Throughout life we ask some deep questions that occupy space in our brain: Why am I here? What gives life meaning? Can ordinary life be holy? Why do the innocent suffer? Where is God when the world feels broken? When will our Vancouver Canucks get back to the team of old?
At various points in our lives, we ask deep questions. And after last week’s focus on call, these questions were raised yet again…What does God want from us? What does faith look like when lived out in the real world? Not just spoken in worship or imagined in prayer, but practiced in the ordinary, complicated, and (usually) messy ways of life. We might have left last Sunday, which focused on the theology of call, wondering ‘now what?’ We heard the story of Jesus calling the first disciples and we left wondering ‘how am I called?’ Some…perhaps got an answer. But, I suspect, most of us wondered, ‘how might call actually look?’ We have two texts where we see this dynamic at play. Micah asking that question and Jesus offering some answers. So, we get to work considering a listening faith…and a living faith.
Beginning with Micah, the prophet speaks into a moment of deep moral confusion. Religious life is busy: sacrifices are offered; the rituals continue. And yet something is wrong. The poor are being pushed aside, justice ignored, and faith has been reduced to performance. So, God calls the people into a ‘court-like’ setting. (Many other prophets take this approach as well imagining a cosmic courtroom with God as judge, Creation as witness, and humanity called to task) This is done not to crush them, but to remind them of the relationship they are forgetting; the relationship they are blessed to be part of.
“What have I done to you?” God asks. “How have I wearied you?” God laments. God recalls the stories of liberation: from Egyptian bondange, through the wilderness wanderings, towards freedom of the Promised Land. In other words, God is arguing: Remember who I am, and remember who you are because of my way of liberation. The people respond anxiously. “What should we bring?” they ask. “More offerings? Bigger sacrifices? Something costly to prove our devotion?” And Micah answers with one of the clearest sentences in all of Scripture: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” That is not a reduction of faith. It is a clarification of it. God is not interested in excess. God is interested in lives shaped by justice, mercy, and humility.
Centuries later, Jesus stands on a hillside, looking out over the Sea of Galilee. It’s a popular stop for religious tourists, and the place where this text really came alive for me when I heard it read there. In a similar way to Micah, Jesus looks out at a crowd of people: poor, tired, searching and he begins not with commands, but with blessing. “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek.”
These words are familiar enough that we can miss how disruptive they are. Jesus is not describing admirable traits. He is naming real human conditions. He is blessing people who do not feel blessed at all. And yet, these Beatitudes are not passive, not sentimental…they are calls…calls to action. Because they describe what life looks like when people align themselves with God’s way. When people live their call. Micah tells us what God requires. Jesus shows us what that it looks like in practice.
Jesus blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Micah instructs us: “To love kindness,”. Jesus blesses the merciful. Micah instructs us: “To walk humbly with your God,” Jesus blesses the poor in spirit and the meek. Important to note, Jesus is not replacing Micah. He is embodying Micah’s prophetic call.
The Beatitudes are often read as private virtues, but they are deeply public. Hungering for righteousness is not about personal piety. It is about longing for a world set right. Being a peacemaker is not about avoiding conflict. It is about actively working for healing that which is broken. Showing mercy means stepping into someone else’s suffering, even when it costs us something.
And then Jesus goes further. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” In other words, this way of living will not always be rewarded. It will sometimes be resisted; sometimes cause suffering. Justice unsettles those who benefit from injustice. Mercy challenges systems built on exclusion. Humility disrupts cultures obsessed with dominance. Micah knew this. That is why his words were so necessary in their time. Jesus knew it too. That is why he ends the Beatitudes by preparing his followers for resistance. Not to discourage them, but to ground them in hope that is found amidst opposition.
So, getting back to our opening question, what does it mean for us, today, to live out our call? If you left unsettled and wondering HOW you will live out your call, this is good. This is your faith stirring inside and wanting to come alive as action. It means faith must not remain abstract. It must become embodied. Faith must show up in how we treat another, how we speak about the other, how we use power, how we respond to suffering.
Doing justice means paying attention: attention to who is missing at the table, whose voice is unheard, who is burdened. Loving kindness means choosing compassion over convenience. Walking humbly with God means remembering that we are not the centre of the story…God is.
And none of this is about earning God’s favour. Both Micah and Jesus make this crystal clear. This way of life flows from grace, not towards it. God has already acted. God has already liberated. God has already loved. Our call is to respond….to respond in action. It is about listening for our call…it is about living that call.
How do you listen…how do you live? We connected with a young mom who is living her call to justice through sharing food. It began with a horrible house fire. In her time of need, she experienced the gracious care of the larger Fleetwood community. On the other side of things, she now reaches out to grocers and restaurants and reclaims food that she shares through a food pantry in her very own home! In a ‘loaves and fishes’ moment, she reached out to the church with an excess of food that she wanted to share with the hungry coming to our door. A story of listening…a story of living. That is quite the story, and one that few of us have the capacity for. But inspirational! Listening…living. Do any of you have telephones? We have people who make pastoral calls on behalf of the church, keeping the connections alive from their own homes. They form real relationships and that telephone is a tool of ministry where Jesus’ presence of hope is found. Listening…llving. Do any of you have hands and knees? Our prayer team pray with me the daily prayers of this faith community. Do you ever notice the growing list of the prayers? People from the larger community rely upon the prayer warriors of Northwood to hold the light of prayer over them. Listening…llving. There are so many ways in which we listen and live…exercising our call. Committees and Boards and projects and they all have the common thread of beginning in listening and finishing in faithful living. When you listen, how are you then called to live?
I think the Beatitudes, especially, invite us to imagine ourselves differently. Not to see ourselves as spectators of faith, but as participants in God’s transforming work. They ask us not only what we believe; they also ask us how we will then live. What would it look like, if our community took Micah and Jesus seriously? If justice shaped our decisions? If mercy guided our relationships? If humility grounded our service?
The kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, is not far away. It is near. It takes shape whenever you first listen in faith and then… go out and live in faith. So listen…to Micah’s ancient clarity. Listen…to Jesus’ hillside blessing. And hear them not as burdens, but as invitations to the depth and the wonder of life that is divine. Invitations to live in a way that reflects God’s heart; to be people who proclaim the kingdom is coming, is arriving, and it is already here.
Amen.