“Remember the Assignment”

by Marcia Mount Shoop
Micah 6:1-8

“Micah echoes the messages of his fellow prophets–God isn’t interested in your religious rituals, God is interested in how you live your everyday lives, how you build community, how your economy works, how you solve problems with each other, how you treat those who are vulnerable, how you treat the earth and the resources God has given us.

There are three words here that Micah uses that give us the substance of our assignment:

• Justice (mishpat): something we DO; not just words; not enough just to name when it does not exist. Justice is a way of life–and it is about fairness, equity–with special attention to those who are being exploited.
• Kindness (hesed): hard to translate this rich word into English from the Hebrew. It is more than kindness–it is love and fidelity–it is being trustworthy and compassionate. We can’t just be good to each other out of duty, it must be because of love without resentment and coercion.
• Walk humbly (halak, sn): carefully, intentionally, in right relationship to God–put God first–God leads in the walk–that’s the only way we are doing the humility part.

The assignment is not a project or a program or a one time achievement, it is about a way of life–that is not afraid of taking the hard truths of what needs to change about human behavior, that leans into transformation and repair out of love, and that intentionally walks with God in such a way that we don’t get out in front of God, that we are in right relationship with God–that we practice leaning into God’s vision for us.”

Watch the full GCPC service on 1/29/23 here
(Scripture and sermon begin at 35:25)