Here Ye Here Ye,
The honorable court of the Almighty Powerful and everlasting God is now in session. Here these words that God has spoken. I have made a covenant with you. You have been asked to live out a life in this way…and you have failed…Now I will convict you of your offenses and sentence you… Because I am the Lord Your God…
This might be the best way to understand the 6th chapter of the book of Micah. God is making a lawsuit again God’s people. She is made her claims, and Israel stands guilty. Israel tries to plea, to make her case against what God has spoken, but the truth is there is failure in what the Israelites have done. They have been trusting (sometimes) they have sought out God (sometimes) but they have yet to embrace what God truly wants. All the actions that have happened, all the laws they have followed is but short change to the reality of a God who asks the Israelites to live into the covenant…And what does the covenant really come down to?
Doing justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
What is Justice and Service
The Israelites might be describe das the selling themselves too short peoples. God tells them from the beginning that they are called to live into the covenant. And they do, for a while. And when they screw up and God redeems them they are told, you must do more, you must take your covenant with me seriously. And so they do, for a little while. but the hopes of the world get to them. Their own priorities get to them. They sell themselves short. They are trying to live out their covenant in the world, but they are falling short of the ultimate goal.
This is kind of what still happens in the church today. We have forgotten what is means to be the Church… We get tied up in stupid debates. We get tied up in thinking that Sunday morning is the only day of the week where God exists. We put God on the back burner…I have a job, I have a house, I have a lot to do, I’m tired. We go to church on Sundays and then we leave the rest of the week without going much farther. Our expression of the Church is mostly tied up in arguing with each other about doctrine and telling people who are welcome and who are not…But if we are the church, then we are the church who lives out a call to service and justice. A call to live beyond ourselves and to change the fate of those around us through our actions.
A Life of Service, a world in need of Justice
Now Service and Justice are buzz words in our society today. As a University campus, we know that the most likely way people will come into our community is through service opportunities that we provide. From blood drives to gleaning trips to charity drives and homeless outreach, there are a lot of ways we are already preparing of doing service in the world. But I wish to remind you of the need of the call to justice, which is often something we all fall short of.
Because to do service is what sells OURSELVES short of God’s call in the world. Let me introduce to you Walter Rauschenbusch. In 1908, Baptist Preacher and Walter Rauschenbusch was sent to work in Hell’s Kitchen in New York, evangelizing and proclaiming good news to all people in the area. He was led as a minister to evangelize, but realized he couldn’t do so because his neighbors and the very people he was trying to bring to church to were starving, were dealing with addictions, were challenges by unfair labor practices. Rauschenbusch would ask the question “What point should it be for us to evangelize the world if that world has nothing to eat nor does it have opportunities to thrive?” So, his church became a shelter, he started feeding people. HE began to do service… But then… he realized something. He couldn’t just feed one person over and over again. He had to figure out how to change the outcomes of these individuals’ lives. So he started school programs, and he became active in the local government and in the justice system that was keeping those people from thriving and helped to change the laws to something different. Rauschenbusch would go throughout the whole of new york city, advocating for the rights of these persons relentlessly in order that they might have a chance for a better life, not just the next meal.
In 1917, he produced a seminal classic called “A theology of the social gospel” which inspires theologians and lay persons for the next even until today. MLK spoke highly of Rauschenbusch and his spirit lives on today in many of the justice agencies in this city including Emma Norton Services and the Dignity Center. Rauschenbusch saw the need that existed, then worked toward service but kept his eye focused on the systemic issues at hand and became involved in the political changes that occurred. He took the churches call to evangelize and first turned it into the acts of mercy that are service and then took them farther and helped to change the collective issues through activism and
And it’s not like this is really something new. Because Jesus was pretty good as making sure that justice was being lived out. He fed an awful lot of hungry people, healed a lot of others, and spent a lot of time with those who were cast out… The greatest call to any to be a disciple was to sell all things, give everything to those who had less, and come and follow. But following has a point. Following has more than just a once a week or once a month kind of feel… Following meant to live into the challenges that existed, be a part of the changes at a macro level, overcoming the powers, challenging Rome, and ultimately dieing to oneself in order to fulfill the mission of God.
And what Jesus did for us was present us with the image of an unshakable God who says, don’t just do service, BUT DO JUSTICE. And why do we do all of this… Because we were Loved.
A biblical Component
Love is truly the reason we go out and we act upon things. We go out and we act in service because of the love that God has shown us through caring for us. We act and seek others because of love. And love is something greater than just a simple act on a weekend. Let me try to explain.
When you are dating, when it’s new and fresh, there is something that happens between the two individuals that is hard to describe… We’ll just call it ROMANCE for the sake of this discussion. People wander off to be by themselves, they get easily distracted, they can’t make decisions, and they are generally nervous. They see this significant other with bright eyes and they will do lots of things in order to stay in good favor of this other. This ROMANCE is an incredibly good feeling…But it’s not yet love… Love is different. Love is a challenge.
To be in love, to know love truly requires a self-sacrifice. You partner up on a more permanent basis, and you come together for a lifetime. And you know, pretty soon you realize all those hormones were preventing you from seeing certain more challenging sides to the other person. You have to wake up everyday with that person, you have to carry that relationship through thick and thin, through fights and frustrations, through loss of dreams and shared expectations… Love is something altogether different from that bright eyed romance…
What am I getting at? When we were children, doing service and caring for others by feeding them was enough. But justice changes the outcomes of lives. It’s not just about a meal, or a dollar, or a handout, it’s about the systemic problems. God calls us beyond our service and into justice movements. We have to keep serving people, keep caring for each individual refugee that might come to us, for each family that might be in need, but God calls us to go deeper, to love wherein your heart is broken for these individuals enough to work to change the system. We need romance in every relationship, but to be in love, to be loved is to know that it’s not just about current moment but the lifetime experience.
A life of Justice
A lifetime of love. our love becomes the act of seeking justice. When we lead a lifetime of justice through love, we change the world around us.
We can’t sit back on the sidelines while things happen. We must be involved in the politics of our time, we must practice sustainability along with planting trees, we must welcome all, but then must work to change language that prevents all from being welcomed. We must feed the starving masses, but then must make the masses of the rich understand that they cannot allow the starvation to endure.
We are the body of Christ for the world. We are the community that God has called. Let us go forth with our acts of service, but also let us go into the world to change the future of generations of people who have been oppressed and outcast. Come, open your heart, let the love come in, and show mercy to all those who fear another day. Don’t sell yourself short. The Lord but requires you to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.
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