“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
I have read a number of interesting articles recently about Intercultural Church in the UK. Intercultural Church unites different cultures, backgrounds and languages through the uniting of diverse Christian communities. Although the UK is often referred to as ‘multi-cultural Britain’, there seems to be a significant number of churches that do not reflect this reality. Can we activate our indigenous church by pushing this door?
I was reminded of the above verse in Micah which was penned during a time when God’s people were trying to please Him with sacrifices, offerings and going through religious motions while living lives of deception, violence and pride.
However, as the prophet Hosea writes, “I [God] desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6). God is after our heart motives, not our outward religious activity or begrudging obedience.
Doing Justice requires faith and actions working together: helping the hurting, defending the weak, dealing fairly with the people we encounter, and speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves. In other words, to do justice, we must love others as we love ourselves.
The mercy of God is an extreme kindness. Since we have been shown undeserved kindness by Him, we can show undeserved kindness to others. God desires these things more than endless ‘I’m sorry’ speeches. God is kind to the grateful and the wicked (Luke 6:35), so we should be, too.
Walk humbly. Be teachable. Be mouldable. We all have limitations and it is when we live fully surrendered to God that He does incredible things through us.
Seeking justice, loving kindness and walking humbly is what God wants from us. In a world that’s saturated with injustice, hatred and arrogance, my prayer is that every UK church will be marked by these three things and that Intercultural Church will mushroom and grow exponentially in our nation and bring about reconciliation of a divided church.
PRAYER
Lord, we thank you for the miracle of the church
We thank you, that as one body, we come together from different ethnicities,
backgrounds, stories and yet we are equally loved.
We are called together to see your kingdom advance and to worship you.
One Lord and Saviour, one people,
we pray for the work of Intercultural Churches in our nation.
Bless them Lord as they work for unity and justice in our nation.
Grant them wisdom and understanding as they seek to serve you.
May we, as your people work together to listen and learn from one another.
Draw us closer to you and to each other so that
the Revelation vision of one beautiful body focused on Jesus,
becomes a growing reality.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen
(Adapted from Prayer by Fred Drummond,
director of prayer and Scotland, Evangelical Alliance)
Margaret McLaren