Micah 6:1-8<\/p>\n\n\n\n
January 17, 1999<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does Judy Sheinlin, Ed Koch, Mills Lane, and Richard Rehnquist have in common? They are all on TV these days. They all wear black robes. They are all trying to hear from the plaintiffs and the defendants to decide which side is telling the truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Might it be that the defendant is guilty of not paying back the $500 loan that his ex-girlfriend gave him so that he could stay out of jail? He said it was a gift of love. She said nothing like that because she broke up with him six months earlier. The judge then said, \u201cWhy did you give him the loan in the first place?\u201d She said, \u201cHe begged me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Might it be that William Jefferson Clinton obstructed justice and committed perjury that will lead to the Senate finding him guilty and forcing him out of office? This week, we will hear the defendant\u2019s case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both in the Judge Judys in small claims courts and in the Supreme Court Chief Justice listening to the allegations against the president, we want so desperately to know who\u2019s innocent and who\u2019s guilty. We demand justice to prevail. We want the bad guys behind bars. We want to see the $500 paid to the plaintiff because he didn\u2019t pay back his loan!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we see in today\u2019s Scripture Lesson is a lawsuit against Israel submitted by God. There is a controversy that God has with his people. And God has taken his people to court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can almost hear the gavel knocking against the wood as the prophet Micah declares, \u201cHear ye, hear ye!\u201d What have the people done to be tried by God? What violations, crime, debt, perjury, obstruction of justice did Israel do to have God file a lawsuit against her? What are the charges?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First of all, we read in Micah that Israel required internal purification\u2014they had too many horses and chariots. They had too much pride and were too self-reliant believing that their military strength was enough. They forgot to place their faithful reliance upon God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secondly, Israel practiced magic and looked toward sorcerers and soothsayers to discern God\u2019s will.\u00a0 Such practices contradicted the very means by which God communicates with human beings, namely through the exclusive initiative of God through God\u2019s word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the third charge is that Israel was breaking the first of the two Ten Commandments. They had all kinds of idolatrous worship stuff: images, pillars, and sacred poles. They fashioned these religious symbols from various materials to represent God as well as other gods. The first two commandments make absolutely clear that images of God and the worship of other deities were strictly forbidden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The charges have been presented. God has a good case against Israel. Besides, God is a pretty good lawyer! Probably better than even Paul Fong!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The people are asked to rise and plead their case. God has invited the mountains and the hills to be the witnesses to hear the case because<\/p>\n\n\n\n
it was on a mountain that God first established his covenant with Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was on Mt. Sinai that God formalized God\u2019s relationship by giving the Ten Commandments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was upon mountains and hills that the blessings and curses of the people were expressed to seal the covenant. Now God has asked the mountains and hills to hear this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But notice what God does after imploring Israel to state what provoked such criminal lawsuit against her. Rather than pronouncing judgment when it is due, God assumes innocence. God doesn\u2019t seek a guilty verdict but, first and foremost, sought for dialogue and common understanding. God assumes innocence first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rather than listing all of the criminal charges and violations and misplaced loyalties that Israel committed, it is God who recounts how his steadfast love and loyalty have been overlooked by an ungrateful people. God stressed the goodness that he has done for his people and not what may have been the criminal charges, violations, misplaced loyalties against the people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
God brought them out of Egypt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
God rescued them from King Balak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God reminded them how they successfully entered into the Promised Land at Shittim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presuming innocence and now demonstrating to the witnesses of mountains and hills, God shows how an ungrateful people have disappointed him even after what he has done for them. God has a good case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is your verdict? There is no verdict according to the prophet Micah. There is no guilty or innocent verdict here. But what we see is obedience from God\u2019s people. We see repentance expressed by God\u2019s people once God recounted what he did for them. Israel said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith what shall I come before the Lord,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and bow myself before God on high?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The people want to return to a right relationship with God. They want to repent and be welcomed back again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is very Chinese. I can remember how my father would recount all the things he did for us when we misbehaved. He didn\u2019t have to say a word about what I did wrong. All he did was to remind me what he did for me. Remember the time when I played hooky from Chinese school? My father said to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI work long hours in the restaurant to buy you clothes and shoes so that you<\/p>\n\n\n\n
can go to school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYour mother and I sacrifice so that you can have a good education and a house<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They didn\u2019t need to tell me how misbehaving I\u2019ve been. All they needed to tell me is how much they loved me. And the shame that I brought to him, I also brought to myself. I knew I did wrong. And I sought forgiveness. You know, I never cut a class again in high school, in college, or in seminary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike a modern court session, we see the defendant Israel posing a series of questions on itself to demonstrate a repentant heart. What should I bring to restore my relationship with God? Should I bring?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
burnt offerings<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a thousand rams<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ten thousand rivers of oil<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and even the firstborn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each material gift to restore God\u2019s relationship dramatically escalates in value and quantity. What might it take to earn back God\u2019s acceptance? Might it be what a poor person can do is to at least bow before God on high? Or will it take the sacrifice of ten thousand rivers of oil? The last gift mentioned, the sacrifice of the firstborn, was intended to astonish, for it reaches far beyond the bounds of acceptable behavior. The sacrifice of the firstborn child is extravagant to the point of abomination. Micah was making a point here. If material gifts are not what God expects from us, what is God seeking from us as a sign of repentance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everything that was proposed by the defendant is simply unnecessary baggage. God doesn\u2019t want you to bow down. God doesn\u2019t want burnt offerings or a thousand rams, or ten thousand rivers of oil, or your firstborn, or our big houses or our money. What does God require from us? \u201cOnly yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To make things right again, to restore our relationship with God again, to seek for a repentant heart again, we need to give of ourselves. The Lord wants people who have transformed lives, committed to an unwavering life of justice, kindness, and humility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God wants us today to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with him.\u00a0 What do these three Old Testament beatitudes mean today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God wants us to \u201cdo the right thing.\u201d All of us know the difference between \u201cright and wrong,\u201d but why is somewhere around 50% of all employees are guilty of dishonesty of one sort or another in their jobs?\u00a0 Knowing from right to wrong doesn\u2019t mean that we know how to act from wrong to right.\u00a0 We knew it was wrong to segregate people in neighborhoods, in schools, in our workplaces, but it happened.\u00a0 How can we work for justice in our world where we can guarantee equity, fair distribution of wealth, adequate housing and jobs, available health care, and anything else that would bring wholeness and reconciliation to everyone?
