"Walking Humbly" - Sermon for 4th Sunday after Epiphany 2017

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who walks humbly with us.

            The first time I really encountered our text from Micah was in college. I was on a National Youth Gathering trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico with a bunch of others from my Campus Ministry, gathering together with Lutheran College students from all over the nation. While we were gathered together the band Dakota Road, which also wrote the Kyrie Eleison that we sing many Sundays, were the worship leaders. One evening they put on a concert for the gathered students and as their closer sang a song based on Micah 6:8 which closes the lesson. Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly. As they sang the refrain repeatedly a few times, we all sang with them, and one by one they would stop singing or playing and leave the stage, expecting us to also stop when they were all done, but well, we kept singing that refrain over and over and over again. Eventually they came back up and thanked us all.  It was a powerful moment.

            But, this verse is really only one little part of the lesson and the book of Micah. On one podcast I listen to, a couple of professors from Luther Seminary were talking about one of them leading a class on Micah, referring to teaching about the whole book, and the other exclaimed, that is a good verse. Micah 6.8 has become in many ways like John 3:16 where it has become a thing all on its own. Which isn’t bad, both verses are very good, but they both are amplified and lifted up when the context surrounding them is added.

            We begin our reading through hearing God speak to the people through the prophet Micah:

¹Hear 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 the chosen people,
  and the Lord 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.”

            This first section really asks, what are you talking about? It’s implied that the people are complaining, what has God done for us! So, God asks, “What are you talking about?” Look at all the things I did for you. I saved you from slavery in Egypt, I sent Moses to you, I sent Aaron to you, I sent Miriam to you. God reminds them of the story of Balak and Balaam. Balak the king of Moab tries to get the prophet Balaam to curse Israel, to which he replies, How can I curse whom God has no cursed? God tells them of God bringing them from Shittim to Gilgal, which is when the Israelites crossed back into the promised land across the Jordan River. Pretty much, I’ve done quite a lot for you, to put it mildly, so why do you not do your part?

           

            Then in what is a bit of an uh-oh moment the Israelites respond. Oh, we are the ones in the wrong, we’re the ones who have sinned. In their minds, What then do we need to do so that God is pleased? The list here starts with the traditional, a sacrifice at the temple. But, it then quickly amplifies. What if we sacrificed thousands of rams, what about ten thousand rivers of oil!

There are times when you could read this almost as sarcasm, look at these crazy things we’d be willing to do. But, then the last one, what about if I give my firstborn son? And this is not, oh, I’ll have him given to be a priest, but actual sacrifice of a child. They are so worried about what’s going on, they jump all the way to human sacrifice. This is so urgent to them, they go there.

And God’s answer to this urgency is our famous text. From Micah’s mouth back to the Israelites.

8The LORD 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 God, it’s not about worship acts, it’s not about checking off boxes of, I’ve done the right things, I’ve made the right sacrifices. To God, it’s about relationship. Sound familiar? In case you missed a theme from the last couple weeks, it’s about abiding. With God and with our neighbors, whoever they may be.

In fact the very word used here of require implies relationship. It’s not a legalistic requirement, it’s an affection kind of requirement. It’s the require of The child requires his mother’s love. The flower requires rain and sunshine.  From Pastor James Howell, “when the Lord “requires” justice, kindness and mercy, it isn’t that the Lord “insists on” or “demands” these things. God seeks them, yearns for them, and frankly needs them from us as intimate partners in God’s adventure down here.”

God is calling us to be active partners in the world, to be God’s hands and feet. And reminded us of all that God has done for us. God came to us as a child, taught us as an adult, and died for us at the last. Rising so that we too may have new life. What is required of us? To do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

We are called to do Justice, to stand up for those who are looked down on, the orphan and widow of our time, the least of the least.

We are called to love kindness, to have steadfast love for each other, to no matter what, look for the needs of the other first, knowing your own are brought through God.

And we are called to walk humbly with our God. To walk the way of peace, of abiding, of selflessness, knowing that we can do all these things, because God walks humbly with us.

This week, know that you are loved, know that you are called, know that God is with you.

Amen.