Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

I love Bible study.  I enjoy the exchange of words and thoughts with students over stories and lessons in the Bible.  This was especially true 30 years ago when I served as a missionary in Latvia immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Every Wednesday evening a dozen or so men and women, Latvian and Russian speakers who had been taught that the Bible was a dangerous book, gathered around little round tables in the basement of the church, sipping tea from cracked and chipped cups, snacking on dried, hard cookies waiting their weekly introduction into the Word.

One evening, when the Bible study had ended, a quiet older woman, with a worn, tired face stopped me on the steps of the church.  “Pastor, what does the Lord require of me to be Christian?” I stared at her for a moment.  In our purest evangelical tradition, we boldly confess that “to be Christian” you need not do anything at all.  The American evangelist Philip Yancey writes, “There is nothing we can do to make God love us more.  And there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.” We must simply trust in God’s grace in Jesus Christ alone. But I knew that that wasn’t the word of counsel she needed.  All around her in that post-Communist world, she had seen men and women who had given lip service to the Christian faith and were baptized because it was the expedient and politically correct thing to do.  She had seen former members of the Communist party who once vehemently persecuted the Church now standing in the front rows of the church for all to see.  And so she raised the question, “What does the Lord require of me to be Christian?”  It is a poignant question for every man or woman who struggles to know Christ and to follow as a faithful disciple.

When I arrived here at Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church 13 years ago, I was given a pound of Viking Biker coffee beans and two of the churches monogrammed cups, that were imprinted with the words of the Old Testament Prophet Micah, Micah 6:8.that we read today;  “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?”  Since then, we have given monogrammed beer glasses and the rising sun and setting moon cup of the church spire. The old cup, however, was a good starting point for understanding discipleship, but what exactly does all this mean?  To do justice, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God? My friends, let us meditate on this biblical call to discipleship.

So what does it mean to do justice?  Let me assure you that to do justice is not a romantic ideal nor an abstract concept.  Doing justice is hard work.  Justice, you see, is to share the gifts of God’s creation fairly among all his children.  It is at the heart of Jesus’ own teaching, “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all you soul, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” To do justice is to care for your neighbor as you care for yourself.  But to do justice also demands that God’s people must work together.  There will be personal sacrifice, and at times a community, a church or a nation, will experience discomfort for the sake of others. To do justice begins by learning to see, and to feel the pain and oppression of those who are experiencing injustice.

Surprisingly, over the years, I have learned that even the smallest eyes know what is right to do- what it is to do justice. Charlie was one of those kids in Sunday School who teachers simply didn’t know how to manage. He was a free spirit.  When it came time for the Christmas pageant, the teachers decided to give Charlie a simple part just in case. Charlie would be the innkeeper and this would mean saying, “No room” three times. The night of the pageant two of the children dressed as Joseph and Mary came to the inn. “No room,” Charlie said.  The couple knocked on the door a second time. “NO ROOM!” Charlie repeated loudly.  Banging on the door even harder, desperately seeking space for themselves and their new baby, Joseph and Mary pleaded with the innkeeper, “Please, is there any room in the inn?”  And moved with compassion, Charlie forgot his line. “Oh,” he said, “why don’t you take my room tonight?” The pageant came to a complete halt.  Some parents were upset. But for many, Charlie’s words taught them something important.  Even a child can see the injustice in the world.  My friends, a Christian cannot avoid the pain of the world, but the Christ-like man or woman must work to ease injustice.

The word mercy, like justice, is another good biblical word.  Mercy simply means to be tenderhearted, generous, giving, and forgiving.  As we know it in Jesus Christ, mercy is love freely given, costly and undeserved. To show mercy, it to show gracious and open hearted love and charity to those around you- even to those who do not deserve it.  And we all need a good dose of mercy.  There was a woman who went to a photographer, and after her pictures were developed, she said to the photographer, “These pictures don’t do me justice.”  The photographer looked up at her and said, “Madam, you don’t need justice; you need mercy.”

