I was scrolling through the news trying to decide what to write about this week and I found myself overwhelmed by what I was seeing. My news feed was so filled with shootings and political “nonsense,” all I wanted to do was to put down my phone and go back to bed. But then I found an article that made me laugh, “The Absolute Dumbest Laws in New Jersey You Won’t Believe are Real.”[1]

Now I have no clue how accurate this article is, but one of the ones that really got me was a law that is apparently on the books in Newark. It states that you can’t buy ice-cream after 6 pm unless you have a doctor's note. Some of you know that’s a REAL problem for me. But also, what doctor would write a note prescribing ice-cream after 6 pm... because I want them!

I want to know more. I want to know more about why this law is on the books, if it exists at all. I want to know if the stores lock the ice-cream freezers at 6 pm? Or, do they have to sell ice-cream in separate shops that close promptly at 6 pm similar to liquor stores? What are the repercussions for buying ice-cream after 6 pm? The questions go on and on.

Naturally, it made me start thinking about other rules that are “on the books” that we don’t really follow. There are a whole host of them, especially in scripture. Take Deuteronomy 21:18-21 for example:

18 “If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. 20 They shall say to the elders of his town, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death.

Yikes! This is a law for God’s people but I for one am glad this is not something we follow. It’s designed to take some of the responsibility off of the parents when things get bad. All the elders would have to agree that this is the right punishment for their actions and the community would help them live it out. Wait… actually… this sounds a lot like our justice system… could it be that the way society functions is actually a dysfunctional representation of the way God wants us to live our collective life?

It makes me pause and think about what that actually looks like… because our justice system is not fair to all, even though it’s supposed to be. I know someone who’s case has been on the docket for the past 3 or 4 years. They are just sitting, waiting for their day in court. They can’t work in the profession they have had for their entire lives and they can’t get a new job due to the nature of the case.

Everything about God’s law is designed to help us live in a community of love. The punishment is designed to serve as a deterrent to others, while giving justice to those wronged. Now I can’t fully explain how this works for this law in Deuteronomy because I simply don’t know enough about it, but it was given to the people of Israel, through Moses, and was God’s word to help the people live a life set apart.

Today, crimes are not punishable by death in the State of New Jersey, because we recognize and reflect the grace and the opportunity for a second chance given to us through Jesus. But even with this step in place, there is still a ways to go about insuring that our justice system actually brings justice and safety to our community, while reflecting that we are all beloved children of God who have the opportunity to be forgiven and made new.

I didn’t set out to write an article about justice reform, but here it is because this is what is on my mind this week. I don’t know the answers, but I do know that the United Methodist Church has something to say about it in our “Social Principles.”[2] There’s a lot there so I won’t write it all out but we should know it, understand it, and figure out how to live it as we make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Blessings friends,
Pastor Nicole

[1] https://sojo1049.com/the-absolute-dumbest-laws-in-new-jersey-you-wont-believe-are-real/

[2] https://www.umc.org/en/content/social-principles-the-political-community