Guideposts for our life with God
“With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high?” So starts the lament of the prophet Micah. Micah, one of the pre-exilic prophets, sees the state of the kingdom of Israel and laments the future of the people. The kingdom is in the last throes of its survival and shortly thereafter the nation will be forced into exile. Naturally the prophet sees the demise of the nation as directly tied to its loss of focus. In fact, for any people or nation whose very existence is tied to a revelation of the divine, the fortune of the people is in fact dependent on the will of the divine. The prophet sincerely believes that the fate of this nation is directly linked to their relationship with God. And what he sees is a people who have come to a point where they feel secure enough to be able to buy off God through money and other gifts.
How often in our lives have we tried to appease someone with a gift? Somehow, we believe that the person will be grateful for our apparent generosity and be willing to grant us our way or, at the very least, not be a bother or obstruction to us. I can remember my father giving me a gift that he thought for sure would make me forget everything else. It rarely worked. And if it did, it didn’t last long. In fact, when I hear my boys recalling important memories of their childhood, it isn’t the great gift they were given that they remember but the time we spent together in some activity: Putting pop rocks in the pancakes or making Kraft dinner at a campsite with chlorinated water because I didn’t know; taking a canoe trip down the North Saskatchewan with a group of fellow scouts and their dads. In fact, some of the things I remember most about my parents were the life lessons they gave me that had nothing to do with possessions. Lessons about living your life from a strong personal ethic, having a focus for life, acting in a responsible and compassionate way, doing your best in all things and honouring others no matter who they were. These are lessons which I have sought to live by and which I did my best to pass on to my sons.
And so the prophet laments that the people seem to have lost their focus. They have wandered away from the relationship established with their God and have come to believe that gifts of gold, oil, animals, etc. will make God not see or care about the true state of the nation or its people. The people knew better than to antagonize God on purpose but they had lost sight of their true calling and what enabled them to exist as a nation. A new way of living, a new way of relating to God would begin.
The message of Micah is clear. Our relationship with God, our life with Him and with each other is not dependent on material sacrifices and certainly nor sacrifices of other humans. Our relationship with God and with each other is to be built on 3 things: to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.
Doing justice is not about laws and simple right and wrong. Yes, there are laws and good order which has been established to promote a standard of life that promote good mental and physical health. But doing justice is about embodying the basic commandments of God in our daily life so that we may act towards others in ways that build others up and show a respect for life. Justice is seeking to build a community of faith that welcomes and enables all to come and be part of it. It means supporting the weaker members of the community and providing guidance and support to them. It means living in the secular world from a faith base. It means allowing our faith in God to inform our daily decisions and weigh whether our business, personal or other affairs reflect what God is calling us to be.
Loving kindness is more than just being kind. Even the cruelest person can do kind things. Loving kindness is about an attitude of the heart that brings a true desire to show compassion, care and respect for people. The question really is what lies at the heart of our life. Is kindness something we do because it is expected or is kindness something that is an integral part of our being and is something deeply ingrained in us, a centre from which we live? There are times in my life when I have presented a gruff, crusty exterior to keep people away. And sometimes it works yet often the gruff exterior seemed to lose out to the spirit within. I have a strange attraction with animals. I would go to someone’s house for work and have their animal, be it dog or cat, become my instant friend – even animals that usually chose not to associate with strangers. I also seem to be able to communicate with them and them with me. It is a strange gift, not one that I sought for and not one that I can readily understand. I think it belies a love of kindness that is at my heart. And yes, the world can be a cruel place and probably always will be but as people of God, there is an imperative to live life not out of fear that the world will hurt us – for indeed it will or rather the people in it – but out of loving kindness, trusting in the eternal life and hope of God.
And that leads to walking humbly with our God. As people of God, we are called not to go it alone in the world or to make our own way so to speak. Nor are we to stand back and watch life from the sidelines. God calls us to be a partner with Him, to walk with Him, to talk with Him and to live this life together. You hear people say that life is a journey, not a destination. And that is what God invites us to, a journey, a journey of faith, a journey of hope, a journey of discovery, a journey of fulfilment but not one to be faced alone or never taken.
As people of God, the presence of God is not something to be appeased or bought off. It is not something to be compartmentalized or marginalized. The presence of God in our lives is to be lived and lived to the fullest.
And what does that truly require of us? We may become givers of funds, we may become missionaries, we may become Sunday school teachers, or we may become pastors or caregivers. We may become many things but at the heart of all we do and all we are will be found 3 things that God requires of each of us: to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God.
Think for a moment of the two great commandments that Jesus spoke to the disciples. The whole of the law is summed up in this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your mind, and all your strength; love your neighbour as yourself. The prophet Micah also saw this truth for his command to do what is just is to show our love of God. When we do what God calls just in our relationships with one another, we reveal our love of God. His command to love kindness is to fulfil the command to love your neighbour as yourself for to love kindness is to have a heart that can truly love the other and still love oneself; not in a way that is selfish but selfless, a love that nurtures, respects and supports the human heart, mind, spirit and body. But neither one of these can truly stand without the other and both are needed for us to walk with God as we learn how to do what is just and kind. It is another example of a 3-legged stool. All 3 legs must be present and equal in length or the stool will not support what it is designed for. We have been designed to live in communion with God in this life and the next.
And so, Micah calls the people from their misguided notions of a relationship with God to embrace once again the true nature of that relationship - one where we stand as partners in life with the Creator and Sustainer of all life.
I invite you today to see who God is for you. Are you out in front making your own way as a lone wolf? Are you standing around watching others live life? Or are you walking with God in a journey from here to eternity. Of course, we don’t just have to walk with God for the walk we are on is also being walked by countless others with whom we share God’s love and strength. So let us do what is just and love God wholly; love kindness and see our neighbour as we see ourselves and walk humbly with our God as He guides us in all we do.
AMEN.