Listen to what the Lord says: “Stand up, plead My case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, you mountains, the Lord's accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against His people; He is lodging a charge against Israel.My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.” With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:1-8)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Generally speaking we don't talk very much about mantras in the Christian faith. We associate them more with the Eastern traditions: Buddhism, perhaps, or Hinduism. They're especially common in Buddhist or Hindu meditation. A mantra is basically a word or a phrase that you use repeatedly as you meditate. So – the famous “oooommmm” of Hindu meditation. The basic purpose of the mantra is supposed to be to empty your mind so that you're then able to be filled with enlightenment. So mantras are often meaningless. They cause no thought, they ask nothing of the person chanting them. It's simply sound without substance.
That's not what we're supposed to be about as Christians. A lot of people accuse us of that. I know a lot of atheists who are atheists because they insist that churches insist that you turn your brain off when you walk through the door. I would actually hope that exactly the opposite is the case. I would hope that as Christians we have a faith that causes us to think, that causes us to raise questions. The goal of Christian faith isn't to empty minds; it's to challenge minds. But sometimes I wonder if we get it right. There are types of mantras in the Christian faith. Things we say or do or recite over and over – and the problem is that they can start to become a little bit like mantras. They become so familiar that the words lose their power and we start to say them by rote, as if something is going to happen just because we say them. The Lord's Prayer or the 23rd Psalm can sometimes be mantra-like. We say the words, but they don't mean much to us. The United Church has something that I think of as a kind of mantra. It gets talked about in our church all the time. It's the focus of many meetings. There's even a song in Voices United based on it, although I for one find the music virtually unreadable and I've never liked singing it. The United Church mantra I'm talking about is Micah 6:8: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”And I sometimes wonder if we don't use it so often or say it so often or sing it so often in our denomination that it almost loses its meaning. What does it mean “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”?
What will it look like if we actually act justly? The Bible talks a lot about justice. Even as far back as the Old Testament, acting with justice was to be one of the primary characteristics of the people of God. “Do not deny justice to your poor people ...” says Exodus 23:6. A system that benefits those who have a lot at the expense of those who have little is not a system that honours God or that is faithful to God's will. I recently came across an estimate that said that the 85 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the poorest half of the human population – that's about 4 billion people. 85 people have more wealth than 4 billion people. Frankly, there's something unjust about that. I'm not a socialist or a communist, and I don't believe that we're ever going to make everyone equal, but I do believe simple justice demands that we seek to create a more equitable society, where the poor have enough to eat and places to live and the rich don't have so much money that it becomes little more than an obscenity! I believe God wants us to work toward that end. Leviticus 19:15 says “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly.” Simple justice requires that we as Christians look on all people as what they are – beloved of God and deserving of respect and justice. And God expects us as a matter of faith to be striving to uphold the dignity of all people, whatever their circumstances in life.
What will it look like if we actually love mercy? Mercy is an interesting concept. It's not pity. Sometimes people think of the two things as being the same, but they're not. Pity is something that you show to those who you think are beneath you. It's the root word for “pitiful” after all, and “pitiful” has all sorts of negative connotations. But mercy is different. We show mercy to those who we see as worthy of receiving mercy – and there's no limit on that definition. You see, mercy is actually a great equalizer! All of us are in need of mercy. Certainly we're in need of God's mercy, which is why there's a hymn in Voices United that reminds us that “there's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea.” That wideness is important because we're all in need of God's mercy sometimes. Not God's pity – because God doesn't treat us with pity - but God's mercy. Pity comes from looking down on someone; mercy comes from respecting and honouring someone. And as God shows mercy to us, God expects us to be merciful to others. Jesus said, “blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” And there are consequences to not being merciful. James 2:13 tells us that “judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!” To be merciful is to treat others – again, regardless of their station in life – as we would want to be treated ourselves, regardless of who they are or where they come from or what their past is.
What will it look like if we actually walk humbly with God? One of the great scandals of all religion, in my view at least, is the number of people who have come to the conclusion that they have all the answers, and know everything there is to know about God. And yet, as A Song of Faith – the United Church's most recent faith statement – says to lead off - “God is holy mystery.” We are not humble when we come to the conclusion that we have all the answers, and that we have a right to dictate to others what they have to believe or what they have to do. Humility is the natural end result of Micah's words in this passage. Both justice and mercy require a degree of humility out of us. We can show neither justice nor mercy if we aren't willing to be humble, to acknowledge that we don't know everything, and to be willing to consider the possibility that sometimes we might be wrong. To walk humbly with God is to always be open to the Holy Spirit's leading – even when the Holy Spirit is leading us in directions we'd rather not go.
The common denominator here is simple: we are not simply called to be just, merciful and humble – we are called to act in such ways. “... what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” That's a call to action! This mantra doesn't ask us to sit back and think about justice, mercy, and humility; it calls us to do them! “... what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” That's a call to action! These words call us to live as if in fact they are the things that God is asking of us! And it calls us to respond always in faith, and in a way that changes the lives of those we encounter.
No comments:
Post a Comment