Interestingly, the Prophet Micah doesn’t emphasize “showing mercy” as a discipline of faith. Instead, he says, that God requires that you “love mercy.”  Now that may seem odd to you, but the Prophet seems to be saying that only the heart that has known and experienced mercy can do justice freely.  Without the love of mercy, even our acts of charity are calculated. As James Thom once said, “Too often we seek justice, for just us.”  And the same can be said of mercy.  We love God’s mercy for just us, and we regret when it is poured out freely upon those who we look upon as undeserving. “To love mercy” begins with the act of remembering the grace that has been poured out upon you.  God’s infinite love upon the cross in Christ Jesus.

Finally, we are called to walk humbly with the Lord.  For me to walk humbly is to know that God alone provides ultimate peace.  It is to view the problems and messiness of the world, and still to live and feel the peace which only God can offer.  And we do live in a messy world.  In such troubled times, to walk humbly is to acknowledge your own limitations and accept them, but also to confess and trust that God’s power and strength is greater still, and so step by step, you walk out time again to do justice and show mercy. You walk out humbly trusting that God’s presence is with you and you let God’s light shine through you.

As God’s light in the world you have to be willing to be a public witness.  Your light has to shine for all to see.  There is no such thing as a joyfully warm, “secret Christian hiding under a bushel basket.”   Either the secrecy destroys the joyful warmth and excitement of the faith, or the warmth and excitement of the faith destroys the secret of the bushel basket. Your Christian faith should be visible for all to see, and more importantly, your faith should be visible for all to see beyond the walls of the Church.  After all, you have been called to be the Light of the World and not simply the Light of the Church. For those who extinguish their light as they leave the doors on a Sunday morning, they are often likened to those who make a public confession of repentance for what they did on Saturday evening but are planning on doing it again on Monday morning.  Jesus expects more from his disciples.

As a congregation our light is shining. This past week our intern pastor Miranda and I drove to the Philips Neighborhood to hand deliver the additional 2025 gifts to our ecumenical partner Community Emergency Services. The Philips neighborhood is an area of the city I know well. It has always been a neighborhood of immigrants and refugees dotted with old Norwegian, Swedish and German churches. It is where I first served in the Norwegian Lutheran Church and where Janna and I were married.  Back then, almost all the Lutheran clergy in that neighborhood were serving immigrant communities in a second language. A Puerto Rican Lutheran served the Spanish community, a Latvian refugee served the Latvian church, a Laotian pastor served the Asian community, even a Native American Lutheran pastor served in the church on the Little Earth Community, and I spoke Norwegian for the Norwegian immigrant church. As we were driving through the area, Miranda innocently asked how long ago I began my ministry in the Philip’s Neighborhood. I answered, “I started here in 1983.”  I could hear her silently do the math. “Oh,” she said, “I wasn’t even born then.”  Some comments are best unsaid.

In these chaotic times when many of our immigrant neighbors are afraid of leaving their own homes, volunteers at CES are delivering food to them. We drove away from there inspired that our congregation was contributing to that burning light. We then drove to Franklin Avenue where we passed the offices of Project Pride for Living, the group that distributes the winter clothing that we gather each year. We then drove another 4 blocks to Our Savior Housing on Chicago Avenue, a place for transitional housing where we provide a warm meal once a month. Yes, the light of Christ is shining in some the darkest and most forgotten neighbors, all because of your generosity. Since the beginning of the year, we have received an additional $2500.

In his book Quiet Talks on Service, the author S.D. Gordon  describes an imaginary conversation between the angel Gabriel and Jesus when the Lord ascended into heaven. The angel Gabriel met him and welcomed him home.  “Lord,” he said, “Who have you left behind to carry on your work?”  Jesus told him about the disciples, the little band of fishermen he had called to follow him. “But Lord,” Gabriel said, “what if they lose heart, or drop out? What if things get too rough for them, and they let you down?”  Jesus answered, “Well, then all I’ve done will come to nothing!” Gabriel was shocked, “But isn’t there something else to keep it going, to finish your work?” Jesus shook his head, “No, the Church is it. There’s nothing else.” Gabriel questioned, “But what if they fail?”  Jesus knew the answer. “They won’t fail, Gabriel.” They are the salt of the earth and the light of the world!  They will make a difference. That is my confident hope at this time as well.

My friends, is your Christian faith a burning light for all to see? If not, consider again the word of the prophet Micah.  Be God’s faithful disciple and “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your Lord.”  Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep yours hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.