Sermon Transcript—Sunday,
December 9, 2012—Advent 2
Text: Micah
5:2-5a
Title: Longing
for True Spirituality
Prayer for Illumination
Gracious God,
your vision of peace and wholeness comes to us in sweeping revelations and in
tiny signs of hope. Kindle our hearts, that we might be a hopeful people. Keep
us from growing weary of waiting so that we do not miss the glory of your
appearing. Even so, come quickly, O God. Amen.
Scripture
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are
too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one
who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from old, from ancient days.
Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has
given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of
Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure,
for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their
peace.”
Sermon
Introduction
“Who is a God like you?”
This question in chapter 7, verse 18
closes the Book of Micah, the prophecy of this minor prophet Micah of
Moresheth. The name Micah actually means, “Who is like Yahweh?” This is, in
fact, a remarkably important and timely question to ask. Why? Because we live
in a world that is longing for true spirituality.
Don’t you find it interesting that
in our scientific, post-modern world we have in fact not seen a decrease in
spiritual curiosity, but an increase? Sigmund Freud, who once said that all
spirituality is the result of psychological forces such as projecting a
father-figure onto a cosmic screen, has actually lost. As recently as June of
2011, the Gallup organization found that more than 90% of Americans believe in
God or a universal spirit. That doesn’t mean we are a Christian nation; it
means we are a religious nation.
Look around—if you drive 10 miles in
any direction from Faith Community Church you will find Unitarian, Buddhist,
Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian places of worship. Even those who
would not be caught dead in any form of institutional religion probably adhere
to some form of pantheism (believing that there is a divine “life-force” in
rocks, trees, or clouds), or New Age thought, and may at the very least be
curious about what their horoscope says each morning. If you go to Barnes and
Noble (which I often do) and check out their section on “religion,” you will
find a remarkably diverse collection of writings ranging from the Bible to
Witchcraft, Joel Osteen to Eat, Pray,
Love. In our culture we throw all of it into one big pot and make tepid
claims such as “all roads lead to heaven,” or “it’s all the same god, we just
have different ways of getting to him.”
I am fascinated with spirituality in
general, and more particularly with how it looks within our culture.
Philosopher Will Herberg once wrote that, “Man is homo religiosus, by ‘nature’ religious: As much as he needs food to
eat and air to breathe, he needs a faith for living…” (Protestant-Catholic-Jew). That is another way of saying that
everyone worships something. The first reason we are that way is, of course,
that we were created that way, to know deep within us that there is something
more. The second reason is because intellectually people have not failed to
voice the prevailing question of existence—“Are we alone in the cosmos, or is
there something more?” Finally, the reason we are spiritual is because, as C.S.
Lewis wrote, we hear echoes, if you will, of that “something more,” in beauty,
order, kindness, justice, and joy. We are exultant upon the birth of a child;
or we are absolutely crushed when we witness injustice. We are longing for
something good and a happy ending where there is peace.
In our longing to find that
“something more,” humans have often gone quite thoroughly astray, “looking for
love in all the wrong places,” most notably in themselves, but certainly in
man-made things or human-conceived “wisdom” (which, of course, we call
idolatry). In the end, so many just turn on “Dancing with the Stars” and try
not to think about it.
Which brings us back to the
question, “Who is a God like you?” And we can run down the litany of
contenders:
·
Is
the God of Israel like all the gods of the Ancient Near East? The ancient
people had a very rich appreciation for the numinous, and ordinarily identified
gods and goddesses with the sun and moon or stars. Floods and droughts,
fertility and death, good luck and bad were all tied to the gods, and usually
they were angry with you. To appease the gods, you would offer sacrifices to
them and hope that they might not strike you down. Is this what the true God is
like?
·
Is
the God of Israel like the Greek and later Roman gods, these oftentimes
bumbling deities who seemed to enjoy manipulating and toying with mere mortals,
who identified with the rich and powerful—emperors and kings—and despised the
lowly? Is this what the true God is like?
·
Is
the God of Israel like the gods of pantheism? Are we to believe that all of
nature is identified with this all-encompassing divinity, so that god is rocks,
trees, and clouds?
·
Is
the God of Israel like the god of deism, believed to have made the world but is
now hidden in the cosmos, not to be known personally?
·
Is
the God of Israel like the god of Islam, who has revealed his will and intent,
written it down, and now expects you to keep it?
·
Is
the God of Israel like the god of Sikhism, for whom what is really required is
some form of enlightenment?
·
Is
the God of Israel like the god of Hinduism, who really isn’t even so much of a
god but a principle of life?
·
Echoing
my earlier suggestion that the spirituality of 21st century of
America is most commonly marked by some form of “self-actualization,” we must
ask whether the God of Israel…like me?
“Who is a God like you?”
