A Prayer I Wrote for My Nephew’s Funeral

Father of love,

As we, the family and loved ones of Bradyn, gather to remember him and say our goodbyes, we do so in unrelenting mourning and sorrow. We are confused and hurt, desperate and empty. We ask questions that seem to have no answers. And we long for comfort in the midst of this chaos.

So we turn to You in our piercing grief. We turn to You trusting that Bradyn is not only with You, but that he is more alive now than he has ever been. We despair and mourn for our loss, but we also know that this is not our final goodbye, for someday we will see him again in Your presence as we worship You together with him.

By raising from the dead, Your Son Jesus announced to our broken and desperate world that even though our lives our fragile, another kingdom awaits where death does not reign, where tears are wiped away, and where love never has to say goodbye.

So, Father, we look to You now as One who once lost Your own Son. We look to you as One who knows the sting of our anguish and weeps with us. But we also look to You as the only One who can heal our hurting hearts. We mourn deeply. But we mourn in hope.

Western Vs. Biblical Conceptions of Justice

I fear that we Western Christians often confuse our understanding of the world with the biblical writers understanding of the world. In this we are able to morally justify our actions, no matter how wicked, in the name of God. The following is one example of the stark degree to which our conceptions of justice, a key theological category, differs from the biblical writers.

*Note* I’m not convinced all of these are true, but I think most of them are.

1. Western Justice is avowedly impartial, but biblical justice is biased in favor of the poor and critical of the rich

2. WJ believes poverty is caused by the poor, but BJ believes poverty is caused systemically by the powerful

3. WJ accepts poverty as a given, but BJ sees poverty as a product of injustice

4. WJ is abstract (blind folded), but BJ is earthly and sin conscious

5. WJ is reactive, but BJ is proactive

6. WJ is primarily punitive, but BJ is primarily benevolent

7. WJ is individualistic, but BJ is social

8. WJ stresses merit and individual social rights, but BJ stresses need and the social dimension of rights

9. WJ considers property rights to be sacred, but BJ believes in redistributive empowerment of the poor

10. WJ is ecologically insensitive, but BJ stresses stewardship of the earth

11. WJ is conservative, but BJ is revolutionizing, calling for creative systemic corrections

12. WJ is nationalistic, but BJ is universalist and solidaristic

13. WJ is minimalistic, but BJ is effusive

14. WJ seeks to end litigation, but BJ seeks true shalom

15. WJ is pessimistic, but BJ is guardedly hopeful

If only Plato were here, I believe he’d hold a long dialogue with us about what “justice” really is.

Excerpt from Daniel Maguire, The Moral Core of Judaism and Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.