…What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8b)
Home run grand slam…Hole in one…Triple crown…Pot of gold…G.O.A.T…pick your favorite metaphoric figure of speech that describes the best ever, and that’s what I think about today’s lectionary readings. All three of them—Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel, are in my top ten list of all-time favorite Bible passages. At this past week’s Wednesday morning healing Eucharist, I warned those attending that I love these so much and I get so excited to talk about them that it would be hard to make my sermon shorter than 45 minutes…and then Sue Menter mentioned something about a trap-door under the pulpit and a lever hidden somewhere out in the pews…so I’ll try to control my enthusiasm. You just can’t find a better summary explanation for what being a Christian means than these three passages of Scripture. Let me show you what I mean.
Micah was a prophet who lived around 700 BC, the same time as the prophets Amos, Isaiah, and Hosea. Micah prophesied that Jerusalem would see destruction if it did not change its ways of dishonesty in the marketplace and corruption in the government that left people impoverished and hopeless. His plea was for everyone to change their ways and their hearts, and, in verse eight of chapter 6 that we heard today, Micah preached this simple yet profound explanation: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Do Justice—make justice happen. And Micah clearly means God’s kind of justice, where the hungry are fed, the naked clothed, and the vulnerable cared for. Not bringing justice, as we would typically say—not bringing justice with our armory and ammunition—but doing Justice, as in seeking out and addressing injustice, in all of its forms.
Love Kindness—the Hebrew word here is hesed; it’s used more than 250 times in the Old Testament. We hear it translated throughout as the words mercy, compassion, loving-kindness, love, grace, faithfulness…Hesed is not an emotion or a feeling—hesed involves action on behalf of someone who is in need. It is word for the sense of love and caring that inspires merciful and compassionate behavior toward another person. Hesed is an essential part of God’s character—we hear over and over again that God is “full of,” “abounding in,” hesed. Being created in God’s image, we are to abound in hesed, too—to abound in love and mercy and compassion and grace and kindness.
Walk humbly—To walk humbly with God is to live our lives knowing that we don’t have all the answers, to live knowing that everything, every moment—every breath, every shared laugh, every shared tear—all it—all of it—is a gift. To walk humbly with God is to pray, “forgive me my sins as I forgive those who sin against me.” It is to hear Jesus say, “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone,” and to walk away in humility. To walk humbly with God is to say, to friend and stranger, “Thank you,” and “Won’t you share with me,” and “We are both beloved children of God.”
Haven’t you ever said to yourself, “If only I knew what God wanted?” It’s simple, Micah says: What does God require? What does God want? For us to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly.
Turning now to the Epistle: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians has so many memorable passages, especially that great chapter on love, chapter 13 (“love is patient, love is kind…”. But today’s passage is my favorite, and it will always ring in my ears because it is the very first Bible passage I encountered outside of church. I was in sixth grade, and I was reading Madeleine L’Engle’s book A Wrinkle in Time. The heroine, young Meg, must return to danger to rescue her brother from the evil, all-controlling, all-powerful creature IT. Meg has three mentors: Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which. Meg has cried to them that she has nothing to use to defeat IT—no weapons, no power—nothing. Mrs. Which assures Meg that she does have something IT does not have and will never understand. And Mrs. Who’s gift to Meg is this passage from First Corinthians. “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are.”
“God chose…” Paul says this three times. If you were all-powerful and could control everything with an iron fist, what would you choose to clean up the mess the world is in? If you are a fan of Disney’s Avengers movies, you know just what choice you’d make—you’d snap your fingers in the Infinity Gauntlet just like Thanos did and wipe it all out—start over. You’d roll in with the tanks and the firepower and show everyone who was boss. That’s the choice human wisdom says to make—power and authority and might make right. But God—who, of course, actually could do all of that—did choose it. The foolishness of the Cross is God in action—it’s God saying, “the exercise of power and violence is a never-ending cycle of escalating retribution, the path to hatred and pain and horror. The foolishness of the Cross is God saying, “I am with you and I love you, even when you kill me. I will show you what ‘love your enemies’ means. I will show you that life in me is so abundant it is not even conquered by death.” We saw Jesus lifted up on the Cross, and his offering of himself in what the world judged to be weakness actually showed us the unconquerable power of love and forgiveness. That thing in the story that Meg has that IT will never have? Love for her brother. Satan is always tempting us, as Jesus was tempted, saying, “Choose power and I will give you the world.” God’s answer is always, “No. Choose love, and I will give you life.”
Which brings us to today’s Gospel, Matthew’s Beatitudes. Here’s Eugene Petersen’s paraphrase of them in The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary English:
“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘carefull,’ you find yourselves cared for. “You’re blessed when you get your inside world – your mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family. “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. “Not only that – count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens – give a cheer, even! – for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.
So if you are playing that “If you were marooned on an island and could only take three things…” game, and the question was which three passages of Scripture would you take, I suggest you pick today’s readings. Or, even better, if you have a friend who says, “Why in the world do you still go to church? I suggest you talk about today’s readings. You could say something like this: I go to church to learn what God wants—God wants us to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly. I go to church to learn what God is like—God is foolish, and doesn’t do what we’d expect God is crazy…crazy for love—love for us. I go to church to learn how to live—according to the Beatitudes, perhaps looking foolish according to the world’s wisdom—with simplicity, trust, hopefulness, and compassion, blessed by God. You can tell your friend this is the reason you come to church—to hear these ancient words from almost 3000 years ago that we perhaps need to hear now more than ever: Do Justice, Love Kindness, and Walk Humbly With Your God. That’s what you can tell your friend, and that’s how you can live.
