Micah 6:1-8
Hear what the LORD says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
"O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD."
"With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,
so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
"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.
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The scripture readings for the weeks following
Epiphany
have
centered around the reality of our call,
of
how we are called by God,
and
what it means to follow God’s call throughout our lives.
Last week we talked about how God calls
ordinary people
out
of ordinary lives to do extraordinary things.
Today we are given a rich gift,
in
the Old Testament,
and
the gospel,
and
Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth,
a gift that makes it clear in no uncertain
terms
the
great work that we are called to.
The kind of ordinary people we are called to
be,
and
the nature of the extraordinary work we are called to do.
The prophet Micah is speaking to the people of
Israel
at
a time when Israel was in the midst of a revival.
This is seven hundred years before Christ.
For the first time in years,
according
to the Feasting on the Word commentary,
the temple was crowded, and giving was over
budget.
But the people of Israel were arrogant and
uncaring.
The prophet Micah reminds the people
of
the ways God saved them, of the generosity of God,
how
God loved Israel, and brought them out of slavery,
and
gave them a home.
But the people miss the point, and instead of
gratitude,
they
ask what it is that God really wants from them –
more
sacrifices?
more
expensive livestock?
How religious do you really want us to be,
God?
Their notion of religion has moved far from
God’s hopes for them. They are focused on worshiping “correctly”
and
staying away from those who they believe do not.
And so Micah answers them.
“What
does the LORD require of you?
Only
this:
To
do justice.
To
love kindness.
To
walk humbly with God.”
This is, of course, far from what the people
were prepared to offer. They were ready to ramp up their worship
to
be as polished and shiny and wealth-laden as possible.
But the LORD God did not seek their
possessions,
but
rather their lives of obedience –
of
humility and kindness.
Lives seeking and standing up for justice.
What does it mean that God wants us to do
justice?
In scripture, justice is identified as the
nature of God,
an
activity of God.
Justice seeks to establish or restore community,
and
to balance personal good with the common good.
Justice involves relationships with people,
distribution
of goods,
and
the social systems and order that is necessary to sustain it. We are called to
do justice.
As God’s children, wherever we see injustice,
we
are called to work to change it,
to
make more just relationships,
and
more just distribution of goods,
and
more just social orders,
systems more balanced across common good.
Justice is measured by how well
the
most vulnerable in a community are doing.
What does it mean that God wants us to love
kindness?
To love our neighbor includes both affection
and ethical love,
which
considers not only law,
but
also the covenant that God has established with us
through
Jesus Christ.
And this is not love that we are forced to
come up with on our own. This is love that flows out of us
from
the abundant love of God that is always flowing into us. We respond to God’s
loving kindness by sharing it with others.
What does it mean to walk humbly with God?
It means we remember that God is God, and we
are not;
and
also that we are no greater in God’s eyes
than
any of God’s other children.
We are all both saints and sinners, broken and
blessed,
and
God loves us all anyway,
even
though we in no way deserve it, any of us.
We are all in the same boat, in the same
desperate need of grace.
Not just all of us here, but all of us all
over the world.
This knowledge is the basis of the humility
that
allows us to accept God’s gifts and also
know
with certainty that we do not and can not deserve them,
that it is only through God’s grace
that
we or anyone else receives them.
And because God is God, and we are not,
we
can not even begin to judge who deserves what from God. Who is in a position to
judge? Only Christ.
And Christ forgives, redeems, makes whole
those
who do not deserve it – thanks be to God!
In the gospel, we hear Jesus telling the
crowds about blessing –
about
who is blessed.
The word blessed also means happy, full of
joy,
greatly
honored in God’s sight.
Who are these blessed people?
It’s not the people who have the means to
bring
more
wealth and music and polish to worship.
It is, rather, those who live lives of
humility,
and
loving kindness, and justice.
The poor in spirit.
Those that mourn.
Those who do not have it all together.
Those who hunger and thirst after justice –
for
themselves and for others.
They are the ones who understand the true
source of joy –
it
is in seeking the common good,
in
serving others,
in
working for a more just society and world.
Jesus is echoing and mirroring the words of
Micah in the Beatitudes,
the
words of blessing we heard today.
Blessing is not about having good things in
life,
about
getting good treatment,
contrary
to what the so-called prosperity gospels
would
try to make us believe.
It is about justice, and kindness, and
humility before God.
And these are a three legged stool. It is not
for us to choose which one we want to be. They stand together. We cannot do
justice in a way that hates. We cannot be humble in a way that ignores the
injustices that others are living with. God calls us to live in a way in which
the three participate together.