What the
Bible Says
Christians have likely experienced all
those same spiritual longings as everyone else, but have found in the story of
the Bible the story and in the person
of Jesus Christ the source and aim of
all spirituality.
So when the prophet Micah asks the
questions, “Who is a God like you?”
he actually has an answer. And we turn to our text today…
Now
let me begin, as I did last week, by sharing with you the broader context of
our text and, in fact, Micah’s prophecy. There is an absolutely fantastic
history that accompanies this and I want to give to you a brief synopsis of
this geo-political stew—as much for your entertainment as for your edification—so
that you understand the mess into which the prophet Micah was speaking:
Assyria
was a growing superpower in the Near East, gobbling up everything in its path
during the last years of the eighth century, B.C. The Northern Kingdom of
Israel saw the writing on the wall, that its days were likely numbered, and in
fear of this growing force to the northeast joined forces with Syria (King
Rezin). The king of the Northern Kingdom, King Pekah, attempted to strengthen
this alliance against Assyria with his neighbor to the south, the Southern
Kingdom of Judah, led by King Ahaz (a pretty thoroughly rotten king). Ahaz
probably not-so-kindly demurred which, of course, made the increasingly
irrational coalition of Israel and Syria very angry. The coalition invaded
Judah in 735 B.C. King Ahaz, now attacked by his neighbors (you might even say
its brothers) went to Assyria’s King Tiglath-Pileser for help and protection,
which averted an invasion from Israel, but made Judah a vassal state in the
Assyrian Empire. Assyria soon figured out that Judah was a mere bug on its
windshield, and shortly after the fall of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, in 722
B.C., the new king of Assyria, Sennacherib, marched on Judah and destroyed most
of it, though Jerusalem was miraculously spared. However, Judah was forced to
pay crippling sanctions to Assyria.
The reason I
share this short history with you is so that you might consider how the Near
East has been a powder keg for going on three millennia. The names haven’t even
changed much—Assyria is now Iraq, of course, but Syria is Syria, Israel/Judah
is Israel. And I hope Iraq, Syria, and Israel cue up in your gut at least some feelings of unrest. One of the
major themes of Advent is peace, and it is these areas, perhaps more than any
others during this new millennium, who have been most decidedly without peace. Interestingly,
this is also perhaps the most “spiritual” place in the world, with two of the
three major world religions, Judaism and Islam, competing.
Within this broader geo-political
lack of peace there was a particular situation at home—there was no peace in
the world because there wasn’t even any peace in the land. Micah was speaking
into the lives of his people, or rather God’s special people, regarding how
they were living. If you were here last week you heard the prophet Jeremiah
speaking much the same thing to the people of Judah over one hundred years
later. Do you remember the problem in Judah at that time? Injustice and the
ensuing disaster that was coming as a result.
Here, more than one hundred years
earlier, the Lord was speaking through the prophet Micah to decry the same
thing—injustice! Particularly, in the prophecy of Micah God was speaking
judgment on the powerful and wealthy who were oppressing the poor. The Northern
Kingdom’s punishment was happening during Micah’s lifetime because of this same
injustice, and Micah is saying to Judah, “Do you see what is happening to
Israel? The same thing is going to happen to you.”
Let’s
listen to verse 1 from our text for today, because this gives us a taste of the
pronouncement of judgment God is issuing to his people, much like we find
throughout the book: “Now muster your
troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike
the judge of Israel on the cheek.” Obviously, these are fighting words. The
people have acted unjustly, robbing the poor of their land, and God’s judgment
on this action becomes immanent. God is quite clear in what he expects from his
people—perhaps the most famous line from this entire book: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require
of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your
God” (Micah 6:8). God’s judgment is coming because God is love and holiness. Love and holiness: “not one above the other”
(Schaeffer). The people of Judah have certainly not acted in justice and
loving-kindness. Furthermore, the people of Judah exacerbate the problem in
going to Assyria for help, instead of amending their ways and looking to the
Lord their God. The people of Judah were called to faithfulness but rebelled;
they were called to repent and turn back to God; they would not. So he would
judge the nation in holiness.
“Who is a God like you?” What other god has such a heart for
justice? What other god cares so deeply for the poor and disenfranchised? What
other god would not look away, would not give away his holiness and justice but
would demand that that holiness and justice be upheld? In my hometown of Cedar
Falls, Iowa two little girls disappeared this summer. They were found just a
couple of days ago in the woods by some hunters. Our hearts burn within us for
justice to be upheld. For the perpetrators of this act to be punished.
“Woe
to those who devise wickedness and work evil...!” (Micah 2:1a).
