February 1 - “Redeemed and Required”
Redeemed and Required
Micah 6:1-8
Matthew 5:1-12
Rev. Mary W. Nelson
First Cong’l Church of Williamstown, UCC
February 1, 2026
Will you pray with me, please…
The prophet Micah was doing his prophet thing at the same time as the prophet Isaiah. They were both in the same place—the Southern Kingdom of Judah, which included the city of Jerusalem. They wrote about the same events at the same time: the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE, and Assyria’s eventual siege of Jerusalem, which took place in the year 701 BCE.
But there are some key differences between the two prophets: Isaiah is an insider, he works in the royal court of Judah, some scholars even think he’s from an aristocratic background. He’s certainly got access to the world of the elites: He’s a counselor to the King—several kings, in fact, over the course of 40 years. He’s a cultured, cosmopolitan, city guy. He loves Jerusalem. Isaiah also believes that God loves Jerusalem, and he insists that although it’s likely that Jerusalem will be destroyed in the course of invasions from Assyria, there still hope because God loves Jerusalem and will rebuild it bigger and better every time.
Micah, on the other hand, is an outsider. He’s a poor guy from a small, rural community perhaps about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. He, too, is writing to the elites, the various kings and leaders of Judah over the years, but not because he works for them. He is not offering counsel, he’s offering critique. And he could give or take Jerusalem. Micah, too, foretells the destruction of Jerusalem. Micah, too, prophesies hope for Jerusalem’s eventual rebuilding. At best, though, Micah doesn’t really care about Jerusalem one way or another. He’s not attached to it. He prophesies its destruction in war and expresses hope for its rebuilding—not because Jerusalem is especially beloved by God, but because God is in covenant with God’s people. God made a promise to the people, and God will honor that promise. Micah has hope not because Jerusalem is great, but because God is great. Even when people aren’t.
That these two prophets speaking to the same kings about the same events in the same time frame should then have two very different perspectives and approaches from one another shouldn’t be that surprising—after all, they’re two different people. They come from different places, and they know their audiences differently. They will see and hear and prioritize different aspects of the same events, because they have had different experiences shaping their lives, and they have different relationships with the king to whom they are speaking. Isaiah is close to King Hezekiah of Judah, but Micah’s prophecy is the one that actually impacts Hezekiah’s decision-making.
Prophetic speech in the days of the “prophets of old” wasn’t about forecasting a future, it was about explaining the events of the present as they unfold. It was about speaking truth to power. Isaiah, speaking to King Hezekiah about the likely invasion of Jerusalem, says essentially, “Yeah, Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, and then God will restore it again.” But Micah says to Hezekiah, “Jerusalem is going to be destroyed unless you do something—you have to change your ways.” Hezekiah makes a deal with Sennacherib, the invading Assyrian king. And that deal saves Jerusalem from destruction for another hundred-plus years.
We can make comparisons, too, between Matthew’s gospel and Luke’s gospel. They were both writing around the same time, using much of the same material, talking about the same person and events. But they were different people, writing for different audiences. And the ways they tell the story of Jesus are deeply impacted by who they are and who their audience is. Matthew is writing for a community of Jewish Christians, probably in Antioch in Syria, who are a homogenous minoritized group trying to find their place in a shifting cultural landscape. They are economically stable, but unsure of their identity as Jews who are in the process of probably splitting off from Judaism. Luke, meanwhile, is writing for a newly-forming, constantly-shifting, diverse group of Jews and Gentiles in or near Jerusalem itself. They are economically and socially unstable, but they are galvanized by a purpose and vision, so their commitment to one another and to the nascent Early Church is fervent.
Both Matthew and Luke tell of Jesus preaching/teaching to his disciples and a larger gathered crowd, beginning with this list of blessings we call “The Beatitudes.” Blessed are these people, because of this reason. And blessed are those people, because of that reason. The lists are different. There are a few places where they overlap, but they’re different. Matthew adds extra blessings that Luke doesn’t include; Matthew omits a balancing list of “curses” that Luke lifts up: Blessed are you if this, but cursed are you if that. Matthew’s list is more ethical, ephemeral; Luke’s list is concrete, personal. So where Matthew says “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Luke simply says “Blessed are the poor.” Where Matthew says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” Luke simply says “Blessed are the hungry.” Matthew’s congregation isn’t poor, they aren’t hungry. So they don’t need to hear the same blessings that Luke’s congregation does.
