Reflections on “A Call to Do Justice” Micah 6: 1-8

this week, we shifted from reflecting on our calling in general terms to particular aspects of our call.  this preaching series follows the lectionary passages, so I did not randomly reflect on how the command to "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God" fits with our sense of call.  But, it seemed highly appropriate.

One interesting point in Micah that I didn't include is the ending of Micah, which speaks about how God is faithful and will forgive.  At one point in the sermon preparation, I had that as my last point of the sermon, but by the time I preached the sermon, it seemed extraneous. 

 “A Call to Do Justice” Micah 6: 1-8; SAPC, Denton; January 29, 2023; Calling All Disciples series Richard B. Culp 

Micah 6: 1-8:  Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. ²Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. ³“O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! ⁴For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. ⁵O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

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? ⁷Will 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?” ⁸He 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?

Introduction:   We continue our preaching series “Calling All Disciples” and the invitation to reflect on our own sense of what God is calling us to do.

In the last two weeks, we have reflected on the calling of the first disciples and our own call in broad parameters.

In the next few weeks, we will be looking at different aspects of our calls.  As we do so, I hope you will listen and reflect and lay claim to how the sermon’s theme may speak to your own particular call. 

This week my wife Leslie asked me to read the chapter in the book Laughing your way to Grace, which is the book the women’s class is studying on Super Wednesday.  She thought it fit with the sermon series on call.

So I read it.  the chapter was about the author working on answering the question, “Who are you?”  which fits nicely with the idea of who God is calling us to be.    in this particular chapter, the author was describing how she discovered laughter was an important part of her sense of call. 

We all have different aspects of the particular call God has for us.  

So as we hear the prophet Micah speak to us about an aspect of our calling, which is not laughter by the way, I hope you will use his words as a springboard to discovering different aspects of your call.

More 1:  We begin our reflections on call this morning with the prophecy Micah.

a.  highly appropriate to turn to a prophet when reflecting on call.

1.  prophets had their own sense of call - called to prophesy, to share God’s word.

2. Micah’s sense of call grew out of his context of growing up in a village in the foothills of Judah southwest of Jerusalem in the 8th century BCE.

3.  he hears to call to proclaim God’s Word during a time when Israel went from a  divided monarchy - southern and northern kingdoms - through the time when the northern kingdom was conquered and the southern kingdom was being threatened.

b.  His call included helping God’s people analyze and refine God’s call for them as people of God collectively and individually.

1.  Micah looks out over the two kingdoms, sees what is happening to God’s people, and calls them back to what it means to be God’s people.

  

2.  He describes their calling in one of Scripture's most well-known passages:  

and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

more 2: As we hear Micah’s prophesy, we are reminded that all of us are challenged to hear the call to do justice.

a.  By the time Micah arrives at the passage we read today, he has already “lodged complaints” against all sorts of people.

1.  He has a complaint against Israel.

2. In particular, the capital cities of Samaria in the northern Kingdom and Jerusalem in the southern kingdom.

3. he has called the religious leaders false prophets.

4.  Micah takes the civic and cultural elite to task.

Micah paints a horrifying picture of political oppression and economic exploitation by the strong and powerful against the weak and dispossessed. “The powerful dictate what they desire — they all conspire together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge” (7:3–4). The rich are people of violence (6:12). (Don Clendenin, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/1251-micah-prophetic-critique-and-pastoral-comfort)

b. My point is this - Micah’s reach was far and wide.

1.  if we hear Micah’s words and think they are only about those “other people,” we have probably neglected to recognize our own complicity.

2.  Micah’s challenge “to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God” is for all of us.

3. As you reflect on your own calling, consider how Micah’s prophecy lays claim on us.  

4.  within our own particular circumstances, how are you doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God?

5. in particular, if where God calls you puts you in positions of leadership, or positions of power, or access to resources, how are you living into Micah’s call?

Move 2:  We might also note that the call to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God is a reflection of who God is and a response to what God has done.

a.   Notice that in the middle verses of the passage we read this morning the reminder of who God is and what God has done.

1.  Those “saving acts of God” (verse 5) on Israel’s behalf include: the exodus from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 1-15); 

2. the leadership of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam (a striking female reference, Exodus 15:20-21);

3.  the deliverance from the Moabite King Balak through the agency of Balaam as the people made their way through the wilderness (Numbers 22-24); 

4.  and the climactic move into the promised land itself, a place full of milk and honey.  using familiar shorthand:  from Shittim, east of the Jordan, to Gilgal on the west (see Joshua 2:1; 3:1; 4:19; 5:19). (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-micah-61-8-3; Terence E. Fretheim)

5.  In remembering what God has done, we remember that God is a God of salvation;

God brings us to a new way of life.

God is the one who walks with us in all circumstances.

6. Who is God?  the God of saving grace and new life.

b.  Now that Micah has reminded us of who God is, he calls us to respond.

1.  Apparently, the people in Micah’s time thought that the response God desired was more burnt offerings, more rams, more oils, and even your firstborn.

