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| Title: | Micah, the Prophets and God's View of Politics |
| Reference: | Micah 6: 6-8 |
| Notes: | Micah 6: 6-8: A Prophetic Perspective on Politics 10 26 08
I want to talk to you about a concern that lies at the heart of the prophets. Let's start with a question. Think about the basic human emotions—joy, sadness, comfort, anger, and peace—which emotion do you think most often characterizes the prophets? Don't the prophets strike you as kind of cranky? Honestly. Let me give you a few examples. Amos said, "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan…who oppress the poor and crush the needy" (Amos 4:1). Isaiah says, "Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me…I cannot bear your evil assemblies" (Isaiah 1:13). Micah, "Should you not know justice, you who hate good and love evil? Who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones, who eat my people's flesh, strip off their skin, break their bones, chop them up like meat for food.” Over the top?
Not only do they use angry words, but prophets also resort to shock tactics that seem bizarre: Hosea marries a prostitute to show how unfaithful the Israelites have become.
Ezekiel eats food cooked over excrement to show how defiled God's people have become. Jeremiah digs up a filthy, buried, unwashed undergarment to use as a way to show how evil Isaiah walked around naked for three years as a sign to Israel of their coming Assyrian exile. Prophets filled w this but we like happy books-Joel Olsteen-smile? *Why read the prophets?
We need to hear the message of the prophets. We do it because they're in the Bible. It would not be a good thing to have Obadiah walk up to you and say, "How'd you like my book?" and then for you to say, "Well, I didn't actually read it. It was in a bad location & it was too whiney." There is a reason why God chose 17 books of the Bible to be the books of the prophets. There is a reason for the anger of the prophets. Now more than ever we need to read/ reflect on prophets.
Imagine that you're listening to somebody sing and they're singing off key, badly off key, and they're singing loudly: early American Idol auditions… If you're musically insensitive, tin ear, it doesn't bother you much, and if the singer is your grandchild, it may even give you pleasure; but if you're musically sensitive- Judy, perfect pitch, that's a different story because you know what the song could be. You know what the song should be. You know how far it's off: you look at tin-eared grandma and wonder, how can she listen to this? How can she stand it? This is painful to you. You're in agony. Now imagine listening to that horrible sound day after day after day…
We read the prophets and think, * what's the big deal? What are they getting so heated up about? Because to most of us in this room, society's not so bad. Things are generally going okay for me. I know there's violence in the world, and it's regrettable. But as long as it doesn't touch my life, I'd prefer not to think much about it. Certainly that violence couldn't be connected to my anger, my hostility, my indifference, or my lack of love. Cheating is another example. I know it's not ideal, but it goes on every day in the business world. Pick up the business section. Pick up the newspaper. It's just the way things are. Congressional hearings trying to find culprits of collapse
The same thing goes for poverty and disease. Eight thousand children and young people are born w or infected w hiv every day in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is now the leading cause of death. Not far from this room, children are growing up in very poor homes w limited food. Poverty is a reality in WV. Many will grow up in homes so chaotic that they will not access education, health care or decent housing. But they're not my children. Parents lazy & deserve it?
Jesus, who is called a prophet in the Bible, if someone’s in prison and doesn't get visited, if somebody's hungry and doesn't get fed, if someone’s naked and doesn't get clothed, he's the One who suffers. Jesus dies a little bit. The prophet’s message is the God cares about the hurting.
* Prophets were intense because they were given a heavy burden of looking at our world, seeing what God sees, knowing what God knows, feeling what God feels, & it crushed them.
They saw rich people trying to get richer, looking the other way while poor people died, and thinking God was really pretty pleased with their lives and the world was really getting along pretty well. Every one of the prophets learned this about people: we really don't want to know the truth about what our sin has done in our lives and to our world. We really would prefer not to know, because that would make us uncomfortable. Micah 2, this people just wants more beer…
We become deaf and blind to our sin and to the hurt all around us. We see what we want to see.
The events that horrified and appalled and broke and crushed the prophets are everyday occurrences in our world. We don't want to know. We don't want to see. We don't want anybody to tell us about human misery and injustice. We just get used to it. Like you get used to wearing your watch, like you get used to stuff that you don't fix around the house. After awhile you just don't notice anymore. The prophets noticed. That was their gift. That was their burden. The prophets noticed. It’s annoying when people notice what you’d rather not deal w…HS cheating.
*Prophets were people who comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable… balance.
A. Heschel said: "The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God is raging in the prophet's words." The prophets really do speak for God. They see what God sees. They speak what God feels, and we omit them from our lives and our reading of S. b/c they move us out of our comfort zone...
So how do we respond? What should we do? Should we just be paralyzed by the immensity of injustice in this world? Should we sit around doing nothing but feeling guilt b/c world broken?
