On our journey through the Bible, we have come to the book of Micah. Some of you may not be familiar with this little book at all, and others may be wondering why we would focus on Micah at Christmas.
Some of Micah’s words may be more familiar than you realize. In January 1977, when President Carter was inaugurated, he quoted from Micah 6 in his inaugural address: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
(Photo) Back in 1959, the Soviet Union presented to the United Nations a 9-foot, bronze sculpture of a man beating a sword into a plowshare. On the base of that sculpture are words that come from Micah 4:3, “We shall beat our swords into plowshares.”
As for Christmas, one connection, among others, is that the carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is based on the verses beginning in 5:2.
So during this month, our messages will be drawn from this Old Testament book.
We don’t know much about Micah. The first verse says he was a prophet during the years of several kings: Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, about 700 years before the birth of Christ. A prophet is one who tells people how it is between them and God. Unfortunately, even though God told them so, the people didn’t always listen.
The political scene was not pretty. Off to the north and east, a country named Assyria was gathering steam, crushing every nation in its path. Already, Assyria had advanced to the border of the northern part of Israel and soon it would invade and overrun that country, too. And that is when Micah comes on the scene with a message from the Lord.
When something bad happens, there are two things we want to know: why it happens and how long it will last. In other words, we want an explanation and a word of hope. Sometimes we don’t get either one, but in this case, Micah provides both.
Let’s begin with 1:3. “The Lord is coming.” That almost sounds like Christmas, doesn’t it? We sing “Joy to the World, the Lord is come.” And as John says in his gospel (1:14), “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” Every time we celebrate Christmas we are reminded that the Lord has come.
Micah’s words let us know that God has not forgotten his people. Whether they are naughty or nice, God is coming to them. Sometimes it may seem like God is a long ways off, that he is stuck up there in heaven, that he doesn’t care a stitch about who you are or what you are going through, but be assured he has not forgotten you. “The Lord is coming out of his place,” Micah says. He cares about you and he cares what you do.
Again and again, I hear stories about kids and young men, especially, who are angry because their fathers never paid any attention to them. Their dads were not there to serve as role models. They were not there to cheer their kids on in their accomplishments. They simply were not there, and these kids would give anything to know that their earthly father even thinks about them.
The good news of Christmas is that God does think about you. He has not forgotten you. He has stepped out of heaven to meet you where you are. Ponder that as you celebrate Christmas this year.
But that is only one part of the story. If we read on in Chapter 1, we see why God is so concerned about his people. They have not been living up to his standards. They have not walked in his ways. (V.4,5). Kids, I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but when I was your age, we lived in a big, old, 2-story country farm house and sometimes my brother and I got noisy and rough in our room upstairs. After a while we heard Dad’s voice booming up the stairs, “Boys, if you keep on with that noise, I’m coming up there.” And we knew 1) that he had not forgotten about us and 2) that he had a standard for us. When we heard the stairs start to creak, we knew we had crossed the line.
Micah was telling these people that they had crossed the line with God. They had not been walking in his ways and that is why God was allowing this big country of Assyria to overtake them. Verse 5 says that they had sinned. What had they done?
Verse 7 talks about images and idols that had become their objects of worship. Remember the first of the 10 commandments. “You shall have no other gods before you.” Number two says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol or bow down to it.” They had violated the first two commandments. Their primary allegiance was no longer to the God they promised to serve. And Micah told them that God was punishing them.
We may ask what their sin has to do with our Christmas. After all, we don’t worship idols or images. Really? If Micah were here today he might well ask, “Just what do you think about at Christmas time? Is your attention focused on God and His son who came to sacrifice his life for our sins or is your attention focused on images of things you can buy in stores? Is your mind focused on how you can please God by helping others or how you can please yourself?” As modern believers, we are not free from images and idols that take the place of God.
I remember the Christmas catalogs that used to come at Christmas time with their beautiful, colored pictures of toys, tools and games. I’ll confess that many times my mind focused on what I hoped to get rather than on what I could give. And some-times it was hard to say my prayers without those images going through my mind. In our modern world, it is tempting to get trapped in a materialistic mindset, especially at Christmas time, when there is so much emphasis on things you can buy. You may be tempted to spend so much in stores that you have nothing left to give to the Lord. Micah might have some hard words for us as well.
Idolatry was not the only sin Micah preached against. In chapter 2 he preaches judgment against crooked politicians, unscrupulous landlords, and even religious leaders. Unfortunately, they didn’t listen. And when Assyria came rolling in and took over their country, the prophets said, “God told you so, told you so, all those many years ago. Did you listen? No, no, no. Now we say we told you so.” Obedience to God had taken second place and these people were fast losing the opportunity to be called God’s people.
We may not like it when God’s Word points out our sin, but that also is a gift to us like pain in our bodies can be a gift. Pain lets us know something is wrong and that we should do something. If your conscience is hurting, if you know that you have done wrong, consider that knowledge a gift and do something about it. Confess your sin, because God can cleanse and heal your heart. God wants you to walk in his ways, not your own ways.
