By Ronald J. Allen
More often than not, Micah points a positive way forward. As we meet this morning, mothers are imprisoned. Usually they grew up in impoverished homes. Many suffered from racial prejudice and poor education. Before they were equipped emotionally or economically, they had babies. Now they are in jail but have no money to hire attorneys. And so there they sit -- two, three, four, five, even six months without a hearing and without even talking to a public defender. And all the while, their babies and children are outside the jail, getting passed around from one caretaker to another. Does anyone hear a cry for justice?
You're watching a television interview with someone who has AIDS. And that person says, "You know, ever since I was diagnosed, it was like I don't have any more friends. Everybody just disappeared. I might as well be the only person alive." Do you hear a plea for
hesed?
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Suppose that you are a minister. After worship, you're standing at the door as the people are filing out. And you're shaking hands and trying to remember all the bits and pieces of information they're telling you and smelling their perfume. And somebody comes along and gets you in a bear-like grip and says, "My goodness, Reverend! That was the best sermon I ever heard. The Lord Jesus Christ never made God seem any more real." And your buttons start to pop and you imagine yourself in the pulpit of the denomination's flagship church and preaching at the national convention and signing autographs of your latest book and praying on national TV at the inauguration of the President.
But then you think about the lavishness and steadfastness of divine love, and the relative feebleness of your own efforts. What can you do but write that compliment in the memory book of your heart, and walk humbly back to your office?
What does God want from me? What does God want from you? To remember who we are. And then to fill the offering trays with justice, loving kindness and humility.
1. Hans Walter Wolff,
Micah, translated by Gary Stousell (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1990), p. 180.
2. C. L. Mitton, "Grace,"
The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George A. Buttrick, et. al. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1964), vol. II, p. 467.