Who can speak of "justice" in any long-standing and helpful way? It is a subject that fits many who write commentaries but we discover in most cases they are woefully inadequate. You and I, lay and clergy, deal with it almost daily and much of the time when we would rather not do so.

It is a theme seemingly as old as history itself. Indeed, when did we not speak and write about it? The Old Testament (Hebrew Scripture) has numerous references to our topic. In that classic verse of Micah, he reminds us "to do justice." Our civilization has been much influenced by the Judeo-Christian viewpoints.

Our legal systems, both civil and religious, provide ways of knowing what is expected of us in behavior. The scales, sooner or later, are always there to do the weighing. In recent years it seems re…