Micah sums up the response God is looking for in * Micah 6:6-8: heart & soul of prophets
Micah contemp of Isaiah & Hosea. Active 735-710bc. No. kingdom of Israel was captured and exiled to Assyria in 722bc - Micah spoke to people who were hurting, confused, fearful… today
"With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to him w burnt offerings, w calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams? W/ ten thousand rivers of oil?" [Notice the escalation: if I do more, God love me more?]
"Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" (infant sacrifice was going on all around Israel. No!) * "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" Micah: "You can pretend. You can act confused about what God wants, but he has shown you..." Micah: from the very beginning God has been very clear.
* God wants us to do JUSTICE: He highlights three things: Do justice is number one.
To act w justice involves seeing the innocent, helpless and those abused/ neglected by the system Jesus acted justly when he cleared temple of moneychangers who cheating the poor pilgrims:
Just think for a moment about how mad you get when somebody treats you unfairly. Every one of us in here could tell stories, and our blood boils pretty quickly when injustice happens to us. When someone cuts me off in traffic or tailgates me I’m angry but when I do it… no big deal.
If I’ve been pulled over for speeding and someone passes us going 100 and I’m like, hey… see?
Dave Hagler is a former referee and umpire who tells the ultimate justice story. This was in the LA Times some time ago. "I was driving too fast in the snow in Boulder, Colorado," he says. "And a policeman pulled me over and gave me a speeding ticket. I tried to talk him out of it, telling him how worried I was about insurance, what a good driver I am and so on. He told me if I didn't like it I could go to court. First game of the next baseball season I'm umpiring behind home plate, and the first batter up is the same policeman. I recognize him; he recognizes me. He asks me, "How did the thing with the ticket go?" I tell him, "Swing at everything."
We hate it when somebody treats us unfairly. If it happens in my work, with my friends, or even in my family, we tell those stories. We dream about how to get revenge. A whole lot of the movies we go to see are about somebody getting hurt and wronged, & then trying to get revenge. We struggle with injustice until it hits home and then we want vengeance.
Story: A nice, calm, respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, "I would like to buy some cyanide." The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world do you need cyanide?" The lady replied, "I need it to poison my husband." The pharmacist's eyes got big and he exclaimed, "I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband. That's against the law! I will lose my license! They'll throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!" The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband at a fancy restaurant having dinner with and holding hands with the pharmacist's wife. The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, "Well now, that's different. You didn't tell me you had a prescription."
God is telling you, thro Micah, to get as energized about it when someone else is the victim of injustice as you are when it's yourself. In particular, look out for the poor/ powerless.
We live in a world where injustice, large and small, goes on every day, everywhere. Micah says this is what God requires of you: Do justice. Be an agent of justice. I can't correct all the injustice of the world, but I can do something: I can notice, read, study, be thoughtful about what's going on in this world. I can pay attention to which governments and companies are being just. I can pray, ask God to help me treat others fairly and at least have the courage to stand up for people who are getting treated unfairly in my little world:in my school, office, neighborhood:
I can give some of what I have to others who have no food or no home or no hope. Do justice.
Back when my kids were little we were driving around Clarksburg and we had stopped our van at a stop light by the Hardees. There, just a few feet away, was a gang of boys, beating up this kid. The leader of the gang has him in a headlock and his pounding his head. I try to keep looking at the light but the reality of that boy getting beat up a few feet from my car finally hit me, line of cars waiting nobody is doing anything, and so I got out and walked straight over to the group of boys yelling-sound tough, “What’s going on here? Why?” I remember thinking that as I approached the boys that this could go badly for me but I knew Mona was there… and thankfully just drawing attention to the beating caused the bully to release him, they all scattered. I don’t think of myself as Justice Man w J on shirt but just as someone willing to get involved.
* God wants us to love MERCY. The word Micah uses is hesed means kindness. In OT, it is the word most closely associated with God's lovingkindness expressed in the covenant, which is the basis of his relationship w us. It is steadfast love that always seeks to express itself in action.
You & I who have so much health and time and more resources than we know how to consume. Have you helped anyone lately? Do you love kindness? That's what the Lord requires of us, to live a lifestyle of that. It starts with one step. Love is patient & kind. Jesus’ story GS:
I was reflecting on this area of mercy and kindness and it occurred to me that a kind person is just a willingness to slow down and engage other people, & get involved in their lives. I struggle here because I tend to pull back from people… I don’t mean to be unkind or unsociable but I just struggle to initiate encounters-dad. I tend to stand back & speak when spoken to. I have a public pastor image where I try to engage and greet people but that does not come naturally for me. But if I want to be kind, I must be willing to slow down, see a need and ask people about it. When Tom Jamison and I were in Columbus visiting Pat Ahlborn, I watched Tom. He is different… Tom talks to everyone we passed, he spoke to the nurses, every hospital worker, food service people, he stopped and talked to a woman with a baby in a stroller… he cared about everyone. And I found myself almost getting impatient… do we have to talk to everyone, Tom…?
