Wisdom From Judge Dredd

Yes, that is where I’m going today. Into the land of marginal movie success and comic books that are out of the mainstream. I feel that it is important to give just a little background of what the concept of Judge Dredd is before I expand upon my concept.

The future world is mostly a vast wasteland, perhaps due to nuclear war or some other malady. I’m not quite sure what the problem resulted from. To survive, humans have built “mega-cities,” fully enclosed cities that are incredibly huge, and multi-leveled. The useful resources needed to maintain human life are concentrated in these cities, rather than being spread throughout the world, for fear that the dilution of them would be fatal to all.

This mass of humanity breeds dangerous criminals, who have no compassion or any qualms about the destruction of each other. They tend to live in the lower levels of the city and are dangerous and violent enough that a police force has been unfit to handle them. The vast quantity of arrests that had been made, combined with the need for juries and penal systems, made the crime of the mega-cities so threatening and overwhelming that drastic measures had to be taken. Thus, the formation of the judges.

Judges are roving law-enforcers. They may travel the city alone or in small groups, enforcing the law as they go. It is their job to capture and try any lawbreaker on the spot, then execute sentence, which can mean imprisonment or death. Their word is law, and careful measures are in place to ensure that they don’t go bad and misuse their authority.

The most famous of the judges is one Judge Dredd. He knows the book of law like the back of his hand and executes it with skill and absolute tenacity. His success ratio is incredible, and he has never had a conviction proven false or a criminal escape him, once he determines his prey. He’s the best at what he does and others look to him for inspiration and teaching.

Enough about Dredd, though. The point I’m coming to has more to do with the end of a judge’s career than the prime of their career. Judges do not retire in a traditional sense. When they come to the conclusion that a younger generation of judges with youth and enthusiasm is more effective than their slower reflexes and wisdom, their final rite of passage takes them out of the mega-city and into the wasteland of uncertainty and lawlessness so they can bring the law to others as well. This is referred to as taking the Long Walk. The work is one of care, danger, compassion, instruction and more. It is not unlike missionary work, but the god they worship is the law.

With this groundwork laid, let me post a question. I know of several people who have retired from the ministry. They have fought the good fight, preaching every Sunday, but now they are getting tired. Many of them have sought work in the secular world. They work for others or by managing and building their investments. Many have moved from the community that recognizes their pastoral roots and, other than occasional discussions, they try to just blend into the community. They do their work, go home, attend church, and enjoy the life of a retired person.

The last landlord we had serves as an example of a preacher who bought duplexes and rents them out as his job. At that time, Tina and I were not living the life of a Christian family by any stretch of the imagination. We found out through the grapevine that our landlord had retired from preaching to concentrate on duplexes. But that doesn’t explain why it never came up in conversation when they showed up to fix the temperamental appliances. If the topic had come up and I shot it down, he would have lived up to the expectations I would have for a preacher who has entered the secular world. Even someone who doesn’t believe in God loses respect for a former preacher who doesn’t even tentatively bring faith into the conversation.

Rather than taking the Long Walk into the spiritual wasteland that was our home, this man decided to blend in, fix the refrigerator door (again!) and move on. After I found out from our duplex-mates that he was a former preacher, I even mentioned it to him and got a reply that was rather curt. His words to me suggested that I let him finish his work so he could leave. I tell you, that man had already finished the work he was called to do years before.

My friends, am I being unreasonable in this? Shouldn’t one called to the pulpit be allowed to retire from their calling to teach others and help them in their growth? Haven’t they done enough? Do they earn the right at some point in their lives to ride off into the sunset, never again to use their spiritual gifts? Has their calling run it’s course?

I don’t believe that a preacher should feel compelled to preach from the pulpit for their entire life, but God gives us gifts with the understanding that we are to use them to build up the church, not to use them and then fade into obscurity. Imagine an army of men with years of service in the church, leading others in matters of faith, heading into the world, spreading the gospel to every tribe, tongue and nation! Imagine other “retired” preachers sprinkling salt wherever they go, letting their light shine brightly! Imagine, if you will, that the call to instruct others in matters of faith and the gifts that correspond with it are not gifts to be pulled away once you have preached for 30 years. Imagine with me a man who has preached for many years, and is entering a golden time of his life, preaching every day with his life!

It isn’t a wasteland out there outside a church. The Lord causes rain to fall in it’s season and the harvest is plentiful wherever one goes. If a preacher is to no longer preach in the confines of a traditional corporate church, isn’t their calling to spread the gospel still active? Does the work of the Lord ever stop? If we are to be Christlike, we need to continue doing His work for the rest of our days, wherever we happen to be.