It was a golden opportunity, and between us we reflected on Micah's vision, recorded in chapter 6:6-8
6 What shall I bring to the Lord, the God of heaven, when I come to worship him? Shall I bring the best calves to burn as offerings to him? 7 Will the Lord be pleased if I bring him thousands of sheep or endless streams of olive oil? Shall I offer him my first-born child to pay for my sins? 8 No, the Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.Below you will find our three short sermons on each of the elements, Marci chose Justice, Rola chose Humble Fellowship and I chose (was happy to be left with) Constant Love
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| Three RevGals ready to preach the Word |
To Seek Justice
I'm a justice kind of person. Sometimes that's a good
quality, and sometimes less so. I'm willing to stand up for the people whose
voices are not being heard and advocate with them to bring justice and mercy their
way. When that kind of justice informs my life, things go pretty well.
I only have 5 minutes, so I will spare you of the
illustrations of when my finely-honed sense of justice doesn't bring out the
best in me.
Justice work has taken up a fair amount of my pubic ministry
in the United States, both working for justice in the church and in the secular
political sphere as well. While the United States technically has a separation
of church and state that is different than here in Scotland, clergy still can
use our office to speak to public matters. I regularly speak to the state
legislature and my city council about issues where I see proposed ordinances
working in opposition to the values I see in scripture. I advocate for better
care for homeless people, access to healthcare, women's rights to make their
own healthcare choices, welcome and hospitality for refugees and immigrants,
and for the full inclusion of people in church and society, regardless of their
sexual orientation.
St Francis of Assisi is quoted as saying "It is no
use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching". I
do preach about justice issues from the pulpit, if the issue is related to the
text I'm preaching. I recognize that unless my life outside the pulpit matches
the words I say when I'm preaching, then my words are in vain. I pray my walking
is my preaching, as much as my sermons are. As the hymn we just sang puts it,
"faith proves itself in deeds".
Of course, one person's deeds, or stands on issues of
justice may be seen by another person as heresy, or at least bad public policy.
And people of faith differ on all of those justice issues I have mentioned,
even within my congregation. People have different views on those and so many
other issues at play in our world today. While scripture is my guide as I
navigate issues of justice, I recognize it is also the guide for some of the
people who view those same topics and reach very different conclusions.
I don't want to steal from the rest of our passage from
Micah, which is what Julie and Rola are going to be preaching on, but it is
important that Micah connects those three behaviors. If justice is not pursued
while attending to "loving kindness" and "walking humbly"
as the text continues, it ceases to be justice. Justice, removed from loving
kindness and humility is a bullying dominance.
Martin Luther King, Jr, an American civil rights icon, whose
writings challenge me every day, wrote this about the relationship to love and justice:
"Power without
love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anaemic.
Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at
its best is power correcting everything that stands against love".
Justice is never about only removing someone from
oppression. Justice has to also be about liberating the oppressor. Walter Wink,
an American theologian wrote:
“The command to love
our enemies reminds us that our first task towards oppressors is pastoral: to
help them recover their humanity... It is not enough to become politically
free; we must also become human.
“There is no one, and
surely no entire people, in whom the image of God has been utterly
extinguished. Faith in God means believing that anyone can be transformed,
regardless of the past.”
This is not to say we are to remain passive in the face of
injustice. Just because an oppressor is also a child of God does not mean we
stand by and encourage their oppression. To really seek justice that would
redeem us all, on both sides of an issue, requires us to engage in faithful discussion--to
see where they are coming from.
Are we willing to be in a listening, conversational posture
with the people we see as oppressors? Are we willing to trust they have
something to teach us as much as we have to teach them? Are we willing to be
wrong in the face of our opponents, for the cause of God's justice? It reveals
a truth of the risk of faith--by following a God who chose to die on a cross, we
claim our strength in God's vulnerability.
As Paul said in his first letter to the church in Corinth in
chapter 1: "For God’s foolishness is
wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human
strength." One might argue that Jesus' very life, and death, and
resurrection, are the divine embodiment of Micah's instruction to seek justice,
love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.
The problems of the world are huge. Individually, we may
feel we cannot make a difference. God doesn't call us to single-handedly fix the
world. Friends, that is God's job, not ours. God does call us to participate in
God's work of justice and redemption-- It can be as simple, and as profound, as
one on one conversations over a beverage or a meal with people who see the
world very differently than we do, trusting the promise that God, our creator
and sustainer, is at work to redeem us all.
To Embrace Love
It is so simple; what does God require of us? To seek
justice, embrace love (show constant love) and walk humbly with God. Love
causes us to do amazing things; things we never knew possible. Things we
thought only others could do.
People the world over know and understand that crazy little
thing called love. Or do they?! Love. In English, we have just one word – which
can mean so many very different things; in other languages, they are far more
liberal, using different words for the different expressions of love. Whether
it is romantic love, friendship love, loyal love, holy love… there is a different
word. What Micah was describing is holy love I think; and this, holy love, is the
one thing we all have, all the time, even when, or maybe even, especially when,
we are not aware of it. when the prophet Micah committed his vision to paper –
recorded the words, I wonder if he ever thought just how much the simple phrase
we are exploring this morning, would grow in the hearts of the faithful? That
these three things would last and be repeated, again and again, thousands of
years later.
Love has been the greatest motivation for many heroic acts;
for many foolish gestures; and for many ordinary, quiet lives of faithful
people.
In reality, to show love is simply to express our humanity –
for humanity at its best is indeed loving and kind. Imagine what the world
would be like if everyone who heard that command lived by it.
The prophets talked about love and faith; Jesus talked about
love – when he was asked what was the greatest commandment his answer was
simple: love God with all your heart and all your soul, and love your neighbour
as you love yourself.
