So I'm driving down I-35 W when this guy in a sportscar comes up on my right rather rudely and somewhat dangerously cuts me off. Now, being the relaxed and forgiving pastor that you all know me to be, I of course don't do anything, not anything that you would notice anyway. (You don't hear the words muttered under my breath, you don't see my hands tightly clenching the steering wheel). Instead, as the traffic moves on ahead, I see the sportscar continue to weave in and out of the traffic. Finally, it makes an ill-timed move and gets stuck beyond a slow-moving truck. As cars whiz on past it, it remains unable to change lanes. After I fly on past it myself, I later look back in my rearview mirror and still see the sportscar stuck in the slow lane.

Now, I would be lying to you if I said that didn't feel good. It is a minor incident, I know, but it still feels good when I see someone get what is coming to them. It sort of restores my faith in the universe. It's kind of nice to see good behavior rewarded and bad behavior punished. It is satisfying to see long-overdue rewards finally catch up to the deserving, and to see people finally have to face the consequences of their actions. Don't you agree?

You suffer for years under the thumb of the middle school bully --- and then you both graduate to high school, where suddenly he is at the bottom of the totem pole, a nobody. Someone you haven't seen for 10 years calls you up out of the blue to thank you for the tremendous influence you have had on their life. Politicians who act with hubris and impunity are stripped of their power and suddenly become accountable in ways they hadn't been before. Long hours spent studying or working are unexpectedly rewarded with a scholarship or a raise.

These kind of things happen on a larger scale as well. Nelson Mandela spends years in prison, and then is finally released, going on to become President of South Africa and receive the well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize. Or I think of an article I recently read in The Economist ("How the mighty are falling", July 7th - 13th, 2007) about the International Criminal Court. Yugoslavian, Rwandan, Cambodian, Sudanese, and military and political leaders of other nationalities are now facing, and fearing, courts of justice in a way they never have before. For all of us perhaps, and the victims especially, this helps to restore their faith not only in courts of justice, but in humanity as a whole.

This idea that the consequences of your actions, whether good or bad, will eventually catch up to you is superficially what the Buddhist doctrine of karma is all about. Now when I say "karma," some people with whom I've recently spoken immediately seem to think of a popular comedy on television, My Name is Earl. Although I'm not very familiar with this show, -- not having any television stations kind of makes it difficult -- I understand that one of its central premises is that Earl, conscious of his bad karma from all the wrong things he has done, tries to reform himself and improve his karma by doing good to those around him. His attempts to do good often rather humorously fail, probably because he is blind to his own self-centeredness and his understanding of karma is really rather self-serving.

In any case, the concept of karma is increasingly popular in the West. The word, stripped from its original Hindu and Buddhist contexts, is becoming implanted in our vocabularies almost like the word "yoga." One hears it more frequently in conversation, and when you type in "karma" on the internet bookstore Amazon.com, you get over 27,000 entries.

Underlying the popularized conception of karma is the Hindu and Buddhist idea of karma, which suggests that there is a fundamental law of the universe by which good deeds are rewarded and bad ones are punished. This understanding of karma therefore provides motivation for Buddhists to act with compassion and generosity towards others. I've seen this at work, for example, in early mornings in Laos, where monks clad in saffron-colored robes wander between homes and businesses begging of food. Giving food to the monks is one of many ways in which the people improve their karma. These and other good deeds build up a kind of invisible, spiritual reservoir of good karma, the fruits of which will be tasted sometime in the future.

To some extent, this Buddhist idea of karma is expressed rather succinctly in the title of a song that I have on my ipod. I've probably heard this song 75 times over the last several months, so I can't help but think of it. It is by the band, The New Radicals, and the title is, "You Get What You Give."

You get what you give.

We're not Buddhists, but a similar doctrine is present in our Christian faith. We too believe that we will face the consequences of our actions, and this knowledge should be a spur for us to act with justice and compassion. For example, writers of the Old Testament, in Proverbs and elsewhere, frequently exhort the people to act justly -- why? So that it will go well with them. These writers draw a connection between how we act and what will happen to us. Those who live justly were often thought to be blessed with long life, with big families, with the blessings of life identified by that society as good. Right action would indeed receive its reward.

This doctrine is also present in the New Testament as well. Jesus speaks about storing up treasure in heaven as a motivation for action. That is not altogether different from the idea of building up good karma. And in our passage from Galatians, Paul says, "for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith." It doesn't take a Ph.D. to see the similarity between what Paul is writing here and the idea that "You get what you give."

The difference between Buddhism and Christianity on this doctrine is that for Christianity, the law that "you get what you give" exists because God created it, it exists because God is a just god.

