What Is Required of You?

Yesterday was both Bethlehem's annual meeting, and the reception of new members.  9 new members to be exact!  So when I looked at the text for the day, I knew I was called to preach on Micah 6:1-8, specifically verse 8 "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?"  


But yet the Gospel reading was Matthew 5:1-12, the beatitudes, which are so loved by many.  I couldn't completely skip them.  But the danger of the beatitudes is an idea that if we make ourselves ____ then God will bless us.  Well any good Lutheran preacher will tell you that "if, then" statements do not belong in a sermon.  (I also thought Blessed are They was the hymn of the day so I knew I had to tie it in somehow....turns out that song as the canticle and We Are Called was the hymn of the day which fit my sermon much more)  So I added the beatitudes towards the end as a comparison to Micah.  


Enjoy!






Today is a great day for Bethlehem. It is our annual meeting, a day when we celebrate all that the congregation has accomplished over the last year and look forward to what we hope to accomplish in 2011. And we welcome 9 new members into congregation, Paul, Barbara, Farouk, Anna Dylan, Suzie, Tim, Dan and Ryan.

But what does it mean to be members of a congregation? What do you think the requirements are?

The official requirements are to commune and give a contribution of record at least once a year. That’s it. Bethlehem does not require you to worship every week or even once a month. You are not required to give a certain percentage of your income or to serve on at least one committee. You just need to show up often enough so that we know that you still exist. The church does not require much of you.

And what does God require of you? What do you think God wants you to do in order to deserve salvation?

In our first reading today, Micah tells the Israelites what God required of the Israelites, which is the same thing God requires of us today. The Lord requires that we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God. Isn’t that such grace to hear? Isn’t that much less than the list we might conjure up in our mind of what we are suppose to do? Isn’t that even less than the 10 Commandments? Thou shall and thou shall not. God does not require much of you.

But what does it mean to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God?

In a few minutes our new members will profess their faith in the presence of the assembly. They will be asked
“Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy baptism:
to live among God’s faithful people,
to hear the word of God and share the Lord’s supper,
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,
and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?”
These are similar words to what a person or their parents are asked when they are baptized. And are not all these things ways that we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God?

When we live among God’s faithful people, when we show up at worship are you not both loving kindness and walking humbly with God?

When you hear the Word of God, when you read or listen to the scripture are you not at times doing justice, loving kindness, humbled and walking with God?

When you share in the Lord’s Supper are you not humbled?

When you proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and caring for the sick are you not doing justice? Are you not loving kindness? Have you ever gone to serve another and realized how much they have served you? Is that not humbling?

When we strive for justice and peace throughout the earth by caring for those in need we are doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God.

And when we do these things, we become part of the community. Part of the community of saints both in the greater church around the world and in the community of saints that are this congregation. And when you are part of a community you want to do more with the community and often make the community larger, to invite more people in so they can experience what you have experienced.

When you start to do justice, to love kindness and walk humbly with our God, it become contagious. You want to do more, you want to find new ways to serve and worship the Lord. Often when people go on mission trips they come back home and not only do they want to go on a mission trip again, but they invite friends, they plan even more ways they can serve.

When you come to worship and you enjoy it, when you feel filled by the experience, you want to come back and have that experience again, you want to grow in faith, in love of God. And so you become someone who worships more than once a year.

God does not require much of us. We put many more expectations on ourselves than God puts upon us. Because God is a God of grace, a God of love. We often think of a spiteful God of vengeance, “sinners in the hand of an angry God,” of a God who is waiting to smite us for doing the wrong things. And I think that puts people off of church, of becoming part of a worshiping community, all the requirements. The idea that as a Christian you can’t drink, smoke, swear, that because you are a Christian you can’t have fun. But those are human stipulations.

God’s requirements, God’s stipulations are simple. So simple that we follow them whenever we worship, pray, read scripture, sing a hymn or care for others. The Lord requires that we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God. And even when we are not able to do those things, God still loves us, God still cares for us. God is still acting justly towards us, loving us and walking beside us.

And this is why we are blessed, not because we are poor, or mourn, or are meek, or hunger and thirst or are merciful, or are pure in hear, or are peacemakers or are persecuted and reviled. We are blessed because God requires so little of us. We are blessed because God loves us. We are blessed because even when we walk away, God is still walking besides us.

Even when we do not do all that we think we should, God is still with us blessing us. We do not need to make ourselves poor, or mourn, or meek, or hungry and thirsty or merciful or pure in heart or peacemakers or persecuted and reviled in ordered to receive God’s blessing. We have already received that blessing for being who we are. And in receiving God’s blessing we already do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.