Sermon Micah 6:1-8 Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon Micah 6:1-8 Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

January 29, 2017

I have some bad news for you this morning. We have received a summons to go to court because we are being sued. We have been accused of not fulfilling a contract we had agreed to follow. And so the other party of contract is suing us for not do what we promised to do. We are about to enter into the courtroom and be confronted by our accuser. So we better begin with prayer.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety to thy glory and our own edification.” Amen. (Calvin)

Micah 6:1 Listen to what the Lord says:

“Stand up, plead my case before the mountains;

let the hills hear what you have to say.

2 “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;

listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.

For the Lord has a case against his people;

he is lodging a charge against Israel.

So we have come into a courtroom unlike any you have ever visited to seen on TV. Sitting as our judge are the mountains and hills and the foundations of the earth. Our Judge is everything from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the highest and lowest places of earth. This means that all of God’s Creation will judge the dispute between God and us. We, the people of God, are the defendants. That is why we are here, to answer God’s complaint. God himself is our accuser. And God is ready to bring an accusation against us. Let’s listen to God’s opening remarks.

3 “My people, what have I done to you?

How have I burdened you? Answer me.

So what God wants to know is there anything that God has done or not done that creates problems for us. This would be your opportunity to tell God what you are angry about. But before we do this let’s try to remember what God has done for us. What kind of blessings have we received from God? Here is what God wants you to remember.

4 I brought you up out of Egypt

and redeemed you from the land of slavery.

I sent Moses to lead you,

also Aaron and Miriam.

5 My people, remember

what Balak king of Moab plotted

and what Balaam son of Beor answered.

Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,

that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”

God has reminded Israel the he had provided for them during their forty years in the wilderness. He redeemed them from slavery in Egypt. He provided them with leaders, priests and prophets. He protected them from curses and armies. He provided them with food and water. God had blessed his people abundantly.

So too with us. We should remember how much God has blessed us. God has given us life and health and good land, water and food, and families and homes and church, everything we need for a good life. God has given us a world of abundant blessings. God has also given his Son to us, who died for our sins, and was raised from the dead leading us to eternal life. It is important to remember all that God has given us. And we should gratefully respond.

But we don’t respond gratefully and God has a problem with our tepid response. His blessings for us came as part of a covenant. God promised to bless us richly, which he has, so that we may be a blessing to others. Listen to the terms of the contract

Genesis 12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

We are blessed to be a blessing. God has blessed us richly in many different way. But we have not kept our end of the bargain. And so God is suing us demanding that we fulfill our end of the contract.

We have reached the end of God’s opening statement in the trial. Now it is time to hear from our defense attorney. And so an unnamed man stood up to speak and here is what he said.

6 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?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?

Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

How are we supposed to respond to God’s complaint? We come to church on Sundays. Maybe we should have church every day, maybe six times a day. We tithe to the church. Maybe we should empty our bank accounts and max out our credit cards to give to the church. How much does God want from us? What are we supposed to do?

We have heard God’s complaint that we are not performing our responsibility in the contract. And we have heard our response that we are doing enough, to do more would be absurd. Now it is time for the judge to proclaim a just decision. All of creation from the mountain tops to the depths of the sea are now ready to resolve our dispute with God. And here is what we must do.

8 He has shown you, O mortal, 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.

That’s it! What we must do to be in compliance with the covenant between God and his people is “to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our creator.

Act Justly

God has given us a world of abundance. But sin has caused an imbalance. Some people do not share in the rich abundance God has provided. Our role as people of God is to reorder our world, to mitigate the effects of sin, to ensure that the abundant blessings provided by God are shared by all. We are to share the blessings we receive from God with those who unjustly have been denied. We are to act with justice, mishpat, and care for the poor and needy and disabled in our city.

Love Mercy

God loves us. God’s love is steadfast. God is loyal. God will never leave us. God’s love for us is like the love a parent has for a child. When a young child feels alone and vulnerable she begins to cry. A loving parent picks her up and the child knows that she is safe and secure in the arms of a loving parent. This is how God loves us. It is called, hesed, steadfast love. And we are to love others just as God loves us. So when people in our church or our communities are feeling vulnerable we are to love them as God loves us and keep them safe and secure.

Walk Humbly

As we go about our ordinary lives we should always remember that God is always there with us. As the psalmist said: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105) We should always be aware that God is with us continually. And God is always bringing us opportunities for us to do justice and love mercy. We should recognize what God is doing in the world around us and act in the way God wants us to act.

The judgment has been handed down. And we are to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. Let’s conclude today with a story of someone who did justice, loved mercy and walked humbly with God.

“In his book, To End All Wars, Ernest Gordon describes his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II along the Kwai River. His Japanese captors forced their prisoners to work in low-lying swampland. They beat to death or simply beheaded any prisoners who seemed to lag.

Eventually a combination of beriberi, malaria, dysentery, typhoid and diphtheria took its toll on Gordon. Basically paralyzed and no longer able to eat, he asked his fellow prisoners to bring him to the Death House where prisoners went to die.

However, while Gordon was in the Death House, God’s Spirit moved along the Kwai River. One particular event exemplified that movement. When no one confessed to stealing a Japanese guard’s missing shovel, he began to scream, “All die! All die!”

As he raised his rifle to fire at the first prisoner in line, a prisoner of war stepped forward and said, “I did it.” The enraged guard then raised his rifle high in the air and beat the man to death with it.

However, when the prisoners inventoried their tools that evening, they discovered the guard had made a mistake: no shovel was missing. They realized that their fellow prisoner had voluntarily given his life in order to spare them.

Gordon remembers how God used such selflessness to change the prisoners along the River Kwai. They began looking out for each other instead of themselves. Two Christian Scots demonstrated this change by coming to the Death House every day to care for Gordon.

They dressed the ulcers on Gordon’s legs and massaged his atrophied muscles. By doing so, they gradually restored him to what passed for health along the Kwai River. Those Christians showed their love of mercy by tenaciously nursing Gordon back to health.¹

Act Justly. Love Mercy. Walk Humbly with your God. Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, We thank you for all the blessings we have received from your hand. We thank you for the day you have created. We thank you for our lives, our health, and our joy. We thank you for family, friends and church. And we thank you for the gift of your son our Lord, Jesus Christ who saved us from sin. In his name we pray. Amen.

1 http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/epiphany-4a/?type=old_testament_lectionary