Good Friday - outside the courthouse

Law, Justice and Politics are a tangled web in our world. What starts out with an intent for justice often creates injustice. Who's got access to the law, to the government? Who's got the money or the education to deal with the social issues that often need both legal and political solutions? A couple of examples are addiction where the medical and the legal collide, and political refugees where the political and the legal collide. Does our society desire to care for those among us who need more care and concern, to include rather than exclude based on certain criteria? And do we have the political will to change the laws so that we don't have to come into conflict with the laws?

We can have success when we work collectively with broad support, and we all benefit from this. Recent cases show the courts calling on the government to recognize the status of aboriginal women and children who are the wives and descendants of non-status men, and of the courts telling the government that their laws violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically the right to freedom of association which allows collective bargaining. These are successes for us all.

And what would Jesus have to say about the courts? Jesus' example and teaching was all about relationships. The law deals primarily with broken relationships and sometimes it causes the breaking of relationships. I believe that Jesus calls us to build our society on more and stronger relationships. Where possible we should engage directly with one another, rather than trying to force some third party to deal with our differences. We should strive always for inclusion, not exclusion. If we embrace our humanity and acknowledge our mistakes and broken relationships, we can build and rebuild our relationships, making them healthy, strong and full of love.

today's 'Voice'

In the absence of Jesus’ physical leadership, a new power to lead emerges among the disciples. Like the disciples, we honor Jesus’ absence when, as Christian communities, we do not look for a single leader to ride into town on a white horse and save us. We honor Jesus’ absence when we do not "look up" to a single human leader on whom we can depend for everything. We honor Jesus’ absence when we discover the Spirit of Jesus the Servant animating us as a Christian community of faith.

- Thomas R. Hawkins
Faithful Leadership