2026-02-02
Brooke Strong
Sermon Text...
Micah 6: 1-8
Rev. Judith Bagley-Bonner
In keeping with the lectionary serving up Micah 6 for today, culminating in the familiar and much loved verse 8, I’d like to look at how God’s people are to do justice. And this leads quickly to the question of politics at church. First, it is important to lay some groundwork. Because often we hear people say, “I don’t want to hear about politics at church. In fact, I come to church to get away from politics.” And believe me, I understand that desire.
The world, especially right now, is loud, divided, terrifying and exhausting, and many of us come here seeking rest, solace, and hope. But here’s the thing. When Micah says, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God” he is saying in no uncertain terms that the faith we practice was never meant to stay safely tucked inside our private lives. Scripture does not tell us how to vote, but it does insist that love of God is inseparable from love of neighbor, and love of neighbor inevitably touches on how power is used, how communities are ordered, and how the vulnerable are treated, in other words: politics. Scripture consistently portrays God’s people engaging rulers, laws, and systems of power. Here are some clear, accessible biblical examples, all of which involve direct political engagement rather than private morality alone.
1. Moses Confronting Pharaoh in Exodus The political reality here is that Pharaoh is not just a literary villain; he is the head of state, the embodiment of imperial power. And Moses repeatedly confronts Pharaoh with a demand that has enormous economic and political implications saying “Let my people go.” The conflict is about forced labor, state violence, ethnic oppression, and economic exploitation. The main point here is that the foundational story of Israel is not about personal spirituality but about liberation from an unjust political system.
2. The Hebrew Midwives’ Civil Disobedience in Exodus. In this story, the political reality is that Pharaoh has issued a state policy of genocide, and Shiphrah and Puah defy a direct royal order to kill Hebrew male infants. Their resistance is explicitly praised by God. Faithfulness to God is shown through resisting immoral public policy, that is, through political activism.
3. Isaiah, Amos and Micah: Prophets Addressing National Policy
These prophets are not addressing individuals so much as entire societies. Amos condemns exploitative economic systems, corrupt courts, and unjust trade practices. Isaiah denounces unjust laws and leaders who “grind the faces of the poor.” Micah critiques political and religious leaders alike, culminating in today’s key verse, Micah 6:8. The main point for all three of these prophets is that much of the prophetic tradition is explicitly political.
4. And finally we have Jesus and the Politics of the Kingdom of God. The Political reality is that Jesus lives under Roman occupation and calling God’s reign a “kingdom” is inherently political language. Jesus challenges economic exploitation in the Temple when he overturns the tables in all four gospels. Jesus is executed under a Roman political charge: “King of the Jews.” The key point here is that Jesus’ message threatens existing power structures, which is precisely why he is crucified.
And these are just a handful of examples of the Bible being political. I was able to find them like low hanging fruit. Scripture is full of so many more. (In fact, I had many more but had to cut them for brevity’s sake.) And your pastors are charged with preaching all of scripture as it comes up in the lectionary cycle, not just the verses that are personally comforting and inspiring, and even if it makes us all uncomfortable. Micah makes it clear: we are not just to love kindness and walk humbly, matters more obviously related to personal spirituality, but also to love justice, to love public righteousness, and be a part of creating the Kingdom of God where justice and righteousness hold sway for all of the people.
The historical church knew this. Our history is full of stories of public faithfulness, of the people of God resisting and advocating in public struggles like slavery, child labor, civil rights, suffragism and more recently full and extravagant welcome of LGBTQ people. But our local churches, with some notable exceptions, tend to get the balance wrong. We are good at kindness ministries: we have prayer chains and meal trains and pastoral visitation programs and the like. And I don’t mean to minimize any of these! The more the better in terms of providing kindness and comfort to our members. All I’m saying is that these ministries are not all we are called to enact. We are also called to do justice and to call out unjust systems and structures. This, by the way, is why you should attend today’s SJAM open house and learn what they’re about. Their presence as one of the ministries of this church says that we come closer to getting the balance correct in responding to all three of Micah’s commands, not just the latter two, and it makes me, for one, very proud to be a part of this church.
And the reality is that if your pastors are faithful, sometimes, doing justice is going to mean calling out specific policies. So here we go:
Right now, I believe this means speaking out against the federal government’s reckless and cruel occupation of Minnesota by ICE agents, starting with the fact that there are at least twelve states with many more immigrants than Minnesota, but they appear to be on the back burner. Have you asked yourself why? Some would say Minnesota and now, Maine, have been singled out because they are blatantly blue. Is this pure vindictive punishment for that apparently unforgiveable sin? I believe so and I believe that not to call it out would be Biblical malpractice. We have all heard of the horrific excesses of ICE. A five year old being taken. Citizens being dragged out of cars and taken. Peaceful resisters having their license plate numbers recorded. Renee Good and Alex Pretti getting murdered. Pretti when he was already pinned down by five ICE agents, and who was “brandishing” not a gun but a cell phone. (He had a gun, but it was safely tucked away as was his second amendment right.)
Brian and I lived in Minnesota for sixteen years and still have dear friends there. One of those friends, Sarah, emailed me about holding a block meeting in their urban neighborhood to support the resisters. And the oldest person in attendance, a ninety plus year old holocaust survivor said, “I never thought I would have to live through times like these again.
Let me be clear: I don’t approve of violence on the part of the people in political protesting, that’s where loving kindness and walking humbly come in. God, it would seem, is not only concerned that we do justice, but with how we do it. Our hearts and our methods must remain pure and grounded in the love of God. But a key part of our call as followers of Jesus is to follow him into redeeming public life as well as private life. It is a foundational Biblical mandate.
It’s scary, I know. But we are being called to stand in the breach like the good and faithful people of Minnesota who are delivering food to brown and black people who dare not leave their homes; who are blowing their whistles to alert others to the presence of ICE in brown and black neighborhoods and who are placing themselves in the gap between safety and violence as did Alex Pretti and Renee Good. To find some tangible ways to act, I would suggest the app “five calls” which lists the issues of the day and provides links and scripts for calling your congress people and senators. And again, I would invite you to attend the SJAM Open House today.
And you know, there is good news, which is that we are not left to do it alone or by our own strength. We have each other, and we also have a God who loves and empowers us for this work. So perhaps the final word today is this: when Micah asks, “What does the Lord require of you?” the answer is not a burden meant to crush us, but a path meant to free us all. To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God is not a demand that we save the world on our own. It is an invitation to show up faithfully, together, trusting that God is already at work ahead of us. Indeed, God goes with us every step of the way. Amen