In Micah 1:1 “Hear, you peoples, all
of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it...for behold, the Lord is
coming out of his place and will come down and tread upon the high places of
the earth...” And in Malachi 4:1:
there is a reference to the day of the Lord that is seen throughout
the minor prophets, not only a time when God will judge Israel for her
faithlessness, but when He will judge the wicked: “For behold, the day is
coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be
stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of
hosts...” Now we don’t so much like it when we get our just desserts, but
we dig justice, we hope for it. Lyric and Elizabeth. Injustice will be punished
by a holy God. And we long for justice. For one who is perfectly just and all
seeing and all-knowing and all-good to hold to account those who harm others.
If there is no God of holiness to whom we will one-day give account, the
tragedy of Lyric and Elizabeth is meaningless. There will be no justice. There
will be no accounts brought to bear. And the longing will be unmet. But in God
there is justice precisely because of His holiness. He will judge not just for
the harm done to 2 little girls, but for the wickedness and idolatry that
springs from our hearts (Mark 7). Who is
this God? He is a God of justice!
And we
then read in verses 2-3: “But you, O
Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you
shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from
of old, from ancient days...[who will come] when she who is in labor has given
birth.” In a world where might is right and the rich grow richer and the
powerful exert their power with a terrifying force, crushing the poor and weak,
and when the people of Israel were expecting a king to protect them from the
Assyrians or Egyptians or whoever else was serving as the resident “bully on
the block,” we hear this prophecy. In 586 B.C. the temple is destroyed, Judah
is conquered, and the people are sent into the diaspora. God’s people are
“given up” until we read in the Gospel stories the remarkable, surprising story
of a baby…a baby who would grow to be a man and who would go to the cross. Here
we have the difference between advice, which is really the form of all other
religions of the world, and the Gospel. Advice says, “Do this and your life
will be better.” When you hear good advice on how to live, you might say, “That
is inspiring!” but it is a weight. A burden. I’ve got to do that. That isn’t
the Gospel. The Gospel is “Good news” or “joyful news.” The Gospel says, “This
is what has been done in history. This is what God has done: coming in
full humanity, putting on flesh, to live and die to earn the way to God for
you.” Religion says, “Good luck in reaching God.” Only in Christianity does God
put on flesh and come to us. The Gospel is that God connects to you not on the
basis of what you have done but based on what He has done in history,
coming in the form of a baby, for you. In 2 Corinthians 13:4 it is written, “That
Christ was crucified in weakness so that we can live in God’s power.”
Who is
this God who comes to us not in power or majesty but as a baby born in a cave
in a little backwater town in the Near East to a desperate 16-year old girl? Who
is this God who fulfills the promise for justice and peace not by destroying
the nations but by putting on flesh? Who is this God who uses weakness, not
strength, to reign victorious over sin and death? Who is this God whose glory
is sufficient in himself that he would come from the least auspicious place in
the least auspicious way.
“Who is a God like you?”
At Christmas we
celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, the descendant of King David and
true Son of God. The second person of the trinity who was with God in the
beginning…the very word of God made flesh. Born in a manger, in the town of
Bethlehem Ephrathah…
And note the way this Messiah-King
is to lead… “He shall stand and shepherd
his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD
his God.” You see, we long for peace but we don’t know how to do it. We
fight and form coalitions. We believe that if we only had sufficient power we
would set the world aright, but know in our heart of hearts that that never
really works either (The Lord of the Rings
is a meditation on this fact). But the promised Messiah will shepherd his
flock. He will serve in compassion and love. He will do it not as a despotic
tyrant, lording it over his people, but he will do it in love and obedience to
the Father. It was later said of Jesus, the Messiah: “Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality
with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a
servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7). This King would
rely on the strength of God to rule. This King knows that his strength and
power lies in his relationship with his Father, who will give him wisdom and
direction. A king who shows compassion. A king who serves. A king who
counter-intuitively will make thing right and bring peace in a way we wouldn’t
expect.
But this falls
completely in line with the character of God that is revealed in Micah 7:18-20:
“Who is a God like you, pardoning
inequity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He
does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He
will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You
will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
Who is this God who makes great demands on us and then does
them for us? Who rips into flesh, his own, to give new life. Who
is this God? This is the God of loving-kindness! Of peace!
And this God who makes
great demands on his people, sees his people defy his will and his commands. He
sees every act of injustice. He sees every sin that we commit. He sees how we
long for justice and peace but think and act in ways that bring injustice and
war. He sees how we rip into the flesh of others with our thoughts, words, and
deeds. He saw it all in the people of Israel. He saw it all in the people of
Judah. He sees it all in us. And the God of complete holiness will not let that
holiness be compromised. Justice must be meted out. There is punishment. But
the God of complete loving-kindness will not let that loving-kindness be
compromised, and He always finds a way to fulfill his purposes of holiness and
loving-kindness in the world.
