(Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.)
The Lord put his people on trial. We must be careful. Anytime the Lord sends a prophet, God wants to call them to repentance.
In this passage, the Lord had a complaint against his people. What the Lord had done was spectacular. The Lord had brought them out of slavery with power and might. The Lord found fault with their response.
The Lord saves his people with power and might because the Lord is essentially power and might. When the Lord looks for response, the Lord does not look for spectacular things, like thousands of rams or human sacrifice because we do not have this kind of power and might. The Lord desires mercy, not sacrifice. The Lord only requires of us that we do the right, love goodness, and walk humbly with our God.
The complaint of God’s, presented here by Micah, over the years became a source for anti-Semitism. We thought that since the Lord had condemned his people, we could also condemn them. We did not understand that God sends his prophets, not to condemn, but to call sinners to repentance. The whole story of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation is about how God loves all his people, Jewish and Gentile, those far from us and those close by us, and how God wants all of us to be saved. There is no one whom God does not want saved, because
God wants us and them, all alike, to come to repentance and be saved.