With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6: 6-8
In the last few weeks I have been reading the book of Micah in my personal devotions and as I came upon this very familiar passage in the 6th chapter, I saw it in a new light (maybe what George Fox would call an opening). First of all, I was reminded again of the similarity between Micah’s time and our own. To the casual observer, the society of Micah’s time was a deeply religious one. Worship at the temple was well attended. The temple coffers were running over with gold and silver as well as cattle and rams for sacrifice and "rivers of oil." The favorite prophets and preachers of the land were proclaiming a message that personal wealth and prosperity was a sign of God’s blessing on the nation.
And into the midst of all this came the prophet Micah with a different message entirely -one that was not well received, particularly by the religious establishment. He accused the other prophets of preaching a false message of God’s blessing on the nation and turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the rampant greed and total lack of concern for the poor and mistreated in this oh so religious society. Micah preached that God was not impressed with their religious talk, and that he wasn’t pleased by all their sacrifices. In the most well known phrase in the book that bares his name, Micah says that God has shown people what he requires of them, to treat all people fairly and justly; to show mercy and compassion to all; and to show humility before God.
I believe we desperately need to hear that same message today. For too long certain groups in our society have their own agenda for determining who is and is not Christian based on where people stand on a list of issues like abortion, gay rights, the environment, and the belief that America occupies a most favored nation status with God that somehow makes everything we do in the world right.
This week our nation overwhelmingly voted against this so called Christian agenda, and no doubt in many pulpits this weekend evangelical ministers will rage against the results of the election as a further sign of America’s rejection of God. But what if, just of a moment we choose to look at it another way? What if we look at the events of this week through the lens of Micah 6:8? I believe that we’ll find is that people haven’t rejected God. What they have rejected is a certain understanding of God - one that’s built on the idea that our enemies are God’s enemies. One that’s based on the idea that it’s ok to hate people who are different; one that’s based on the idea that the world is beyond redemption and we’re just hanging out waiting for the end when all these wicked people finally get what they deserve. One where people without enough to eat literally dwell in the shadow of million dollar church buildings and campuses erected to the glory of God? One where Christian writers and speakers take greed and selfishness to a whole new level calling it how to get everything you want or need from God right now. One that asks along with Cain, "am I my brother’s keeper?"
I believe that what we have seen in the last few weeks is the expression of a desire to see God’s values at work in the world -those very attributes that Micah speaks about -justice for all people without exception which means for starters not holding the entire Moslem world responsible for the acts of a group of terrorists, not supporting retail businesses that sell cheap because their goods are made by underpaid people in third world countries (yes I am talking about WalMart), and admitting to the world we have directly or indirectly caused the deaths of more than 500,000 people in Iraq in a war for which there was no cause or justification.
It speaks about mercy. I was talking with an older fella the other day who lived through the Great Depression and the New Deal. He’s not as hopeful this time because of people’s mind set these days. He says the New Deal worked because if people went to the store for a can of beans and found they could afford two, they bought two and gave one of them to a neighbor who couldn’t afford them. He doesn’t have faith that folks today will do the same thing.
But I do. I have spent a lot of time with young people and I am, to use their word, totally impressed by what I have seen -people who are willing, even eager to help and support others, folks who are willing to sacrifice personal convenience and preference in order to protect the environment, young people who have been and are donating countless hours to causes they believe in, and all of them of which I am aware are in some way making life better for someone else. I think they are transforming the world right before our eyes.
And that brings us to the last part of Micah’s response -walking humbly with God - being willing to admit that we don’t have it all figured out - that we don’t have all the answers - and that more often than not history has found the church though well intentioned to be on the wrong side of change (slavery, women’s rights, treatment of Native Americans to name a few). But a lot of us are going to have to get our attention off John 3:16 and take a look at John 3:17. If God did not send his son into the world to condemn it but to save it, if he is going to use us, we are going to have to learn to follow his example.
I believe that what we have here is a great opportunity to embrace change and be God’s co-workers in the effort to transform and renew the world, or like the folks in Micah’s day we can keep on doing what we’ve been doing, and let God change the world in spite of us rather than through us. As Micah said, "He has showed you O man what is good." The question is what does the Lord require of you and me?
|
