Dear Tech support she wrote last year, I upgraded from B Boyfriend 4.0 to husband 1.0 and notice the slowdown in overall performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications that had operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 4.0. In addition, husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and installed undesirable programs such as SEC Football 5.0, and now conversation 8.0, no longer runs and house cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.
I've tried running nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do? Desperate.
Dear, desperate. First, keep in mind, boyfriend 4.0 is an entertainment package while husband 1.0 is an operating. Try to enter the command c slash back slash I thought you loved me and download tier 6.2 to install guilt 3.0.
If all works as designed husband 1.0 should then automatically run the application's Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse can cause husband 1.0 to default to grumpy silence 2.5. Whatever you do. Do not install Mother-in-Law 1.0 or reinstall another boyfriend program. These are not supported applications and will crash.
Husband 1.0. In summary, husband 1.0 is a great program. But it does have limited memory. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. I personally recommend Hot Food 3.0. Good luck, tech support.
Compare and contrast with what we just read in the Hebrew prophet Micah. 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? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams with 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul?
He has told you immortal 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, jewelry and flowers won't do it. Sacrifices won't cut it. Gestures of devotion will not work. Do justice, love, kindness, and walk humbly with God. What is God's prescription for?
Right? Living? What mandate does Micah shout out to his people? Do justice, love, kindness, and walk humbly with God.
If you go to Westfield, New Jersey, you can see this verse, Micah six eight, publicly and unashamedly displayed on the main thoroughfare into the town. Countless thousands of cars pass it every day from the 5 a.m. commuters into Manhattan to the 11 p.m. diners returning from restaurants. If they slow down, if they are open to reading it, if they are people of depth, they will receive the word of the Lord.
Do justice, love, kindness, walk humbly with God. Now, this Bible verse in Westfield is not displayed on a church property. It's not on a sign in front of a Christian building. No, it's chiseled into the wall of Temple Emmanuel, the town's largest synagogue. One evening in 2018, Ghislaine and I stood on the grass next to that chiseled Bible verse with candles in our hands, in an ecumenical act of observance.
Following the massacre at the temple, uh, the uh, tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Christians and Jews coming together to stand under a scripture that inspires both our communities. I love it that we read it today, the same day that we read the Beatitudes of Jesus. In fact, Micah six eight has been called the Hebrew Beatitudes.
Like those of Christ, they are short, memorable, and pregnant with truth, beauty, and challenge.
In 1917 when American troops were preparing to sail to the battlefields of France and Belgium, the New York Bible Society donated a pocket New Testament to each soldier, and they asked former President Theodore Roosevelt to write a message that could be included with the gift. In his message, Roosevelt quoted Micah six eight and then wrote this.
Remember, the most perfect machinery of government will not keep a nation from destruction if there is not within us A soul, no abounding of material prosperity shall avail us if our spiritual senses atrophy. What does the Lord require of you? But to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God justice, there's a slippery fish of a word.
We all believe in justice, don't we? Uh, modern societies agree that justice means people receive what they deserve. Uh, victims are vindicated and have their dignity restored and guilty people receive the consequences of their actions. That is justice and it is obviously true, but the Hebrew word Micah uses is about more than merely justice in the law courts.
It's about all of life. It's about everyone receiving what they need if they are to be the full, free and glorious humans made in the image of God. So justice means all people being treated with respect and the honor worthy of a human being. It involves having the resources to live a life that is not diminished by hunger, homelessness, or lack of healthcare.
It means, means being free from dehumanizing sins like prejudice, slander, and aggressive speech. It is the hunger and thirst for righteousness that Jesus mentions in the beatitudes. You see, justice is a relational word to do. Justice is to promote and protect the wellbeing of others, to recognize the solemn truth, that they are made in the image of God and their life is therefore sacred.
What does the Lord require of you but to do justice? And to love kindness. Kindness feels a bit wishy-washy, doesn't it? Uh, it feels like another word for niceness. Uh, kind. People are nice people and nice people are always sunny and optimistic and never say anything that might seem impolite. In fact, the biblical word for kindness is way stronger than that.
Kindness is costly. It demands self-sacrifice. It requires each of us to look at our lives and confront the sin we see there. Above all, kindness means taking action, sometimes action that will get us no thanks and may either even cause people to oppose us. The word Micah uses for kindness can also be translated.
Mercy. Now we're talking. Blessed are the merciful says Jesus, the people who don't call in the moral debts they are owed who forgive, those who don't deserve to be forgiven. What does the Lord require of you? But to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with God, to be humble simply means to have a right perspective of yourself and other people.
It means, uh, knowing that you are a greatly loved child of God made in his image to do wonderful things, but so is everyone else, and you are no better than them. They are your equals. Humility involves seeing yourself through God's eyes. No more and no less human beings strive for greatness. What God calls us to is goodness.
Greatness is seductive. It lulls us into sacrificing our values, our ethics, even our families or our very selves. Greatness gets you titles and promotions. It gets you wealth and fame. It puts you on the cover of the trade magazine. It gets your name on the side of the building. It gets you the prize, the trophy, the statue.
But God doesn't require greatness. Only goodness. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek and the pure in heart.
Thomas Merton was one of the great Christian mystics of the 20th century. He was much read and dearly loved. Uh, for a monk, he was actually really famous and he once said to a fellow monk, if I make anything outta the fact that I am Thomas Merton, I am dead. And if you make anything outta the fact that you are in charge of the pigs, you are dead.
Merton's solution. Quit keeping score and surrender yourself with all your sinfulness. To the God who neither sees the score, nor the scorekeeper, but only his child redeemed in Christ,
Jesus is clear. The mark of greatness is service. A great church is not one that has 10,000 worshipers on a Sunday or has multimillion dollar budgets or famous pastors or professional level musicians, or rich and beautiful decor or lavish and sophisticated programs. A great church is one that serves, maybe God is not looking for churches that are focused on being great, but on being good.
The early church expanded at dizzying speed for one simple reason. They focused on goodness, not greatness. They measured success by growing good people rather than by growing a great church. They attracted others, not because of outward show of success, but because of character.
AB Alrahman III knows this. Uh, he was the EMEA and Kliph of Cordova in 10th century Spain. His people hailed him as great. His enemies feared him as great history, reveres him as great. Al Raman himself, however, was not so sure at the age of 70. He looked back over his life of glory, wealth, and power, and concluded this.
I have now reigned more than 50 years in victory or peace, beloved, by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors power and pleasure have waited on my call. And I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness, which have fallen to my lot. They amount to 14 what?
Two weeks of happiness outta 70 years, dude.
Actually, I like that AB Alrahman III gets it. I wish he'd reached this conclusion that money, power, and adoration can't make you happy earlier in life. If he realized it in his twenties, then instead of chasing greatness, he may have achieved goodness. He wasn't the first king to learn that lesson. Of course, the Book of Daniel records the greatest emperor of his day.
King Nebu, KZA, basking in his greatness. He stands on the top of his palace and smugly says to himself, is this not the great Babylon that I have built? A few seconds later, he's writhing on the ground, suffering a severe mental breakdown, a calamity that God used to teach. The arrogant king that he's not all, that his wealth and power are not the reward for his brilliance, but a gift from God, which can be quickly taken away.
And eventually, as he recovers, KZA is transformed. Oh yes, what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. This week, may God find us living Jesus' beatitudes and Micah's and let us chase goodness, not greatness. Amen.