“With What Shall I Come…?”

Micah 6:1-8

Very early this morning, I turned on the television to see what was happening with the elections in Iraq. Understanding that there is divided opinion about the wisdom of the war, we are all nonetheless united in the belief that these elections are an important first step toward democracy for a people who have been sorely oppressed. We all pray for a positive outcome.

According to the reports I heard, there was some violence as expected, but not as much as was feared. And the turnout was very strong as men and women alike stood up in the face of terrorist threats to cast their ballot. One reporter said that there was a feeling of jubilation, with many citizens reduced to tears. She said many people even brought their children with them so they could be part of the day of freedom. We pray that it will be so.

I found within myself a spirit of gratitude as the reports showed people from the international community helping to make the election work. And I thought of the brave men and women of our own 278^th Armored Cavalry who are guarding polling places in the Sunni Triangle. Even there, the reporters said, there were lines of people coming to vote.

There is something thrilling about justice – when the downtrodden get lifted up. And there is something holy about those whose hands do the lifting despite great personal sacrifice.

I hold that thought in my mind as I come to the pulpit today to ask the question the prophet Micah posed to the people of Israel long ago. “With what shall I come before the Lord?”

Micah asked that question in the year 725 BC or thereabouts, but it may as well have been today. The nation was faced with numerous military threats, which occupied the attention of the government. Domestically, it was a time when the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Land in the rural areas was being gobbled up by wealthy people who built gorgeous mansions. Peasants were cheated out of their family parcels and forced to live in slums. The business world was scandalized by widespread corruption. Ethics were thrown out the window. Widows and orphans were left uncared for. It was a world divided into the haves and the have-nots. It was a time of grave injustice.

And all the while, the religious establishment stood by and supported these injustices. The preachers taught the victims of injustice that their own sin was the actual cause of their misery. You know, religious people love to blame the poor for being poor, and the outcasts for being outcast. And similarly, the preachers taught that the wealthy were blessed with wealth because of their righteousness efforts. It was the same success and prosperity gospel that is the message preached in so many of our churches today. And both the rich and the poor were called to validate their faith by going to church! Oh, the services they used to have! You should’ve heard the singing! You should have seen the offerings! You should have counted the kids and the babies dedicated to the Lord! Oh, the spectacular services of worship they had, overflowing with sacrifices of devotion!

But all the while – outside the Temple in the real world - the rich got richer, and the poor got poorer; the strong got stronger, and the weak got weaker. The land was filled with oppression.

It may have been 725 BC, but it was a time not unlike the times in which we live today.

But in the middle of that time, the Word of the Lord came to Micah. And Micah stood up and spoke for the Lord:

“Hear what the Lord 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 his people, and he will contend with Israel.”

God, through Micah, is taking Israel to court! God is making a case against the people, and the jury is the mountains and the hills of Judah, which have silently watched as the crime was committed before them. And God, through Micah, poses that most important question:

“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? 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?”

Interesting question! With what shall we come before the Lord? What shall we bring with us to worship?

When I was a child, my parents taught me that there were some things I needed to be sure to take with me to worship. For one thing, I had to be dressed in my Sunday finest. My hair had to be combed, although for me – with a Butch haircut – what that meant was that I had to use that sticky wax stuff to keep the front of it stuck up straight. I had to bring a good attitude, of course, and a spirit of reverence. And I had to bring my kids’ offering envelope which was smaller than an adult’s envelope, but at least it had a number! I would put a portion of my allowance in it, and make my offering to the Lord.

With what shall we come before the Lord?

We bring many things to worship. Offerings. Hymns. Prayers. Praise. Our services are very different from those of Micah’s day, and yet they are similar in that we all bring something with which to please the Lord.

And right there is where Micah poses that question, “With what shall I come before the Lord?” It is the question around which pivots the very meaning of faith in God. And God, through Micah answers the pivotal question in a surprising way.

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you…”

Now, listen carefully…

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

A lot of people in our day – as in Micah’s - think that the whole point of faith is to do something for me. To get me saved. To make me stronger. To help me be better. To get me a parking place by the front door of the grocery store on a wet winter day.

And, I will grant you, the fulfillment of our own need is often where most of us begin the journey of faith. Our God is a good and loving God, reaching out to embrace us in the very midst of life. Oh, God has answered our prayers, and kept us safe, and moved mountains for us. God has been generous and steadfast with love for us and our families. Faith always begins at the place God meets our need.

But where does faith lead from there?

Maturing faith leads us to a new understanding of the blessings we have received. Through Micah, God reminds the people how God brought them up from Egypt, and redeemed them from slavery. Micah recounts how God sent them Moses, Aaron and Miriam to help them in their plight, and he recounts the ways God worked to save them from the hand of oppression.

And the simple message of Micah is this: God saved you from poverty, injustice and oppression – God sent you people who sacrificed to set you free – God led you to freedom and hope – now you go and do the same for others.

“…do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”

Tony Campolo is a Baptist minister and a bit of a prophet in his own right. He likes to tell the story of traveling out West to speak at a Conference. With the time change and all, Tony couldn’t sleep. So sometime in the wee hours of the morning, Tony headed out of the hotel to find something to eat. There was a little diner open there in the middle of the city, so he went in and sat down and ordered some food. While he was eating, the door to the diner opened, and in through it came a series of women who were rather lavishly dressed and thickly made up. They were all prostitutes, coming in for breakfast before going home.

Well, Tony tried to make himself small as he finished his food. But while he ate, he overheard some of their conversation. One of the girls was telling the others that the next day was her birthday. She began to weep as she said that she so deeply missed being with her family on her birthday. They had rejected her and she had rejected them. She had no one to bake her a cake, or give her a gift. She was all alone in the world.

When the girls had left, Tony Campolo asked the couple who ran the diner how they would feel about having a birthday party the next night! They thought that was a great idea, so plans were made. And the next night – actually around three in the morning – when the girls of the street filed into the little diner, there were balloons and streamers and a cake that said, “Happy Birthday, Carol.”

She was absolutely stunned, and deeply moved.

Afterwards, this girl sought out Tony and asked him why he had done that. He told her because he’s a Christian and felt bad that she had no one to tell her how special it is that she was born. She asked Tony what he did for a living. He told her he’s a minister. Carol looked around at all the decorations and the girls of the night singing and having a whale of a time. Then she asked, “What the heck kind of church are YOU the minister of?”

Tony Campolo thought about it for a moment, and said, “Oh, the kind of church that loves to throw parties for hookers at 3 o’clock in the morning.”

Do you understand what God wants from you, and me, and us together as a church? Micah teaches a great truth: God saved you – God sent people who sacrificed to help set you free – God led you to freedom and hope – now…you go and do the same for others.

“…do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”

I know that some of you come to worship today bearing nothing more than the fact that this week you helped a child learn to read, or a family to have a meal, or an abused child to be safe, or a lonely person to find a friend. Some of you come having nothing more to offer than the fact that you joined a discussion about how to get good health care to people who don’t have it, or that you helped build a house for a family that didn’t have one, or that you advocated for people who wouldn’t have a voice if not for you. And some of you come to worship today having simply been kind to others in the week gone by.

I want you to know how thrilled God is! You are bringing to the Lord the truest kind of worship!

You see, God’s hope for you and me is this: that we will grow up to be just like….God whose every effort is to bring justice and kindness to the world!

And here’s a wonderful fact. The Hebrew name Micah, means, “Who is like the Lord?”

Micah was!

Are you?