Based on: Micah 6:1-8 and Matthew 5:1-12

"God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." (Matthew 5:6-9)

These words from the Prophet Micah and from Jesus the Christ have been quoted ceaselessly throughout history. They stand for us as words of challenge and bitterness. They are words that remind us of exactly where we stand before God.

Where do we stand before God? Or do we even stand at all? Is there anything we do that helps us to stand before God? Is there anything we can say in our defense of ourselves and the way we live? Is there anything in our collective life in the world that "stands" against that which God asks of us?

The prophet Micah has the Lord God put us in the courtroom. We are in the dock, being judged by the living God, with what we have attempted to destroy as witnesses. The mountains and hills are the recipients of our carelessness and our complete disregard for God's creation. These enduring creations form the jury for our actions as God holds us up to the divine light and we are found sorely wanting.

God reminds us of exactly where we fall in God's eyes by recounting the story of the beginnings of our salvation. We are a desert people, brought out of captivity in the land of Egypt. We are to whom God gave prophets for guidance: Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. We are a people for whom God constantly renewed a covenant, a promise, that we would be God's people. And now we stand or fall based on what we have done or not done to follow God.

The prophet asks what must we do, and answers his own question. Even escalating the sacrifices we would make to ridiculously large proportions and acts of murder - sacrificing a first born - does not satisfy God. What then, will make us clean? What then can we do to begin to restore what we have destroyed? What then must we do to walk humbly with God when we have walked in arrogance and taken everything from God as though it was our right and not our gift?

So simple is the answer. So simple and yet it is so nearly impossible for us to do. Do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with God.[1]

And what, after all does this mean? "Do justice." Easy enough, we think. Merely treat everyone as we would wish to be treated. That is, after all, the "golden rule" isn't it? But does everyone wish to be treated the way we wish to be treated? Are there those who have received a lifetime of injustice who perhaps need something more than what we want? Are there times and places in which we must go far beyond our feeble personal concept of justice and reach deep into the well of understanding? Are there times we must provide a justice far beyond what we know as abstract fairness where everyone is treated the same way?

What does "love kindness" mean? Is "love kindness" an abstract concept that means as long as we love the idea of kindness we will be all right with God? Or does "love kindness" mean an active seeking out of mercy, a way of offering that mercy to one and all? Yes, it does. Putting mercy into action is precisely that from which everything the Prophet Micah and our Savior Christ Jesus asks us to do. To walk humbly with God we must put into practice the Hebrew way of being mercy in the world. "Loving kindness" means practicing mercy, extending mercy to one another. It means to give this mercy freely and continually, without being asked and without thinking of deserving. This is what allows us to walk humbly with God.

Why does acting with mercy, with kindness, draw us into a humble walk with God? Precisely because this is what God does for us. There is nothing we can do to win in God's court. We are already judged. Our own behavior is such that no matter what we do or say we have no defense. But it is our own giving of mercy, our extending of forgiveness, our walking humbly with others that draws us to God.

There is nothing we can do to earn God's justice because justice is always clothed in God's mercy. And we can never do anything to flee from God's justice. We must always depend on God's mercy. So it is that we walk humbly with God, always aware of God's mercy. This alone is enough for a walk of humility, aware of exactly who we are and what our place is with God. Not as nibblers at the edges of God's salvation, but those who through the endless mercy of God have been invited to the table to feast. And in that invitation is the command: "Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God." AMEN.

The Rev Nicolette Papanek

Trinity Episcopal Church

Covington, Kentucky

©2011

[1] Micah 6:8b (NRSV) Paraphrase mine.