All through history, men and women have sought to love and be
loved. And, have written poetry and prose, composed music and song, created
novels and movies all about love; Love between two people; love between us and
our dogs, love between friends who have overcome great adversity together –
pretty much every aspect of love has been recorded.
The divine spark of love implanted in each of us has caused
us to seek companions on the journey; to create friendships based on mutual
respect and love.
Maybe that simple truth is too simple for some.
But for me, as I look at the world, it remains my hope for
all humanity – that each will acknowledge that God’s greatest gift to us, was
that spark, that love, planted within each of us – reminding us, again and
again, we love because God loved us first.
Amen.
To Walk Humbly with God
Humble yourselves before the
Lord, and he will lift you up.
Winston
Churchill was once asked by one of his helpers, "Doesn’t it thrill you to
know that every time you make a speech, the hall is packed?" "It’s
quite flattering," replied Churchill. "But whenever I feel that way,
I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being
hanged, the crowd would be twice as big."
It
is very beneficial to always train our mind that we are not the center of the
world, and that we do not control everything in life. Humility dear ones, is a worldwide
human virtue that we teach our children to adopt, but to us as Christians and
believers the greatest example of humility can be found in our Lord Jesus
Christ "Who, being in very nature of
God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made
himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient to death-even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:6-8)
Jesus
set aside His divine glory to take the form of a servant. He voluntarily
accepted temptation, hunger, loneliness, suffering, and death in order to
understand and identify with each one of us.
When
Jesus chose to become man He laid aside His glorious majesty, so that when He
was "lifted up from the earth," He could "draw all men" to
Himself. (John 12:32) Jesus had to suffer humiliation in order that we could be
forgiven.
If
you humble yourself and repent of your pride and understand that u will find
the ability to forgive the unforgivable.
Thus
to say, “I am not the center of the world and I can’t control everything in
life means, I am admitting I have weakness and limitations, I am not in control
of everything in my universe, I need help from a power far greater than myself.
PRIDE
is not so much bragging as it is this illusion that I am at the center and can
manage everything on my own without help. Bragging may be a symptom of pride,
but pride itself is much deeper. Even very insecure people who would never be
caught bragging can demonstrate an amazing amount of pride.
HUMILITY
therefore is the opposite of this attitude. Humility is just living in the
truth about ourselves… and the truth is I am not God, I’m not the center, I
have needs, I have things I can’t control, I am dependent on God. That’s
humility.
Because
Jesus broke into history to begin a spiritual kingdom that expands one heart at
time, we too can say,
“There
is a God. So I can just let go. Sometimes being out of control or serving in
obscurity is our chance to grow in my acceptance of reality… I’m not God, I’m
just his precious son and daughter!”
A
church located in a town with a seminary needed a substitute preacher when
their pastor was on vacation. The President of the seminary chose their best
student. Straight A’s, the teachers all loved him. Ego as big as creation,
obviously unaware of his own limitations. The young man wrote a great sermon
and memorized it. On Sunday morning he confidently climbed into the pulpit and
immediately forgot his sermon. He managed to muddle through it but left the
pulpit in unhappy. A sweet little lady has some advice for him as she shook his
hand that morning. She Told him “If you had gone into that pulpit with the
attitude that you had when you came out of that pulpit, you would have come out
of that pulpit with the attitude you had when you climbed into it.”
The
humility of Jesus Christ is rooted in his experience of God’s love. His heart
and soul were filled with that love so that all his emotional and spiritual
needs were completely met. His cup overflowed! Jesus knew who he was: a beloved
child of the God he called “Father!”
His
confidence, his power, his courage his humility came from one place: his faith
in a loving God. The love of God so filled his heart that his life became an
expression of that love. He recognized every human being as a brother or a
sister, just as important in the eyes of God as he was. He loved and cared for
everyone because each person was his brother or sister.
Humble
disciples of Jesus Christ begin with faith in the love of God, with hearts and
souls filled with that love. We feel no need to act important because we are
important. No need to pretend we are somebody, because we are somebody: we are
the beloved children of God. Humble disciples of Jesus Christ strike an
important balance. Confident without bragging; humble without losing our
dignity and loved without putting ourselves at the center of the universe.
Hearts full of God’s love give us the confidence that God affirms our successes
and forgives our mistakes.
God
gives us the ability to be the love we are. To measure up to the standard that
the author of the book of James describes: “Who is wise and understanding among
you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes
from wisdom.”
One
day a sage came to a King for an interview. The sage had to wait for a long
time because the King was very busy. Finally, the King said he could come in.
When
the sage entered the hall, the first thing he did was to take off his hat and
bow to the King. Immediately the King took off his crown and bowed to the sage.
The ministers and others who were around the King asked, “What are you doing?
He took off his hat because he is an ordinary man. But you are the King. Why
should you have to take off your crown?”
The
King said to his ministers, “You fools, do you think I wish to remain inferior
to an ordinary man? He is humble and modest. His humility is a peerless
virtue’. He showed his respect to me. If I did not take off my crown, then I
would be showing less humility than an ordinary man, and I would be defeated by
him. If I am the King, I should be better than everybody in everything. That is
why I took off my crown and bowed to him!”
Dear
sisters and brothers let us think of the example of a tree. When the tree is in full bloom,
when it is filled with ripe fruits, when it really has something to offer the
world, the tree bows down. If we can become one with the consciousness of a
tree, we will feel that the more we have to offer, the more humility we will
have, the more we have God’s love in our hearts the more pride vanishes and
humility takes its place. For our Lord we give glory and honor Amen.
