We have been hearing a series of readings
about life under the covenant;
what life looks like
living under God’s promise of blessing.
Life under the covenant means forgiveness from God,
looking to the margins
to find the victims of abuse and oppression
who are not so easily seen.
Life under the covenant means
the call to wisdom in our sticky situations,
the call to offer love
and hope
and healing
when we are tempted to let fear and hate win.
As we will hear shortly,
life under the covenant looks like like doing justice,
loving kindness,
and walking humbly with our God.
Life under the covenant
looks like the life of Jesus Christ.
Today’s reading from Micah was written
during the time of the divided kingdoms.
Last week’s story about Naaman being healed by Elisha
occurred in Northern kingdom.
Now the Northern Kingdom is no more,
Samaria is no more.
Many refugees from the north
have come down from the south.
Micah is from the Southern Kingdom
and is a prophet to the Southern kingdom
about 100 years after Elijah & Elisha.
The exact date of Micah’s writing cannot be determined,
but it is quite likely this was written
around the year 701 BCE.
20 years earlier, in 721 BCE,
the Assyrians attacked
and captured Samaria,
capital of the Northern Kingdom,
ending the kingdom of Israel.
In 701 BCE,
Jerusalem, capital of the Southern Kingdom
was surrounded by the Assyrians.
At the same time of attack,
many smaller fortified cities were conquered.
Micah is the first prophet to declare
there’s trouble ahead for Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is the high place,
and high places get condemned
throughout Samuel and Kings,
where the people engage in idolatrous worship.
Micah is a rural prophet -
much of what you read might sounds like he’s anti-urban.
It might sound like people in Olds
talking about us Calgary city folk.
But this is not about the rural-urban divide.
You see, in Micah’s time,
Jerusalem gets a new king,
everyone’s excited about it.
At the same time, over in Assyria,
their great king was defeated in battle,
his body was lost.
All the other kingdoms rebel against the Assyrians.
Micah was not in favour of Israel joining this rebellion.
Over the years,
the new Assyrian emperor builds his army,
gets his horses,
and eventually he came to the divided kingdom,
and destroyed every fortified town in Judah.
The bible says God protected Jerusalem,
but as Micah writes,
even Jerusalem’s walls will soon fall.
Part of Micah’s prophecy:
Your rebellion destroyed all our fortified towns.
From you O Bethlehem will come what will rule in Judah.
Not from the elites in Jerusalem.
Some say what we have with Micah
is the first evidence of political spin with the prophets.
But this is no mere political spin.
It was a bleak outlook
for the Southern Kingdom when Micah wrote.
Micah isn’t just speaking to the people in Jerusalem,
but to the people in the towns and villages,
to people in the seemingly insignificant places,
to a people conquered.
Invite reader forward
As you hear today’s reading,
you might find yourself looking around the sanctuary,
expecting to see the Advent colour of Blue
and Christmas Trees.
It is hard to hear this reading
without thinking of Advent and Christmas,
this is a passage that points to the coming Messiah,
to be born in Bethlehem.
When the original audience heard about
a ruler coming out of Bethlehem,
they would look back and think of King David.
Micah is certainly alluding to David,
but his words are full of hope for the future as well.
So let us open our hearts and minds
to hearing God’s Word for us today:
Reading: : Micah [1:3-5]; 5:2-5a; 6:6-8
A Reading from Micah.
[1:3 For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4 Then the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will burst open, like wax near the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. 5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?]
5:2 But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. 3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. 4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; 5 and he shall be the one of peace.
6:6 "With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? 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 thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" 8 He 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?
Word of God. Word of Life.
Thanks be to God!
Today is Grey Cup Sunday.
If you’re going to the game today,
or even a watch party,
you want to look the part.
You might wear the official football jersey,
or a team jacket.
Maybe you even put an old football
on the coffee table.
Some wild men might paint their chests with team colours
though face paint is more than enough.
It’s kind of backwards,
it is the players on the field who need to look the part,
and it is for the good of the team.
In the stands,
you don’t wear the team gear to play the game.
But you want to look like you got game,
so you wear the right shoes,
the clothing, the accessories,
you speak the football lingo
so it looks like you’ve got game.
Christians are really good at looking the part.
We’ve got our cross necklaces
and leather bound bibles.
God isn’t calling the Christian
to merely look like a Christian.
God does not need
another Jesus-fish sticker on a car,
God does not need
another passive aggressive Facebook post
about keeping Christ in Christmas.
God wants what the world needs:
The world needs justice,
mercy,
kindness,
and humility of faith.
The world needs the peace of Christ.
If the world is a football game,
the world doesn’t need more fans in the stands,
the world needs ballers.
The world needs people who’ve got game,
not just fans who look the part.
Micah’s writings look back and look forward.
It looks back to king David
coming unexpectedly out of Bethlehem,
And it looks forward in hope
to another ruler from Bethlehem,
one of peace.
Christians believe this to be Jesus Christ,
born in Bethlehem,
from the line of Jesse,
descended from David.
But maybe Micah is talking about
yet another to come out of Bethlehem.
I’m not talking about another king David.
I’m not talking about the return of Jesus Christ
to judge the living and the dead.
