9/15/57

Scripture: Micah 6: 1-8.

Text: Micah 6: 8; "What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

Not all of the prophets have cried out against the gross evils of their people. Some have dealt with the very things that might have been called virtues in people’s lives, but which the prophet could see were quite inadequate. Much of what the prophet Micah said to his people was in this vein. He could see that many of his people were quite conscientious about bringing their sacrifices to the holy altar. The finest and fattest calf of a man’s herd would be brought and slaughtered and laid upon the altar to be burned as a sacrifice, with no recompense to the owner save the sense of a religious duty well done. The earliest sheaves of grain, the fullest fruit, the best of what one had cultivated and acquired was deemed a proper sacrifice. And this is no small matter. When it comes to real giving as a part of religious expression, that is an excellent standard.

But it is not to be an end in itself. Because it had become such an end, Micah felt sure that the God of Israel had a real controversy with His people. So the prophet asks of his hearers, "What is it that the Almighty does want of His people?" and he comes up with this answer: "To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."

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Ours is not a day when people offer the blood or flesh of their animals on a religious altar. Seldom does grain or fruit or vegetables appear in our temples of worship, except in decorative and symbolic act at Thanksgiving time. And who would dream of so offering his first or only child, as Abraham was once prepared to do? [Genesis 22: 1-14]. But we do live in a time when great numbers of us are interested in what we can get from God. There has been a rash of books and magazine articles telling us how we can get this or that gift from God -- peace of mind, peace of soul. And the temptation is to look for the favor of God -- perhaps some special favor from God. Hosts of people arm themselves with the discipline of a few minutes a day, saying some choice bits of Scripture, learning and absorbing a few platitudes of affirmation.

More and more folk deal with God in a way that is designed to force the Deity to do something for them. Their special exercises are calculated to bring success, or health, or wealth, happiness, the blessings of family, or the attainment of control or sobriety. We are given the feeling that if we do certain things for God, then He can’t very well help making us successful. Positive thoughts will get desired results and wishful thinking will produce wonders. "Forget pain, don’t think of evil," say those of the cult of reassurance. "Don’t let them exist." Religion is to soften the tough life and make it comfortable!

Now, of course, this states it too bluntly and harshly. The development of a better outlook on life will enable one to receive blessings from God that were blocked before. The affirmation of great truths into our subconscious selves is necessary to spiritual well-being. The goodness of God in the land of the living does need to be emphasized. There are people who need to put down their religious exercises in elementary terms "numbered one to ten" just as they may have to put down the exercises for physical development. It may be that following such rules is better than following none. Possibly we are, in our day, at least doing something constructive toward our religious nurture.

But let us be constantly reminded that God is not just waiting around to do what we decide we want to have done. There is far more to God than being a glorified errand boy for war and personalities. And I feel sure Norman Vincent Peale would agree.

There was a man who wanted a son. He prayed that, if God would give him a son, he would build a shrine in his yard. Well, he got the son; and God got the shrine. "You help me, and I’ll help you." "Of course, if you don’t, you won’t get any more support from me." That attitude is a far cry, is it not, from the determination of Job to trust God even though Job himself might be slain! God is not to be bargained with. We are not to be bent on finding out what we can get out of God. He is always ready with help and healing and the gifts of His grace. Whether we are to buy or borrow those gifts is not for us to determine. Rather let us seek to discern what God wants of us. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things shall be yours as well" was the assurance of Jesus. [Matthew 6: 33].

From this point of view, the World War II experience of Eddie Rickenbacker and his crew, drifting for long nearly hopeless days in the Pacific ocean, is less significant for what they promised God they would do if rescued, than it is for the fact that they prayed and did put their trust in God. Others must have prayed just as earnestly and failed of rescue.

When I was a young school boy, I was sent, one Sunday morning, out to pasture to bring in the horses. A team was needed for the weekly trip to the village church. And the other horses, working hard through the week, needed their daily grain ration. I rode after them bareback, on a pony which had been well trained to herd cattle. When one of the mares turned aside as if to go off away from the barn to a far corner of the pasture, the pony wheeled in his tracks to cut her back in with the herd of horses. It was as if the pony had turned on a dime; and the unexpected suddenness of his turn caught me unprepared. Before I could seize his mane or dig in my heels, I slid off and was thrown to the ground, hard. The pony stopped right in his tracks, but not before one of his hard hooves had hit my foot. As I lay there staring up in fright at his belly, my foot in pain and my head solidly bumped, and the breath all but knocked out of me, I made a wildly frightened, childish prayer that God would not let me die there.

