Fourth Sunday a. Epiphany 1999 Collinsville, Micah 6:1-8 *
Famous trials have abounded through the years. 1925, the Scopes trial in Dayton Tennessee, featuring Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. 1934 Bruno Hauptmann is convicted of kidnapping and murdering the Lindberg baby. Nuremberg, the site of Nazi war crime trails. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg made headline news during their espionage trial in 1951. The 1970’s trial of heiress Patty Hearst. Finally, the trial O.J Simpson comes to mind.
All of these trials pale in comparison with the trial in our Old Testament lesson from Micah. The prophet, acting as bailiff, calls the court to order; “Hear what the Lord says.” The legal proceedings are between God and whole nation of Israel. The courtroom is the cosmos. God calls his witnesses jurors, “Hear you mountains. Let the hills hear your voice. Listen you everlasting foundation of the earth.” The heights and the depths of creation are called to witness God’s controversy with his people.
The Lord gives his people an opportunity to lodge their charge against Him. “Stand up!” Plead your case. Bring your complaint.”
Israel has been complaining against their Lord for some time. They’ve lost patience with God. They are exasperated. The Lord promised that a ruler would come out of Bethlehem, David’s city. He would stand up and take care of God’s people. This ruler would bring security. He would be respected to the ends of the earth. Peace would come with his reign. Israel would be like refreshing morning dew or a shower of rain that revived the grass among the nations. They would be a lion among the nations.
But the reality was that they were under siege from an enemy. Their king was weak, struck across the face with a rod. Therefore, Israel refused to answer this God who promised much but delivered little. They would maintain their stubborn silence.
In the face of silence the Lord presses his case. In words that will be sung on Good Friday, he asks, “O my people, what have I done to you. In what have I wearied you? Answer me?” In the middle of their peril, the people cannot remember anything good which the Lord has done for them or whether God is simply an illusion after all.
How is it with you in the middle of some peril? When in the middle of some day, some week, some problem as work; in the middle of some disagreement at home, sometime of being pulled three or four different ways by family schedule; in the middle of some class or some day at school; in the middle of a traffic jam or a checkout line, waiting, waiting, inching along; in the middle of some valley where the shadow is creeping across the landscape and the shadow could be death. Who can remember the Lord and all he has done? Who can give thanks to the Lord in any and all situations? Who can love your fellow human being too?
Consider Psalm one. “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.” Though the Lord says that the wicked are like chaff that the wind blows away; instead, the wind seems to blow the wind into our faces. We are beset with many and great dangers to our faith and trust in god on every side. We are under siege. By reason of the weakness of our fallen nature we cannot always stand upright.
Yet, God wants us to stand up and defend ourselves. But what does God know of my daily life? Why doesn’t God do something to show that he cares about me; vindicate me as I strive mightily to live an upright and honest life? No, it’s not so much a matter of what God has done to me as it is – what God hasn’t done for me. Why bother to plead my case? Israel was right after all. Just suffer in stubborn silence.
Though God’s people were too disheartened, too burdened with their own problems, to communicate with God, the Lord does not cut off communication with his stubborn forgetful people. Israel is his people and the Lord refreshes their memories concerning what he has done for them. “I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery.” “I sent you leaders, Moses the law giver, Aaron the priest and Miriam the prophetess. My people remember how king Balak conspired with Balaam to place a curse on you. I blocked the curse and Balaam spoke a blessing instead. I was with you in the crossing of the Jordan as you entered the Promised Land. I did all this that you might know my saving acts and know me as the God who saves.”
The Lord says to you and me, “I brought you up out of the spiritual bondage. I gave myself as the price to buy you back from slavery to sin. I transferred you from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have sent to you pastors and teachers and leaders who speak my message to you continually. I have blocked the curse of eternal death and turned death into the doorway to eternal life. I have been with you even as and ever since you crossed the waters of baptism and was delivered into the promised land of grace and mercy. I did all this that you might know that saving acts which I performed for you through Jesus Christ.”
Now, finally, the people in Micah’s time speak. “What does god want from me? Shall I bring a week old calf or maybe a yearling and burn it all up on the altar? Will that satisfy God? Or maybe, like Solomon, sacrificed thousands of rams. Perhaps ten thousand rivers of oil would appease God. Do you want me to be like Abraham and cut off my future by sacrificing my son for my sin?
Or we might say do you want me to give 20% of my income? Do I just turn over my whole paycheck and maybe borrow some money for good measure and put that in the offering plate? Will that make you happy God? Maybe to make up for my terrible of not paying God enough attention I should cash in all my savings and retirement, sell my house. Would god then be satisfied?
Now the prophet speaks again. “Man, the Lord has already shown what is good.” God doesn’t want some THING. God requires nothing of you. NO THING AT ALL. God wants you. God wants me.
What God wants is patterned on what He has already done for us. God gave his firstborn son as a sacrifice to our sins. God has acted justly toward us. Through Jesus Christ god has blessed us with forgiveness and salvation. God has brought the world back under the order he established. He has lifted us up who were poor in spirit and given us kingdom. God wants his justice to glow through us that we too lift up the lowly that they might be saved and served.
The Lord has shown us his continuing love in Jesus Christ. Marie Von Ebner-Eschenback wrote, “Most people need more love than they deserve. God gives us more love than we deserve every day.
Finally, the Lord directs us to act justly and love mercy as we walk humbly with our God. Walking humbly is living our life keeping our attention on God. Be attentive to the path that Jesus took, the actions he did, the words he spoke, to his passion, his silence, his suffering and his dying. Then we will be living according to God’s wisdom, boasting in what the Lord has done for us.
*I had the sunday off and offer the above sermon gthis week.
Excellent sermon, as usual !!
Posted by: Larry | January 30, 2011 at 06:21 PM