Scripture Micah 6:8 — “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
After George Floyd’s murder, our church had a decision to make.
We could stay in our familiar space at the high school, have our usual worship service, maybe say a prayer for racial healing, and call it good. That would have been safe. Comfortable. Expected.
Or we could do something that felt risky and necessary: leave our building and worship with the two Black churches we’d been intentionally partnering with for years.
Faith and St. Paul.
So, without any debate, really, we decided to cancel our worship and show up.
Show up to those churches (we did ask the pastor if he thought it was a good idea). But we showed up not as visitors or guests, but as family. Listened more than we talked. Learned what it meant to stand with our Black brothers and sisters instead of just feeling sorry for them.
We chose a more challenging path. And in that choice, we lived out tzedek.
Tzedek isn’t about having the right opinions about justice. It’s about taking the right actions. It’s not about feeling bad about injustice. It’s about doing something to make things right.
That Sunday, we didn’t just talk about racial reconciliation — we practiced it. We didn’t just pray for unity — we created it. We stepped out of our comfort zone and into the uncomfortable but necessary work of righteousness.
This is what it means to be tzedek people. Not perfect people, but people who are actively working to align the world with God’s vision of justice and wholeness.
Tzedek starts with seeing what’s wrong and refusing to accept it as normal. It continues with asking, “What can I do to make this right?” And it follows through with action, even when that action is costly or uncomfortable.
Maybe for you, tzedek looks like advocating for fair wages in your workplace. Maybe it’s mentoring a child who needs an adult who believes in them. Maybe it’s voting with vulnerable people in mind. Maybe it’s having hard conversations with family members about racism or poverty or injustice.
Whatever it is, tzedek won’t let you stay passive. It will push you to move from concern to action, from sympathy to solidarity, from being a good person to being a righteousness maker.
Because that’s what God is looking for — not people who are individually righteous, but people who work to make the world more righteous. Not people who follow all the rules, but people who work to change unjust rules. Not people who are good, but people who do good.
Takeaway Tzedek calls us to move from being good people to being righteousness makers. It’s not enough to have right beliefs — we must take right actions.
Closing Prayer God, make me a tzedek person. Help me see the injustices around me and give me courage to act. Don’t let me settle for being individually righteous while the world suffers. Use me to make things right, one relationship, one community, one action at a time.
Grace and Peace,
Andrea