For at least the last 3 months, the verse from Micah has been eating at me,
particularly the part that says “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
It is said so simply that it seems pretty clear. But yet it eats at me still. It eats at me because, for the last 2 years I have seen our country tear apart again and again.
I am only 29 years old. My personal and collective history is brief compared to many. I don’t know how the current division of our communities holds up to previous times of great tension. But I can tell you, I don’t like this.
And I know you don’t like this either.
I also know many of you would probably gladly hear me and Pastor Josh say we will not bring up anything about the party line division of our country or anything else that skirts to close to a political edge.
But we will not stop talking about this because God calls us to love each other, all of the each others out there, whether similar or different to ourselves. And we need to build more bridges across this division instead of building up walls.
But I also just as much say, I don’t care who you voted for. I don’t care what bumper sticker you have on your car or who you feel is the greater evil out of our November decision.
Further living in those divides only digs our trenches deeper and is not anything we are called to. Which brings me back to the verse that has been gnawing at my nerve endings.
Do justice.
Love kindness.
Walk humbly with your God.
The more I think about these requirements God gives us, the more I realize there is a tension in the relationship of the three, but they are all required, need some unpacking.
Do justice: when I think about doing justice, I get a few images in my head.
I think of courtrooms where “justice is served” as a guilty person is given a punishment.
I think of the civil rights movement, the marches, sit ins, and peaceful protests that stood up to power and said no, this is not right and we will not accept it any longer and instead shared a dream of a just reality.
I think of the pledge of allegiance that says “with liberty and justice for all”
Doing justice can sometimes come as a relieving vindication and other times come as an holy anger so great it burns.
But if we leave out justice and just love kindness and walk humbly, we end up with neighbors who are suffering, powers that are raging, and a crushed world which is being ignored for the sake of smiling at a stranger and not getting too arrogant.
These are good things to do, but you can be kind and humble to a neighbor, and still ignore their oppression, and thus become an accomplice to it.
Loving kindness and walking humbly without doing justice may look like worshiping our Lord who was a refugee just after his birth, but remaining silent when refugees are refused welcome and safety in our land.
Love Kindness: you may have also heard this as love mercy, either way, we are called to love in this way.
I believe this follows the requirement of doing justice because that burning hot anger I described, well it can sometimes cause us to do justice out of hate, to do justice out of vengeance, to do justice out of fear.
But here God gives us a guideline. Love kindness. Loving kindness does not just mean that we love those who are nice to us, this requirement is to love as we have been loved. Which God does with kindness and mercy.
So what happens if we leave out kindness and mercy, but only seek justice and walking humbly with God. Without kindness and mercy, we are never able to reconcile our differences. Without kindness and mercy, forgiveness is not genuine.
Then we Walk Humbly: this is the hardest one for me. I can easily go around striving for justice and be nice but have a proud heart that I am right and others are wrong.
I can do justice and love kindness but do it in a way that is not honoring my neighbor, that puts myself above them, or writes them off entirely.
That is not doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly, that’s acting out prouder than I ought. It does not honor or love God or my neighbor.
It is self serving and self righteous.
But to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly - we must see our neighbor.
We must see our neighbor with different opinions and care about them and love them. And not just in a superficial way but to actually care more about being in relationship with each other than be right.
And that’s a big pill to swallow and it’s prescribed for both sides of any division or disagreements.
Before these three requirements were named in the Micah texted, the author questioned, with what shall I come before the Lord?
Asking about burnt offerings, rivers of oil, and other sacrificial items to make one right with God. But that’s not it. Being made right is not what it’s about, it is the key dimensions of how we live with our neighbors because of what God has done for us. And how we live with all our neighbors of the world, all of God’s children.
It’s about being in relationship, not being right.
This is not an easy thing to do, but thankfully we have a God that must know we learn well from modeled behavior.
God continually seeks to be in relationship with us, no matter what wrongs we have done.
God continually longs to be in relationship with us, no matter what wrongs we have done.
God puts relationship with us above being right. If God didn’t, grace would not be a thing, and we would all be in a lot trouble.
God sent Jesus to be in relationship with us, to walk with us, to show God’s love in real ways. Ways that fed the thousands when they were hungry. Ways that healed the broken. Ways that wept when one was gone. Ways that said “you who is without sin, cast the first stone” this cares about relationship rather than being right.
Jesus was doing justice, loving kindness, even walking humbly while being God.
God enters our brokenness and rather than tells us how wrong or messed up we are, God loves us, stays with us, heals us, calls us God’s own, and says “you belong”.
And then God even died on a cross for us, to forgive us for our sins, our wrongdoings, the things we have done, and the things we have left undone. God freed us from the worry about making ourselves right with God, which we are not capable of, to be forgiven, beloved children, who can focus on being in a relationship with God and with our neighbors.
If God can do this for us, why do we struggle so much to do this with each other?
It doesn’t mean that there won't still be conflict and divide.
We are still called to work for justice and in a world of injustice that doesn’t always come easy.
We are still called to love kindness and in a world where hate and fear run wild.
We are still called to walk humbly in a world where power and prestige are the measures of worth.
We are still to do what is right, we just need to do it without the focus of being right.
In some ways it seems simple and in others it’s beyond complex.
God does not lead us to an easy road to walk.
It would be much easier to just give a sacrifice than being called to the higher road of loving our neighbor and actively being in a just, kind, and humble relationship with them and with God.
But thank God that this short list of heavy requirements all end with God. God does not leave us.
In the face of injustice and inequality - do justice, God is with you.
In the face of hate and fear - love kindness, God is with you.
In the face of power and pride - walk humbly, God is with you.
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