Transcript:
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, Amen.
I love the prophet Micah.
Reading through his proclamations you might get this mental image of a strong, powerful, well spoken, polished preacher, but in reality Micah was a country boy.
The ruling religious establishment would have considered him a country bumpkin, likely along the lines of Shrek in between that.
It doesn't help his image that he spends a lot of his ministry wandering around Jerusalem naked, howling like a Jackal and.
Making owl noises to boots or boots as a baby.
This may have made it a little bit difficult for the people of Israel to take him seriously.
However, among the angriest of Hebrews.
I can hear you, you can hear me.
I have a big voice.
My dad always said my big mouth would work out.
Among the angriest of the Hebrew prophets, Micah is really mad at the people of God.
The city folk have been coming out and destroying and plundering the natural country areas and all of their resources and leaving it.
Correct.
Despite his outward appearance, the words Micah spoke to the people were devastating.
Micah saw clear to the root of Israel's problems of the day and how the religious elite were doing anything but caring for the least of these.
He watched as religious ceremonies were used to cover up lives that looked like the opposite of that for which God had was asking.
They were content to cover up injustices with platitudes or by pointing at a distraction.
Arrogance emanated from them.
Because who could possibly accuse them of any wrongdoing?
Obviously God approved of them.
Just look at the jobs they held.
Micah watched as the people of God ignored the poor, abused the stranger, and turned away.
The widows and orphans There was a serious disconnect between their religious talk and the way they lived their lives.
Michah's call as a prophet gave him an inside track at just how disgusted God had become.
We wouldn't know anything about the actions of people who call themselves Christians not matching up with their words, would we?
You can read almost any article or watch any news program and find examples of people who call themselves Christian living lives that promote empire over Christ.
And some of the work I was doing through the grant the synod had provided to see what neurodivergent needs were in Vancouver.
My eyes were opened to just how damaged the title Christian has become when talking with individuals not associated with church and explaining the work that I was trying to do.
People were really, really excited until they asked my background The moment Christian pastor or church was spoken, I was able to see people shut down and back away.
Somewhere along the line we have let the name Christian be hijacked to mean judgmental, cruel and destructive.
In fact, my friends who work in the food service industry have told me that the one shift that they avoid at all costs is Sunday, mid morning to afternoon.
I asked them why they said they are some of the cruelest, less least tipping.
Most critical patrons that they see during the week.
We should feel convicted, friends.
In Hebrew the name Micah means who is like Yahweh and the answer in his day was no way.
Not any of the Israelites, that's for sure.
After 5 chapters of rebuking the leaders.
When profits in Israel the very ones who should have been leading the people to deeper devotion of God, but instead we're leading people by their own shoddy examples of non godly ways.
Everything comes to a head here in Micah 6.
We enter into what feels like a courtroom, and God presents God's case against his people.
Through Micah, God tells the people to stand tall and brace themselves for what's coming.
God has been nothing but faithful and just, and what God has received in return is abuse and faithlessness.
The salvation history.
Of the people has been traced out, but now things are so bad that all God can do through the prophets is predict doom and punishment.
Of course, the entire book of Micah ends with promises of future restoration, but for now, the current outlook.
Is dim.
This is the backdrop of our reading from Micah today.
Having received God's indictment, Micah speaks on behalf of the bewildered people of God, wondering what could they possibly do to make amends with God?
They say, how about some, really?
Awesome burnt offerings.
Would that help?
Or should we sweeten the pot and offer our first born children?
Surely that will protect us from God's anger?
This revelation shows that they really haven't been paying attention to anything God has done or said through the prophets.
God's response is to do justice.
What does that mean?
It compels us to consider the question of justice, charity or politics.
Charity can help alleviate or at least postponed suffering, but rarely is it able to get to the core of the issue to provide.
Healing charity in and of itself is important, but not the fullness of what we are called to in terms of justice.
Charity is to be undertaken while still working toward justice, because when justice is achieved, it will make charity obsolete.
Politics may be a means for working toward justice, as government can yield much power.
Yet politics cannot be the end of the effort.
Winning a political battle does not necessarily mean that justice has been achieved.
Justice is about building communities of caring.
Where all lives matter to each of us just as much as they matter to God.
This means that we deeply care for immigrant lives, the lives of people of color, people in the LGBTQIA community, the lives of our Jewish and our Islamic partners.
It means that we do not cheer when any life is cut short by violence.
It means we don't try to justify the fear of those being persecuted with dismissive comments of well, they brought it on themselves.
After all, where would we be if God had looked at us and are weakness?
And fear and said, well, they brought this on themselves.
Working for justice in the political realm without also doing the work of building relationship with those for whom we advocate is a recipe for replacing one unjust system with another.
Because how do we advocate well for those we have not taken the time to understand?
We have to care and act when we see injustices happening because, friends, I don't know how else to state it.
We have to care.
This seems like a very basic premise, right?
And yet, looking at the world around us, we can see that.
That is lacking.
In Hebrew, the word derash is translated in our text as require, but this is not a severe type of require.
It has undertones of affection and healthy dependency, such as the child requires the love of his parents.
For flowers require rain and sunshine.
There is a sense of seeking like a shepherd seeks the lost sheep.
So when God requires justice and kindness and mercy, it isn't that God is demanding these things by pounding a fist, is that God's seeks and yarns for them and needs them from us as partners in God's work here.
And now?
This is a longing that takes the form and the people of God when we intentionally reach out to those with whom we struggle or don't understand and engage in genuine conversation.
It happens when we do things that enact change, when we contact government officials.
When we use our voice on behalf of those who have been silenced, when we stand in solidarity with those who are being abused, it happens when we name out loud the things we see that are unjust.
Reporters being arrested for doing their jobs.
Peaceful protesters being shot.
It happens when we love others as much as we know God loves us.
It happens when our empathy outweighs our judgment.
God does not want us to put on the altar the things of this life that don't mean much to us, but instead we are called to place our love of self and our privilege on that altar so that we might be free to do what God has called us.
Siblings in Christ, ioffer these words from Micah as a closing may that they may remain on your heart this week.
God 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.
Amen.