All of these prophets, these evangelists, were writing from their particular perspectives, for their intended audiences, and they weren’t writing for us. We are not who they imagined would be on the receiving ends of their words, their visions. Two thousand years later, 2750 years later, through countless generations of oral tradition and transcription and editing and translation and illiteracy and church politics and world politics, here we are, hearing these scriptures and taking them to heart. Micah 6:8 is part of our church’s statement of purpose. Matthew’s Beatitudes offer a vision of a spiritual life that resonates for so many in our aspirations and convictions today: Blessed are the merciful; blessed are the pure in heart; blessed are the peacemakers.
All of them also have something to say about who God is, and what that means for who God calls us to be. And they don’t all say the same things. And that’s okay. Because as any writer or speaker or teacher or parent will tell you: your listeners aren’t necessarily going to hear the words you say, they’re going to hear what they need to hear. The more the words of Micah or of Matthew grow distant from the specific community and situation they address, the more they become the words of the tradition, the words of the faith, the words of the community. What can WE learn from them? What HAVE WE learned from them over the years? But I want to give a word of caution here, too: the more the words of Micah or of Matthew become the words of the tradition, the faith, the community—the less they are specific to us, to me and my community. The question is not what do I need to hear, what do I need to learn, but what do we need to hear, what do we ALL need to learn, what does the WORLD need?
And we, our church, are not the only ones who can answer that question. We are not the ultimate authority on who God is, or who God calls us to be. For that, we have to listen, we have to discern, together. And the words of scripture can help us to do that.
Both Micah and Matthew, 750 years apart, addressing wildly different circumstances and communities, say something incredibly similar about who God is, and therefore who we are called to be.
Fundamentally, for Micah, God is good! And because God is good, and God is in covenant with us, therefore God expects us to be good, too. Micah says that Jerusalem will fall because there is no justice there. It’s leaders do not know justice, and that needs to change, because our covenant with God describes a relationship of reciprocity. God has redeemed us, Micah says: “I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery…” so I don’t want your burnt offerings, your rivers of oil, your firstborn child. I want you to be like me. I’ve told you what is good: to do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. You can’t buy my favor, I’ve already given it to you. But relationship with God is a two way street, says Micah: I don’t do one-sided justice. I have redeemed you, and I require your participation in the work of caring for the world.
Matthew, too, because his community is a little more stable, a little more able to focus beyond mere survival, has a very similar take. Blessed are the _____ because God is good. For Matthew, a relationship with God is based in righteousness [right relationship] as a response to God’s goodness. It’s not that God wants us to be good, but we want to be good because God is good.
How do we know what goodness is? Well, Matthew says you’re blessed if you “get it.” Blessed are the peacemakers, because they make the world peaceful. Blessed are the meek, because they inherit. Blessed are those who suffer for righteousness sake, because that’s what happens when you say the thing that the world doesn’t like—but you’re trying to do what’s right.
For Matthew, we’re supposed to want to be good. For Micah, we’re supposed to be good because that’s the nature of our relationship with God. They’re very similar, kind of a difference without a distinction. The key is relationship. It’s not my rightness, my goodness, my work, my justice, my idea of truth: all of that belongs to God, and comes from being in relationship with God. It’s a process, an understanding. We try, and sometimes fail, listen, and practice, and work, and listen some more. Blessed are you who listen and try. Blessed are you who work for something better than what is. Blessed are you who work for justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with God, because that’s the heart of what God calls us to do.
We don’t do it alone. We don’t do it as individuals, but as a community—people called together by the Holy Spirit. Not because we say this is what’s good, but because God says, “this is what’s good.” Let us listen, and do the work. Let us do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Because that’s who God is, and who we are called to be, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
