A Hunger for Justice

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany - January 29, 2023

In today’s first reading, God cries, “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!” (Micah 6:3). The people of God have forgotten God’s deliverance and who God has called them to be. Like a shrewd prosecutor, God has placed them on trial and is examining their actions, recounting the signs of mercy and loving kindness shown to them from generation to generation and searching for a sign that they are living into who God has called them to be. And so, they are reminded that this is how you shall live: do justice, love kindness, walk humbly.

A Latin American prayer asks: “Lord, to those who hunger, give bread. And to those who have bread, give the hunger for justice.” The words of this more modern-day prayer do not sound so different from the ancient words spoken by the prophet Micah to God’s people. “What does the Lord require of you,” asks Micah, “but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). The hunger of God’s people has already been filled by the mercy of God, and so they are called by God to feed the hunger of others through lives of justice, kindness, and humility.

In the Sunday assembly, God surrounds the gathered people with reminders of who and whose they are: we splash in the waters of baptism, are brought to new life in the word, are fed and forgiven through bread and wine. Around the table, hunger is satisfied, and a hunger for justice is renewed. From the table, God sends the gathered assembly, blessed and broken, to feed the hunger of others as, together, we await the fulfillment of the kingdom.

©2023, Sundays and Seasons, a div. of Augsburg Fortress.