Do Good, Micah 6
Micah was one of those eighth-century prophets (along with First Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea) who had the unhappy call "to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin" (Micah 3:8).
The problem, in Micah's view (not to mention God's) was the failure of God's people to care adequately for -- indeed, even to exploit -- those whom Jesus (following in this same prophetic train) will eventually call "the least of these who are members of my family" (Matthew 25:40).
I think when you look at this text in the Prophet Micah what is going on he is preaching against the reality of business as normal.
I need to be real we must stop doing Church Business as normal the Church is not working
In a political climate that is so often charged with mistrust, deliberate misinformation, and personal attacks, where does that leave the common person? Where does that leave, the person seeking to do the common Good.
Despite what many seem to believe about one another, I would argue that all of us are relatively decent and moral people.
Sure, we all live in a time marked by fear; we have lived through numerous years of violence, insecurity, deception, corruption, and exile.
But as Christians, we desire to follow the path of Jesus in our own lives and recognize that salvific words, actions, and theologies of our Christian heritage.
Despite claiming to believe in Jesus’ actions, power, and words, it appears that many of us have become drunk on the empty promises of American life; in our pursuit of the disappearing American dream, we have come to respect individuality over community, wealth of pocket over the wealth of spirit, pulling others down instead of lifting one another up, and so on.
In many ways, we have become the opposite of Jesus of Nazareth in our pursuit of the blasphemy of American Christianity.
Our reading for today is chapter six, verse eight from the book of Micah; the eponymous prophet lived and practiced his work during the 8th and 7th centuries BCE in the land of Judah.
Micah’s work took place in a time that was marred with violence (specifically through the fall of Samaria and an invasion by an Assyrian king named Sennacherib) and questions of how to properly devote oneself to the worship of God.
Like many other prophets from the Hebrew Bible, Micah spends much of his prophesying to the people on the importance and need for doing social justice.
Per prophets like Micah, the people have experienced and will continue to experience so much violence and unease because they have forgotten to help the poor, oppressed, and widows.
We can see these themes of social justice echoed in our verse for today: “...what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness.”
Justice is not the same as equality because equality presumes that all persons have equal standing on which to receive aid.
Justice requires us to humble ourselves to provide others with the same opportunities and benefits that we unequally reap from their misfortunes and losses in life.
Move 1V 1–2: Consider the Court CASE God, as the Judge, asks Israel to answer the charges. He has a complaint and says, ‘I will contend with Israel’. He calls the hills and mountains to be witnesses.
In a court case, you need to get all the information on the judge you can get.
You also need to know as much about the witnesses as possible.
Micah criticized a kind of worship that simply mirrored or idolized the prevailing culture and whose preachers were all too willing to say whatever people wanted to hear.
For Micah, the chief sinners in all this are the establishment figures -- rulers, priests, judges -- who have the power to make things happen, but who wield that power unjustly and unequally.
Move 2 V 3–5: HEED HISTORY God draws out the historical lessons of Israel’s intermittent failure, His holiness and His faithfulness. They know He has delivered them and He is righteous.
As God reviews the divine-human relationship so far, there is implied judgment of the people as contrasted to God's faithfulness. We get a salvation history of sorts, where God enumerates "the saving acts of the Lord" (verses 4-5):
• God delivered them from slavery in Egypt
• gave them leaders (Moses, Aaron, Miriam)
• blessed them through the foreign priest Balaam even against his own king's wishes
• and brought them into the promised land (from Shittim to Gilgal).
Each of these acts is a full story and each story reveals the chronic unfaithfulness of the people. These brief two verses serve to remind the people who this God is. This is the God who hears the cries of the people and brings them out of slavery. This is the God who will use even the outsider to bring blessings. This is the God who shows compassion and mercy when the people fall.
Even the people's idolatry and injustice cannot prevent this God from acting. This is the God who is faithful no matter what. The entire creation stands witness to this God made manifest in these acts.
Move 3 V 6–8: R&R REAL REQUIREMENT
How can we understand Micah’s understanding of what God expects from us? Micah makes it clear that there will be no more business-as-usual in the religion department without a change of heart and life.
A simple reading of the text will only emphasize the need to do social justice and be happy with providing goodness.
However, a more nuanced and complex meaning of Micah’s words reflect the need for social justice to be done with humility and awareness of the role of God in one’s life.
Micah contrasts this knee-jerk score-keeping to the path God has already given, "He has told you, O mortal, what is good" (verse 8). The entire Torah has already given God's people the path of life. Moreover, Micah stands in a line of prophets who have reminded the people, over and over, of this path. Micah offers a summation of what God requires, at once more simple and more difficult than keeping ritual practices: "to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."
To enact justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God, are not single acts that can be checked off the list and left behind. On an individual and social scale, in ways large and small, this is a way of life.
Periodic nods to equity do not constitute a faithful life, Micah tells us.
• We cannot only observe racial membership quotas on committees in place of seeking racial justice.
• We cannot send checks for disaster relief and avoid examining the lifestyles that contribute, at least in part, to some natural disasters.
• We cannot do hunger walks and refuse to change our consumerist lifestyles.
• We cannot confess with our lips on Sunday morning and hold grudges at work on Monday.
Rather than offer God thousands of rams, Micah calls us to offer a thousand daily acts of love for each other and the world God loves.
"Walking humbly with God" means knowing our bent to self-righteousness. We cannot "play church" or frame our religious life as a game where we keep God in check by performing prescribed duties. The life of faith is indeed a walk that reorients heart and life.
Last Move! So how can we be Good! How can we do Good!
The difficulty here lies in the assumption that is being made in each of these questions—namely, that there is such a thing as a good person.
Jesus offers further clarification in the form of question and answer. He was once asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18).
The theory of the questioner was clear: Jesus is a good person; good people inherit eternal life, so what must I do to be in the same group?
But Jesus’s reply was surprising. “Why do you call me good?” he asked (18:19). He then answered his own question: “No one is good—except God alone.”
The truth is that the issue is not about good people not inheriting eternity. Alas, the problem is much worse! Jesus seems to define goodness in terms of being like God, and on that basis, there are no good people anywhere. Thus, the real question is not about who is good enough to get in to heaven.
The real question is how God makes it possible for anyone to know and follow and be transformed by an eternal God at all. The answer is that we need God in us the Goodness of God in Us. Do You have Gods Goodness in you?
