Today’s author is Prince of Peace member, Carol Swanson.
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible calls Micah 6:1-8 “one of the noblest utterances” and “the Magna Charta of prophets.” It also says verse 8 “summarizes the preaching of Amos (righteousness), Hosea (steadfast love), and Isaiah (humility and faith).
I found a document on the World Council of Churches website on this key passage, and I thought I would share part of it. It is titled, Micah 6:1-8 “What Does God Expect of You? A Pilgrimage of Reconciliation with God and with Our Neighbor”, by Jin Yang Kim.
The prophet Micah asks the most crucial question in the midst of injustice and violence in 8th-century B.C.E. Judean society: “What does God expect of you?”
This is the key question for the people of Israel, who must come before God when the relationship with their God has been broken. This is also a question that we must ask ourselves today as we are invited to join in the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace. The answer is clear: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8). As Micah invites his people, so the World Council of Churches and people of good will everywhere are also inviting others to answer Micah’s question by going on a pilgrimage of reconciliation with God and with our neighbour.
This passage is called a “prophetic covenant lawsuit” in which Micah addresses the broken relationship between God and the people of ancient Israel. The passage can be divided into two main sections: God’s controversy (vv. 1-5) and God’s requirements (vv. 6-8). In the first section, Micah recites the righteous acts of God with four emphases: redemption from Egypt, inspired leadership, deliverance from the schemes of Balak and Balaam, and entrance into the land (vv. 4-5). In the second section, Micah acknowledges a need for reconciliation. The extravagant offer of heightened sacrificial performance by the people is countered by the demand of God that they do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with their God (vv. 6-8). The repeated word “what” (vv. 3, 5, 6, 8) functions to show the stage of pilgrimage toward reconciliation between God and the people of Israel. The last “what” essentially summarizes the whole passage asking: “What does God expect of you?” (cf. Deut 10:12).
What does God expect of you? Instead of “material commodity,” God wants faithful relationships and reliable solidarity. The two commands in verse 8, doing justice and loving kindness, stand at the center of Israel’s faith-talk. The first command concerns the love of neighbor. The second command concerns the love of God. So Micah’s first two commandments summarize the whole message of the Old Testament (Lev. 19:18; Deut. 6:5) and reverberate in the Great Commandment of Jesus in the New Testament (Mark 12:28-31; Matt. 22:37-40).
The third command is to walk humbly. The term “humbly” could be misleading because it may refer to “self-abasement.” Micah actually does not invite the people of Israel to self-abasement. To walk humbly is the opposite of walking proudly or walking self-righteously, including arrogance, self-sufficiency, autonomy, and independence. Walter Bruggemann suggests that the term “walking humbly” is to pay attention to others. In this way, the command to walk humbly is the journey of self-giving, self-sacrificing, and self-emptying. If we walk humbly, then we acknowledge others who will be our companions along the way. As Paulo Freire succinctly put it, “oppressors dehumanize others and violate their rights,” and dehumanization is a distortion of the vocation of becoming more fully human. In contrast, the command to walk humbly will lead us to the restoration of God’s image, and we all become agents of transformation in the world.
If we walk the path humbly acknowledging others, who will be our companion along the way? Micah answers: “With your God.” This companion is not just God’s closeness to us, but it carries along the way God’s saving activities so that one can walk with the God who saves, reconciles, heals, and transforms. This specific phrase reminds us of one of the three dimensions of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace: Celebrating the Gifts– together we celebrate God’s great gift of life, the beauty of creation, and the unity of a reconciled diversity.
Click here to read the full document.
On Sunday, we heard from our council president Michael Stetzler and Pastor Peter in the adult forum. The “door” to restarting a day care has closed for now, but another “door” is opening. Our relationship with Valerie and the tiny house project with the Settled org. offers an exciting opportunity and new possibilities for our south property. And we are looking forward to learning how to become a “Reconciling in Christ” congregation. Our serendipitous God is at work here. We are truly walking “with the God who saves, reconciles heals, and transforms.”
Recall that the name Micah means “Who is like God?” At the end of the prophet’s book, the question is actually asked, and God’s steadfast character is described.
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over the transgression
of the remnant of your possession?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in showing clemency.
He will again have compassion upon us;
he will tread our iniquities under foot.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
You will show faithfulness to Jacob
And unswerving loyalty to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old. (7:18-20)
The Word of the LORD. Thanks be to God.