He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
In the previous posts entitled Waking Up and Loving Mercy, we looked at systemic racism and racial injustice through the filter of Micah 6:8. To act justly involves becoming informed in order to better understand the realities and causes of systemic racism. Then we can seek justice in our own actions and in society. To love mercy means to delight in having compassion and showing kindness toward others regardless of their race. Today’s post will dive into the last part of the verse on what it means to walk humbly before God.
In the days of Micah, the Old Testament prophet, injustice and oppression were rampant. Those who acted cruelly and unjustly toward others created and sustained this system of oppression with impunity. They felt they were above the law. As I study Micah 6:8, I wonder why “walk humbly with your God” is last and not first, for it would make sense to be right with God before one could act justly and kindly toward others. Yet, perhaps the verse is in this order for a reason.
The word humble is defined as modest, not proud or arrogant, and courteously respectful. Humility is thinking of ourselves rightly and truthfully, not as superior. In the previous post, we defined racism in part as thinking of our own race as superior. When we view humility through the lens of racism and injustice, we discover that it is impossible to be humble if we hold the racist belief of racial superiority.
Luke 18:9 states that there were “some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else.” To speak to His listeners’ lack of humility, Jesus tells this parable in Luke 18:10-14. A Pharisee goes to the temple to pray. Pharisees were zealous Jews that proudly upheld and enforced over 600 laws of do’s and don’ts. In reality, the Pharisees oppressed the poor and held groups of people like the Gentiles and women in contempt.(1) At the temple, standing further back is a tax collector, a member of a profession held in contempt by the Jewish people because they worked for the Roman government and were known for cheating and greediness. As the Pharisee prays, he commends himself to God based on his fasting and tithing and thanks God that he is not like everyone else, particularly the tax collector. Meanwhile, the tax collector, by standing far from the Pharisee, shows his respect and humility. In his shame and unworthiness, he can’t even look up toward heaven. He beats himself on the chest to show his contriteness as he confesses his sins through this simple prayer: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He knows he cannot be right with God on his own merit and that his righteousness only comes from being in a right relationship with God who alone pardons sins and shows mercy. The Pharisee, by contrast, is proud and arrogant as he trusts in his own righteousness. Note there is no real worship of God in the Pharisee’s prayer or any confession of sin. His prayer displays his contempt for others while it shows his blatant refusal to see himself as he is: a sinner in need of grace. Jesus states that the tax collector, not the Pharisee, is absolved from his sins and made right with God that day. Jesus says, “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
In contrasting the Pharisee with the tax collector, the connection between mercy and humility is clear: when we do not love mercy, we become judgmental and critical of others, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to. Perhaps this is why walking humbly follows acting justly and loving mercy in Micah 6:8. If we do not act justly and kindly toward others, it’s impossible to walk humbly with God. For it is in our deeds that we show our true heart.(2) And God is not fooled by our hypocritical thoughts and actions. Only when we act justly and love mercy can we walk humbly with our God.
Racism is more than explicitly feeling superior toward people of a different race. We can implicitly and subconsciously perpetrate racism without knowingly thinking we’re superior. But if we view this passage in Luke through the lens of racism, we see that when we believe we are superior, we act like the arrogant and judgmental Pharisee. Superiority (or supremacy) is incompatible with humility before God. We cannot walk humbly with God while walking self-righteously before humankind. When we condemn people of color to a life of poverty and oppression by wrongly thinking they are somehow inferior and thus deserve it, we are exuding self-righteousness. The justice, mercy, and humility from Micah 6:8 cannot be experienced if we are caught up in superiority and self-righteousness. We cannot act justly by blaming people of color for their unfortunate and often horrific circumstances when it is the systems of racism that perpetrate inhumanity on our fellow humans. And by our silence and complicity in those systems, it is we who are guilty.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, in his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail written to eight prominent white clergy, shared his disappointment and disdain for “the white moderate”, someone who is “more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom…Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” Dr. King expected to count the white church as his allies. Instead, some were “outright opponents, refusing to understand...all too many others have been more cautious than
courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.”
