What Is Expected of Us?

"With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
--Micah 6: 6-8

Evidence points to the reality that Micah, who lived about 700 BC, was speaking out both against the corruption of the leaders of his time, and about the broken relationship that he perceived between God and the people of Israel. His words, which have been preserved in the Biblical book of Micah, include the famous summary of true religion which I just read to you: . . .and what doth the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

The Bible, which our young people have been studying in their Young Church classes this fall, contains many such passages, which help to answer the question posed by the title of my sermon: what is expected of us? But Micah's answer, on the surface at least, is perhaps the simplest and most concise in the whole of the Bible. What is expected, he says, is that we will act justly, be kind, and walk humbly before God and our fellow human beings.

What does it mean to act justly? What is justice? According to my dictionary, justice has to do with uprightness and equity, with integrity and fairness. It obviously has to do with the Golden Rule: with doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Justice begins with an understanding of something that Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, that all people are created equal, and that all people therefore have an equal claim to what Jefferson called "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These are just words unless they are put into practice by people like us. It is we who must embody justice and give it flesh, so that it becomes a reality rather than just an abstract ideal. That is why Micah says we must "do" justice, rather than simply saying that we must "be" just.

And what does it mean to "love" kindness? Kindness has to do with kinship, and with the natural affection which arises from close relationships. As Jesus pointed out, it is easy to be kind to those we know and to those who are just like us,--although, as you know, we often fail to be kind even to those whom we love, and who love us the most.

What is more difficult and more challenging is to be kind to those who are unlike us: those, say, who practice a different religion, or whose skin is a different color for our own, or whose culture or sexual orientation is different than our own. If we sometimes fail to be kind to those who love us and who are most like us, then how much more difficult to be kind to those whom we do not even know!

But that is exactly what the Bible asks us to do. In the Hebrew Bible book of Leviticus, we are told that "When a stranger sojourns with you in you land, you shall not oppress the stranger. The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the neighbor among you; you shall love the stranger as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt," a reference to the time when the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt, before the Exodus experience brought them out and into the Promised Land.

Jesus told the quintessential story of justice and kindness when he related the story of the Good Samaritan. He had been asked, remember, to answer the question: "And who is my neighbor?" It was a trick question, meant to catch him up, but Jesus, you remember, answered:

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, "Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend." Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?

The real power of this story lies in the fact that at the time Jesus told his story, the Samaritans were the enemies of the Jews, sort of like the situation which exists between the Palestinians and the Jews in Israel today,--and yet it is a Samaritan who ultimately acts with kindness--with kinship--toward the Jewish stranger. It is the Samaritan who does justice and loves kindness. This, as you see, is a difficult story.

Jesus tells many such stories to help his listeners understand the true meaning of justice and kindness: stories which seek to make us understand that more is expected of us than simply to be nice to those who are most like us, or who love us already, or whom we already love; stories which show us the need for forgiveness, which every one of us will need from time to time in our journey through life, and generosity of spirit, and courage. That is why we continue to read those stories: because we need to hear them, and because we have not arrived at perfection, or even close to it, yet.

But Micah suggests there is yet something more expected of us, something that he calls "walking humbly with our God." Humility is exactly the opposite of pride and arrogance. It has to do with meekness and unpretentiousness, with being "humble" and having a lowly attitude about ourselves. How different this attitude is from that of the prevailing culture today. To be humble is to recognize that we are not the be-all and end-all. It is to believe and to know in our hearts that we are no better and no worse than anyone else. We are just the same. We deserve no more and no less than anyone else. And because we have this knowledge of our true position in life, we cannot possibly be proud or stuck-up, or pretend to lord it over anyone else.

It is interesting, I think, to notice how these three qualities, justice, kindness, and humility, reinforce and build upon each other. Because if I am truly humble, and recognize that I am no better than anyone else, then I am more likely to be kind and to treat others fairly. And if I am kind as a matter of course, then it is unlikely that I will treat anyone unfairly in the first place, and more likely that humility will flow from the recognition of my similarity to every other person. And if I act justly toward others as a matter of principle,--that is, it I treat them fairly and equitably--then I will be recognizing my kinship with them; and if I recognize my kinship with others then I will be more likely to be kind and humble for I will know deep down that they really are just like me; and if they really are like me, and if I am no better than they are, then perhaps I will also recognize that no matter what their situation, "there but for the grace of God go I."

And if this is what is expected of us--and I for one am convinced that it is--then how far from this falls any act of hate, any words of graffiti written on any wall, directed at anyone, anytime. "Sticks and stones can break my bones," but words can hurt me. Sometimes they can hurt me worse than sticks and stones, and sometimes words can incite others to even worse acts of hatred and violence.

What is hard to understand is why some people have such a need to feel superior to others. I can only guess that that need has to do not with real superiority, but with fear and self-hatred and a deep-rooted sense of inferiority. We all have a responsibility to see that no one we know ever has reason to feel that she is less important than anyone else, that no one needs to be fearful, and that no one ever, ever believes he is inferior or unloved. And that, my friends is a huge responsibility, both for young and for old.

What is expected of us? Only that we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God and with each other. What a different world this could be, if only we would heed Micah's call. But we must begin somewhere, and here is as good a place and as good a time as any. May it be so for each of us, today and in all the days to come. So be it. Amen.

The Rev. Harold E. Babcock