Epiphany 4, Year A | Micah 6:1-8
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
January 29, 2023
the Rev. Jonathan Hanneman
To watch the full service, please visit this page.
“[God] 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 6:8[1]
Shannon and I frequently find ourselves rewatching The Good Place, an NBC comedy from a few years ago that follows the adventures of four humans in the afterlife. The show provides a not-so-subtle introduction to moral philosophy, with the characters applying various ethical teachings to the situations they find themselves tossed into—or sometimes experiencing the consequences of those philosophies firsthand. At its core, the show asks the question, “What is it to live a moral life?” or, more simply, “What is it to be good?” What would it take for a person to truly “belong” in the Good Place?
If you asked those questions on the street, you’d probably receive a slightly different answer from most of the individuals you talked to. Some might say that we should be generous or treat others with respect. Others would talk about being honest or obeying all the laws. Most would likely offer some variation on themes of love or being kind or just generally not being a jerk.
As Christians, we could reframe those questions as “What exactly does God want from us?” Phrased that way, we’d probably get even more answers, like attending church or being baptized or calling on Christ for salvation. Some would say to just have faith or trust God or love our neighbors as ourselves. When the Rich Young Ruler asked him directly, Jesus offered uniquely specific instructions: sell all his things, give the money to the poor, and follow him.
What does it take to be “good”? What might we inherently “owe” to one another? What would make God happy? Those are big questions, ones I expect people will never stop debating. Depending on the situation, you might come up with a variety of answers, but it would be hard to find one more straightforward than what the prophet Micah told us this morning: “do justice…love kindness, and…walk humbly with your God.”
The loving kindness and walking humbly parts sound pretty self-explanatory, no matter your cultural background. But like the person who asked Jesus, “who is my neighbor?”, we tend to get a little nitpicky when it comes to doing justice. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that. Sometimes we do it because we genuinely want to understand specifics—we’re worried about misunderstanding or accidentally skipping a detail. Sometimes we just want to figure out what’s “enough” and how to avoid doing more than we absolutely have to. However, I suspect that if we were to carefully examine ourselves, the real reason most of us would ask is so we can convince ourselves that everything’s okay as it is, that we’re already good enough and therefore don’t really need to undergo the challenges of repentance—of change.
The way the Bible uses it, “justice” can be a confusing term. The Hebrew word Micah chose includes our standard idea of following rules or laws but suggests much more. So while it covers commonsense ethical concepts like don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t intentionally hurt other people, etc., it also includes things that we as Americans wouldn’t really associate with the justice system, like providing aid to those less privileged than ourselves or treating people on the fringes of society with generosity, dignity, and respect. The justice Micah is calling for is based less in human legislation of right and wrong and more along the lines of God’s character—the same God who “makes [their] sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”[2] It’s a sort of equitable, relation-based justice rather than the punitive and retributive kind we so frequently think about. The justice God is looking for covers all the external actions that ultimately result from the character of a person who loves God by loving their neighbor.
As you probably know, we’re holding our Annual Meeting after today’s service. While it’s easy to use that time to focus our attention on the more business-y aspects of church, the meeting provides a great opportunity to reflect on all the different ministries our parishioners are involved in and the ways we as a congregation are able to promote godly justice throughout our communities, because it turns out those activities and ministries we tend to call outreach or evangelism or community-development are often the ones that most closely reflect the Bible’s concept of justice.
And Saint Andrew’s has a really great track record at this kind of thing!
There’s the Shoebox and Angel Tree and St. Bonaventure ministries, each collecting different items to distribute among people who might otherwise go without. The Hospitality House provides lodging for visitors to Las Cruces who are facing medical and financial distress. Our people regularly volunteer at El Cauldito Soup Kitchen, which itself was initially formed and housed within St. Andrew’s. And Second Sunday Suppers continue to provide not only food but a sense of dignity and belonging and solidarity with our unhoused neighbors and immigrant communities. We could even include the new solar panel system John Nance has been working on all year. Yes, hopefully it’ll help us save some money in the future, but a big consideration in installing it has been an effort to participate in a sort of environmental justice—helping to care for future generations by caring for the Creation God has entrusted to us.
So please take the time to read through the reports in the Annual Meeting booklet. St. Andrew’s has a lot of great things going on and numerous ways to serve not only the neighbor sitting next to you in the pew but also those well beyond the church walls. Prayerfully consider any ministry that sparks your interest—new help is always welcome! Or maybe you see a need the rest of us have missed, one you can bring to the Church and help us do something about.
So then, what is it to be “good”? What does God want from us? What does it take for a person to truly “belong” in the Good Place? We’ve been looking at it all backwards. The Good Place isn’t “just” somewhere we go when we die. In fact, it isn’t a where so much as a when. It’s the community we build around and among us as our loving actions unveil God’s presence throughout the world. Because when we truly love and serve our neighbors, it turns out that we carry the Good Place everywhere we go. So there’s no need to worry or wonder: this is the Good Place.
“[God] 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?”
[1] All Bible quotations are from the NRSV unless otherwise noted.
[2] Matthew 5:45