2.  in other words, in response to God’s saving grace, God’s people decide to share their riches.

3. But, that is not what God asks of them.

4. Micah declares that God does not care about their worship sacrifices;

God cares about how they live their lives and treat people.

5. What does the Lord require?  that God’s people live in a way that reflects the God of salvation.

do justice

love kindness

walk humbly with God.

6. Our call should reflect two important aspects -  concern for those who are in need of justice and aligning ourselves to walk with God.

7. That is not necessarily a distinct calling, but a part of all of our callings.

Move 3:  Nothing easy about living into our calling.

a.  Next to the window in my study, where I can’t but see it every day, there’s a framed cartoon from an old edition of the National Lampoon. It’s a spoof of a Medici rose window from the cathedral in Florence, and depicts a laughing camel leaping with ease through the eye of a needle. The superscription reads: “a recurring motif in works commissioned by the wealthier patrons of Renaissance religious art,” while the Latin inscription on the window itself is “Dives Vincet,”or “Wealth Wins!” John Rollefson, "Eye of the Needle," Christian Century, September 21, 2004, 20. Referenced in Robert Dunham's sermon at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, 6/14/15. 

1.  Hard to pull back from the pressures of the world and demands and expectations in our lives to conform to a world where power and riches and concern for only ourselves runs rampant.

2.  But, the prophet Micah calls us to the challenge.

3.  Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann notes:

We have been sent dangerously by God’s address—
called by name, entrusted with risky words, 
and empowered with authority. 
We are to tell the truth openly, work for justice, 
and stand in solidarity with our neighbors. 
The cost is high, but the purposes are those of the Holy God.

Walter Brueggemann, “Can We Risk It?”from Prayers of a Privileged People

4. not an easy call, but a call that reflects the nature of God’s saving grace.

b. Paul asks the corinthians to consider their call.

1. “Consider your own call brothers and sisters,” he writes to the Corinthians.

2.  they are trying to figure out what it means to be called by a God of resurrection

3.  Paul describes it as the foolishness of the gospel - that through Christ’s submitting to the powers of the world in his death on the cross, God’s saving grace might come to all.

4.  foolishness 

like turning away from the powers of the world and choosing

“do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Conclusion:    After all, it is part of your calling

Reflections on "Immediately" Matthew 4: 12-23

 Another week on call.  Fascinating to see the differences between the story of the calling of the first disciples as found in the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Matthew.  the topic of call has seemed to catch the attention of several members of the congregation.  

This week, the sermon seemed to go better than last week, but it still feels like the sermons are getting in the way of the text.   The third point about "Follow me" not being in the imperative was interesting to me.  I trust the reference I had for it to be correct, but I could not find much more support for it in other resources.  A reminder that if I had kept up my Greek better, I could have figured it out for myself!

“Immediately” Matthew 4: 12-23; SAPC, Denton; January 22, 2023; Calling All Disciples series Richard B. Culp 

Matthew 4: 12-12

12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
¹⁵ ‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
   on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶ the people who sat in darkness
   have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
   light has dawned.’
¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Introduction: We continue our preaching “Calling All Disciples” 

Each week we are invited to reflect on how we see God calling us.

move 1: this week, we begin our reflections by noting that we all have different call stories and callings

a.  Last week, we read the calling of the first disciples from the Gospel of John. 

1.  you remember - Andrew and an unnamed disciple are looking for the Messiah and John the Baptist points them to Jesus.

2.  If you missed it or don’t remember, go home and read the second half of the first chapter ff the Gospel of John while you’re waiting for the Cowboy game to begin.

3.  This morning, we just heard the Gospel of Matthew’s version of the calling of the first disciples.

4. Very different stories.

5. A reminder that we all have different call stories.

6.  A reminder that how we understand our calling may change over time.

7.  God calls all of us, but we each have unique callings, and our calling may change.

b.  Now a brief follow-up to last week’s reflection that your calling is not limited to what you do at church.

1.  I was reading this week about research done a few years ago on Christian vocation.  (David Lose Here’s why: In the research leading up to a grant on Christian vocation funded by the Lilly Endowment, a team of folks with whom I was fortunate to work discovered two perplexing things)

2.  Graduates of the five seminaries, one of which was Presbyterian (Catholic Theological Union, Duke Divinity School, Fuller Seminary, Princeton Seminary, and Luther Seminary) all reported that “vocation” was a significant category in their teaching and preaching. Not all that perplexing, you might say; and I’d agree — this was all to the good! 

3. At the same time, however, it turned out that most members of the congregations they serve don’t feel called. Most of the folks listening to our preaching and teaching on vocation, that is, don’t see most of what they do outside of the church as worthy of God’s attention and interest. https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/fishers-of-people)

4. In other words, they did not connect God’s calling with what they were doing, unless it took place at church.

4.  Perhaps a survey in this congregation would reveal similar findings, but I invite you as you reflect on God’s call for your life to recognize that God’s call makes a claim on you and your whole life, not just on the hours you spend in church.

