The Outsiders | What We Assume

With what should I approach the Lord and bow down before God on high? Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings, with year-old calves? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with many torrents of oil? Should I give my oldest child for my crime; the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?

He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God. 

Micah 6:6-8 (Common English Bible)

"Am I doing what God wants me to do?" It's a question most of us have asked at some point, even if we've never said it out loud. We wonder if we're praying enough, reading the Bible enough, serving enough. We wonder if we're being good parents, good employees, good neighbors. We wonder if we're living up to what God expects from us.

But before we can figure out if we're doing what God wants us to do, we have to know what God wants us to do. And that's where things get complicated. Because even though we may not say it explicitly, we have some pretty strong ideas about what God requires from us.

Most of us think God requires us to go to church regularly. We think God wants us to read our Bibles and pray daily. We think God expects us to give financially to the church. We think being a good Christian is primarily about religious practices.

And we think this because these are the things the church seems to talk about most. We hear sermons about the importance of prayer. We participate in programs designed to teach us how to study the Bible. We sit through business meetings where people discuss how important our financial giving is. We get invited to special events aimed at bringing our friends to church.

So we naturally assume that these religious activities must be what God requires from us. We assume that if we're going to church, reading our Bibles, praying, and giving, we're doing what God wants. But what if we're wrong?

What if we've been asking the wrong question? What if the question isn't "Am I doing enough religious activities?" What if the question is "Am I doing what God actually requires?"

Because here's what Micah tells us: the people of Israel thought they knew what God required. They were offering sacrifices. They were performing religious rituals. They were doing all the things they thought good religious people should do. They were bringing their best offerings to God.

But God wasn't impressed. Through the prophet Micah, God makes it clear that religious performance isn't what he's looking for. What God requires is something completely different: to do justice, to embrace faithful love, and to walk humbly with God.

Not more sacrifices. Not more religious activities. Justice, mercy, and humility.

And this should make us stop and ask ourselves some hard questions. Have we been so focused on religious performance that we've missed what God actually requires? Have we been measuring our faithfulness by church attendance and prayer habits when God is measuring it by how we treat people…especially people who've been pushed to the margins?

Because if God requires justice, mercy, and humility more than religious performance, then we might be asking the wrong question entirely. The question isn't "Am I doing enough religious activities?" The question is "Am I doing justice? Am I showing mercy? Am I walking humbly with God?"

This week, we're going to explore what it really means to do what God requires. We're going to examine why religious performance is easier than justice work. We're going to confront the ways we've substituted activities for action. And we're going to be challenged to actually do what God requires instead of just performing what we think looks spiritual.

Because Micah made it clear 2,700 years ago what God requires. The question is whether we're willing to actually do it.

Prayer:

God, we're good at religious performance. We're good at showing up, at going through the motions, at doing the things we think you want. But help us hear what you actually require from us. Help us understand that you care more about how we treat people than how many church services we attend. Help us see that justice, mercy, and humility matter more to you than our religious activities. And give us courage to actually do what you require instead of settling for what's easier. Amen.