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Sermon Preached at Zion Church, Washington NC; Sunday January 29th 2023
The Reverend Alan Neale; “Let’s sort this out”

The Collect for today carries a phrase that always makes me think of a photograph I had seen years ago. The phrase? “Peace in our time”. The photograph? An image of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, September 30 1938, having just returned from Munich, after dialogue with Adolf Hitler, waving a scrap of paper and declaring “Peace for our time”.

Winston Churchill dismissed Chamberlain with typical acerbity: “an upright, competent, well-meaning man fatally handicapped by a deluded self-confidence which compounded an already debilitating lack of both vision and diplomatic experience.” And as regards appeasement, Churchill (with consummate pith) wrote, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile-hoping it will eat him last!”

Today’s reading from Micah describes the process by which an honest and enduring peace is created and maintained between the Lord and His people.

Today’s reading from Micah 6 is rightly situated during the season of Epiphany. Merriam-Webster (not the usual go-to for ecclesiastical matters) describes Epiphany as (1) a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something, (2) an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking, (3) an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.

Here, the prophet Micah, allows us to perceive, provides us with an intuitive grasp of the dealings of God with His creation. And I believe, as we consider these verses we will (if open to the Holy Spirit) have a series of “aha moments” when we recognize that God’s dealings with His people have been constant from time immemorial to the present day. Friends, as Micah explores the relationship between the Lord and the people of Israel so he also invites us to recognize that same pattern replicated in our spiritual lives for today and… it is a pattern to which we should pay special attention as we approach the reflective, self-appraisal season of Lent (yes, all too soon upon us… Ash Wednesday, February 22nd!).

In Micah 6:1-8, we observe that God deals with His people with respect, in reality and expects response.
Respect, Reality, Response.

Respect. At first glance, the prophet is describing some soul-less, objective and cold divine invitation. It seems at first that the people of God are being summonsed in a forensic mode to face legal charges. But a second glance, deeper study, suggests something far, far different. Hear the sensitive, loving tones as the Lord speaks of “my people” (verses 3 and 5); and the prophet’s reference to “his people” (verse 2). Hear the plaintive, nay pathetic (pathetique), doleful, heart-rending question, “How have I wearied you?” Hear the recital of ways in which the Lord has already declared love for his people – I rescued and liberated you, I gave you gifted and dedicated leaders (verse 4), I delivered and led you through wilderness periods and I lavished upon a land of promise (v.5). Here the very heart of God throbs with pain and confusion as He looks upon his people… who are wearied with him, almost sick and tired! And yet He treats them with respect… calling them to hear, to speak, to engage. Just as He did with Abraham outside Sodom and Gomorrah, just as He did with Moses fighting against the divine call, just as He calls Ezekiel to his feet so to speak with him face to face – these and many other examples declare God’s respectful, almost courteous way His people then… and now.

Reality. In verses 6-8, the people are confronted with harsh and unsympathetic reality. They have reduced, condensed, degraded their relationship with God to a list that can be checked off, i’s dotted and t’s crossed, simply be making the required sacrifices. This has nothing to do with love and mercy, this has nothing to do with surrender and thanksgiving, this has nothing to do with a warm and passionate relationship – everything has been downgraded to works of merit rather than gestures of love.

This week I came across a word I had not seen for years… (let me try to pronounce it) anosognosia… it means “lack of insight,” a symptom of mental illness experienced by some that impairs a person’s ability to perceive his or her illness. I first read it in Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday, this week an article was sent to me by a friend. Friends, in Micah 6 we see the people of God suffering from spiritual anosognosia – they simply have no idea how tenuous and fragile is their relationship with God, how brittle and flimsy is the divine connection. They have surrendered a vital friendship with God to a bargaining position marked by sacrifice of things rather than the surrender of lives.

In Micah, the Lord holds a mirror before them… wanting to face reality and be set free from anosognosia… a lack of insight.

Friends, what the people of God needed then… so the people of God need now. How do I, how do you, take time to reflect on the reality of our relationship with God.

Response. After all this spiritual work, this divine engagement, this acknowledging of reality comes the call for a response… and it reads so simply though is lived with profundity.

Micah 6:8 “Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” Rotary Clubs worldwide will recite the four-way test with its commitment to truth, fairness, good-will and beneficence.

Message Translation: “Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously.”

Here is our three-way test… surely we can learn this verse for this week? “Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with YOUR God.”

After hours of posing for a portrait, the artist said to Sir Winston Churchill, “Sir, I hope I have done you justice.” Churchill responded, “Look at me… I do not need justice, I need mercy!”.

Perhaps sometimes, perhaps often, in our “doing of justice” and “our loving of mercy” we will become weary or we will sense we are wearying others… and it’s a that moment, friends, that we need remember to “walk humbly with our God” – we should not expect an easier road that He travelled and travels, and he will always be “our God”.

The first three steps of 12 Step Programs have often been summarized as “I can’t. He Can. I think I’ll let him”. When we begin to tire of doing justly and loving mercy remember… “I can’t. He can. I think I’ll let him.” AMEN