Celebrating
the freeing, supportive presence of God. So your experience of God may
become your experience of life. It is wonderful what God can do!
"What Does the Lord Require"
OT: Micah 6: 6-8
July 24, 2005
Good Morning!
Tuesday, July 19th, 2005 . . .
Were you there? Did you see it?
Did you hear it?
The Perry United Methodist Church gathered as a congregation on the public sidewalk and street in the north corner of their parking lot and had a one hour discussion for all to see.
They were honest in their expressions of concern, excited about the possibilities of ministry, eager to show the community that the day had arrived when their church would set a new standard for its visitors and its members as they parked and entered our doors.
We were not filled with pride because, basically, we had no money. It was therefore necessary to commit the project to God, who alone is the ultimate supplier of our needs. Of course it would have been easier had we heard a booming voice from Heaven telling us what to do and how to trust for our needs. But then again, a booming voice probably would have distracted us for another 30 years. And distraction is precisely what God did not want.
Did you realize that in the work we are doing to the building, the front walkway and hopefully, now, the parking lot, we are actually meeting the criteria of a particular Scripture which both raises a question and delivers an answer.
That Scripture is this morning's reading from Micah: "With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? …
--shall I bring burnt offerings?
--shall I bring a year old calf?
--shall I bring a thousand rams?
--shall I bring ten thousand rivers of oil?
--shall I give my firstborn?
--shall I give the fruit of my body?
This list may sound unusual and awkward to us today, because the things we value are quite a bit different than the things which were of value 2500 years ago.
Perhaps if it were said in this way:
--shall I give hundreds of thousands of dollars?
--shall I give my high definition TV?
--shall I give my complex computer?
--shall I give my children to the seminary?
--shall I give myself to a vow of poverty?
The answer, in this Scripture, is not stated, but rather there is this strong aura that hangs over this final question … you just know the answer to all of these questions is "no."
From the long list of questions, comes this abrupt answer:
"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."
I just love this passage of Scripture. It first came alive to me when I was just 13 years of age. A beloved pastor in my home church didn't do anything special or unusual, but simply spoke it from memory with such conviction and such compassion that I never again forgot it, nor desired to forget it!
Look at it with me … The word "Justice" in our society is most often used to describe a state of being. For example, "We strive to have justice" or "Without law there is no justice." But here in this Scripture Micah brings the word to the forefront … it is no longer a state of being or not being; rather for Micah it is something that must be worked-it is action. Micah says that God requires that we -do- justice. This places it in the active mode. Whenever we see or hear of In-justice, we are reminded that it should draw us into action because God requires of us to be about the work and the business of justice.
The word justice is sometimes interpreted as "fairness" and I like that definition because it suits our daily language. If I were to say to you, "It seems unjust to require people to take their lives in their hands to cross a slanted, icy parking lot," you probably would be distracted by the word "unjust." On the other hand, if I were to say "It seems unfair to require people to take their lives in their hands to cross a slanted, icy parking lot," you might more quickly agree.
Perhaps more applicable to our current situation, is the second part of Micah's recorded word, "to love kindness." Usually when we think of "kindness" we think of a one-on-one experience - how we conduct ourselves one to the other. But this morning I would like you to examine "kindness" to ourselves and our visitors as a group.
We show group "kindness" when we respond to a local emergency by offering our time or help. We show group "kindness" when we respond to a national emergency by offering what we can for hurricane or earthquake victims. We show group "kindness" when we respond to an international emergency by offering funds, or flood buckets, school and medical supplies.
Did you ever stop to think that we have the ability to offer "kindness" to each other, and to our friends, and to our visitors, and to our community - by providing a safe environment - or at least as safe as we can reasonably make it! It is for that reason, that I firmly believe that the Spirit of God was in our midst last Tuesday as we gathered to share with one another.
Yes, it was a public testimony, a public showing of God's people in the midst of God's community. But it was also a discussion about the needs of people and how we could respond to them. I could just about sense the smile of God in our midst as we went about doing a good thing for people in his name.
Lastly, "What Does the Lord Require of You?" The Lord requires a humble walk with Him. Although this is as equally beautiful in its writing, it is probably the most difficult one to accomplish.
A humble walk with God means we must regularly recognize that we are not the power or the ultimate supplier. We, as human beings, have this need for recognition, for reward, for acknowledgement. God knows we do because God knows our nature. And that is why I believe that God gives us this zinger! He knows that we will spend the rest of our lives being challenged by this almost impossible dream - walking humbly with God.
Some of us have reached the point where we can say honestly that we do give God the credit for much of that which is accomplished. But did you ever stop to think that telling somebody that something is impossible is pride and therefore not humility.
If God says that all things are possible through Him who loved us, who are we to pridefully contradict God and say there are some things impossible. It is here that we find our greatest challenge - believing that so much more than we thought would be possible because we commit it to God. Isn't that the point of serving a living God as opposed to an idol or a statue?
I'm sure that God smiles down on us so many times, and says again, down through the ages,
"Come, walk humbly with me … come, walk in faith with me …
come, expecting to move the mountain previously thought immovable …
come, walk with me - believing -really believing - that I can do all things for those who place their trust in me; and you, my child, can depend that I will always be in the side of justice, kindness, and humility. Amen.
Please take some time to browse our Sermon Archives - where we'll be storing sermons for you to enjoy again...
Also you may email the church for any Sermons you'd like to see again. perryumc@frontiernet.net
