What Does the Lord Require?

Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12

        A wise person, after having heard these passages          would say, “Blessed be the word of the Lord,” and sit down. I have seldom been accused of such wisdom.

        Micah 6 begins with an interesting question, “What does the Lord require?” This is not the only time this question is asked. The answer we receive from the writer of Deuteronomy is, “Love the Lord with all you heart, soul, and might.” Jesus later adds, “Love you neighbor as yourself.” The Apostle Paul states, “Let your love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good.” The author of I John writes, “The love of God is that we obey God’s commandments. And they are not burdensome.” Are you kidding me? The Grace of God is only necessary because of the difficulty we have with the Commandments of God. 

        Then we have the Gospel of Matthew.  A casual reading of the Beatitudes would make it appear that God requires us to embrace poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger, mercy, purity and peacemaking. I would not discourage you from striving toward any of the above but that is a pretty comprehensive and multifaceted list. To further complicate matters each characteristic might be considered a strong point for one person and a character flaw for someone else.

        This morning in order to go a little deeper into these texts, I want us to place our full attention on three words. They are: require, with, and blessed. Two are obviously crucial and I would like to convince you that tiny preposition is equally important.

        Let’s start with the word “require”. That is a powerful word. Micah did not proclaim, “What does the Lord suggest.” He doesn’t say, “What does the Lord recommend.” Micah has carefully chosen a word which brings with it all the trappings of obligation. If tomorrow my beloved convertible should die, I would regrettably find myself at a car dealer looking for a new means of transportation. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the loan officer would say, “We would suggest that you make payments of x number dollars once a month, but only if it is convenient.” With all the cars I have purchased no one has offered that deal. Imagine how we could be transformed if our obligations to God were treated with the same seriousness we give our lending institutions?

        What does the Lord require? What does God place as most important in the way we conduct our lives. You might be surprised with the answer. First, God requires justice.  That seems fair. If a person breaks the law they should be punished for their failure to meet the standards of the legal system. If only that was what Micah was saying? He picked a particular word, “mishpat”, to define justice. “Mishpat”, in the Hebrew tradition is a transforming virtue that seeks to establish or restore community. Its focus is to balance the common good. “Mishpat” calls for a justice which focuses on relationships, a justice which ensures equitable distribution of goods, benefits, and burdens on a community.  “Mishpat” affects the social order by calling on the hierarchy to be responsible for this distribution.   

        The second requirement is to love kindness. As you might expect this entails more than kissing children and rescuing stray cats. Again Micah picks a particularly combustible word from his Godly vocabulary. The word is “hesed”. To do “hesed” calls on one to recognize and respond to the condition of the poor and helpless. “Hesed” is a word most often found in the books of Jeremiah, Isaiah and Amos. It is a word of action, and not so surprisingly, it is the word used to describe God’s relationship with Israel when they have been unrighteous. God shows “hesed”, kindness and mercy, toward those who do not deserve it.

        Finally we are required to walk humbly. As you have now guessed this implies more than the obvious. Humbleness or “hasnea” has nothing to do with self-effacement, but everything to do with the way we approach others. One of the tough things about being a generous church is we often run into people who don’t seem to fully appreciate the sacrifice we have made. We wish they were a little more humble.  We get no sympathy from Micah “Hasnea” focuses on how we are supposed to walk.  “Hasnea” implies an attitude of openness, personal integrity, candor, and honesty. “Hasnea” is worried solely about our attitude, and our relationship with others.

Micah dares to put “mishpat”, “hesed”, “hasnea”, doing justice, loving kindness, walking humbly, into the same sentence. How can we be capable of that?

        I told you there were three words. The second is the proposition “with”. What a wonderful word. It implies community.  Its sole purpose is to link us with someone else. There is a term that is becoming quite popular in the world of football. It is called, “being out on an island”.  For much of the game this afternoon the cornerbacks of the Seahawks will have one on one coverage against one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. They will be by themselves with no help. If they make the play no one will remember because that is what they are supposed to do. But if Manning beats them for a touchdown, all of America will know who failed.

Mishpat, hesed and hasnea put us on an island. What is required by those three words is impossible without help.

        Thanks be to God the writer of Micah knows the power of a preposition. We don’t have to be alone. We are required to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly, WITH God. With God’s help we can DARE TO BE ENGAGED in radical ethical behavior particularly as we re-imagine the difficult language that confronts us in the Sermon on the Mount.

        I promised you three words and the last word is “Blessed”.  We are  used to hearing that word in connection with the phrases blessed are those that mourn, blessed  are meek or blessed are those who hunger after righteousness. I have struggled with this word “Blessed” for a long time. Jesus spoke to a people who were still guided by the Hebrew text. Psalm 1 begins, “Blessed are they who do not follow the advice of the wicked but delight in the law of the Lord.” It is quite logical that Jesus would chose the same word to begin his sermon.   Many of our modern translations have substituted happy for blessed. But again, if we are true to the Hebrew language the word we find in Psalm 1, “Asha” not only means blessed but also means to be in relationship with someone. Quite simply it means, “included”, or “to be with”.  Imagine if we had learned the Beatitudes in this way, “Included are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; included are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy; included are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the kingdom of God.

        Pete Seeger, who died this week at the age of 94 tells the story of the song most close associated with him. In 1903 Reverend Charles Tindley of Philadelphia wrote, “I’ll overcome someday. If in my heart I do not yield, I’ll over come someday.” Lucille Simmons remembered her mother singing the song and one day in the late 1950’s she sang it to Pete. Only she changed the words from “I’ll overcome” to “We shall overcome.” Seeger changed “We will” to “We shall” and the rest is history. Pete said, “When I sing this song, the most important word is “we” because the human race is either going to make it together or we are not going to make it all.”

Micah and Jesus understood what Pete was talking about because they said the same thing long it long before he did. Doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God is best done as an exercise that is inclusive of us all.   Therefore, let us, the sons and daughters of Micah, Jesus, and Pete Seeger, engage ourselves in the serious work of caring for God’s community.               Amen.