Saying we agree in principle but doing nothing to stop racial injustice allows systemic racism to continue. Standing up for what is right takes courage. But we, as individuals and as the Christian church, have the collective power to interrupt centuries of injustice. How we use our power is a choice. The question is not should we do it, but how will we do it? First of all, pray and ask God to show you how He wants you to become involved in the conversation of racial injustice. Continue to become informed. (Click here for resources.) Give to and reach out to organizations who are trying to make a difference. Ask how you can get involved. (Click here to learn more.) Write letters to your state legislators and representatives in Congress asking for changes in laws that massively incarcerate and discriminate against people of color.(3) Peacefully protest. Vote for candidates who view systemic racism as an issue that they are willing to address. Get to know a person of color. Stand up for what is right, just, and merciful.
Each of us has the power to make a difference. By acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God, we can be the change the world desperately needs today.
Lord, how Your heart must break from man’s inhumanity to man. Continue to open my eyes and heart to oppression, systemic racism, and racial injustice. Give me the boldness to continue this conversation and the courage to do all I can to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
(1) Traditionally, Pharisees recited a prayer daily thanking God they were not born a Gentile, an unlearned man, or a woman.
(2) In Luke 6:41-45, Jesus, using the analogy of taking the plank out of your own eye before taking the sawdust out of someone else’s eye, says we are not to judge. He goes on to discuss that the fruit of our actions reveals what’s in our hearts.
(3) Beginning with the “War on Drugs” in the 1980’s (when drug use was actually on the decline), federal funding under the Byrne program incentivizes local police to arrest high numbers of drug offenders without search warrants or probable cause and allows them to seize all kinds of property. Without adequate legal representation, many offenders plead guilty to avoid higher sentencing, even when they are innocent. Mandatory prison sentences for drug use, more stringent than other countries’ laws for murder and violent crime, often arbitrarily result in locking up a minor drug offender for life, rather than providing drug rehabilitation. Mass incarceration is used solely for the purpose of destroying the families and communities of people of color. It replaced Jim Crow laws, which had replaced the institution of slavery. For more information, read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
Want to subscribe to future posts? Click here.
Text and photograph copyright © 2020 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of entrance to a Burgundian winery, Corgoloin, France.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
In the previous posts entitled Waking Up and Loving Mercy, we looked at systemic racism and racial injustice through the filter of Micah 6:8. To act justly involves becoming informed in order to better understand the realities and causes of systemic racism. Then we can seek justice in our own actions and in society. To love mercy means to delight in having compassion and showing kindness toward others regardless of their race. Today’s post will dive into the last part of the verse on what it means to walk humbly before God.
In the days of Micah, the Old Testament prophet, injustice and oppression were rampant. Those who acted cruelly and unjustly toward others created and sustained this system of oppression with impunity. They felt they were above the law. As I study Micah 6:8, I wonder why “walk humbly with your God” is last and not first, for it would make sense to be right with God before one could act justly and kindly toward others. Yet, perhaps the verse is in this order for a reason.
The word humble is defined as modest, not proud or arrogant, and courteously respectful. Humility is thinking of ourselves rightly and truthfully, not as superior. In the previous post, we defined racism in part as thinking of our own race as superior. When we view humility through the lens of racism and injustice, we discover that it is impossible to be humble if we hold the racist belief of racial superiority.
Luke 18:9 states that there were “some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else.” To speak to His listeners’ lack of humility, Jesus tells this parable in Luke 18:10-14. A Pharisee goes to the temple to pray. Pharisees were zealous Jews that proudly upheld and enforced over 600 laws of do’s and don’ts. In reality, the Pharisees oppressed the poor and held groups of people like the Gentiles and women in contempt.(1) At the temple, standing further back is a tax collector, a member of a profession held in contempt by the Jewish people because they worked for the Roman government and were known for cheating and greediness. As the Pharisee prays, he commends himself to God based on his fasting and tithing and thanks God that he is not like everyone else, particularly the tax collector. Meanwhile, the tax collector, by standing far from the Pharisee, shows his respect and humility. In his shame and unworthiness, he can’t even look up toward heaven. He beats himself on the chest to show his contriteness as he confesses his sins through this simple prayer: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He knows he cannot be right with God on his own merit and that his righteousness only comes from being in a right relationship with God who alone pardons sins and shows mercy. The Pharisee, by contrast, is proud and arrogant as he trusts in his own righteousness. Note there is no real worship of God in the Pharisee’s prayer or any confession of sin. His prayer displays his contempt for others while it shows his blatant refusal to see himself as he is: a sinner in need of grace. Jesus states that the tax collector, not the Pharisee, is absolved from his sins and made right with God that day. Jesus says, “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
In contrasting the Pharisee with the tax collector, the connection between mercy and humility is clear: when we do not love mercy, we become judgmental and critical of others, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to. Perhaps this is why walking humbly follows acting justly and loving mercy in Micah 6:8. If we do not act justly and kindly toward others, it’s impossible to walk humbly with God. For it is in our deeds that we show our true heart.(2) And God is not fooled by our hypocritical thoughts and actions. Only when we act justly and love mercy can we walk humbly with our God.
