February 2, 2020 – Sermon on Micah

This is a very special week for me, because on Sunday, February 2, 2020, I got to baptize my one month old son, Micah! And yes, the fact that the lectionary readings for the fourth Sunday of the Epiphany season in RCL Year A include Micah 6:1-8 was a little bit of a factor in picking Micah’s baptismal date! 

The other reading for this sermon is 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, and this commentary at WorkingPreacher from Tyler Mayfield was helpful.

Grace and peace to you from the One who was, who is, and who is to come, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Let me tell you about Micah. He spends a lot of his life complaining, crying out for others to do the right thing as he sees it. He’s pretty demanding as he pleads his case, and for those listening, his demands can be difficult to understand.

His name, Micah, means “Who is like God?” I think it’s a great name, but that might be because I’m a pastor. Christin and I know four families with sons named Micah, and all four are pastor’s families. I don’t know what that says.

This prophet Micah is living during an interesting time. It’s about 700 years before Jesus is born and there’s a lot of religion happening in Israel. There’s not so much personal faith or actual following of God’s commands, but there’s a lot of religion, and it’s working really well for the people in power.

The priests and the political leaders are very happy to worship a God who approves of everything they do. When you use it right, religion is a great tool for turning a profit and keeping people happy, again, especially when you decide God approves of everything you’re doing.

And then, as happens from time to time in the history of Israel, this annoying prophet shows up with a message from God. According to Micah, God is not happy., “Listen, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! 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 bones; who eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin off them, break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a cauldron?” The corruption of the leaders is consuming the people. It’s a pretty graphic illustration.

Micah lays out specifics: “[Israel’s] 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.” It’s a self-serving, blatant distortion of God’s promise to be with and watch over God’s people.

The section we read today from chapter 6 is set in a sort of courtroom. Micah lays out God’s case, reminding the people of what the Lord has done for them: “I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery.” What happened? Why have you forgotten what God has done for you?

To their credit, as Micah describes this scenario, the people seem to realize they’ve done wrong. They get that they’ve sinned, that they’ve turned their relationship with God into self-serving religion. So they ask, “What is it God wants from us? What kind of sacrifice will satisfy God? What’s the fine we need to pay to make God happy with us again? What sort of worship will convince God to bless us?”

When God answers, when God’s verdict comes, it’s not what they’re expecting. It’s not, “Give me this offering. Prepare this particular sacrifice. Do this new thing.”

Instead, Micah says, “God has told you what is good. You know what you’re supposed to do. There’s no shortcut, nothing you can give in exchange. You can’t just write a check or put a price tag on God’s mercy. What God wants, what God requires of you is simple: Your whole life. And you know how God wants you to live. Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with God.”

Their old version of the religious life, where they claimed to follow God, but really just did whatever seemed best to them isn’t going to cut it anymore. Faith can’t just be lip service; God is claiming their entire lives.

Instead of oppressing the poor around them, instead of seeing their neighbors as economic opportunities, they are to do justice.

Of course, doing justice is more than just avoiding cheating your neighbors, or not taking bribes against the innocent as our Psalm said.

This is an active command. Some translations say, “Seek justice.” I like that better, because that word seek makes it clear this is about going out and doing something, pursuing opportunities to help others.

When you see injustice, rather than keeping your head down and minding your own business, get involved. Intervene. Stand up for those who are oppressed, who are being taken advantage of.

In more modern language, advocate for a society where all people are able to live in peace, where everyone has the right to an education, enough to eat, freedom from living in fear. Think about how your decisions and choices impact others, particularly the people on the margins.

By the way, remember that if you’ve been confirmed in this church or joined as an adult, you’ve promised to do this. The affirmation of baptism service asks, “Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in Holy Baptism…to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?”

What does it look like to not only do justice, but to seek it, to strive for it?

Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with your God.

These commands also tell us something about the Lord. God is just. And God is also merciful, which is another way of translating that word kindness. As we do justice, our justice must be tempered with kindness and mercy.

Another of those confirmation promises is to “proclaim the good news of Christ through word and deed.”

Sometimes we as the church seem to forget the “good news” part. Somehow we manage to take the good news of God’s love for the world and turn it into a threat. We twist God’s instructions for how to live the abundant life to which we’re called into restrictive legalism. Too often people encounter the church as piling on judgment rather than proclaiming freedom.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul writes that no matter how eloquently we speak, no matter how much knowledge or faith we have, no matter how much we give away, if we don’t have love, it doesn’t do any good.

If we aren’t kind towards other people, what witness do we send? It doesn’t matter how good our intentions are if people can’t hear our message. Being a Christian means recognizing that everyone we meet is a beloved child of God, just like we are. Even people who are supporting the other team in the Super Bowl, even members of other political parties, even people from other countries, even people working against us, we’re still called to be kind to them. We’re still called to be merciful in the way we treat them, to give the benefit of the doubt, to look for the good, to treat them as Christ would.

The third part of Micah’s command is to walk humbly with your God. Walking humbly with God means recognizing what is up to us and what is up to God. It means recognizing God is God and we are not and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in, on, and through us.

No matter how hard you try, you and I are not always going to act justly. Our sinful nature means we’re not always going to act kindly. We’re going to fall short, again and again.

But walking humbly with God means allowing God to forgive. It means recognizing each one of us is in need of God’s grace, and accepting that God has chosen you because God has chosen you, not because of anything you’ve done.

God loves you because God loves you, not because you’re so lovable, or because you’re so good at doing justice, or because you sacrifice 10,000 rivers of oil, or even because you’re so kind or so humble.

One of the reasons we baptize babies is because it profoundly illustrates God is the one doing the work. God is doing the washing, the claiming, the forgiving, not the baby getting baptized. It takes humility to admit you’re a sinner in need of God’s grace. It takes humility to accept God’s verdict of undeserved mercy, forgiveness, and love.

Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with your God.

These aren’t activities you can check off a list. As you can imagine, I’m thinking a lot about baptism this weekend, with our son Micah getting baptized at 11:00.

As Lutherans, we understand the sacrament of Baptism as an entrance into a way of life. It’s not an ending, it’s not a one and done thing, it’s a beginning.

In baptism, God bestows a new identity, a new status, a new way of living. Following these commands, living your identity as a beloved child of God will consume your whole life. What a wonderful calling we have as God’s children. Amen