The mission statement our congregation adopted 10 years ago concludes with the words “to walk the path of righteousness, peace and harmony the way Jesus wants us to live.” It expresses the hope that together we will take a different course than what we see in the world around us. For example, we believe that Jesus wants us to respect each other no matter how different we are. We believe that Jesus wants us to work together in doing his work. We believe that Jesus wants us to love our enemies. What would happen if everyone lived the way Jesus wants us to? What would happen if everybody lived walked in God’s way?
We all know that the world is a mess. Neighbors often can’t trust each other. Some say they aren’t sure they can trust people in their own houses. We see powerful people taking advantage of the weak. Many people resort to violence to solve their problems in their homes and on the streets. And on the other side of the world, the Middle East is spinning out of control. Recent news reports have been downright discouraging. As Darlyn and I talked about it last Wednesday evening, she said, “It will take a miracle. Only God can fix it.” On Thursday, I met with two other ministers in Lima to create a prayer for peace that our churches can use. If we don’t turn to God, where else can we turn for hope?
Micah gets to that topic in Chapter 4. His answer spells out a new vision of hope. Here it is. When people hear God’s word to the nations and give up their idolatry and start living the way he designed us to live, a whole new world will unfold. Listen. (v.1-4) God’s commands first came from Mt. Sinai in the 10 commandments. In this new vision, God’s word will go out for all the nations, not just for the Jews. This word will not just be knowledge for the head, but instruction for the heart so people know how to live.
What will it be like?
First, people will stream to the Lord’s house, not just those who have been accustomed to going there, but many people, from many nations. They will want to learn the Lord’s teachings. And the more who go, the more will follow. Obedience will have a snowball effect. Other people will take note of our obedience to God and will want to be a part of it as well. Obedience to God is a rewarding way to live. Micah says that those who see it will want to learn how to walk in God’s paths of obedience. No one will force them to do it; they will come willingly.
In the mail we get notices that banks and other institutions will protect our privacy so other people don’t steal our identity. That is not the way it is for the Christian. Your identity as a Christian is not a private matter. It may be personal, but it is not private. Other people will know about it. I was talking to the priest from a Catholic Church here in town and he said that he tells couples he marries that their commitment to each other is not just for themselves. The way they love each other will affect others, because others will be watching. Marriage is not private.
Who is watching the way you follow Jesus? What are they learning? Your faithfulness serves as an example to others. Remember Jesus said to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16) And if you want to be a part of that stream of people who want to walk God’s ways, be ready in a few moments. I will give you an opportunity to come.
Second, in this new vision of hope, there will be peace. Humans will no longer exercise power over each other. God will be the judge. He will arbitrate the differences. Psalm 49 says “He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth.” And since war will be obsolete, the instruments of violence can be converted into tools for agriculture, so people have food and productive work. Unfortunately, we see and hear so much about war we find it hard to imagine a peaceable world. But the potential is there if people would live in obedience to God. How we long for that day!
Esther Augsburger and her son decided to trust in the promise and do what they could to build on it. So they worked for two and a half years with the Washington DC Police Department. They used 3,000 handguns the police had confiscated and guns that local residents turned in to shape and weld them into a 16-foot-high steel plow blade. This “Guns into Plowshares” sculpture sits in Judiciary Square and has since 1997, as a reminder and a promise. Or as one writer says, it serves as …a prophetic announcement of God’s long-standing hope for the day when God will get God’s way, a way (far) grander than one governed by judges, bailiffs and parole officers. In God’s society, gunpowder will become grain to feed the hungry. Nations will be infected with love for each other. Armies will develop amnesia and forget how to fight. (Peter Marty, Christian Century, November 16, 2004, page 21)
Third, people will experience joy and security and peace right where they live. They won’t need to be afraid of each other and their needs will be supplied. Many people are acting on that vision already. I heard a Christian woman say on TV this week that she had been spending $650 per year on drinking coffee with her friends. She felt God calling her to switch to green tea and now has $500 to send to help needy people in Nicaragua. Maybe that’s not your way of living out the vision, but why not pray about a specific way to do it? As you see in the bulletin, this congregation spent over $2600 to help people just from our love fund this year. That is in addition to our contribution to Habitat, Cropwalk and other mission efforts. If you have put anything in the offering, you have had a part in that ministry. During December, our denomination invites us to “Come walk with us in the ways of Peace” in their annual Christmas offering. If God leads you to contribute, then do so.
How is this new vision of hope possible, you ask? That is where the message of Christmas comes in. Already in Micah’s day, 700 years before Jesus was born, people were given a vision of God’s gift of the Prince of Peace. Over the years that vision got spelled out little by little, until one day the angels announced that Jesus was born. And Jesus taught us how to walk in the ways of God.
Conclusion. I want to give you an opportunity to take a step in the ways of God. Maybe you recognize it is time to say, “Yes, I want to follow Jesus.”
