What Does God Want? Sermon for November 11, 2018 based on Micah 5 & 6

Rev. George Miller
November 11, 2018
Micah 5:2-5a, 6:6-8

Today’s scripture is one that should sound familiar to anyone who has ever worshipped at Emmanuel or sung a Christmas Carol.

Micah 5:2 is the basis for “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” while Micah 6:8 is how we finish worship and is written on our Fellowship Hall wall.

It’s a wonderful theology, with a wonderful intent, this notion of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with the Lord.

It feels good to say these words each and every Sunday and it appears that people have grown to love it, accept it, and embrace it.

But the truth is that today’s reading does not come from a very good and happy place.

Today’s scripture is the result of doom, gloom and discontent.

Do you recall how just last week we discussed the healing of Naaman in the Jordan River?

Then there was the wonder of Solomon’s wisdom, the celebration of Joshua’s call to “choose today” and the passage through parted sea?

Well…it has all fallen apart.

The Promised Land. The Glorious Kingdom. The decades of peace and prosperity in which Israel and her neighbors enjoyed a time of imports, shared labor, and conversation.

The cracks began to appear with King David who committed acts of rape, murder, adultery and deceit.

The cracks deepened when his son Solomon to worship other gods and build temples in their honor.

Eventually these fissures created a ripping apart in Israel that resulted in 2 separate kingdoms, one that was north, one that was south.

The same people, but living in a divided nation, in which both claimed God as their own.

It was in the northern kingdom that Naaman went to last week when he sought out healing and became a believer in the Lord.

But since last week, there has been a major rupture.

The northern kingdom had become so dishonest, so unhealthy, so unholy that it has fallen under enemy capture.

The possibilities of the Promised Land have fallen so!

Enter into this reality the prophet Micah. He is a citizen of the Southern Kingdom, which still stands, but he’s not sure for how long.

See, Micah is very aware and very astute to all that is going on.

He’s a small-town boy with small town morals who has moved into the capital city of Jerusalem, and he does not like what he sees.

He sees how corrupt the political, economic, and religious leaders are.

He calls them out for how they take property away from the citizens, kick women out of their homes, and declare war on the hungry (3:5).

He sees merchants charging false prices, courts perverting the law, and
prophets accepting bribes to mislead their congregations.

Not to mention that during this time, the Assyrian enemy has control of land just 10 miles from the capital, and Jerusalem was swelling in size from political refugees fleeing the Northern Kingdom to seek safety.

Micah sees all these things going on and is absolutely sure that the nation is about to implode and everything God has worked so hard for is about to fall to bits.

So Micah laments. He cries for the injustice he sees. He weeps over the corruption and constant lies of the leaders.

He mourns how it seems the wicked have won and how at any moment everything will be blown to smithereens.

In chapter 6 he even envisions a courtroom scene in which God stands before the people and says

“What have I done to deserve this; how have I wearied you?”

God states all that has been done on the people’s behalf.

“I brought you out of Egypt. I saved you from slavery. I sent you Moses and Miriam to guide you through tough times. I prevented people from cursing you. I blessed you every chance I got.”

Micah channels God’s heartbreak and destitution in such a powerful way.

Yet- even in a scene of such wretchedness, there is hope.

Micah envisions that in this holy courtroom, the people display a contrite heart, offering to give God anything God wants to make things right- food, oil, their first born.

It turns out that even though God is hurt, even though God appears to have given all that God can give, God responds to the sinful people in the most amazing way.

In this holy courtroom scene of Micah’s prophetic imagination, God stands before the very people who have turned from him, and says

“Don’t you realize, don’t you know by now, that all I want is you. I don’t want a thing; I don’t want an object you can buy at the store.”

“I want YOU. I want you, and the very best you that there can be.”

God says to the people “What I want, all that I have ever wanted, is for you to do what is right, love being kind, and include me in everything you do.”

According to Micah, this is all God wants from us- justice, mercy, and mindfulness.

This is basically what Jesus meant when he said the 2 greatest commandments are to love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

What does God want; God wants YOU; the very best version of you that you can be.

Isn’t that amazing? Here we are with such a bleak chapter in the nation’s narrative, and there is still hope.

Here we are, in the city of Jerusalem, in which refugees are flooding in to seek safety, the enemy is at the door,

religious leaders are misteaching for the sake of a buck, businesses are mistreating their customers,

and politicians are punishing the starving, the widowed and the land owners,

and even though they seem to be on the verge of extinction, God is offering another chance of hope and another chance of redemption?

Hope.

Just as God remembered Noah in the ark, just as Joseph was not forgotten in the jail, just as Naaman could be made clean by dipping himself in the river…

…there is hope that is given to the people. There is hope in knowing that although the enemy is close, the good old days are gone, and sin has seized the day,

evil has not won out and evil will never have the last word.

Although difficult dark days may eventually fall upon the land due to their behavior and bad choices, God will not completely give up on or forget about the people and the promises God made to Abraham and Sarah oh so long ago.

Micah sees that hope coming from such an unexpected, and yet such a familiar place. Micah claims that hope will come from a little town named Bethlehem, from a family that most would pay no mind.

Now, we can’t speak for Micah, or assume we really know just what he really meant.

But in our troubled world, in our culture of chaos and corruption, we can make the claim that perhaps the one who Micah is pointing us to is the one we know as Jesus Christ.

Micah alludes to one who is both new and yet ancient, who feeds his flock and stands in the Lord’s name, who is both strong and represents peace.

Is it not in Jesus that we see these words of Micah become incarnate?

How Jesus enacted justice by feeding, by healing, by caring for all?

How Jesus embodied mercy by telling people not to cast stones, to take the planks out of their eyes, and to forgive?

How everything Jesus said, everything he did, and the way he lived was for the sake of God’s glory and the advancement of his Father’s heavenly kingdom…

We are not Jesus, and none of us ever will be. We are imperfect. We are incomplete.

We all still have so much self work to do and growing to accomplish.

But isn’t it wonderful, isn’t it inspiring to know that God is not looking for perfection?

God is not looking for things.

God is not looking for robots or rivers of oil or an abundance of gold.

What God is looking for is YOU. The best you that can be.

The you who does justice. The you who loves and wants to be kind.

The you who will walk with God in the garden, trust God in the storm, call upon God in the wilderness, choose God even in prosperity, seek out God’s wisdom for the benefit of all, and be willing to dip into the waters even if seems silly.

What does God want? God wants YOU.

Amen and amen.