RESET: On Fairness

The RESET group I am in just finished week two of six. RESET is a city wide study of the life and ministry of Jesus which is designed to prompt a self inflicted "reset" about our long held assumptions of who this God-Man (was) and is. Seemingly it is going to take more than six weeks to completely expunge the binary code in our operating systems. Starting over can take a lifetime; I think that is the point.

This week we contemplated (using the journal book) and talked (in our small group) about fairness. Fairness is one of those qualities that many of us take on as a "must have" personality feature. To hear us tell it, fairness is next to righteousness. An element of being good is being fair--in judgement and in practice. As a society we demand standards to dish out fairness. For example, we want a system of laws to punish the corrupt. We expect a cost of living raise when inflation occurs. Comment with your own examples.

Why do we believe that life has to be fair? I remember my first college course, psychology 101 at Asbury College. It was a 9 am, Monday morning class and all of us in the room were nervous freshman. Shortly after the bell rang, Dr. Alan Moulton, who happened to be the chair of the psychology department, strides in and begins the lecture with these words, "Life is not fair and then you die." I would venture to guess that most college graduates cannot remember the opening line to their first college class. I remember; how could I now with those words?

The point of RESET, week 2 is that Jesus was not committed to fairness. In fact, Jesus has made it a point to operate unfairly, giving us what we do not deserve. (pushing) RESET. We have to trash the idea that fairness equals righteousness remembering that Jesus (was) is committed to mercy and grace. Now these are personality features to adopt. Talk about shaking up your home, office, and neighborhood; giving what they do not expect--another chance.