We’re in the last week of our three-week look at these words from Micah – ACT JUSTLY, LOVE MERCY, and today: WALK HUMBLY, with your God.
WALKING HUMBLY, maybe the most difficult of the three – maybe depends who you ask there or what the scenario is, but the idea of WALKING HUMBLY is something that really goes against our natural instinct as humans…
Yes we say we want to see JUSTICE, justice and fairness in the world, that makes sense. And yes we ask God for MERCY, we ask him to have mercy on us weary sinners and we know – going by what God’s word says – that he does give mercy, he is a merciful and loving God. We know about that, it makes sense to us.
But this WALKING HUMBLY, to walk with humility, to live our lives with humility – this one clashes a bit with our modern worldview, maybe it even clashes a bit with our view of who God is and what this Christian life is all about, this one is hard. This one takes the agency or the control out of our hands – we don’t like it when that happens do we!
This puts us at the mercy of the world around us, and at the mercy of the God who made us and says he cares for us. To be HUMBLE is to be vulnerable isn’t it, we don’t really like that – we’d rather be comfortable than vulnerable.
Like with JUSTICE and with MERCY, we’ve heard how these two things are God’s to govern and God’s to give. HIS justice is the ultimate justice, his MERCY is the ultimate mercy. He governs our hearts, he has mercy on our souls.
But along with being JUST and MERCIFUL, our God is also HUMBLE. Our God is humble, he operates with HUMILITY – how do we see this? In the person of Jesus, in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. If you want an example of humility, what it is to live a humble life, we have it in Jesus.
Let’s think about what the bible means by the term HUMBLE >
It means low, being made low. Going low, just how God makes himself low, he comes down to meet us in the person of Jesus. You can’t get any more HUMBLE than that!
The creator of the universe inserts himself into his own creation, submits himself to the struggles and limitations of this life. Submits himself even to death on a cross, put there by the very people he came to save as we know. That is HUMILITY.
So for us, being HUMBLE, WALKING HUMBLY, living with HUMILITY – this is not easy. This is hard. Extremely hard – we could never live as humbly or be as humble as Jesus. Like how he never sinned, he was always humble. The perfect person, we can’t measure up to that standard.
This is how Jesus walked, he shows us the ultimate version of WALKING HUMBLY [image of Jesus carrying the cross]
A striking symbol of humility, how he was made to carry his own cross.
So we know about that, we are in awe of the love and grace and compassion and mercy God has given us, Jesus has won on the cross for us.
But what does it look like for US to WALK HUMBLY, how does God call us to walk as people living in the 21st century, in the second half of the 2020’s now, whatever stage of phase of life we might be in. Whatever our roles might be – spouse, parent, sibling, child, friend, colleague.
This next image might give us something go on [image of two people walking together down a forest track]
WALKING HUMBLY, walking together, listening and being listened to.
Moving in the same direction.
On the same page.
We can think about this image as two people walking humbly together on the journey, but also as God walking right next to us as we walk the walk of this Christian life, of a life of a follower of Jesus. That’s the walk we’re on, and not only has he paved the way for us but he’s also right there with us.
So with that image in mind, WALKING HUMBLY with our God, I want to pull out a few verses we’ve already heard today > always good to notice what comes up in our readings, listen out for the details letting us know about who God is and who he says we are, that’s the most important stuff for us to hear.
First we heard the story of Moses on the mountain today, Moses is called up the mountain so God can talk to him, he has important things to tell and to give Moses.
That would’ve been a HUMBLE walk for Moses, you’ve been summoned by God because he wants to see you!
But this is not a God who only corrects or rebukes or tells off – that is not the full picture of who God is. The full picture is more like God saying to Moses, ‘‘Come and spend time with me, I will give you what you need.” That’s what God’s saying here.
Not just a ‘do what I say’ one-way conversation but a loving embrace, a kind word, a shared moment. Spend time with me God says, I want to spend time with you.
How do we know God wants to spend time with us? How do we know he cares for us, deeply and intimately? Jump ahead to our other two readings today and we see the answer.
In both texts we hear the same words, both 2 Peter 1:17 & Matthew 17:5 refer to what God says about his son Jesus – God says ‘This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’
This is the loving God we have, the good Father, the present Father who cares for us on a deeper level than we know.
He says about his son that he loves him and he is pleased with him – and that’s before he’s done anything! It’s not Jesus actions that earn him his Father’s love, it’s the free gift of a loving Father who also has this same love for all people.
When we’re baptized we’re baptized into God’s family. That means these same words apply to us, like it says in the Psalms – at our baptism God says ‘You are my child; today I have become your father.’ (2:7)
God says about us that we are his children, that he loves us, and with us he is well pleased – before we did anything. The amazing love of our Heavenly Father there.
So from Micah we learn that we are called to ACT JUSTLY, in line with what God says.
We are called to LOVE MERCY, to receive the incredible, undeserved mercy of God, and have mercy on others as God would have us do.
And we are called to WALK HUMBLY, to make ourselves low, to lower ourselves so others can be lifted up – just as our God does for us.
WALKING HUMBLY is putting our lives in God’s hands, who is the one who has what we need. He is our good Father, a good Father who loves his children.
Jesus is God’s son, and God loves him. You and me are God’s children, and he loves us. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus himself, part of God’s own family – this is an intimate relationship, not distant/far-off/sometimes, it’s all the time, constant, reliable, ongoing.
We’re not random strangers to God, he is our good Father. We’re not random strangers to Jesus, he is our brother. And we shouldn’t be random strangers to each other either! We’re all part of the same family, the family of God, the body of Christ. We have the gift of this life to live, community to share in together, and that’s community always with an open door – to invite people in and to move through so we can meet people where they’re at, just as God does for each of us.
HUMILITY is a key ingredient in all this! Listening and being listened to, moving together in the same direction, being on the same page as we do life together in community. Not easy but incredibly important for us.
God says about each of us the same thing – not just some of us, not just me, not just you. He says about each of us that we are his, we are part of his family, he has good things for us and we can depend on him. God has put us all on the same page aready! The page that says ‘my beloved children.’ That’s the list we’re on, that’s the sort of thing that builds community right there, out of God’s love he’s shown us and the love we can show each other.
[Listen to Pat Barrett’s song – ‘Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly’]
Lord help us to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with you. Help us to get ourselves out of the way so you can speak to us and guide us to show love to others, to use the gifts you have given us, to help those in need and grow in our relationship with you. All this we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Tom Kitson 