Micah 6:8 "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you..."

He 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? (Micah 6:8)

Question:

My dad included this verse in his funeral service. I think it was central to how he lived his life. I feel it is my inheritance from him. It is important that I understand this and learn to apply it in my life.

Comment:

I am very sorry for your loss. Your father must have been an extraordinary man. Certainly in choosing this verse for his own service, he was affirming a deep understanding of the nature and purpose of our human existence. So many people believe that we are here in human form to suffer, as atonement for some long-ago sin committed by our earliest ancestors. Jesus came with a new message, a new understanding; and even before Jesus, a prophet such as Micah was expressing this new awareness. “With what shall I come before the Lord?” he asks at 6:6. What does the Lord demand? According to the spiritual authorities of the time, he wants sacrifice: burnt offerings, calves a year old, thousands of rams, ten thousands of rivers of oil, perhaps even a first-born son.

No, says the prophet, it’s really much simpler. We are spiritual beings, here in human form, so that the Presence and Power of God can express as us and through us, creating the new consciousness that Jesus will later call “the kingdom of heaven.” Our relationship to the divine is clear, simple and infinitely loving. Our human purpose is simply to express our innate divinity as justice, love, kindness—to walk through life quietly and lovingly, making the choices that will allow the energy of God to flow through us and beyond us, joining us with others and creating new expressions of love where we are guided.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed