Epiphany 4A, January 30, 2005
Father Wray MacKay

God 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

God says: do, love, walk.
God uses verbs of righteousness: do justice; love kindness; walk humbly.
You know, we need a prophet today

Indeed our nation needs a prophet today.
A prophet with the authority to tell us all what the Lord requires.
What we do not need is to have everyone around us agree with us,
pat us on the back,
say what a swell job we’re doing,
and keep up the good work.
We need a prophet who will tell us the truth about our nation and ourselves.
Oh how we need a prophet.
And our prophet of today, Micah, is not a bad one to have.
His short book of seven chapters has three parts.
The first three chapters consist primarily of proclamations
that terrible disasters are coming
as fitting punishment for the disgraceful behavior of Israel’s leaders.
The next two chapters are mostly promises that things will get better,
though not until the difficult times, already set in motion,
have run their course.
The closing two chapters have a mixture of judgment and hope,
with hope getting the last word.
Our portion comes from this part.

What’s scary is that
the situations of Micah’s Israel and our nation are so similar.
Just think.
Back then Israel was in a time of transition.
After a half-century of relative peace,
because the great powers were preoccupied with other matters, suddenly after 746 BCE all that changed.
Tiglath-pileser III came to power in Assyria,
and soon subjugated the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
The southern kingdom of Judah avoided this fate
only by paying a huge tribute,
losing their independence and having their traditions corrupted.
Well, our nation -- and the world -- are in enormous transition.
Did the past national elections settle things? Give us stability? A mandate?
No. They have given us a mind-set of red and blue,
of religion and faithlessness, of morality and immorality,
            with the electorate equally divided on almost all issues.
Then, too, our position in the world, economically and in moral prestige,
            has deteriorated in ways that prevent any return.
The Iraqi elections of today are another symbol of international change,
no matter how they turn out..
Things are most definitely in transition!
Then, too, in spite of invincible ignorance on the part of some,
            the overwhelming evidence is that our planet is changing, is warming,
            with consequences that are at least prophetic in scale.

Horsey, the political cartoonist of the Seattle P.I.,
had a commentary on global warming this week.
Consisting of six panels,
the first three characterized the WMD discovery
as a piece of paper Chalabi found in a cookie jar
which was perceived as a threat to the nation
in response to which we sent armed forces to war
at a cost, so far, of $280 billion and thousands of causalities.
The second three showed an international scientific panel
warning of the imminent threat of climate change,
with consequences of drought, crop failures and rising sea levels
            and hundreds of thousands of causalities.
and the response is to do nothing because it might hurt business.
Oh yes, the times they are a-changing.
Politically, environmentally, religiously.
Silly Micah held the leaders of Israel responsible for their dilemmas.
Who will we hold responsible?
We need a prophet.

Then, too, in Micah’s time, as in ours,
the poor were manipulated and abused.
Micah saw the wealthy using their wealth and power to exploit the poor.
Micah saw the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
So what’s new?
And in Micah’s time and ours
            this situation is further aggrieved through military spending.
For Micah, it was on armaments and fortifications
to hold off the threat from foreign empires..
For us, well, we know where the big money really goes.
Result?
Social programs are constantly being cut back.
Education has lip service paid to it.
Even Social Security is threatened with a revision that rewards the market.
We need a prophet.

The setting for our short passage, is a jury.
Israel is invited to plead its case before a jury -- get this --
            a jury of the mountains and hills!
            The environment will be our jury.
The prophet says:
            Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
            and let the hills hear your voice.
            Hear, you mountains the controversy of the Lord.
            and you enduring foundations of the earth
            for the Lord has a controversy with the people
            and the Lord will contend with Israel.

What a jury!
Could we stand innocent before the mountains and hills?
This is a lawsuit against those who have broken the covenant with God.
How do we stand?
As a nation? As a congregation? As individuals?

The form of trial is that of the ancient Near East.
The dominant king recites the benefits he has bestowed on his vassals.
He proclaims the blessings for obedience
and the penalties that will follow disobedience.
It’s a short version of Israel’s salvation history, almost a creed.
As we listen again to what God says,
we can almost hear a note of wonderment, even hurt and pleading.

O my people, what have I done to you?
In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
For 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.
O 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.

