What is Required?
A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
January 29, 2023
The Rev. Robin Teasley
Hear what the Lord says:
Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
“O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery;
and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,
what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”
“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
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 6:1-8
~ ~ ~
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:1-12
Requirements. They are everywhere. What is required to become a member of the club? How much reading is required for that college course? What kind of down payment is required to purchase that car or that house? Are we required to wear masks and be vaccinated? More lately, what are the requirements to serve on vestry? What is required to be confirmed?
We want to know about requirements in our spiritual lives as well. How long must we pray each day, how much scripture do we need to read, how many Sundays a month is considered regular attendance in church, or maybe, what is the least amount I can pledge? Am I required to love that neighbor? Must I give away everything to follow Jesus? What is the cost of a ticket to heaven, and what is the baggage limit? I suspect we want to know what is required so that we can do some accounting, to be sure we have enough, even at the expense of those who do not.
Human beings, in our natural instinct for survival, are prone to these kinds of questions, to this sort of behavior. We also assume, more often than not, that life is a zero-sum game. If I have less, then someone else has more and in order for me to have enough, others must necessarily have less. Here’s what Hebrew scholar and theologian Walter Brueggemann says about this.
“Mostly the world believes that all the assets are frozen, and things will stay the way they are. You know: If you’re dead, you’re dead, and will stay so. And if you are alive, you had better scramble and get it all, because that’s all there is and all there is going to be. If you are homeless, you will be that way forever. If you are number one, you had better have lots and lots of power, because that’s the way to keep it the way it is. Everything is arranged and settled and fixed and closed; you cannot cross any of these lines, and we work hard to keep the boundaries secure.”
(Brueggeman, The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann, p 54)
Because we live in the world, we are easily swayed by these worldly assumptions. Things were no different in the eighth century before the birth of Christ. God, through the prophets, again and again called us to return, to repent from worldly ways. The prophet Micah lived in a time of Assyrian oppression and major socio-economic change in Judah, including an increasing gap between rich and poor. He was especially concerned with injustice, and in particular, with corruption among the religious and political powers of the day. Doesn’t that sound familiar?
Things were much the same for Galilean peasants in the first century who heard Jesus begin his Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, which we hear in today’s Gospel. Jesus was very familiar with the prophet Micah. Jesus says that life is not a zero-sum game. In fact, Jesus turns everyone’s assumptions upside down, promising that God will reward those who have been dead or homeless or powerless. Jesus says that those who appear to be losers of the zero-sum game are blessed, that they will receive all the things everyone is striving for in this world, that the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
Both in the ancient world and in our own, religion is often concerned with divine blessing: how to get it, how to keep it, what to do in order to inherit it, who is entitled to it and who isn’t. So of course, those listening to Jesus were listening for these things, these requirements. And sure enough, right out of the gate, Jesus begins his first major sermon with a teaching on blessing. But what he says is not what they expected to hear. Jesus says that even when the world does not see you as blessed, you are indeed blessed. You don’t have to send your money to the television evangelist, or attend church a minimum number of Sundays in a year, or belong to any particular social class, or have a perfect life. The blessings are for everyone.
Micah says something similar as he tells God’s people that even though they have gotten on God’s last nerve, they do not have to follow all the prescribed religious rituals. In fact, God wants them to stop all that. All that is required of them is that they do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with their God. We love this verse, it is beautiful, and it sounds so doable, just three things!
However, fulfilling these three requirements is not what brings on the blessings, but rather we desire to do these things as a grateful response to the blessings we have been given. Notice the verbs – do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God. What does it look like to walk humbly through life doing justice and loving kindness? That is what is required of us, and it turns everything in the kingdom upside down for those of us who follow Jesus.
We are called to do good versus being good. We are not to be backseat driving but actually driving, not living vicariously but really living, not having good intentions but carrying out works with good intention. We cannot confess with our lips on Sunday morning and hold grudges at work on Monday. Micah is succinct on God’s behalf. Jesus lives out these requirements as an example for us and invites us to follow him.
Next week, Bishop Stevenson will be with us and that is a blessing. Charlotte and Daniel are blessings to us in their desire to be confirmed. As they commit themselves to Christ, we will all renew our own baptismal covenant. In that covenant we will hear again what God requires of us. We are blessed by our faith in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and have been drenched with God’s grace, mercy, kindness, and love. And as a result of these blessings, we respond with promises to share all of that.
We promise to continue in the apostle’s teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers. We promise to persevere in resisting evil and to repent whenever we fall into sin. We promise to proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ, to seek and serve Christ in all persons, and to love our neighbor. We promise to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being. There are a lot of strong verbs in those promises!
Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God. Those are the requirements, and if we will do our best with these three, then we will become the blessings. The assets will thaw, things will not remain the same, the homeless will have mansions, the last shall be first, the dead will be raised, and God’s kingdom will be among us.
Title Image: Sermon on the Mount, Jorge Cocco
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