Sermon Micah 6:1-8

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon Micah 6:1-8

Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church

June 22, 2008

As we gather together for worship this morning we are joining with the commissioners of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as they gather for worship in San Jose, California. These commissioners have been selected by presbyteries, the regional governing bodies of our denomination to jointly and prayerfully discern God’s will for our church. We have been asked to pray for these commissioners that they will lead the church of Jesus Christ through these challenging times, and that is what we are doing this morning.

Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus Christ you are the head of the church. We ask that your spirit come down right now on our General Assembly as they come together to discern your will for the church. Help them to discover how you wish to lead the church through this time of falling membership and limited budgets. Help them to discover better ways of proclaiming your gospel in today’s world. Help them to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God, amen.

James 2:1-6a: My brothers and sisters do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor.

Our General Assembly has taken as it biblical theme God’s challenge to the people of Jerusalem in the 8^th century B.C. delivered by the prophet, Micah who said “what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The 8^th century started as a golden era for Jerusalem. The Davidic dynasty had already existed for two hundred years giving them a level of political stability. Military alliances with the northern kingdom and with Aram had preserved the peace for many generations. This led to great prosperity as Jerusalem controlled the lucrative trade routes at the port of Joppa and along the great highway leading up from Ethiopia, through Egypt, passing Jerusalem and headed toward Damascus. This resulted in great wealth being amassed in the city which made it a target for their enemies. As the century progressed cracks appeared in the military alliance and the prosperity and freedoms they enjoyed where placed in peril.

It was in this context that the prophet Micah came to Jerusalem with a warning from God. Micah pointed to the high places where people from Jerusalem would climb to worship Baal, the weather God. God is coming, he said, and those hills would melt as if they were made of wax before a flame. Micah pointed to the marketplace where dishonest merchants would cheat people out of their money and their land. Micah pointed to the government officials, the priests and the prophets who all solicited bribes. Jerusalem, the holy city of God, had become a place of idolatry and injustice

Micah heard from God that the city would be punished. Already the arch enemy Assyria was on the march. City after city had fallen in their wake. Jerusalem was high on the Assyrian wish list and they were on the way. Jerusalem was facing defeat, destruction and exile. But God told Micah that this would not be the end of the story. A remnant of the people would remain to make the city holy again. A leader from Bethlehem would be born to lead the faithful remnant back to God.

The people of Jerusalem responded to Micah’s challenge. “What shall we do?” they asked. Let’s make a great sacrifice to the Lord and God will pardon us, they thought. Would a sacrifice of year old calves be sufficient? How many thousands of animals do we need? Should we sacrifice our first born sons? As the Assyrians approached the people of Jerusalem were desperate to find ways to appease their angry God.

But the prophet Micah told them that God’s love could not be bought by sacrifices. God didn’t care about their worship practices or their theology. God was not interested in good works, or even contributions to the church. What God wants his people to do is to fulfill the covenant the God had made with Abram: I will bless you so that you will be a blessing. The golden age of Israel was a blessing from God. And God demanded that the people be a blessing to those in need. God wanted them to “do justice” by caring for the poor and ensuring that they have food to eat and clothes to wear. God wanted them to “love kindness” so that they would no longer cheat people out of their money and land. And God wanted them to walk humbly with him as his creatures and not chase after idols and false gods.

This is a challenging message for our General Assembly. The commissioners will spend most of their time debating how the church will govern itself, do World Missions, interact with other denominations, promote the peace, unity and purity of our church, add to our confessional documents, advocate for peace around the world, elect new leaders for the denomination, and help the church to grow. All of these are important. But according to the prophet Micah our primary concern should be to ensure that the poor in the world are cared for, that people deal with each other with kindness, fairness and justice, and that as a church we realize that we are to do these things while walking humbly with our creator.

We can learn from Micah that as attendance in our churches declines God will maintain a remnant of faithful people. Many of these people, who will be restored to the church, will be the lame, the afflicted, and the poorest among us. These are the people who cry out for justice and kindness. They will be the given to the church and the promise is that God will richly bless the church that is a blessing to the poor. We can already see God’s work here at Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church. At our evening worship we see people who have lost their jobs and their homes and wondering what to do. They are coming to hear some good news and meet kind people who will listen to their stories of injustice. They are drawn here by the one Micah spoke of, the one who was born in Bethlehem, the one who feeds his flock, brings about justice and righteousness, and gives peace to the whole world.

A young couple worshiped with us last Sunday evening. They were hungry and stopped in St. Dominic’s to see if they were serving dinner Sunday night. St. Dominic’s sent them down to us. They worshiped with us and then ate dinner with us in Montgomery Hall. As I talked with them over dinner I found out that the husband had worked in retail for many years but had recently lost his job. He was looking for a new job and a place to live. Meanwhile they were living in a van and eating whatever people would give them. As we talked I found out about his great love of church. At one time he had been part of a praise band playing the drums and keyboard. I have been praying for Juan and his wife all week and hope that they will return this Sunday and will be a part of our church.

So lets pray for our General Assembly that they will guide us to be a church that truly does justice for those at the economic bottom of our society, a church that is kind to all people even to those who are much poorer than ourselves, and a church that stops deciding for itself what it wants to do, and begins walking humbly with our creator God. That is the kind of church that God will richly bless because it will be a blessing for others.

Let us pray: Father in Heaven we confess that we do not live in a just world. People are cheated out of the money and land, and wind up desperately poor. We ask that you help our General Assembly to deal with matters of poverty and injustice on a national and international level. We asked that you make the Presbyterian Church into a church that welcomes into its fellowship people from the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. Help us to be kind and welcoming into our fellowship all people especially those who really need to hear some good news for God. Help Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church to reach out to people in our community with love and kindness welcoming all people into our fellowship. We pray all of this in the name of the one Micah prophesied would come from Bethlehem, and would teach us to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God, our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.