Let me tell this story in a different form
Like a wounded parent, God says to the mountains and hills,
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
What have I done? Where did I go wrong with you? Tell me!
Am I at fault? Have I let my people of Israel down?
Allow me to remind you of the facts.
Remember, I led these Hebrew slaves out of Egypt to freedom.       
Remember I gave them leaders like Moss and Aaron and, yes,
my daughter Miriam, to sing the song of triumph
and guide them through the desert.
Remember how when enemies, like King Balak,
 tried to bring a curse on the people,
I raised up Baalam and turned that curse into a blessing.
Remember how at last, when the people came in sight of the Promised Land,
I parted the waters of the Jordan River,
so that the people could cross over on dry land,
from Shittim on the east to Gilgal on the west of that great River.
Tenderly, with the agony of love, God gently turns to the people in the dock:

           Oh my people, remember these things! Remember!
For to remember these things, is to identify fully with the ancient stories,
            to know that they are not remote tales from long ago,
            but living stories of God’s ongoing presence and power.
If only the people will remember these saving acts,
            they will never waver from God’s presence,
and...will enjoy the benefits of a life, over-flowing.
Then, after the -- after God -- makes the case before the jury,
            before the mountains and hills,
the subject-states pledge their allegiance,
knowing full well the consequences of rebellion.
If they disobey and disasters result, how can God be declared unjust!
The mountains and hills have been around a long time.
Let them judge.
They were present when the covenant was made.
They are witnesses to the pledges that have been broken

Then, in the next to last verses, an individual asks on behalf of the community,
Oh God, what do you expect?

With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before God with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
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?

Some notes on the text.
The questions reflect to a significant degree an entrance ritual, a liturgy.
            In order to gain entrance to the sacred place,
the people ask these question as they enter.
And note, they are all related to participation in Israel’s sacrificial cult.
Of course the quantities of sacrifice rise to ridiculous portions:
            thousands of rams; ten thousands of rivers of oil.
            [Rivers of oil? I cannot help but note the irony
             of rivers of oil in the middle east.
             Just play with that one in your prayers and imagination!]
And then there is that qualitative jump to human sacrifice:
            my firstborn for my transgression,
            the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
We remember the Vigil, and the asking of Abraham’s first born.
            That, of course, God refused.
            But the depth of Abraham’s agony, and Israel’s,
is reflected in the question.
Does anything suffice to move God to accept me,
            especially when I have defied God, repented
and now wish so deeply to return to an intimate relationship.
And then, finally, comes God’s answer.
Except, God’s answer changes the question.
Just as God’s “answer” to Job ignored the injustice to Job
            and established the only relation possible to God, creature to Creator,
here God says:

God 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?

To do, to love, to walk. Verbs of righteousness.
The people’s questions were preoccupied
with what they could do to please God
through religious ritual and ceremony.
We would say through mass and music.
Micah is in the very best of company when he ignores that direction
            when he clearly states that God is infinitely more interested
in the way the people live their lives.
To do, to love, to walk.
Just look at what we are to do, love and walk.

Justice is not something we wish for,
or complain about because it is lacking.
Justice is something we do.
Translate: to work for fairness and equality for all people,
            especially the weak, the powerless, the exploited.
Remind you of the baptismal vows? It should.
Will you strive for justice and peace…Strive, not wish or hope for.
We are to do justice.
Kindness is from a Hebrew word that is very rich and complex.
It has to do with love, with loyalty, with faithfulness, not just a nice smile.
It describes the key element in relationships, in marriage, with friends;
            with God.
It can be translated grace,
and so speaks of that energy, that power in relationships
that make them the good thing God wants.
Just so, it is not enough to maintain covenant faithfulness
out of duty or fear of punishment.
Israel is to love kindness. To love God as God loves Israel.
We are to love God as God loves us.
And then that word humbly.
It can be translated carefully, or circumspectly.
And so we could read:
            we are to walk with God,
careful to put God first and to live in harmony with God’s will.

To do, to love, to walk.
To do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly, with care, with God.
Not unlike the beatitudes of the Gospel.
The poor in spirit are blessed, as are the meek,
            and those hungry for righteousness and for mercy.
As are the pure in heart and the peacemakers.
Even the persecuted.
What Jesus says is cut from the same cloth as what Micah says
and suggest that the deep meditations of Jesus
led him to the same conclusions as this oracle of God.

These things are to grow deeply in our hearts.
These things are to become the way we do justice,
            the way we love kindness,
the way we walk with one another and God.
The way we live.
That’s all.

Of course we’re caught in the dilemma of our own making.
We do love liturgy, maybe not thousands of rams and rivers of oil,
            but certainly incense and chanting and sacrament.
And when we do these things, if we’re at all spiritually lazy,
            we can think we’re doing what we should! doing enough!
 
God says differently.
God says: do, love, walk.  
Verbs of righteousness.
But please n note, because God is merciful,
we don’t need to worry about doing them perfectly.
We just need to focus on doing them in the first place,
 as the reason for being human.
As the reason for living.
And then, as we actually do them,
why, then we just might wander into our church.
And we can sing, and process, and smell incense, and eat bread and wine.
And schmooze.
And when we can go back outside again,
            we can go forth in the name of Christ,
             and do and love and walk.
And so together be that prophet who is so desperately needed!
We can be the voice of Micah.
We can do justice,
we can love kindness,
we can walk humbly and with care with our God.

That’s all.
And that’s everything.
Amen.