with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has showed you, O man, 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."
the theme for general assembly is micah 6:8, but i think by not including verse seven, it leaves out an important focus of the scripture.
i have been pondering this text for awhile now and finally decided to hit those resources they taught us about in our good old intro biblical studies class. school does come in handy. as does the things academics write...
the call in micah 6:8 is what God wants for us, what God hopes for us. it represents an age-old shift--a shift not evident without verse 7--from doing to being, from cult to covenant. a cultic understanding of religion would be one in which the act of requires that certain things be done. in this text, it is the perspective that something must be sacrificed to make yourself right with God. the covenantal understanding is one in which we simply are in the faith the person that God calls us to be--because this way of being is the natural outcome of faith.
this was the shift micah was trying to make. this is the shift calvin tried to make. this is even the shift that rev. BRC is trying to make as he stands for moderator of the PCUSA.
will this always be a struggle?
it is also tempting to say that we made the shift without actually doing it. if we see no evidence of this new way of being--of acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly--it is easy to feel that we have not "achieved" the right faith. if it were something we could achieve, then we never made the shift.
i want to do, do, do. always have. what do i need to do to become a pastor? what do i need to do to be a good wife? what do i need to do to be a good person? what do i need to do?
so, good calvinist (?) that i am... shifting i will try. micah said so.
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