God s Grace: Justice, Kindness and Humble Walking Matthew 5: 1 12; Micah 6: 1 8 The world is in desperate need of God s grace today. And I m not talking about an anything goes version of grace. I m talking about that costly grace that Dietrich Bonheoffer Wrote about in his book The Cost of Discipleship and Lived out in his life in World War II Nazi Germany. Bonheoffer ultimately gave his life for this grace. Bonheoffer wrote: Cheap grace is a forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian concept of God but costly grace is the Gospel which must be sought out again and again such grace is costly because it calls us to follow and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it cost a man his life and it is grace because it gives a person the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son and what has cost God much cannot be cheap to us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God. In other words, Bonheoffer is challenging us not to separate The Grace of God from the life and sacrifice and teaching of Christ. Bonheoffer is reminding us that the grace of God revealed in Christ Is not just a concept but a way of life that changes the world. Jesus was changing the world when he preached the beatitudes.
No one would have thought that the poor, those who are mourning, Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness were blessed But in the words of Jesus Christ and they are blessed. In the words of Jesus Christ, we are blessed in those most difficult times When we are trying to be peacemaker in a violent world, When we are being merciful in a vengeful world, And when we are persecuted because we stand for The righteousness of God and not the fairness of man. The beatitudes are Jesus turning the world upside down with the grace of God. And I think that we are at a time when we need to hear those words Of grace afresh and anew as the world seems to be divided, And self righteous and judgmental and on edge. And it is a time to realize that God s grace in not just a concept But it is the act of God s love being lived out in the world. And so we turn to the prophet Micah to discover how we can live that grace. Often we think that grace just arrived with Jesus Christ because he is The embodiment, the incarnation of the grace of God. Sometimes we are tempted to define God of the Old Testament as the God of judgement and wrath and the God of the New Testament as the God of love and mercy.
Christian author Phillip Yancey communicates that in his book, What s so Amazing about Grace. He says: I grew up with the image of a mathematical God who weighed my good and bad deeds on a set of scales and always found me wanting. Somehow I missed the God of the Gospels, a God of mercy and generosity who keeps finding ways to shatter the relentless laws of ungrace. God tears up the mathematical tables and introduces the new math of grace, the most surprising, twisting unexpected ending word in the English language. Grace makes its appearance in so many forms that I have trouble defining it. I am ready to attempt something like a definition of grace in relation to God. Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us any more no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciation no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes. And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less no amount of racism or pride or immorality Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love. Yancey is pretty bold in his definition of grace. He makes the point that the grace of God is stronger than anything the world can throw at God. And yet grace is not a new way of being in God and We are not free from the demands of grace. Micah 6:8 is testimony to that fact. Micah was a prophet in the late eighth century BCE and yet the issues He was struggling with could have come from the front pages today.
They were also struggling with issues of war, immigration, poverty, Power plays between nations, corruption in government. And on top of that, Micah makes the case before the mountains and hills That even though God has been faithful to Israel that Israel Has not been faithful to God Israel has forgotten God. So when Israel asks what can we do can we throw money or sacrifices To restore the relationship? God responds: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. This Old Testament prophet presents a pretty compelling description Of the grace of God lived out in the world: justice, kindness and humility. But it is not a static definition of grace but rather an active and dynamic Description of a grace filled life: do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. In other words, the grace of God is not something we sit back and receive. Rather we lean into the grace of God, we embrace and share God s grace, We incorporate it into our everyday life, we walk the walk. And it is not our walk but our walk with and in Christ. And it is a walk where God s justice and mercy are linked together in grace. Reformed theologian Karl Barth said that it is the dialectic of God that
We never see God s judgment without God s mercy, We never experience God s forgiveness without God s righteousness. In that way it is never the cheap grace that Bonheoffer warns against. But rather it is the grace of God that is lived out in Christ And that can be lived out in us as we walk in and with Christ. That s why Micah says DO justice, LOVE kindness, WALK humbly with God. And by justice he is not meaning human fairness or tit for tat living, Rather he means Beatitude justice described by Jesus in Matt 5 in which people have enough food to eat, time to mourn, And shalom peace wholeness and health Are the goals for everyone, not just a few. And kindness is not just on again off again niceness but rather The steadfast love that is meant in the Hebrew word Hesed It is the closest word in Hebrew to Grace, unmerited love. God has given it to us in Christ and desires for us To offer this Hesed, kindness to others. I would sure love to see more kindness in the news, On facebook, in politics and in American life. It does not give an inch on justice or righteousness But it is undergirded by love and respect.
And finally Micah 6:8 challenges us to walk the walk. Sadly we cannot do this on our own, I ve tried, you ve tried. When we try to make it on our own we trip up, We succumb to temptation, we lash out at others, But Micah does not expect us to make this journey alone And walk humbly with your God. This Old Testament prophet was preaching Incarnational theology Before we had experienced the incarnation of Christ first hand. Before Jesus said to his disciples: Lo I am with you to the close of the age Micah was Preaching an incarnational, God with us, theology. So what does the Lord require of us in this changing and challenging time Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God. Three simple words but as we enter into this way of life We are engaged in nothing less than the grace of God Revealed in Jesus Christ. Amen