I have always loved history. I don't know when I learned to read, but my earliest memories are of reading stories of heroes of the past.
The first book I remember reading was The Child's Story Bible. I read two stories over and over: of the young David and his exploits as an outlaw, and of the prophet Ezekial, when he stood up to the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. I read them almost to the exclusion to every other story in the Bible.
And then stories of the Civil War (the War of Northern Aggression). I couldn't get enough of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. I remember one time at the dinner table when Frank Clark - my parents' best friend, a man whose family my family took vacations with, and spent what seemed like every weekend in their basement eating chocolate ice cream and watching The Flinestones - told my mother that Lee was the greatest traitor in American history. My mom was as mad as I'd ever seen her with someone who was a friend. I thought for sure it was the end of chocolate ice cream and summer camping trips with the Clarks.
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table ... Arthurs' charge that "God make you a good man and fail not of beauty. The Round Table was founded in patience, humility, and meekness.Thou art never to do outrageousity, nor murder, and always to flee treason, by no means to be cruel, and always to do ladies, damosels, and gentle women succour. Also, to take no battles in a wrongful quarrel for no law nor for no world's goods. ..." I learned to both love and loathe Lancelot, even as I imagened Arthur did.
But America's colonial period and the Revolution was my favorite. It was a war of great ideas, really a revolution of ideas and beliefs. I read stories of Lighthorse Harry Lee (an ancestor of Robert E.), and Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox); Ethan Allen and the Green Mountin Boys, and Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and John Adams ...
And of course George Washington.
When George Washington was finally convinced to accept the presidency of the United States, he was sworn in with his right hand in the air and his left hand on the Bible.
Nothing ever seemed to be random back then. While at his first inauguration, Washington asked for a Bible and apparently because everyone was in a hurry it was opened and he placed his left hand over a random verse.
However, at his second inauguration, tradition has it that Washington specifically put his left hand over a particular verse: Micah 6:8: "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.''
Washington established a tradition, as American President after President was sworn in with his left hand over that same verse. At one time it was true - and it may still be - that the majority of the Presidents of the United States were sworn in with their left hand placed over Micah 6:8.
Because it sums up what is indeed expected of those of us to whom God has indeed shown what is good: to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.
A lot of people talk about justice. We all say we love justice, but what most of us really mean is we want justice. And there is a difference.
We want justice for ourselves. And we want it for other people, but usually only when it doesn't infringe upon our being treated with justice - or what we consider as "fair."
The truth is, life is not fair. Think about it. Most of us get away with far more than we should if life were truly fair. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten away with things that, in a truly fair world, I'd have faced consequences. Stupid things, dangerous things, hurtful things I've done to others, things that were just plan wrong. Speeding, little deceptions, warnings I ignored successfully.
Oh, I know that's not what most of us think of when we think life is not fair. We like to think about the times that we were treated unfairly. But come on - be honest: haven't you gotten away with far more in this life than you've been unjustly punished in some way for?
Now I'm not saying loving justice means we make sure we pay for all those indiscretions that are known only to ourselves. Heavens, no!
But maybe a good start is realizing that the fact that life is not fair tends to work in our favor more than not.
So what does it mean to really love justice?
Not making sure we're treated fairly. There's nothing particularly difficult or noble about crying when we're not treated fairly Babies do that instinctively.
No, loving justice is when you are willing to see justice done even if it works against you. And sometimes when one side has had the advantage for a long time, it means giving the disadvantaged the upper hand for a time - yes, being what we'd call "unfair" to the other side.
It means to stand up for what is right; standing up for the poor, the picked on, the weak, the outcasts, the helpless and the hopeless. It means when you see wrong being done, you take it upon yourself to try to make it right. It means never being afraid to stand up for what you know is right, even if it is unpopular or – especially, perhaps – when being fair may actually work against you.
God is not "fair,'' because He does not give us what we "deserve."
But God is a God of justice, and as such He recognized a wrong (sin) had to be atoned for, so He took it upon Himself to take the punishment that we could not possibly have survived and place it on Himself in the form of His Son.
And God means for us to follow His example. ,He has left it to us, as men and as His sons, to see that justice is executed for all; not just ourselves, but in fact probably more so for other people than ourselves. We're called to represent God to the World, including His concept of justice. That means doing what is good, right, honorable, noble, and true. To "do justice'' is to act according to God's heart in our individual actions as well as in the institutions that we are a part of.
I have been a part of insitutions that had no interest in "doing justice,'' just as at times in my life I have had no interest in really seeing justice done.
I have been part of institutions - such as the church - that honestly desired to "do justice'' but struggled with the social implications, just as at times in my life I have honestly wanted to represent God's Justice but had the same struggle of social implications.
Confucius is credited with saying, "To see what is right and not do it is cowardice."
Which brings me back to George Washington's left hand, the one he placed over Micah 6:8 as he raised his right hand and swore to do all these things "to the best of my ability."
Or, as Thomas Jefferson once said, ``It is reasonable that everyone who asks for justice should do justice.’’
Tempered, of course, with mercy ....
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