Paul also echoes and mirrors these words
when
he reminds the church in Corinth that as Christians,
we are not seen as wise or as powerful by
human standards.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to
shame the wise.
God chose what is weak in the world to shame
the strong.
God chose what is low and despised in the
world,
things
that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are.
To the world, the cross is foolish and weak;
it
is lowly and despised.
But it is God’s foolishness, which is wiser than
human wisdom.
It is God’s weakness, which is stronger than
human strength.
In other words, it is in justice, and
kindness, and humility,
that
the strength and wisdom and worth of God is revealed.
There’s a lot being said these days about
how
to Make Things Great Again.
We want to be a great person
by
holding fast to all our New Years resolutions.
We want to make our church great
by
calling the perfect pastor
and
performing the perfect music
and
filling the pews and the bank accounts.
We want to make America great
by
rewarding all the good and deserving people
and
keeping out all the bad and undeserving ones.
We want to be successful,
and
in so doing,
we
risk losing our ability to be faithful.
And God tells us, over and over again,
that
success means nothing,
and
faithfulness means everything.
Last April this congregation made its own
statement that reflects the specific nature of this call. It’s on the inside
front cover of your bulletin. It reads as follows:
“Assured of the new life we have received
in Christ, we will live out our faith together through worship, prayer,
education, fellowship, and mission. Being called to love all people, we
will use our gifts to serve God in an imperfect world. Equipped
with our faith and filled with the Spirit, we will:
· reach out in acceptance to a diverse
community;
· embrace the marginalized and show love to all;
· feed the hungry and care for the sick;
· search for peace and work for justice.”
Your work from this day forward, your call
from God, is defined. Now it is time to seek the leadership that will work
alongside you to fulfill it. And, now is also the time, at the same time, to
work to fulfill it together, as God’s people.
Yesterday J Herbert Nelson, the Stated Clerk
of the Presbyterian Church (USA), published a statement on behalf of the Office
of General Assembly that also reflects the specific nature of our call. I will
read it:
“Yesterday President Donald Trump signed an
executive order to allegedly protect the nation from terrorists entering the
United States. In practice, however, this order serves to further harm those
who are the very victims of terrorism, genocide, religious and gender-based
persecution, and civil war.
Right now, across the globe, there are
families grabbing their bags and clinging to each other as they tearfully flee
the home they love, the home they never wanted to leave, because home is no
longer safe. And many, after being fully vetted by a legal refugee entry
process, are not being allowed to enter the U.S. and are being wrongfully
detained at airports across the country.
This is a miscarriage of justice and goes
against everything we stand for as a country shaped and formed by people who
emanated from other lands.
As the top ecclesial officer of the nation’s
largest Reformed body, I urge the president and his administration to reverse
this very harmful decision regarding refugees. Presbyterians are not afraid of
this so-called terror threat. We are not afraid because we profess a faith in
Jesus, who entered the world a refugee.
We are not afraid because, just as we welcome
Jesus every advent, we have chosen to welcome our brothers and sisters into
this nation from across the globe. Presbyterians chose welcome after World War
II when we, as a denomination, demanded that the U.S. allow more refugees to
enter then. We chose welcome when our very congregations served as the host
sites to refugees in the years before resettlement agencies. And, Presbyterians
choose welcome now as we co-sponsor families resettling to the U.S. from Syria,
Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Burma, Bhutan, and other countries.
With every choice of welcome we enter into
relationship with people who become neighbors, friends, and family. No
administration can convince us to fear.
We oppose this administration’s decision to
prolong each and every refugee’s wait for a place to call home under the false
pretense of security. We stand ready to welcome our new neighbors, friends, and
family of all faiths and nations.”
Both of these statements are rooted and
grounded in the three calls from God through Micah – do justice, love kindness,
walk humbly.
So – what does it take to be a truly great
person?
Just
this: Do justice, and love kindness,
and
walk humbly with God.
What does it take to be a truly great church?
Just
this: Do justice, and love kindness,
and
walk humbly with God.
What does it take to be a truly great nation?
Just
this: Do justice, and love kindness,
and
walk humbly with God.
What does it take to be a great world?
Just
this: Do justice, and love kindness,
and
walk humbly with God.
We know what God calls us to be and to do –
as
individuals, as congregations, as nations, as the world.
We are able,
because
God loves us with a steadfast love
because
Christ goes before us with amazing grace,
and
because the Holy Spirit strengthens us
in
sweet communion.
No matter where our ministries take us,
as
we go out from this place,
let
us bind ourselves together to be God’s people
and
to do God’s work of justice, and loving-kindness,
and
humility, today and every day of our lives.
