November 9 -- Micah

Grace to you and peace, from a God who “comforts the afflicted, and afflicts the comfortable” -- it’s all in grace and peace.  AMEN.

Micah -- the prophet from the south.  Speaking out in a time when Jerusalem envisioned itself as invincible.  The nation was divided into north and south during Micah’s day.  The Northern Kingdom was actually named Israel.  The Southern, of which Jerusalem was a part, was named Judah.  Micah was a prophet in Judah.  From a small town in the country.  Here, it’d be like a prophet rising up from Dubuque, Iowa or Fresno, California or Seguin, Texas -- and then going to New York, City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, CA.  To speak out and to stand up to the the powers -- the influencers, the trend setters, the legislators, the religious leaders.  

To stand before the proud and the strong and to speak on behalf of the least, the lost and the lowly.  Micah was a prophet and a voice for the landless farmer, the migrant worker, the widow and the orphan.  The poor.

The book of Micah is traditionally only really read in worship during the season of Advent.  This passage from chapter 5.  “From you O Bethlehem...”  It’s where the song “O Little Town of Bethlehem” comes from.  And so there’s a nice way that we usually hear Micah, when we hear him amid the evergreen branches and beautiful, peaceful candlelights of one of my favorite seasons of the church year.  One scholar says that Micah has become almost “ornamental” -- hung up in December and taken down in January.     

Reading him today is a gift and helps us hear God’s voice in our lives a new way. 

Coloring by Carol Mason

Micah was a prophet for the downtrodden and the oppressed.  And Micah was the first of the prophets to foretell the falling of the Southern Kingdom, and of Jerusalem.  Things were so neat and shiny there, the lords of the land were so plump and secure, they were so comfortable, that Micah must have sounded like a madman.  [people ignoring, ridiculing]

But God called Micah to go them, and agitate their comfortable, oppressive ways.  God always “comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.”  

When we’re doing well, watch out, Micah would say.  The stock market did really well this week.  Watch out, Micah would say.  Do not forget the least, the last and the lowly.  It’s easy to forget God, or at least make God ornamental, when times are good.  

If times are bad for you then Micah has a comforting word, Micah is on your side.  But if you’re one of those who -- when people ask how you’re doing -- and you can honestly say, “I’m truly blessed.”  Then Micah has a more challenging word for you today.  And for me.  

Nothing wrong with having stuff.  But don’t forget who brought you to this place of blessing, in the first place.  That’s me channelling Micah.  [Study this short book of the Bible this week.]  Once again, God, through this prophet, reminds the people, “I’m the one who created you, who blessed you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, who gave you this land, who sheltered and protected you all these many years.
“I didn’t do that so that you would hog it all for yourselves.  I did that so that you would go and do likewise.  I didn’t bless you in order that blessing stops with you.  I blessed you so that the whole world would be blessed!”
Once again, God through, this prophet, reminds us today in November 2014, “I’m the one who created you, who brought you up out of all the times of trial you’ve endured -- your own personal Egypt’s -- all the hardships, the brokenness, the pain; I’m the one who brought you here.  I’m the one who entrusted you with the blessings that you have today -- with money, with relationships -- family and friends, work, with transportation and communication, with technology and education, with a church, with a beautiful and powerful nation and a stunningly gorgeous landscape, with blue ocean and blue sky and rolling hills and sunshine and crops.    
“I didn’t do that so that you would hog it all for yourselves.  I blessed you so that you would go and do likewise.  I didn’t bless you in order that blessing stops with you.  I blessed you so that the whole world would be blessed!”

God does justice, loves mercy and walks humbly with us.  Micah calls us, even today, to be mirrors of God’s doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly.

What does that look like in our world, in our church family, in our homes day-to-day?  What does it mean to you to do justice?  I think it’s got something to do with how we treat the least, the lost, and the lowly -- the voiceless and the powerless in our world and in our communities.  What does it mean to you to love kindness?  In a world where there is so much meanness, where kindness sometimes seems rare, as followers -- not of Micah but -- of Christ, I think kindness is a radical act.  We can tell people about the God we serve, simply by being kind, loving and thoughtful to those we know and even those who are strangers to us, and to our communities.  In a world where the stranger is suspected and rejected and even villianized...the Christian’s arms are open.  Love kindness.

And I find the real Gospel in the passage in the last of Micah’s commands.  Walk humbly with God.  Embedded in that is the promise that God walks with us.  God will walk with us if we walk arrogantly and ignorantly too.  God will walk with us if we walk blindly, or even if we stumble and fall.  God will walk with us when no else walks with us.  God will walk with us certainly in bad times and also in good times.   But Micah calls us to think about how we walk with God:  humbly, patiently, wisely, compassionately, care-fully, trusting in this proximity that we have with God.  Gladly receiving God’s decision to be with us through it all.  God walks with you this day, God is still nudging you to open your hands and open your eyes and see the world, and those in need.  God continues to send us prophets like Micah, who challenge us and love us at the same time.  And God has sent us Jesus, who holds us no matter what, who forgives us, also challenges us, and finally walks us home.  Amen.