Righteousness

In my reading, I've discovered something interesting about the ancient Hebraic concept of righteousness. Often, we get hung up on the idea that to be righteous was to dot i's and cross t's in Judaism. However, that may not be the way the ancients saw it.

Tsadiq which is the Hebrew word used for righteousness in the first 11 chapters of Genesis (my current focus of study) is the same word used for making an animal sacrifice to God. The idea here is that the animal must be physically perfect, without blemish. We've taken that to mean moral perfection in humanity.

However, it doesn't mean that at all. It means someone who is in right relationship with God, with others. Someone who doesn't interfere in the relationship their neighbor has with God, and doesn't interfere in his neighbor's relationship with others either.

Since Westboro Baptist was in town this weekend, I started to wonder... how much "righteousness" do these people have really? What damage have they done to the relationship of gay persons with God? What damage have they done to the relationship of Christians with others as we allow this hatefulness to become representative of us by not speaking out, showing up and in short, allowing them to define us? In the Book of Common Prayer, our common confession includes the phrase, "for what we have done and left undone". We CAN sin by omission.

I come back to one of the first things: If ministry is defined as any act a Christian (or one who identifies as such) does to another... then what exactly does this ministry look like? Personally, I think it looks a lot like sin.