Now, this all might seem rather pabulum to you, sort of a no-brainer, but if we pause for a minute, we might recall that these similar views of Buddhism and Christianity offer a contrast to other streams of thought present in our society. One stream of thought, perhaps more prevalent in some scientific circles, suggests that we don't really have any choice at all. Instead, everything has already been determined for us -- by our genes, by the influence of our parents, by evolutionary constraints, whatever. "There was nothing I could do." Thus to try to motivate people to act in a way that is defined as justly is a waste of time -- people will act the way that they will act, it is beyond anyone's control, even our own. We are basically just robots, playing the parts that have been scripted to us by the various influences upon us.

But I think a more common stream of thought doesn't deny that we have real choices, rather it denies that there is any "you get what you give" law at all. According to this idea, life is just random. Good deeds are sometimes punished, sometimes rewarded -- there is no rhyme or reason. There isn't any justice, and the occasional appearance of such is just wishful thinking. After all, how often do sportscars really get stuck behind trucks? How often does the wind blow winning lottery tickets to one's feet, as happens in "My Name is Earl"? And for every corrupt tyrant that faces judgment or justice, aren't there many more who seem to escape scot-free? For every Hitler that dies with his dreams crashing around him, isn't there a murderous Dr. Mengele who dies peacefully in his sleep?

How can one talk of justice in the face of such evidence?

How can you talk of karma, of "you get what you give," when you don't see it, how can you talk of meaning when life seems random?

I think that is the daily experience of all too many people on this planet. They live in places of injustice, they struggle against despair. It is easy for us to say God is good, that justice is real, as we sit in our air-conditioned sanctuary living first-world lives. But the existence of the poor and oppressed, the existence of youth who feel spiritually lost, a certain nagging doubt in our own hearts -- these challenge the ease of our statements. Then again, maybe it's not really so easy for us either. Maybe it shouldn't be.

At their best, both Buddhism and Christianity embody and reflect this humility. At their best, both the Buddhism concept of karma and its parallel Christian concept have more richness and depth than the simplistic idea that "you get what you give". Unlike Earl in the television show, who tends to see each good and bad thing that happens to him as an immediate result of his karma, both Buddhism and Christianity have a deep sense of mystery as to how exactly this works. Or rather, they are less concerned with explaining how it works than in affirming that it is true. Buddhists don't draw the connection between actions and consequences too tightly, they don't say "if you do such and such today, your karma will result in such and such next Thursday morning", no, it isn't that simple. It isn't that visible. It is more subtle than that, Buddhism takes injustice and suffering more seriously than that. The purpose of the karma is meant less to explain why things happen, it isn't meant to say, "You are suffering, therefore you must have done something wrong," rather it is meant more to give people a deep respect for the centrality of justice and the importance of acting with compassion and generosity. Karma is more about doing the right thing and trusting that the consequences will take care of themselves. Buddhists affirm that the law of karma is true, even when you can't see it. That is where the Buddhist doctrine of reincarnation comes in, the idea that you will be born again in another life, and your status and happiness in that life will be affected by your karma, by your actions in this one. In other words, in Buddhism, justice is so important that it transcends this life, this life may end, but justice will never end, it is a fundamental law of the universe.

Similarly, Christianity doesn't claim to know exactly how God works, but we believe fundamentally that God is just, and that God's justice will prevail. Even if we can't see it, even if it takes more than this lifetime, God's justice cannot be stopped. As Martin Luther King, Jr., put it, "The arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

It is interesting to note that just as the Buddhist idea of reincarnation is fundamentally related to the importance of justice, so too is the Christian belief in resurrection. Jews in the Old Testament didn't believe in resurrection, but by the time of the New Testament, most did. Something happened in between. What happened was that in the inter-testamental period, in the period between the two testaments, the Jews revolted against their repressive foreign rulers. During the course of the revolt and its suppression, thousands of Jews were killed -- good, upright, God-fearing Jews. How could this be? What did that say about God, about justice? Was justice only an illusion?

No, they said. Justice is real, God is just. It must be that God's commitment to justice transcends this life, it must be that God will resurrect the just.

Thus began the Jewish tradition of resurrection.

As Christians, we believe we see God's commitment to justice most clearly in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus lived a life of justice and compassion, of "good karma" if you will, and that he continued to live such a life even when he knew it would lead to his death. In God's resurrection of Jesus, we see that God's commitment to justice is total, and it is stronger than death. If that isn't a reason for us to act justly, than I don't know what is.

But there is one more word that I must say. You see, while we as Christians affirm that justice as real, while we affirm that, to some extent, you get what you give, we hold that truth in tension with another truth. The other truth is that we don't get what we give. The other word that I must speak is the word, "grace." By that word, we as Christians affirm that, to some extent, we get so much more than we give, we get better than we deserve. As Paul writes, "since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". Through Christ, we get the very presence and love of God, which is something that can never be earned. It is a gift to be celebrated, a wonder to be praised.

We celebrate that gift today. We celebrate that gift every time we gather together, every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper. So I invite you today, not in my own name, not in the name of this church, but in the name of Christ -- Come. All you who hunger, receive the love and forgiveness that is beyond deserving, taste and see that the Lord is good.