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 6:8
If there is a better reading to mark our annual meeting, I can’t think of one. After all, what else is required of us but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God?
Such simple statements and yet one could spend a lifetime perfecting them. Justice. Kindness. Humility. Maintaining these in balance, however, is critical to maintaining our relationship with Jesus and with each other. Too much justice without humility and we think we have all the answers, too much kindness without justice and we end up only helping people like us. Too much humility without justice or kindness and we find ourselves the victims of abuse.
In Micah, God is speaking to outcasts, loners, sinners, and said you will be the ones to rebuild this Kingdom. And how will they do it? Through justice, kindness and humility. They didn’t believe it then, and it is quite possible you do not believe it now! It is hard to believe that one little church could make a difference. Especially in a place with problems like Baltimore. And yet if we look back through scripture, history and our own stories - that is where it always starts.
As I am contemplating the joys and challenges of our racial reconciliation journey over the last few years, I want to offer a few reflections on how this passage from Micah can speak into what comes next.
Kindness: Be kind to yourself. Racial reconciliation and reparations work is a new space and an uncomfortable one, especially for white people. We are going to make mistakes as a community and as individuals. When we do, we need to be gentle and forgiving with ourselves so that we can learn from those mistakes.
Humility: Let others lead, but don’t force it. Seek to empower new leaders and new voices who bring different perspectives to the table. Acknowledge your blind spots based on your social location and seek out new voices to fill that space. You don’t have, or have to, have all the answers.
Justice: Remember the work is not about you. It is about us as a collective. There may be times where you feel like you the individual are losing something: status, power, control, or other things. But we as a collective are growing stronger at the same time. Building new bonds of trust, developing new leadership, new identities, new understandings of how God has brought us together. That is justice work.
So friends I hope to see you Sunday ready to do nothing more or less than to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God and with each other.