"What Does God Require?"
Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12
The
prophet Micah lived and prophesied during a time of political turmoil and
transition, during the second half of the 8th century BCE, in
Judah. Earlier in the book, Micah
describes a kind of religiosity in which people, especially religious leaders,
are making a public show of how pious they are, with loud lip service to God.[1] It seems that the conventional religion of
the time kept religious leaders self-satisfied and the powerful in power. So for a messenger of God to speak prophetic
words and proclaim judgment was a subversive act.
In the
reading we heard this morning, we’re told that “the Lord has a controversy with
his people.” We don’t get a list of the
transgressions in these verses, but in chapter 3, Micah says to the corrupt
rulers, “Should you not know justice?--
you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin off my people, and
the flesh off their ones…. Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and
chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, who
build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong! Its rulers give judgment for a
bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD and say, ‘Surely
the LORD is with us! No harm shall come upon us.’”[2]
So, in the passage we heard today, God and the people are
involved in a dispute. God is upset with
the people and argues with them through the prophetic voice of Micah. So, God summons “earthly” observers such as
the mountains, hills, and earth’s foundations to listen to this dispute.In verses 3-5, God reminds the people of all the wonderful gifts God has provided and God’s actions for the sake of Israel. It is a brief salvation history with God playing the role of liberator, savior, and provider.
Basically, God says, “What have I done wrong? I am constantly saving you so that you will always remember my righteous deeds.”
Finally, in verses 6-8, the language of dispute is dropped, and we read a series of rhetorical question about what kinds of gifts God desires from us. “With what shall we come before the Lord?” Tell us, O God, what kinds of offerings you want from us.
God makes it clear what is good: “Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God.”
This is
pretty straightforward. What’s harder,
though, is to live into these requirements as God’s people. What actions do these requirements call forth
from us, as we look into our neighborhoods, into our cities, our nation, and
the world?
We look around us today, and we see
people who are hurting. Some people are
resentful because they feel like immigrants or people of color are “jumping the
line” to get the opportunities they feel are their right. Someone with a high school diploma or a GED
used to be able to get a good job and live a comfortable life, but those
opportunities for have been disappearing in this time of globalization and
automation. For some people, if
something’s wrong in your life, it’s handy to have a scapegoat you can blame it
on. Somebody who’s different from you--
someone who’s “other.”
A lot of people are anxious and
afraid. People are afraid of what will
happen if they or a loved one gets sick.
Those who are food insecure are afraid they won’t be able to put food on
the table for their loved ones. Some
people are so afraid of terrorist attacks they’re willing to cut off access for
refugees from Syria an elsewhere and for Muslim immigrants. The list could go on and on….
So what are we called to do, as
people of faith?
Last
Tuesday evening Emily N. and I attended the January meeting of the Presbytery
of Detroit. The January meeting is when
the Moderator and Vice-Moderator are installed for the new year, and we come
together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper as a presbytery. An important part of the meeting was a
presentation by the Rev. Kevin Johnson and the Rev. Bryan Smith on the theme
for the coming year, which is one of the Great Ends of the Church in our Presbyterian
Book of Order: “The promotion of
social righteousness.”
The Great Ends of the Church were
adopted in 1910 by one the Presbyterian Church(USA)’s predecessor
denominations, just two years after the Federal Council of Churches in the
United States (the predecessor of the National Council of Churches, adopted the
Social Creed of the Churches, in 1908.
This was in an era when the main character of Charles Sheldon’s
best-selling novel, In His Steps
challenged his congregation to ask themselves before every decision, “What
would Jesus do?”
The Presbyterian Church has long
been a Christian community that values both personal and public/social morality. The Great Ends of the Church is a summary of what
the church is called to be and why we
exist: “the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the
shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the
maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of
social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the
world.”
The scripture lessons today and
through the season of Epiphany challenge us to live our faith in ways that
promote social righteousness and exhibit the kingdom of heaven on earth. (Tune in next week for Isaiah 58 and more from
the Sermon on the Mount.)
In the
past, Presbyterians have promoted social righteousness through involvement in
the underground railroad and working for the abolition of slavery and for
women’s suffrage. Presbyterians have
fought for basic rights for workers, to eradicate poverty, and for civil
rights. They did so because they
believed that those who follow Jesus should act to advance the coming of the
kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Their belief was grounded in our scriptures.
Luke
tells us that after Jesus was baptized and was tested for forty days in the
wilderness, Jesus went to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth and read from the
prophet Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed
me to bring good news to the poor. He
has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the
blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.” Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in
your hearing.” People were amazed at
Jesus’ teaching until he said something that made them feel uncomfortable. Then they tried to throw him over the cliff.[3]
Near the
end of Matthew’s gospel, we hear Jesus teaching that the nations will be judged
by how we treat those who are marginalized.
I’m going to pause here to say that again: The nations
will be judged by how we treat those who are marginalized.
“The king will say to those at his right
hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave me
food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and
you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing I was sick and you took
care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer
him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty
and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and
welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you
sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I
tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my
family, you did it to me….’”[4]
Could it
be any more clear that doing justice and acting mercifully are an essential
part of our faith and how we show our love for God and neighbor? So what does this requirement look like for
us, in our time?
For each
new time and context, we who follow Jesus must prayerfully discern how we are
called to live. When we study the
scriptures and pray, we are challenged to see the face of Christ in those who
are “the least,” those in need of mercy and hospitality, those we might be
tempted to fear because they are “strangers” to us.
One of
the things that’s weighing on my heart especially this weekend is the indefinite
hold on admitting refugees who have fled Syria and elsewhere, people who have
been in a vetting process that lasts 2 or 3 or more years. I think about several of my friends who have
family in Iran and how it could be a very long time until they can see one
another face-to-face.
In
Deuteronomy 10:19 in the Hebrew scriptures, we are taught that we are to love
those who are foreigners, “for you
yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”
In Leviticus 19:33, we hear: “When
an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The
alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall
love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the
LORD your God.”
So what do we do with these teachings? How
are we called to live? Is it right or
moral or Christian to choose personal comfort and safety and look the other way
to avoid seeing those who are hurting or oppressed or in danger or hungry or
locked out? I think we need to be praying about this. We need to be studying the scriptures and history and remembering how our nation
decided to operate out of fear and turned away ships carrying Jewish refugees
fleeing the Holocaust, many of whom perished in concentration camps. We need to be and listening to “the voices of
those long silenced” and having holy conversations with one another about who
we’re called to be and why we’re here.
We need to remember that the Gospel
is a word of protest. The Beatitudes are
blessings, but they are also a call to action that point us to who Jesus
is. If we listen, we may hear the truth
about ourselves. We will hear what the
Kingdom of Heaven is about.
This can
be scary for some of us. For some, it
may seem inconvenient to hear new truths that call us to change. But we
can live into new adventures in faith with hope
when we trust in God’s Holy Spirit to lead us further into God’s way of
love.
I love
the way our Brief Statement of Faith puts it: “In a broken and fearful world, the Spirit
gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to
Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear
the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom
and peace.”
I invite you all-- us all-- to spend some time re-reading
these sacred and transformative texts in the coming week. I pray that we might all find both challenge
and blessing in Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount:
“Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be
comforted.
Blessed
are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed
are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
Blessed
are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against
you falsely on my account. Rejoice and
be glad, for your reward is great in
heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”[5]
May we be found faithful as we live
into this blessed way of love and justice and mercy! Amen!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
January 29, 2017
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