5. That sense of call carries with it both a challenge and a hope:

the challenge - that God expects us to live out our call in the place where we go each day.

the hope - that God will use us for God’s purposes in the places where we go each day.

Move 2:  This call story in Matthew also gives a sense of urgency to our understanding of what it means to answer God’s call.

a.  Matthew sets the table for this urgency by first noting that John the Baptist has been imprisoned.

1. then, the prophet Isaiah is mentioned, which draws a parallel between Isaiah’s context and Jesus’ context.

2.  We remember that during Isaiah’s time, Assyria was the world power that Isaiah prophesied would destroy the northern kingdom of Israel.

3. It was a time of darkness for God’s people, and Isaiah was prophesying that God would send light into their darkness to save God’s people.

4.  In Jesus’ time, Rome was the world power that brought darkness to God’s people with its brutal way of conquest and control.

5.  in fact, the Gospel of Matthew probably was written shortly after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, so the early Christians reading this call story in Matthew recognize that they are like the Israelites in the time of Isaiah, desperately needing light in the darkness. (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-matthew-412-23-3

6. who is going to be light?

7.  Not John the Baptist.  He is imprisoned.

8.  The story sifts to Jesus.

7. God’s people need Jesus to act.

8.  To act now.

b.  So Jesus does.  

1. He announces that the kingdom of heaven has come near.

2.  And he needs help with his work - immediately.

2.  so Jesus goes looking for people to join with him.

3. Jesus spies first Peter and Andrew and then James and John.

4. and Jesus shouts out, “follow me!” 

5. notice - Jesus does not invite them to a meeting next month to hear about his plans for ministry.

6.  Jesus does not send them off on a retreat so they can reflect on their sense of call.

7. Jesus just calls, 

and first Peter and Andrew follow - immediately;

then James and john follow - immediately.

b. We are invited to bring that sense of urgency to our calling.

1.  this past week with Martin Luther King,  Jr. holiday, I reflected on his ministry.

2. often, I reflect on his Letter from Birmingham jail. in part because the Presbyterian minister at First Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, AL, was also serving as Moderator of the Synod of Alabama, and in that role signed to letter to King which prompted his reply we know as a letter from Birmingham jail.

3. As an aside, the Presbyterian minister was eventually forced to leave FPC, Birmingham because he was too open to integration (read more about Edward Ramage here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_V._Ramage)

4. But, King’s complaint with the Birmingham pastors rings true.

5. the ministers wanted to wait for a "more convenient season." 

6.  king describes this as the “myth of time” which served to  put off needed action on God’s behalf. (https://www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets/documents/susi-letter-from-birmingham-jail.pdf)

7.  The disciples left immediately;

8. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us that God’s work cannot wait.

8.  there is a sense of urgency in living out our calling.

c.  This urgency, however, does not mean that what we are called to do has to be completed, or maybe even started immediately;

but it does mean our calling demands our attention immediately.

1.  When I decided I was hearing a call to go to seminary, I was ready to act immediately.

2. There was a minor problem, it was about time for seminary to start, and I had not even begun the application process.  In fact, I was about to start law school.

3. As part of my discernment, I went to visit a minister.

4.  He listened to my story, noted my urgency, and then gave me some advice.

“Try to get into seminary.  If you can start now, then start seminary.”

“But, I you cannot start seminary at this late date, go on to law school.  Then, you have the year to see if law school fits and figure out more clearly God’s call for you.”

5. I did get into seminary and started a week or two later.

6.  But, I have often remembered those wise words with the option to wait and refine my sense of call - not put it off, but work at it.

7.  Years later, I had a member come to visit me.  He no longer felt like his job was what God was calling him to do.

it began an ongoing conversation he had with God, his spouse, and sometimes his minister.

it led to his leaving his job and finding another job.

it never quite felt right, either.

so he kept looking and seeking.

finally, he found another job.  

A job that felt right.

A job where he felt like God was using him to make a difference.

it took several years of changing and exploring.  

it was not a quick process, but the urgency was there throughout.

8.  The disciples followed Jesus immediately.

Bring a sense of urgency to live into God’s calling for your life.

Move 3:  Final thought - we hear God’s call as a word of encouragement.

a.   There is something interesting in this story from Matthew when we look at the Greek text. 

1.  Further to the point, exegetes will point out that The Gospel of Matthew’s preferred way of talking about discipleship is with the word akoloutheo, “to follow.” 

2.  But in this story, the word Jesus uses that is translated as “follow me” is not the Greek word typically used.

3.  It is actually a phrase that is generally used as a word of encouragement, not as an imperative command. 

3.  It literally means to “come on behind me,”  as an encouraging word.

Jesus saying:  come with me

join with me

let me encourage you

let me guide you.

Not a demand, but an invitation filled with the promise to be with us as we follow him.

b.  there is nothing easy about living into our calling.

1.  Joining with Jesus to be light in the world of darkness is a challenge.

2.  So Jesus encourages us to join him.

3.  Jesus calls us to follow him.

Conclusion:  Are you ready and willing to go?  Immediately?