There is a whole pile of oppression going on for the disciples of Jesus. In Aceh, the Local government is under pressure to shut “illegal” Churches and Buddhist monasteries. Aceh is the part of Indonesia where the Muslim majority is greatest. In the UK, the Catholics held a service in solidarity with their suffering brethren in Nigeria and Syria.
And in the West the secularists are continually grinding away. As Peter Saunders, the head of the UK Christian Medical Fellowship says.
“Many more people pass through our hospitals and GP surgeries than through our churches, and Christian doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers play a key role as Christ’s hands and feet at the sharp end of society with the opportunity to touch people’s lives at what can be their greatest time of need.
“They also face big ethical and moral pressures in a workplace which is often hostile to Christian faith and values. As ordinary Christian disciples facing these challenges and with their own personal, spiritual and emotional needs, they need our prayer and encouragement.”
Peter is talking about the culture of the UK National Health Service, which includes such things as the Liverpool Pathway. There are people advocating for active euthanasia (which the pathway is not) in Australasia — and gaining support. I am sure that outside healthcare (which is the field I am most familiar with) there are similar things.
But our duty is clear.
Micah 6:1-8
1Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
3“O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
4For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 5O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”6“‘With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Let’s parse this a bit. Firstly, God reminds the people of the temptation that Balaam put in front of them. That was that they would intermarry with the locals, and under their influence, (because women think they are more pious) into idolatry.
Micah then reminds them that they God does not want pagan piety. He starts with a sacrifice greater than that the law required for sin and guilt (that was a turtledove if you were poor: which is what Joseph and Mary bought to the temple when for Jesus’ dedication). It then moves beyond the massive sacrifices that occurred at pagan feasts to killing your children in front of the Ba’alim or Molech.
The pagan culture is portrayed as a culture of deception and death. We are not to be part of it. We are not to be that narcissistic that we value our lives and our ambitions above those of our flocks, let alone our children.
Instead we are to be just, be merciful, and walk humbly. To give mercy, we can and will have to judge. To walk humbly we have to be aware that we are not perfect, nor are we that pious. In comparison with God, we are small. We need to see how big God is, how wonderful his universe is, to see how little we are.
For mercy is his gift. All that is good flows from him. It is our duty not to be spectacular or overtly pious, but to quietly do his work.
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