That way is Jesus
Christ, a baby of the house and lineage of David, born in Bethlehem. He will be
the peace of the Israel. He will be your peace. By his sacrifice on the cross
he made peace through his own blood, that our sins would not be held against
us.
Through faith in Jesus Christ, the shepherd-king who was
prophesied, we have a shepherd who will always take care of us—“The LORD is my
shepherd, I shall not want…” (Psalm 23); through faith in Jesus Christ, we have
a ruler in whom we may dwell secure—for in him “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from God’s love” (Rom. 8:38-39);
through faith in Jesus Christ, the One who came so inauspiciously, we have
peace—“through the blood of his cross”
(Col. 1:20); through faith in Jesus Christ, the Ruler who is great to the ends
of the earth, we see the promise of true spirituality, and true peace with God
and neighbor as a unavoidable reality that is ours when His kingdom is fully
come—“God has exalted him and bestowed on
him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil.
2:9-11).
Who is this God who comes not to a throne
but to a cave?
Who is this God who empties Himself and
becomes poor?
Who is this God who serves?
Who is this God who demands sacrifice
then offers it Himself?
Behold our
God: King Jesus.
I
want to tell you a story, about an evangelist and the leader of Hamas. Right
now, not far from where Jesus Christ was born, there are Israelites and
Palestinians who are shooting rockets at each other. Ravi Zacharias, a
Christian professor at Oxford University, was given the privilege of speaking
to this leader of Hamas (Sheik Kalehl) - a muscle bound man who had spent 18
years in prison and had lost many sons and daughters in the violence - and
could only ask him one question. Ravi asked his question and wasn’t happy with
the answer. Ravi said, “I’m not going to argue with you, but I want to say this
to you: 5000 years ago, not far from where we’re sitting, Abraham went up a
mountain and took his child with him. Abraham, whom we both revere, took his son
to sacrifice him and right before the blade fell God said stop. God said to
Abraham: ‘I myself will provide.’
Very close to where we sit here, 2000 years ago God kept that promise. He took
his own son. This time the axe did not stop.” Kahlel just stared at Ravi.
“Until we receive this son God has provided we will be offering our sons and
daughters on the battle-fields of this world for land and power and pride.” The
man’s lips quivered...later as we were walking out Kahlel grabbed Ravi by the
shoulders and kissed his face and patted his face and said, “You are a good
man. I hope to see you again someday.” This is a message that is unparalleled.
In Hinduism you pay, it is karma; in Islam, it is Inchi Allah, you never know, you hope your good deeds outweigh your
bad. In Christianity, the grace of Christ comes to you and God says, “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out”
(John 6:37).
Here’s where this leaves us today.
This is who God is. A God of justice,
holiness, and compassion. He is the only one who will bring peace in your life
and in the world. In Jesus Christ he has fulfilled every promise he ever made.
“I give you my Son, and in Him is life.” That is the message of Christmas. God
saying “Yes.”
The application is holy reverence
for a God like this. Church, there is no other God. All the other so-called
gods are impostors. There is no God like our God.
The first thing is reverence and
adoration. To cry out together “O God, who is a God like you?!!! You holiness
is beyond my comprehension and your loving-kindness brings me to my knees in
humble, amazed gratitude! Exalt Him!
The second thing is to rethink
religion and spirituality—its not about bigger and stronger; its about holiness
and love, particularly God’s but now ours also as we are joined to Jesus Christ
in faith. The way we rethink religion and spirituality is not to take a
comparative religions course at COD (though that might not be a bad idea) but
to learn Jesus Christ—your teachers and leaders are here “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body
of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12-13). All this so that you are not tossed to
and fro by every wind of doctrine, every false religion, every provocation to
idolatry, and every enticement to disobedience. We must learn daily what it
means to live in obedience to this holy and loving God. To do justice, to love
kindness, and to walk humbly before him. We must be equipped.
The third thing is to know that our
shepherd-king lives, and we dwell in security; we have no need to lash out, act
in violence; rather, we act in compassion and freedom. This is living in light.
In a world bathed in darkness, we then bear the responsibility of sharing that
light, of living boldly, even courageously in living out the Gospel and
proclaiming Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. We don’t need to build
walls. We don’t need to hide out in fear of the “scary pagan world.” Our
shepherd-king leads us, and in him we will always dwell securely. We must
evangelize.
And lastly, we now do these things
as God’s holy and special people in the world. That means we live in
community—exercising faith, worshiping, learning, living and proclaiming the
gospel together in community. We must not forget that God’s judgment on Judah
and Israel was for injustice within the borders of Judah and Israel. Quite the
opposite of abusing, taking advantage of, and oppressing one another we are
called to care for one another, particularly to care for those who are
struggling physically, financially, or in any other way. This is the vision for
the world, and when we do these things, there will be peace, because the one
true God is a God of peace.
Pray...
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