Well, I didn’t die there. Before long I was able to get up and somehow hobble in toward the farm house. The foot had to be cared for, and I did not get to church with the family that day. But I recovered from the incident quite rapidly. It would seem that my prayer was answered. At least I still had the life that I wanted. Years later, a friend of mine prayed as he had never prayed before, for the life of his wife. She had become desperately ill, following surgery that had been expected to be comparatively simple. They were a church-attending family, highly regarded in the community. The wife was a Sunday School teacher, mother of their five children, beloved throughout the community for her gay friendship and unrestrained kindness.

But she did not recover. In a few days she was dead, leaving a heartsick community, a desolate husband and five motherless children. So far as I could see, the husband’s prayers for her life, and those of family and friends, were unanswered, or perhaps the answer was "No." But I can not believe that the prayer was vain. Father and sons immediately came into closer fellowship in the church. In tribute to the wife and mother, and in dedication of purpose, they poured more than ever of their lives into constant and continuing dedication to God.

I do not know whether the Creator heard my childish prayer of so many years ago in any way different from the prayer of the friend whom I knew early in my ministry. But I am fairly sure that the desire of each of us was less significant than is the trust of anyone who lifts up his soul in either supplication or praise.

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About 700 BC, the prophet Micah was trying to tell his people what God wanted of them. The Israelites had often made attempts to discover the will of God through the prophets (sometimes they listened; sometimes they stoned the prophets. But they recognized the value of prophecy.) Sometimes they cast lots in a way that we would think quite crude; but they did look for the hand of God in more of life than some of us have done. They had centered their main religious worship around the thought that God required sacrifice. They believed that sacrifice was man’s share of the bargain that was required before God would show any favors to His people such as (1) blessings on their coming actions; (2) forgiveness of their sins; (3) sacrifices were also in the nature of thanks for what God had already done. But Micah had other ideas. "What does the Lord require of thee but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."

To Micah, this was what was needed to get into right relationship with God. In another way of putting it into words (as Dr. Moffat translates it) God wants us to be just, to be kind, and to walk in quiet fellowship with God.

(1) A foundation stone of a person’s life must be his moral and ethical sense of justice, of honesty, of decency, of cleanness, of right and wrong. A man must not only believe in rightness, but must do what is right, and require that it be done by others also. And if he does not will to do right, it is ultimately required of him.

In "Les Miserables," Victor Hugo asks the question: "Was it possible for Napoleon to have won the battle of Waterloo?" And he answers, "No." "Why? on account of Wellington or on account of Bluecher? No; on account of God. It was high time that this monstrous man should fall. The excessive weight of this man on human destiny disturbed its equilibrium. This single individual was counting more than the whole of mankind. The hour had come for supreme incorruptible justice to take notice. Napoleon had been denounced in the infinite, and his downfall had been determined. He was obstructing God. Waterloo is no mere battle; it is a change of front on the part of the universe." So it is, we might add, of others who upset the balance of good and evil on a scale much less grand than that of the international dictator.

A man must be just and he must maintain that justice and honesty day after day. He cannot be honest one day, and dishonest the next and expect that anyone will think he was ever honest. A thief is branded as such and is punished for one crime. All his days that he did not steal are forgotten, and he gets no time off for the days he was honest. A sense of justice, and its firm, consistent practice will dignify the love between parents and children. A sense of justice will heighten a sense of brotherhood and equality among people.

It is not just to be prejudiced and suspicious of a fellow because of his class or nationality or speech accent. It is not fair and honorable to repeat the pledge of allegiance to the flag of our country, ending with the words "with liberty and justice for all," and then deny some children the right to enter a school simply because they do not appear to be like the others of the school.

