The rally at the Capitol against Gov. Walker’s plans to balance the budget is well underway. It’s noisy, well-attended, and there’s no sign of the National Guard (lots of cops though).

Next Sunday’s reading from Leviticus 19 challenges us to think about what sort of society, what kind of justice we should envision. It demands care for the poor, equal justice for rich and poor, and love of one’s neighbor. Christians tend to personalize such demands, when they attend to them at all, turning them into a guide for interpersonal relationships rather than the vision of a just society imagined in Leviticus and elsewhere in both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.

We are also in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus reinterprets Torah, in many ways intensifying its demands, for example, turning the call to love one’s neighbor, into a call to love one’s enemy, as well. One might say that he is reimagining the just society to include not just the people of Israel, but all of humanity.

Such clear calls for justice and love challenge us to think clearly about the society in which we live and what God is calling us to be and do.

There’s another rally scheduled for tomorrow at noon, same time as our Wednesday service.