Racism is more than explicitly feeling superior toward people of a different race. We can implicitly and subconsciously perpetrate racism without knowingly thinking we’re superior. But if we view this passage in Luke through the lens of racism, we see that when we believe we are superior, we act like the arrogant and judgmental Pharisee. Superiority (or supremacy) is incompatible with humility before God. We cannot walk humbly with God while walking self-righteously before humankind. When we condemn people of color to a life of poverty and oppression by wrongly thinking they are somehow inferior and thus deserve it, we are exuding self-righteousness. The justice, mercy, and humility from Micah 6:8 cannot be experienced if we are caught up in superiority and self-righteousness. We cannot act justly by blaming people of color for their unfortunate and often horrific circumstances when it is the systems of racism that perpetrate inhumanity on our fellow humans. And by our silence and complicity in those systems, it is we who are guilty.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, in his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail written to eight prominent white clergy, shared his disappointment and disdain for “the white moderate”, someone who is “more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom…Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” Dr. King expected to count the white church as his allies. Instead, some were “outright opponents, refusing to understand...all too many others have been more cautious than
courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.”
Saying we agree in principle but doing nothing to stop racial injustice allows systemic racism to continue. Standing up for what is right takes courage. But we, as individuals and as the Christian church, have the collective power to interrupt centuries of injustice. How we use our power is a choice. The question is not should we do it, but how will we do it? First of all, pray and ask God to show you how He wants you to become involved in the conversation of racial injustice. Continue to become informed. (Click here for resources.) Give to and reach out to organizations who are trying to make a difference. Ask how you can get involved. (Click here to learn more.) Write letters to your state legislators and representatives in Congress asking for changes in laws that massively incarcerate and discriminate against people of color.(3) Peacefully protest. Vote for candidates who view systemic racism as an issue that they are willing to address. Get to know a person of color. Stand up for what is right, just, and merciful.
Each of us has the power to make a difference. By acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God, we can be the change the world desperately needs today.
Lord, how Your heart must break from man’s inhumanity to man. Continue to open my eyes and heart to oppression, systemic racism, and racial injustice. Give me the boldness to continue this conversation and the courage to do all I can to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
(1) Traditionally, Pharisees recited a prayer daily thanking God they were not born a Gentile, an unlearned man, or a woman.
(2) In Luke 6:41-45, Jesus, using the analogy of taking the plank out of your own eye before taking the sawdust out of someone else’s eye, says we are not to judge. He goes on to discuss that the fruit of our actions reveals what’s in our hearts.
(3) Beginning with the “War on Drugs” in the 1980’s (when drug use was actually on the decline), federal funding under the Byrne program incentivizes local police to arrest high numbers of drug offenders without search warrants or probable cause and allows them to seize all kinds of property. Without adequate legal representation, many offenders plead guilty to avoid higher sentencing, even when they are innocent. Mandatory prison sentences for drug use, more stringent than other countries’ laws for murder and violent crime, often arbitrarily result in locking up a minor drug offender for life, rather than providing drug rehabilitation. Mass incarceration is used solely for the purpose of destroying the families and communities of people of color. It replaced Jim Crow laws, which had replaced the institution of slavery. For more information, read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
Want to subscribe to future posts? Click here.
Text and photograph copyright © 2020 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of entrance to a Burgundian winery, Corgoloin, France.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
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