“He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." Luke 10:25-37


The most important question everyone has to face is this: “does God exist?” For those of us who’ve come to the conviction that God does exist, the next question is probably this: what does God want me to know and to do? The Bible is not silent about this. It might not say specifically what God wants you to do in every instance, but it speaks to us clearly: God wants us to rise above our selfish nature. God wants us to become women and men whose lives are honorable. God wants us to be agents of justice and doers of mercy, God wants us to live active lives, proud of who we are as followers of Jesus but constantly mindful that we are gifted servants.

The prophet Micah wrote the words cited above. You are not to be ignorant of God’s goodness and good intentions and as a believer, certain requirements are placed on your life. When God’s people and the church have been at their best, they have been stellar examples of correcting wickedness and evil. The church and its people were at the center of the founding of this republic, instrumental in the fight against slavery and a century later, the stance in favor of civil rights for both genders and all races. Unfortunately, the church has not been free from ignorance and bigotry. In the 1850s, more than a few misled Christians fought emancipation vigorously. And in our age, foolish and self-serving Christians have fought against equal rights for the larger gay and lesbian communities. There will be a day when they will see the error of their ways but we have to continue to stand both as proclaimers of God’s initiative toward us in sending Jesus and of our authority as Christ-centered believers to actively do what is right.

God calls to activity in the world we live in. Christianity is not a solitary experience, we have to do it together and we have to move out in the community. God’s word calls us to be active in pursuit of the list in Micah, let’s look at it.

• Justice is about correcting the patterns that we know are inequitable, skewed and wrong in that they tend to serve the powerful and discriminate against the weak. We are informed by the Word, by faith and by study of what is unjust. God wants us to work to bring change and there will always be a need for change. An example of disgusting injustice in our world, one of so many, is the policy of the U.S, government regarding the military called “don’t ask, don’t tell.” This asinine policy demands of decent men and women that they lie about who they are, that they perpetrate a deception and that they denigrate their true character in order to continue to do what they are called to do or long to do. It’s a genuinely shameful policy that serves bigots and phobic individuals in positions of authority. We’ll have a chance to fight this one in the coming years, let’s do it.
• Mercy is a call to offer help and support to the weak, the injured, the disabled, those who have been violated, those who are victims of malice. It is a call to do for them what they are not able to do for themselves. It’s at the center, the very core, of the whole word of God – Old and New Testaments. We are not requested by God or Jesus to be merciful, we are ordered to be forthright, active, sometimes self-sacrificing agents of mercy. Mercy is far more important than convenience, than comfort, than political correctness. We live in a time when people don’t want to get involved, when they’re scared about the liability. Well, brothers and sisters, what if God had chosen to “not get involved.” The stunning proclamation of Christian belief is the God got involved with us, totally involved, and His Son suffered beyond measure for that choice. This is not a plea to be stupid or impulsive, but together we need to move when we see things that are wrong while we simultaneously monitor the scared parts of us. Is it scary? Sometimes, yes. Are we doing it alone? Resoundingly, no! The church is a community, people supporting and correcting each other, not some self-righteous honcho aiming to skewer his or her personal demons in pursuit of a private cause. And the church is empowered by the Spirit of God, always empowering and tempering at the same time – giving us courage and direction and pulling us back when we’re inclined to go astray.
• Humility. All of these lead to the idea of God’s perfect balance: humility is the engagement of courage when we know God has ordered our actions. Humility is the willingness to see the right prevail whether or not we get credit for it. Humility is the balance of our egos propelled by the conviction that we are gifted by God and so immensely valuable but that God employs that very value in service to rightness and decency so we cannot, with our marching orders from God, become inflated in our self-assessment. Humility reminds us to never perceive ourselves too highly or too lowly, never to behave as if we are higher or lower than others. When our self-perception is in God’s balance, we’ll get it right and become crystal clear receivers of the transmissions being sent out on the Lord’s broadcast.
  
  Jesus said that the fields are ripe for harvest but the harvesters are few. God is broadcasting to you, adjust your tuners and let’s do what God is telling us – it’s all around us.