Micah’s vision of hope
sees another rule of peace
like is promised out of Bethlehem.
It is You and I
who can come out of Bethlehem and bring peace.
Remember that Bethlehem was not a significant place.
It is now for Christians and Jews,
but there was no real significance to Bethlehem
when David became king.
just another town.
God operates in the unexpected
and seemingly insignificant places.
God stirs up hope,
God stirs up justice
God stirs up peace
in unlikely places,
Like Bethlehem,
or Nazareth,
or Cochrane
or maybe even NW Calgary.
It is you and I
who can come out of our backwoods towns
and be the peace the world needs.
We really ought to read the whole book of Micah
so we know what the prophet is getting at
regarding what God requires of us.
There’s more to Micah than just 6:8.
Micah offers oracles of judgment
and oracles of hope
Three times over.
The Northern Kingdom has been conquered.
injustice and oppression reign.
Jerusalem is next.
and it’s your own fault
It is Israel’s own fault.
How will you make it right for all the injustice
all the sin
all the wickedness
in the political realm,
in the religious realm,
anyone in power.
After all the harm you’ve caused
How will you make it right?
That’s what the faithful are called into:
you make a mistake,
you own it,
you apologize
and you make it right.
We hear these words,
and God could be talking to
some of our political leaders
some of our industry and business leaders
and some of our own religious leaders.
God could be talking to us.
How do we make it right?
Micah starts with the big offerings,
is it enough to sacrifice an animal without blemish?
No, well how about ten thousand animals,
is that enough?
No, well how about ten thousand rivers of oil,
is that enough?
If that didn’t sound absurd enough,
Micah says, okay then,
shall I give my first born?
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.
You and I know that this is absurd,
but an important detail here,
Micah is simply naming what is already happening.
The Kings in Jerusalem after Hezekiah
incorporated child sacrifice.
No - God does not require any of that.
God does not need another burnt offering.
God does not need people to just look the part.
Here’s what God requires.
Do Justice.
We might ask ourselves, then,
Is it enough for me to offer God a tithe of my income?
Not enough? Okay, how about half?
Should I sell my house and give that?
Will that be enough to make it right?
Micah says
It’s not about the grand acts of sacrifice.
It’s about the little things that add up.
It’s about justice,
kindness,
mercy,
and humility of faith.
Put another way,
It’s not about looking the part,
but acting the part.
It’s not about dressing up to watch the football game,
but getting on the field and asking yourself
- do you got game?
I ought to pause and acknowledge that
we all might have our own idea of what justice is.
So what is the justice Micah speaks of?
Is it equality?
Is it freedom from governing authorities?
Is it criminals being properly punished?
Is it innocent until proven guilty
or retribution for crimes
that are difficult to prove guilt?
The word translated justice is Mishpat,
this involves caring for the widow, orphan and poor,
practicing justice without corruption,
that everyone is allowed the means
to support themselves.
The word translated kindness is Hessed,
God’s covenantal faithfulness,
God’s fidelity to Israel,
and the faithfulness Israel is asked to show God.
Kindness is a good word,
but in English it is perhaps too weak a word.
This is not about being nice.
This is about the quality it takes to be faithful:
kindness is God’s covenant love in action,
working for the good of the other.
The word translated Humbly
is a word lost in translation,
we don’t really know what it means.
It probably means to walk intentionally with your God.
Think of humility here as your daily walk with Jesus,
an intentional relationship.
Micah speaks of the justice
that the prophet Amos spoke of,
and Hosea
and the Isaiah prophets.
The justice Micah speaks of
is about judging rightly,
knowing what is right and what is wrong.
It is about fairness
and equality
and equity.
Personal power or advantage
do not allow another to suffer injustice.
Micah’s justice is hard to come by
when the focus is on exploitation and greed.
Micah’s justice is about daily life:
justice every day
found in kindness
and fairness
and righteousness.
Micah’s justice is part of Shalom,
a deep peace
that is not just satisfied with a lack of conflict
but hopes tangibly for blessing
going forward.
That’s the justice that Israel was called into.
So what does biblical justice look like today?
What does it mean for the Christian to have game
and not just look the part?
Doing justice is hard.
Loving kindness and mercy is hard.
If it were easy our world would look so much different.
But you know there are ways we can live this today.
Do it in small ways.
Do it in larger, communal ways.
Don’t just wear the cross necklace,
live resurrection.
Don’t just wear the inclusion pin,
but live reconciliation in relationships.
Don’t just go to church,
be the Church.
Get out of the stands, turn the TV off
and find your place on the field.
If you are the one who is focused on looking the part,
trust that God’s Spirit will guide you
and gift you.
By God’s grace - you do got game.
One way or another,
you too can be peace,
be shalom,
be justice,
be kindness,
be humble in faith.
For God goes with you on the way.
Remember Micah wasn’t just speaking against
the political powers,
but the religious ones as well.
Micah also spoke of Hope.
Hope belongs to the faithful.
Hope belongs to those without power.
In the end, hope wins.
God will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea,
God will be faithful,
And by God’s work,
we all shall know justice,
kindness,
and humility in our walk with God.
By God’s grace,
may you and I be the peace
that God calls out of Bethlehem.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
