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Sermon: The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (A) - 30th January 2011
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7,8 &10 am
Readings: Micah 6:1-8 Psalm 15 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Matthew 5:1-12
Today, we again have the same reading for the Gospel as we had for our Australia Day commemoration, last Sunday. You will recall that I quoted Søren Kierkegaard, who upon hearing the Beatitudes read in church said, “Why did no one laugh?” He was commenting upon the silliness of the Beatitudes, viewed from a worldly, non-believing, point of view. As our reading this morning from Corinthians points out, “ For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. … For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. … God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. … (God) is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’
I remembered, after I last Sunday, that I have an experience similar to that of Kierkegaard. When I was the Assistant Priest at St James’ King Street, I was asked to take a wedding for a well-known lawyer and his fiancée. His whole family was made up of well-known lawyers. I was told that lots of the Sydney law fraternity were going to be present. I thought what should I use as a reading to reflect upon in the sermon in the wedding ceremony. I decided that as a large number of lawyers were going to be present that I would use the Beatitudes, as the reading. After the wedding ceremony concluded, I thought that everything had gone well.
Afterwards, at the reception, I was standing talking to someone and then, out of the darkness, appeared a person, who burst out with, “The meek will inherit the earth. What rot!” They disappeared back into the darkness. Later, they came back and apologised, and introduced themself as ****** ****** who, at that time, was a High Court Judge. Obviously, from their perspective as a judge, they knew that in worldly terms, the entire list of the Beatitudes, were foolish.
Jesus’ words are in the tradition of the prophets. Similar to what we read in Micah. Micah tells us what God expects from us. We are not saved by our piety, our sacrifices, or the way we perform and participate in liturgy. We are not saved by our ethical practices. It is obvious that by our own action we can never be good enough, to be in God’s presence. We are saved by God's grace and forgiveness. We can’t save ourselves through proper understanding, the correct theological formulation, a right reading of the Holy Scriptures. Micah and the Beatitudes, help us to struggle with how to be right before God.
How can persons know that they are right with God? The familiar words from verse 6 to 8 gives us some ways to think about this perennial faith question. Clearly, God makes demands on those whom God calls into community. The initiative lies with God. It was God who brought the slaves out of Egypt, led them safely through the wilderness into the promised land and made them a people. God called, loved and made a commitment to them without requiring them to attain some preliminary standard of ethics, piety or knowledge. God has acted through Jesus also, and made a commitment to us. As God's people we are expected to live accordingly, particularly with regard to justice, love, and faithfulness to God and to each other. If we are unable or unwilling to do so, there will be unpleasant consequences. That does not mean that God has stopped loving us, but negative results are inevitable when people live out of conformity with the way God has constituted the world. Disaster awaits those who do so.
What God requires is both easier and harder than the questions of verses 6 and 7 imply. It is easier because there is nothing that we need to do (or are able to do) to make ourselves sufficiently worthy to approach God. It is harder, because what God expects of us is a dedication of our whole lives, not just outward and occasional acts of piety.
There is really nothing new here in Micah’s words to the people of Israel of his time. God has already told the people what is good. They have the teachings of Moses and the great stories of deliverance through God's graceful action. We also have the stories of Jesus as well. The people of Israel were fascinated with ceremony and sacrifice that actually hide reluctance to come to terms with what they already know, with what is truly important. Their religion was nothing more than a show. What is it in our lives, as good as they may be, that we use to avoid truly living the way God requires of us? What is the apparent good thing that hinders us in what God truly requires of us; being just, being kind and walking humbly with God.
If we are in right relationship with God we need not worry much about what to do to win approval or forgiveness for sinful indiscretions. If we are not right with God, no liturgical ceremony, sacrifice, act of generosity, or rigid adherence to pet theological absolutes will be sufficient.
The teaching found in Micah, helps us to discover whether God is just. When terrible things happen to people, such as the floods in Queensland and Victoria, even to those who seem least deserving, how do we reconcile attributes of God, such as power and justice, that appear to be in contradiction? If God is powerful and at work to influence earthly events, such as the biblical exodus, the blessing by Balaam, the safe crossing of the Jordan, then why does God cause, or allow, disasters that crush God's own people? Does God actually interfere in the life of the planet, or is God merely a frustrated bystander like the rest of us? Is there a middle position that affirms God's influence but admits that it is modified by human freedom?
Throughout the years, faithful people have struggled with the question of God’s goodness, the effort to find a rational defence of God's justice within the reality of horrible circumstances. In a sense, God has been on trial many times throughout the centuries, as in the dispute between God and the people in Micah 6. Any jury, mountains or hills, or the people of Israel, or the Christian church, or the people of Australia, should look carefully at the evidence. In doing so, we may come to the same conclusion as the book of Micah: God is, indeed, just. The people sinned to the point where God had no choice but to punish the offenders. If God did not act to punish the guilty and vindicate the oppressed, it would have been a denial of justice.
Enthusiastic efforts to clear God of charges of injustice and to argue against denials of God's power may lead to untrue accusations against human beings. In times of suffering, when we are all looking for someone to blame, we may save God's reputation only by increasing the guilt of humanity, both individually and collectively.
Is God hurt by the rejection of those whom God has called and loved? In verses 3 to 5, which we hear plainly each Good Friday, “O my people what have I done to you”, God's defence reminds us of the lament of parents who have done everything possible to prepare their children for happy and successful lives, only to be puzzled, offended, and grieved by their rebelliousness. What to do? Is punishment the proper course? Will it help? A parent who continues to love a misbehaving child does not want to hurt the child, but cannot let matters go on without intervention. Parents think that required discipline is more painful to them than to their child, but very few recipients of punishment ever believed that.
Just as the prophet does not like to be the messenger of menacing news to the people he loves, so also God does not enjoy inflicting punishment, even if the people deserve it. So, God has a problem, too, when people are disobedient. God also feels pain for God is the God of love. As we see in the Beatitudes there will be suffering. “ ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Remember that further on in this Gospel that Jesus also says, “ ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”
It is no laughing matter. We must seek to act according to the teaching of Micah and the Beatitudes, or if you and I don’t, we do so at your own peril.
This sermon produced using The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol VII, Abingdon Press, Nashville 1994