Last Saturday I found myself
wandering on the streets of Melbourne but not wondering about issues of
justice, mercy and humility. I was on still
on holidays relaxing. Intruding into my leisurely
stroll I noticed a large gathering of people blocking the way just up ahead of
me.
Police were there in force as
a peaceful parade of people, mainly women, marched by. As I drew closer I could read the signs that
a few of the people were carrying. They
held signs like: “Women’s rights are human rights” and “Love trumps hate”. The protest was part of an international anti-Donald
Trump rally on the day of his inauguration.
And the march went on, and on… and on.
Thousands of people.
What is it that draws people
into protesting for a cause?
What is it that inspires people
to give up their time to fight for an issue?
What is justice? What is
mercy?
And what does it mean to walk
humbly with God?
Over two and half thousand
years ago a small town prophet named Micah, a name which means ‘who is like God’,
was concerned about the people in power and their abuse of that power. He railed against their lack of concern for
the poor and the suffering in the community and he pronounced God’s judgement
against their corruption.
In the passage that we read
from the book of Micah today the judgement of God is declared against those who
have failed to do God’s will: against those who have corrupted the worship and against
those who have oppressed and neglected the common people.
In the midst of condemnation Micah
asks the people “What does the Lord require of you?” “What does the Lord
require of you?” His answer is at one
and the same time very simple and yet very complex. “Do justice”, “love mercy”,
and “walk humbly with your God”.
A few years ago I went to a
few protest rallies myself. We went to
voice our concern about the offshore processing of refugees and asylum seekers
who were coming to Australia. We went
because of our distress about indefinite detention and the incarceration of
children. When I arrived at the rally a
friend had prepare posters and she gave me this one to carry.
These pithy sayings from
Micah seem accessible and achievable but the reality is that when we begin to
really think about what they mean at any depth they are very challenging. For the people to whom Micah was speaking doing
justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God would have meant significant
changes to how they perceived themselves and how they lived their lives. The
same is true for us as well.
I am aware that within the
Uniting Church there are a range of views on asylum seeker policies. As much as I have been opposed to Australia’s
policy on this issue and I believe this is an outworking of my faith some
Christian people disagree with me. In
fact, some of the people who formulated the policy claim to be Christian. There are complex issues to be explored but
our faith calls us to think deeply and act on issues such as this one because
all people are God’s creatures.
The theme of how following
God’s ways changes our lives is part of all of the readings for today. In the letter to the Corinthians Paul encourages
the people of that community to consider “your own call.” Whilst in Matthew Jesus speaks about those
who are considered blessed.
Blessed are the poor in
spirit,
Blessed are those who mourn,
Blessed are the meek
Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness,
What appears to underlie much
of what is being said in all of these readings is that as God’s people our
first priority is not setting out for our personal gain but to consider the
world through the eyes of those who have less or are discriminated against or
are suffering in some way. When we being
to do this one of the implications is that it might mean changing our own
lifestyle, making sacrifices – even uncomfortable ones.
This is certainly an issue
when it comes to welcoming more asylum seekers into Australia. As we reflect on the last 50 years of
Australian history the influx of people from all of the globe has certainly
changed our society.
Is this what the Lord
requires of you and me? To think deeply about issues of justice and equity and
reconciliation and to walk humbly responding to God’s love for others.
Many of you know by now that at
the heart of my preaching and faith is the unconditional love and grace of
God. There is nothing I can do to make
God love me. There is nothing I can do
to make God save me. God’s grace is precisely
this unconditional, it is freely given.
Yet Karl Barth, one of the
greatest theologians of the twentieth century, summarised the paradox of following
Jesus nicely when he said there is a necessary
response to unconditional grace.
Having encountered God’s love
and grace we are transformed by God’s love to live differently. When we hear Micah’s question, “What does the
Lord require?” I do not see this as an
imperative that I must respond to so that God will love me but an invitation to
consider my own call and to look with the eyes of faith on the world.
“Do justice”, “love mercy”,
and “walk humbly with your God”.
There was another protest
march this week. Another march that many
of my friends and colleagues participated in.
The sorry day or invasion day march.
It acknowledges that the 26th of January is a day of mourning
for the first peoples of Australia. Australia
day is an event that for most aboriginal people still bears consequences in
their lives and continues to unfold in the discrimination and racism they still
experience.
When Micah was challenging
the leaders of Israel about their behaviours he was in a completely different
context yet if we reflect on what is at the heart of his call – reconciliation,
restitution, renewal in the lives and dignity of people these themes run
through some of the rhetoric around the change the date movement.
When Micah asked the question
“What does the Lord require?” it was a question set in the midst of political
corruption and machinations that disadvantaged some will privileging others.
I believe that part of our call
as Christians, as followers of Jesus, is to take the time to engage deeply with
the issues of our time by considering the world through the eyes of
others. By looking at it not from the
perspective or preserving our way of life or our privileges but looking at life
through the eyes of those who feel disadvantaged and dispossessed.
It is an act of foolishness
to risk looking at the world this way because, and I believe Micah knew this,
it means it might change the way I live and the way I treat others, knowingly
or not.
The central story of our
faith, as Paul rightly points out, is not simply that God in Jesus took the
time to consider and look through human eyes as the world but that God in Jesus
experienced the violence of human rejection and death in the crucifixion of
Jesus: the foolishness of the cross.
To be followers of Jesus
means contemplating deeply the question “What does the Lord require of you?”
not as an imposition but as an invitation to look through the eyes of others, and
to share in Jesus’ life lived for others.
Being Christian involves us
in the great issue of our time. It
engages us in the political and social issues of our day just as it did for
Micah, Paul and Jesus. “What does the
Lord require of you?” I wonder what
issues burn within you, what it is you might pick up a placard and march about,
who it is that you would go into bat for.
And if like me you marched
holding these words how that might begin to change how you live.
“Do justice”, “love mercy”,
and “walk humbly with your God”.
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