Love Kindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another word for \u201ckindness\u201d is \u201cmercy.\u201d This doesn\u2019t mean that we overlook wrongdoing, or fail to hold people accountable for their actions. It does, however, mean we confront such people with tough love, not hatred or vengeance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a man who stole from his employer. The employer brought charges and had the man arrested. He went to jail for several months. However, when the man was released, he discovered his former employer had paid his wages to the man\u2019s wife and children during his imprisonment, and he offered the man a job again, because he was convinced the man had learned his lesson. That was mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A week ago Saturday, the ETCs had their annual dressed up dinner out.\u00a0 There were about 35 people present.\u00a0 Our dinner was at the Delancey Street Restaurant on Embarcadero and I learned that this restaurant was first established to employ ex-convicts who needed jobs to start over again.\u00a0 I will go back to Delancey Street again because that\u2019s mercy.
Walk Humbly with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Micah\u2019s first two beatitudes involve reestablishing right human-to-human relationships: doing justice and loving mercy, the third beatitude focuses on us personally. We are required to walk with God, to live in communion with God. Walking humbly with God means we are not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judge Judy, Judge Lane, and Chief Justice Rehnquist are wearing black robes on TV.\u00a0 But when we pastors wear our black robes, it means that we are not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.\u00a0 These black robes symbolize modesty and a willingness to surrender our individuality in the service of the Lord.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the choir wear robes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of you have heard me say this before. When I was preparing to accept your call to me in 1975 as your Youth and Christian Education Pastor, I was getting ordained at my home church in Boston. I was on cloud nine. I was on a super high. You see, here I was graduating from seminary. I was being ordained in the fourth oldest Baptist church in America. And I was, unlike some of my classmates who were being called to places like Buffalo, I was coming to San Francisco! I was \u201cfull of myself.\u201d Wearing this robe for the first time\u2014ready to change the world, I listened to my homiletic professor, Dr. Eddie O\u2019Neal preach my ordination sermon. I was stunned in what he had to say. He had the audacity to call me a \u201ccoolie for Christ.\u201d What happened to all the titles, the prestige, the honors, the respect! It took be some time before I was able to listen to that sermon again. And surely and gradually I came to realize that Dr. O\u2019Neal was right. I am a coolie for Christ. Stripped of all pretentious self-image of importance, I am only God\u2019s humble servant, learning how to walk humbly with him, even today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does God require of Israel for her disobedience, God told her to \u201cdo justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.\u201d What does God require of us? God has told us already according to the scriptures, but now we need to put them in actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. King, Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tomorrow is a National Federal Holiday to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King would have been 70 years of age last Friday. Dr. King was an American Baptist pastor who believed that a \u201cbeloved community\u201d can happen on earth where \u201clittle black girls and black boys joining hands with little white girls and white boys as sisters and brothers.\u201d I would add little Asian girls and boys and little Latino girls and boys, and little Native American girls and boys, and all little girls and boys can become sisters and brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can share this dream when we do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. We need to do two things with our brothers and sisters\u2014to ensure justice and honesty are for everyone and that we offer mercy and kindness to particularly those who have hurt us. And we need to do one thing for ourselves\u2014walk humbly with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like the way God tried Israel by not reciting all the charges of violations and misplaced loyalties against her, we may not need to do this as well. We know that we are sinful and are in need for forgiveness. What God did was to remind Israel of all the good things God did for her and she became repentant. God had a good case against Israel. God has a good case against us too. We can remind each other of all the saving and redeeming acts of grace and mercy that we do for one another. And when we do this, we too will become repentant in the eyes of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. King who believed that a beloved community can be brought about through non-violence once said, \u201cWe are all tied together in a single garment of destiny\u2026What affects one directly, affects all indirectly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us go from this place knowing that God doesn\u2019t want our material sacrifices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us go from this place knowing that God doesn\u2019t need to list our misbehavings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us go from this place believing that we are renewed in our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ who saved us from our sins and wrongdoings. No need for a trial here. All God does is to recount the blessings he has done for us. God in Christ has already paid the bailiff and we are free to go. And that is good news!<\/p>\n\n\n\n What God requires from us is make this world of ours a beloved community. What we do every day affects the well-being of others. Let us do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our Lord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n God of grace, imprint on us the spirit of your Son, who humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on the cross. Pry us loose from a false sense of pride concerning human distinctions so that, through the power of Christ, we may do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly before you, our loving God and Savior. In Jesus\u2019 name, we pray. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Micah 6:1-8 January 17, 1999 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco. What does Judy Sheinlin, Ed Koch, Mills Lane, and Richard