Ground Micah.

[This week's blogs are reflections on Reverend Joel's sermon from this past Sunday.]

Listen to what the LORD says: "Get up! Defend yourself before the mountains! Present your case before the hills! Hear the LORD's accusation, you mountains, you enduring foundations of the earth! For the LORD has a case against his people; he has a dispute with Israel!" (Micah 6:1-2)

The LORD has set up His courtroom. The mountains and hills are jury and spectators, and ancient Israel is on trial.

In Micah 6:1-8, the LORD presents His evidence: God has been great and gracious, while Israel has been unjust. And a rock-solid argument springs forth, the argument of a gracious God who sees that His people are not agents of grace. They are not meeting God's three-pronged criteria: doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly. The evidence sticks.

Millennia have passed since Micah was written. And, sadly, the evidence still sticks in much of the world. As was shared in our services this past Sunday, the church can come together in exuberant celebration of what God has done for "us". Certainly it's a good thing to do, keeping the mandate to assemble together in the name of the LORD (see Hebrews 10:24-25). But where is the exuberance in giving? Where is the joy in serving? What evidence is there that we as believers are extending ourselves for the sake of the poor and marginalized of the world? How are we treating the "them"?

The crux of God's controversy with ancient Israel, and with us here in the twenty-first century, is that we know the right thing to do but we're not doing it. "He has told you, O man, what is good" (Micah 6:8).

So why are we not doing what God wants? Perhaps it's because we're too absorbed in doing what God "wants". In tomorrow's blog we'll reflect more deeply on this paradox.