Justice - Kingdom

“He has told you, O man, 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

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”  Matthew 23:23

At Creekside, we are spending the month of January talking about God's heartbeat (command and requirement) that we do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with him. The language of Micah is translated as "what the Lord requires." While it is true that he "requires" his followers to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with him, his requirement is not a requirement in the sense of "do these acts and we are good," "check off this box and you are done." Instead, God wants us to be filed with his goodness, his love and his peace. God wants us to so experience him that we learn to deeply trust him for our future and our present, our provision and our safety. The word that we read as "require," is the Hebrew word "darash"which means, loosely, to seek and question and make inquiry about a thing. God, you see, is concerned with justice and mercy and humility. He is also deeply concerned with you. God seeks and questions and makes inquiry about how fully you are connected into who he is, into his character and thus into his story. God knows that our tendency is to be connected first and most fully into who we are and into our story. He also knows -- because he designed and created us -- that this natural tendency will always result in a life that is not lived to its fullest, a life that does not ultimately fulfill us, and robs us of our standing as image bearers of him. Jesus summed up this reality when he said, "Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35) 

When we surrender ourselves to God, the author and sustainer of life itself he walks alongside of us in humility. He gives us a love of mercy and he changes us from the inside out, so that we see the world as he sees it, a world crying out for justice. Seeing the world in this way we cannot help but step forward as image bearers of God to do and seek and advocate for justice and restoration. 

But it does not happen overnight. It is a process of the Inward, Outward and Together rhythms of discipleship. It is not merely an internal transformation for which we must wait before we do justice. Neither is it merely a command to move outward. Rather, it is an invitation, individually and as a Kingdom community, to do and be both -- Inward, Outward, Together. God's call is to be disciples of our King Jesus, acting in the world and facilitating the breaking in of his Kingdom into dark and unjust places in our world. God seeks and questions and inquires of us -- he invites us -- into the life that he has shown us, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

- how does this strike you?

- what questions does it raise?

- what emotions does it stir?

- what might be your next step?

Think and talk about these questions, with me and with others. 

Peace, hope and love

Doug