There are some questions that seem simple and straight forward… until we actually really take the time to sit with them and think about them. “What does God require of us?” A simple question, right? It should have a simple answer. Or at least one could hope that there would be a simple answer. Maybe the prophet Micah follows up this question with a nice list of instructions we can check off as we do them. We all love a good dopamine hit. Maybe God wants bigger offerings, more impressive worship, more proof that we are indeed as faithful as we say we are.
The people of Micah’s time, the ones that he is talking to, want to know what they need to bring before God to really make God happy with them. They want to know if a thousand rams would do it, or if they give to God all that they own… Micah comes back to them with a startling answer: and what does God require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” This isn’t a performative request. This is a change to a way of living – a shift to a way of life that encompasses justice, kindness, humility. Three beautiful words that are incredibly hard to live into once we start trying… especially when we start thinking about reconciliation.
Today we mark Indigenous Day of Prayer – this isn’t a day to pray FOR our indigenous siblings but rather to pray celebrating the values, customs, language and culture of our First Nations, Inuit, and Metis siblings, while engaging in shared healing and reconciliation. For as we know in our hearts and minds, the relationship we hold with our indigenous neighbours is both beautiful and broken. It is a relationship that has the deep wounds of colonization, residential schools, the sixties scoop, the loss of language and culture, the suppression of Indigenous Spirituality. We know the role that the church, our church has played in this brokenness. And we know that reconciliation requires our church, requires us, to listen, to learn and to intentionally do the work of rebuilding relationships.
Reconciliation is not a single moment. In fact it isn’t a bunch of single moments. It is a way of life, a way of walking in this world. Which brings us back to the prophet Micah who tells us that we are to walk humbly with God. There’s no running here, no assuming that we know the way, no rushing forward to get there first. No, we are to walk. Walking means we are still moving, but it also means we are paying attention, and it means that by walking we are not alone – there are others on the same path that we meet up with when we move a little slower.
I would hazard a guess that most of us knew exactly what Micah was going to say when the question of “what does the Lord require of you” was asked. They are words that are etched in the memories of many of you. They aren’t simply things to be accomplished and moved on from, rather they are a description of the kind of people God is calling us to become. It is a way of life, just as the wisdom found in the Seven Sacred Teachings is a way of life. The Seven Sacred Teachings, the Grandfather Teachings, carried and honoured by many Indigenous communities, remind us of the values needed to live in right relationship – with one another, with all of creation and with Creator. These are not simply beliefs – the seven sacred teachings are to be practiced – to be a way of living in the world.
The teaching of Love reminds us that justice begins with relationship. We cannot seek justice for others if we do not first recognize the sacred worth of one another. The teaching of Respect reminds us that reconciliation begins with listening. Listening in order to honour the stories, experiences, languages, culture, and wisdom carried for generations. The teaching of Courage reminds us that reconciliation requires more than good intentions. It asks us to face difficult truths, to acknowledge the ways we have benefitted from systems that have caused generational harms. The teaching of Honesty reminds us that healing requires truth telling. This isn’t to trap us into shame and guilt, but rather to open us to the fact that relationships cannot be restored without honesty. The Teaching of Wisdom reminds us that we do not have all the answers. Sometimes wisdom begins with our recognition that we have much to learn. And the teaching of Humility, well, it brings us right back to Micah. Humility means knowing that reconciliation is something that we accomplish and then cross off our to-do list. It is something that we continue to live. Reconciliation is a way of walking. Finally, the teaching of Truth reminds us that healing cannot happen without naming what has been lost, who has been hurt, and what still needs to change.
“Sing to the Lord a new song” the writer of Psalm 96 proclaims. A whole new song. Not athe same old song we’ve been singing but louder. Not pretending those old songs were always perfect. Just a new song.
But in order to sing this new song, we need to stop and listen. We cannot sing a new song without first listening to the voices who haven’t been asked to sing before. This new song needs to reflect the stories that have been pushed aside. Our new song needs to include the teachings we have learned from our Indigenous siblings.
Psalm 96 also tells us that our new song should speak of God’s salvation. That word, salvation, doesn’t always sit very comfortably with us. Salvation is a judgement given after death – you know God sitting at the pearly gates with a big ol’ book of who’s going to heaven or hell. But it’s not. The Biblical understanding of salvation is that it is a restoration – of right relationship – which sounds a lot like reconciliation. This isn’t about forgetting, or moving on or pretending that something didn’t happen. It’s about the difficult and holy work of repairing relationships.
I think most of us understand that reconciliation is not something that we complete but rather is a practice – just like justice, just like kindness, just like walking with God. There is always another opportunity to listen, to learn, to hear truth, to act in love.
So what does God require of us?
Justice, kindness, humility and the greatest of these is humility. In our humility we recognize that God has been with us since the very beginning, in the swirling void of darkness before creation. The Creator was present long before the settlers came to this part of the world. The sacredness of this land has been known for generations upon generations – the sacredness of the rivers, the trees, the animals, the seasons, the relationships between all living things. Indigenous teachings going back thousands of years knew that we are not separate from creation long before our scriptures told us that we belong to it.
We are not separate from creation; we are not separate from each other – we belong to it and to each other.
So maybe today as we give thanks for the teachings and stories and experiences of our Indigenous peoples, maybe we can pray something other than “God, help us fix this”. Maybe our prayer could be “God, help us to be the people you call us to be.” Help us to be the people who do justice, who love kindness, who walk humbly with you and each other. Help us to be the people who listen before speaking, who love without limits, who respect the diversity of life that surrounds us, that have courage to do the next right thing, who value honesty as a central facet of relationships, who have the wisdom to know we haven’t figured everything out yet, and who seek to speak with truth in the world.
Maybe we could pray that God would help us to sing a new song – one that we have written together shaped by the teachings given to us, shaped by the wisdom passed down from generation to generation. Maybe we could pray that it is a song where every voice matters, where creation herself joins in. I pray that it is a song that we continue to discover as we walk together, listening and learning. May our lives reflect all that God is asking of us, is calling us to offer: justice, kindness, humility, love, respect, truth.
Amen.