A sense of justice may help us to determine not who is right but what is right. The statue called "Christ of the Andes" stands atop one of the peaks between Argentina and Chile, partly because war between those two countries was averted through the pleas of Bishop Benavente. He had said: "My country may not be altogether right in this matter; let us find out where the real answer lies. Let us not think just of our own nation, but of justice."

And the stress of Micah’s exhortation is to do justice --- not alone to recognize what is just or fair, but to perform it! Justice is not alone a ruling by some Supreme Court, but an action of mine or of yours in the situation covered by the Court’s deliberation. One may properly expect to receive justice only when he is willing to do justice.

[Parable of the "Unjust Servant -- Matthew 18: 23-35. There was justice done the servant who would not deal with another as he had been dealt with.]

(2) And this takes us to another requirement of God upon us --- to love mercy. The servant we have mentioned was neither just nor merciful. That which he wanted for himself, he was not willing to grant to another.

Among the idols, or gods, of China in the 16th century is one having the form of a woman with 24 outstretched arms and open arms -- the many-handed goddess of Mercy. It is not without its lesson to us, in that mercy must be many-sided in order to bring its blessing to all, and to many at the same time.

The word that has been translated "mercy" in most of our Bibles has also been interpreted "to love kindness." That is markedly different from the present day notion of mercy that connotes condescension and succor to those who are completely helpless. Steadfast love is more like the kindness to a friend through adversity. A man’s justice should always be tempered with kindness. Some people are always kind. Whether meting out justice or enduring it, they are always kind. Harry Emerson Fosdick has reported that it was said of Henry Ward Beecher that no one ever felt the full force of his kindness until he did Beecher an injury. How different this is from our usual snarl, snap and growl; fume and fuss. We often think of justice as finding a way to "get even." But God wants us to love kindness. "Be ye kind, one to another." [Romans 12: 10].

Many years ago, Eugene Debs was committed to prison as a conscientious objector. While incarcerated, he became interested in another fellow who was termed an incorrigible prisoner. The man would speak to no one. Debs started a campaign of kindness. When he had a chance, he would leave an orange on the fellow’s cot, going off without a word. In spite of many rebuffs, he finally penetrated the tough skin of the man and the two became good friends. Years later, at news of Debs’ death, that prisoner, now a reclaimed and useful citizen, made this discerning comment: "He was the only Jesus Christ I ever knew."

God doesn’t care to credit you with the costliness of your sacrifice. But he wants the yielding of yourself in services and kindness to others.

(3) Best of all, a person should walk humbly with God. We wonder how it could be any other way. An old adage reads: "The mountain shames the molehill until they are both humbled by the stars." If we regard ourselves as the greatest thing on two feet, we have the lesson of humility yet to learn. Do we try to impress God with our intelligence? Shall God be impressed, who gave the mind of man? Is He to be impressed with our money -- He whose are all things, and before whom we stand simply as stewards? Shall we even try to get God’s favorable notice for our love to mankind -- when God loved mankind so much that He gave his own son for us?

Then, when God is unimpressed with these things in us, he will inquire of us, "Do you remember the words of my son when he said, "Blessed are the meek (the humble), for they shall inherit the earth." [Matthew 5: 5]. If you want many things, strive for a few. If you want to be rich, be a giver. If you want to be loved, love others. If you want God’s grace, walk humbly with Him.

It is by no means easy to be humble. To try to humble oneself is often only to take pride in the effort. When people recognize your intelligence, it may be difficult not to give out a piece of your mind on everything! But the humble mind is like a bedroom on a hot night that needs two windows open to let out the hot air and admit the cool. The humbly life needs to let out the selfishness, as he lets in God through his worship. And, once again, we are not just to sit in idle meditation, but to walk humbly with God.

The Library of Congress has inscribed as a chief motto: "What does the Lord require of thee but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." In modern terms that might be our motto: to be honest, to be kind, and to live in quiet, moving fellowship with God.

Amen.

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, September 15, 1957.

Wisconsin Rapids, July 21, 1968.

Waioli Hui’ia Church, January 23, 1972.

Kalahikiola Church, May 7, 1972.

Babcock Congregational Church, August 13, 1972.

Nekoosa United Church of Christ, August 13, 1972.