Jesus predicts that in the last days the “love of many will grow cold.” We will pull in and take care of ourselves and forget about others. I know that all my life has been gift so I will share k…
So this week I’m going out to my car at the end of the day and I see this lady, my age, pulling a food cart. Metal box w two wheels and it’s piled high w groceries. Heavy. She’s pulling the cart in the street around my car. So I spoke to her: hey that cart is full, looks heavy, how far do you have to go? The lady agreed, told me her destination was a trailer park near the river. That’s a few miles. I can walk. That’s fine but I can give you a ride. She stopped. OK, be nice. She was slow… 5 times in the next two miles she said, “My name is Joy ?.” Each time I said, “That’s a nice name. I’m Kurt…” She told me about her job and her current family. Then we got to her home, she was so thankful for the ride… Now I know that I’m supposed to be careful giving women rides and I don’t want this woman to take rides from people who might want to harm her but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time and it seems to me that Jesus missed an opportunity to help someone or show kindness even though those around him judged his every move and motives… it’s the Sabbath don’t heal that hand, she’s an adulterer/die…etc.
* God wants us to walk HUMBLY with him.
Do justice. Love kindness. And the third—walk humbly before our God. I think Micah included that one because it's hard work to be a prophet and not get all self-righteous about it. Did you ever notice that? Ever see anybody in a church who loves to go around correcting other people? There's a kind of person who loves to do that, who loves to pass judgment in a spirit of arrogant superiority, which they then cover up by saying, "I'm a prophet. I have the gift of prophecy." There is a very important theological distinction between being prophet and being a jerk. What burns most deeply in the heart of a true prophet is not anger but love. I struggle most deeply here because I evaluate things from my Christian perspective and so much today that is wrong is put forward in a creative or funny way… who are you to object? Anything a pastor says becomes a prophetic announcement whereas if I was just a plumber it would be different… I think when a person is in a position of speaking the words of God, he can get confused, prideful. We all struggle with thinking we’re better or somehow above others. Disciples in Lk.9 wanted to call down fire on some S. people who refused them lodging. Jesus rebuked them. Politics:
Shrek, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were all having lunch together. Shrek said, "I have always believed that I'm the strongest man in the world, but how can I be sure?" Angelina Jolie agreed. "I'm told I'm the most beautiful woman of them all, but sometimes I wonder." Brad Pitt said, "I'm pretty sure I'm the sexiest man alive, but I've never had it confirmed." They all decided that the best way to find out if their suspicions were true was to ask the famed, talking "mirror, mirror on the wall" (from Snow White) to confirm whether Shrek was the strongest, Angelina Jolie the most beautiful and Brad Pitt the sexiest. They agreed to meet again for lunch the following day to reveal their findings. The next day, Shrek approached his friends with a smile. "Well, it's true," he said. "The mirror told me that I am indeed the strongest man in the world." Angelina Jolie replied gleefully, "And the mirror told me that I am the most beautiful woman of them all." Brad Pitt looked up, sad & depressed, "Who in the world is Kurt Busiek?!"
Jesus was in Bethany with Mary and Martha. Martha was busy doing, making preparations while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet doing nothing but listening to Jesus. Martha says, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work? (injustice) Tell her to help me!” Jesus: “Martha, you are worried and upset by many things but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her.” This is the word of Lord thro the Micah to Israel and us: you are worried and upset and angry about many things, but only one thing is truly needed. Sit down at my feet. Listen. Pray. Seek my will. Walk humbly w me. We think we impress God by knowing more & doing more but God says, “to obey is better than sacrifice.”
I met a man in the park while I was having lunch… he was doing a crossword puzzle under the same shelter and I asked him how I was doing as I made my way back to my car. He made a joke and then said something else and for the next hour, I’m talking to this guy about his life and his war experiences and his family & work… I guess I don’t get out enough, but this guy had very colorful speech, swearing/ cursing every other word, telling racy stories; my first impression was to right him off as a struggling sinner but as I listened to him, I found out that was a very intelligent, caring person who had helped countless people through his background in counseling and he was a person of faith who loved God and cared for people. When I left this man, I was struck by how quickly I judge people who are different, how quickly my pride rises up & puts me above others because of the way they talk or how they live-hard to walk humbly
* What does God require of you? Real simple. Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly before the Lord our God. Now the only question is: will you really do it? *Hard times are ahead. The question will we pull back and complain/ whine or step forward and love because God is love?
I feel like Emmanuel has been trying to promote justice, mercy, love thro our ministries:
We feel strongly about our presidential choice because of justice, kindness and humility: we feel our choice represents justice on key issues that matter to us, that they will have mercy and promote kindness in their policies toward those who are struggling, and that deep in their hearts they wont let power go to their heads but will like A. Lincoln walk humbly with God thro crisis.
Lincoln: “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had not where else to go.”
1 Chon. 7: 14 Prayer: the cross combines your justice- you laid our sin on Jesus, your mercy-we didn’t deserve your grace but you poured it freely upon us, & the cross reveals the humility of your son who was willing to walk w you all the way to Calvary & to die there for us and then to rise again
Closing hymn No. 517 “I’d Rather Have Jesus”
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