturally with love, if not primarily or most prominently for other people, then at least love for God as the source on the regular.
As stated above, I’m going to briefly revisit the topics of the previous three posts in this series, and apply the lens of tzadeqah, to see how a law of love might have affected the seeds that grew into Lament, if primary justice had prevailed and prevented certain injustices in the first place.
Of course, this type of venture into worlds and timelines that weren’t is fraught with peril and rabbit holes (wormholes and black holes too I guess). Hundreds of thousands of words could be spent here, but, just like any time travel or alternate history (or future casting) endeavor, know that this is in no way exhaustive or representative of the whole of potential.
The Law, Veneration, Condemnation
Against Such Things There Is No Law
Primer:
“The things the Holy Spirit showed them in the valley of vision compelled them to knock on their neighbors’ door and say “You can’t own people”. Because of the tzadeqah of their witness, your Precious Puritans’ partners did not purchase people.”
Adapted from “Precious Puritans” by Propaganda
For neither infinite power ~nor infinite resources~ nor infinite wisdom could bestow godhood upon men. For that there would have to be infinite love as well.
~And the men of the West, who claimed the Way and Light and Cross knew this. And so, when the old father of lies, the sneaking serpent, roaring lion, rumbled the compromise, they declined.
Mamom found no root in their company, for their kingdom was not of this world.
Blood and souls… greater worth than gold.
And so he left them, for a more opportune time.
It was the year a king was to come riding out of the east to subdue the land and own it. But the tzadeqah in their witness reached his ears and impacted his thoughts.
He instead sought their prophets and their priests. The Year of Man was averted. The enemy fled further.
It was declared the Year of the Lamb.
And the light of justice shined in the land for generations, like sparking electric currents between the tungsten fingers of tzadeqah and mishpat.
Brother Buzzard found no feasts from carnage in that age, yet his kind long continued to lay their eggs in season and lovingly feed their young. The Year of the Lamb held blessings enough for them.~
-Adapted from A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M Miller Jr., Fiat Lux, Chapter 22.
Quote source: https://quotepark.com/authors/walter-m-miller-jr/?q=1919080&page=2
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.
James 2:1
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
James 2:8
Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.
Exodus 23:9
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
It seems I forgot a lot. If I found God Who’s love then I gotta stop, treating my rights like a judge til the gavel drop, gotta love you to love Him so I’m a travel watch, to the place that was hidden now it’s risen… I’m a killer, I’m a victim, I’m a Christian, depending on love, in my soul…
“Where’s Love” by Jackie Hill Perry ft John Givez
There is a long history of injustice in the legal system for African Americans in America.
Anti-miscegenation laws and Slave Codes in the earlier ages of the nation, and Redlining and gerrymandering and targeted policing are all pieces that have contributed to the laments over racial injustice in the 21st century.
How might primary justice have changed the course of history and prevented the Laments in Midlothian?
Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise shines light on the role the American church and her leaders had in rearing and nursing racism in the United States to a healthy age.
Tisby acknowledges that the majority of the church in America may not have actively been involved in cultivating and championing racism or the slave trade, but the majority of those people claiming the Christian faith did not take a stand against it to prevent it from taking root and bearing its strange fruit.
See also this lecture by Tisby from Covenant College “The Long History of Racism and Reformed Theology”.
What if, when the church found out about the institution of racial enslavement, they then, as a whole, exercised primary justice, in the early years of the nation, instead of yielding to it, giving it soil? What if they had en masse actively, furtively, offensively resisted?
What if the church, as a whole, refused to let anyone that was a part of the slave system participate in certain religious and spiritual ceremonies like in 1800, when:
The [Reformed] Presbytery enacted, without a dissenting voice, that “no slaveholder should be allowed the communion of the Church.”
History of The Reformed Presbyterian Church In America, by Rev. W. Melancthon Glasgow pgs 78-79.
What if they saw all human beings as made in the image of God and lived like it? And when anyone or any institution questioned that, the church in America saw the serpent’s sneaking, recognized the voice as his, and resisted? What if they were united in being countercultural?
What if the hurdles some slave owners and condoners of slavery and racism put up to prevent slaves from accessing and participating in Christian community were torn like the temple veil because of Christ-likes?
What if the Black Regiment saw the tyranny of slave masters in the same light (or an even harsher light) than the tyranny of England’s crown?
What if America went to war over slavery before taxes, saw the abuses of slavery as more eggreious than a smaller cut of their profit, and rendered unto Caeser what was Caeser’s and what was God’s unto God, and honor to all humanity?
What if the tyranny of slavery on master and slave alike was seen as a tyranny greater than the Quartering Act?
Police Chief Daniel Dulaney, when discussing the killing of Jemel Roberson, said that the department saw the incident as a “blue on blue friendly fire” situation.
Some black officers have gone on record as saying that they have been profiled with violent consequence because of their skin. So maybe, in a way, this was treated as a blue on blue(-black) incident, but… what if there wasn’t a category for in-network and out-of-network police violence? What if the scales were even, and just?
Would LEOBRs be needed?
What if everyone in a department wept when one of their brothers or sisters killed someone? And grieved over any loss of life in the community?
Would I feel a kind of way when I see those thin blue line flags? Maybe a different kind of way?
What if more officers attended counseling, and there wasn’t the stigma around it that contributes to escalations in aggression and violence?
What if the name of the killer was released immediately, and the community lamented, because they knew the officer, because the officer was part of the community, had a track record of truly serving and protecting, and seeing the value and image of God in every person they policed?
And whenever an officer was injured, the community mourned?
And Jemel became an officer, and saved more lives?
And was there for his child’s first Christmas? And got to tell him about the birth of Christ?
What if his loved ones did not have to lament?
In the next post I will write Of Faith and Prophesied-Over Men, and (potentially) Of Love, and Our Lion, and His Love.
Some of the verses that were cut include Phillippians 2:3, Matthew 25:35, Leviticus 19:34 for further reference.
Propaganda’s “Precious Puritans” stormed up a hornet’s nest of conversation (and controversy) in its day. I spent some time wading into it and greater context was really valuable. Sometimes we can make something the that the author wasn’t making the main thing the main thing and get lost in that. The “Precious Puritans” represent more than just those with the specific label, but people that were supposed to be little Christs that were part of and complicit in the unChrist-like practices of America’s early days. Their abdication is highlighted because it still has an impact. Wealth and poverty can be generational. Spiritual lineage should not be ignored. To do so may sow seeds of greater lament.
Jackie Hill Perry’s “Where’s Love” ft John Givez is apropos for calling out the fine line that divides tzadeqah from the need for msihpat, and is really worth a listen or two.
Festival of Booths 