We all want justice, but few of us want to be judged. The former (justice) has the sense, we hope, that while we’ll be vindicated the other guy will get what he deserves - some penalty, punishment or a punch in the nose.

The latter (judged) has the sense of - 'Oh, my gosh, I’m going to get what I deserve(!)’ - and that might not be pretty. Said the Psalmist, ‘If you, O Lord, should mark (keep track?) of iniquity, who could stand?!’ Or, as the more recent story in the life of Oliver Wendell Holmes reminds us, (major paraphrase: If one morning the prominent people of England should get a message saying, "Flee at once, all is known!” - they’d all have escaped to France by mid-day.

But what if - and i think it does . . . what if it means that justice and judgment’s main focus is on the putting of things right? - the re-setting of all things, putting them right-side-up - things that are now so obviously out-of-whack, upside-down - not the way, we know at heart, they should be: that we and others - and indeed all of creation, should be.

The Christian attitude towards Creation is one of Hope towards Re-Creation, of a peace (complete shalom, health, wholeness and holiness) of all things in the created order - all things always, everywhere and at all times . . . that Jesus came not to take-us-to- heaven out-of-here but to bring Heaven (God’s sovereign and merciful way, right-direction and control) - bringing it to us in our here-and-now. This is 'the Blessed Hope’ and it’s linked to the Second Advent of our Lord, but we lean into it even now, for God in Christ is making things right-side-up in our world even now, often despite all evidence to the contrary.

Mostly, it doesn’t seem that this is so. Some days, perhaps many or most of the time, rather than taking us back to the Garden of Eden and the pristine, unsullied creation, we find our planet seemingly mired deeper in mess, morass and madness.

But Christians pray and work in the midst of all this mess, faithfully believing in and working towards a new future, leaning into the Hope that something wonderful has been won on a Cross just outside Jerusalem, some years ago now, and despite the seeming loss at Calvary, not to mention the way things go for us often, followers of Jesus trust Him as Saviour and Lord, commit to and live out that in Him, with Him and for Him, all the broken things and people in creation will be brought around and forward, right-side-up and more - and better, even.

Jesus said we’re to pray and work in that direction. He used a parable of a woman who kept bothering a judge who didn’t care for anyone else’s opinion or status - even God’s. But he finally gave into her just to make her go away and stop bugging him to give her justice. Jesus asks in the immediate context: And won’t God hear and vindicate those who cry night and day to Him? He surely will.  And yet: ‘When the Son of Man returns (speaking of Himself), will he find anyone on earth who still has faith?’

— Hyperbole? Good question: scary question.

Believing, working for and towards justice and the putting of things right is a God mandate, indeed a God-pursuit. Frankly, we cannot pull it off, certainly not by ourselves as individual disciples, though we may help in our own way, with the gifts, vocation, places and times God grants. The Church, however, which St. Paul called ‘The Body of Christ’ can get much done, in the direction of what will surely come in fullness one day, through Christ.

As Christ indwells this ‘temple’ - and as the People of God pray, and as His Holy Spirit gives life and light, fruit, gifts and the needed wisdom and energy, great draughts of Kingdom air may be pulled into this-here time and reality, and many advances of eternal significance - for us and our world, for God’s entire, groaning Creation, though often unseen, will be made.

We can set up - God helping us and working in and through us, signs of God’s Kingdom, already-come and soon coming in fulness, making folk hungry and thirsty in the longing for this new reality, for justice indeed.

The Judge will vindicate and verify - yes, and grace-fully and mercy-fully punish if/as necessary . . .  but mostly it’s a matter of God putting things right, all of this as started and continued by God's Son and God's Spirit - and through Jesus’ faith-full followers, still.