First Things is published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, an interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.
Among recently “planted” Protestant churches in Manhattan, Redeemer Presbyterian is by far the fastest growing and best known. It’s so new, in fact, that it doesn’t have its own worship space yet. While that is under construction (at West 83rd Street and Broadway), the congregation worships at three different locations.
On Sunday, March 14, on a tip from a member, this reviewer attended the 6 p.m. “jazz” service at the Kaye Auditorium at Hunter College, at which the pastor, bestselling author Timothy Keller, usually preaches. The choice did not disappoint.
Dressed casually in black jeans and a shirt sans clerical collar, the Rev. Keller delivered a 30-minute meditation on the main Scripture reading of the day, Isaiah 56:1–8. He explained that this passage is about the twofold “justice”—mishpat and tzedakah, in transliterated Hebrew—to be brought about in the believing community by the “Suffering Servant.”
Although developed with occasional levity to suit the causal atmosphere, Keller’s themes were as profound as the passage calls for. Mishpat, or “putting things right” for widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor (the “quarter of the vulnerable”), is the fruit of tzedakah—primary justice, or “living righteously.” Thus, “the just” are those who “disadvantage themselves to advantage the community,” whereas “the wicked” are those who “disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.”
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