Just Cities

The following is a review of chapter 23 of the newly released book The Justice Project, edited by Brian McLaren, Elisa Padilla, and Ashley Bunting Seeber. Chapter 23 is written by Chad R. Abbott (a pastor) and the focus of the chapter is "What does the call to justice mean for life in our cities?"

Abbott argues that in urban contexts, the church must always strive toward just ways of living - that is, we must always seek to discern "the right use of power in our relationships with others." One of the important implications of this is that our Christian communities should enfold a diverse group of people - politicians, nurses, public health experts, ex-cons, the homeless, ect.

In the city where he lives, Abbott "began to realize that to do justice in this context requires a great deal of courage, faith, friendship, and perhaps above all the ability to laugh out loud at ourselves and the sheer madness of life in our cities."

We are challenged to admit that we need others. We are not fundamentally separate. The church is the body of Christ. We are interconnected, interdependent. We were created by God to suffer with those who are suffering and laugh with those who are laughing.

And so, a major question that arises for us is: "If the relationships we share in the urban context are ones of interdependency, then how can we demonstrate the right use of power and get to the root causes of injustice?" For Abbott, the "path toward justice must first travel through two doors: (1) friendship and (2) humility."

Abbot finds biblical justification for his approach to living justly in the city through two passages in the New Testament: John 15.15 and Mark 11.1-11. In the first passage Jesus tells his disciples that he no longer calls them "servants/slaves" but now he calls them "friends." Thus, living justly means following Jesus in establishing friendships that operate out of mutual giving.

Mark 1.1-11 narrates the a-triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem while riding on the back of a colt. For Abbot, Jesus' humble, lowly entry into the city of Jerusalem "suggests that in the kingdom of God, we overcome injustice not through a top-down approach of control, domination, and violence [perhaps like the approach of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea in the time of Jesus] but rather through a grassroots movement of friendship, solidarity, and hope that grows from the ground up."

Thus, it is proposed that justice "begins to take root in our cities when we allow friendship and humility to guide our path toward solutions at the root of our systems."

I agree that friendship and humility must guide the church's path toward just solutions in our cities. But there are other important things that we must also focus on, namely "faith, hope, and love" (1 Corinthians 13.13).

Our vocation and calling as the body of Christ must always include the welcome of friendship and the posture of humility but the path toward just solutions involves so much more.

Our relationships with others must always have a view towards an all-important faith-based relationship with the one true God, revealed in Jesus Christ. For it is that relationship which allows all people to realize their true humanity and to more fully love their neighbor as God loves their neighbor. It is that relationship which enables us to live justly and to live peaceably in our cities.

But a living relationship with the true God is also and always our source of lasting hope. What is a discussion about the call to justice in our cities without hope? Not a whole heck of a lot. A sense of hope for a good future is what's lacking in so many people's lives. Is it not our hope for God's good future that compels us to live justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God and neighbor? It is in friendship, in solidarity with "the other" that we seek, struggle, suffer, and persevere toward that new world God will bring to birth out of this world, which still groans in travail. And so, at the core of any relationship we foster with others there must be a deep longing toward the hope of the gospel, which brings life and peace to all of us and to all of creation.