Finding Your Way, Part 4: Walk Humbly With Your God

2011-10-23
Finding Your Way, Part 4: Walk Humbly With Your God
Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 11:25-30

Micah 6:8
8 He has told you, O mortal, 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?

Matthew 11:25-30
New International Version (NIV)
The Father Revealed in the Son

25 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

---

So today we're on the final part of a series called, "Finding Your Way." It's based on the idea that even though you can find direction for life in about a million places - like, the barber shop, the beauty salon, the soccer game, lunch with friends, meetings with co-workers, talk radio, the school restroom, the other kids in your day care, Twitter, Facebook, Us Magazine weekly, your husband, your wife, your grandmother, your tattooed neighbor who never wears a shirt and is always on the front porch, shouting into his cell phone...

This series of messages is based on the idea that even though you can find direction out there from about a million places, that ultimately, God's direction is better. God's direction is better than Cosmo, better than GQ, better than Rush Limbaugh, better than Jon Stewart... God's direction better than anybody and anyplace else.

A long time ago, about two-thousand, five-hundred years ago, give or take a year, the prophet Micah, speaking on behalf of God, gave some direction for finding your way through all the advice the world has to offer. Micah, speaking on behalf of God, gave guidance for finding your way when there's NO advice. Micah, speaking on behalf of God, gave direction when you know in your gut you're getting BAD advice. And Micah's direction for life was pretty simple. Micah, speaking on behalf of God, gave us some requirements for being a quality human being. And it went like this:

What does the Lord require of you, O mortal?

He addresses it to "O mortal." Not iMortal. Not M Mortal. O mortal. When Micah-slash-God asks this rhetorical question, it's addressed not to just one person, not just us, not them, those "they" people over there. This isn't just what God requires of the people on this side of the sanctuary. This isn't just what God requires of the people in the back row of the Choir. This is addressed to "O mortal." Hello, O. Micah-slash-God means, "Everybody." All y'all. And all them. God's giving direction to every single human being on the face of the planet.

What does the Lord require of you, O mortal? But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

That's it: Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God.

And I suppose the way it says, "Your" God, you might argue that this three-part vision statement applies to all people of all religions. And every major religion on earth has some variant of this statement, so it's not unique. But we're not those other religions. We're followers of the God for whom Micah spoke. We're followers of the God who said these words. We're followers of Jesus, who lived these words to perfection. So, if we are Christians, if we are followers of the God of Jesus Christ, these are not nuggets of helpful advice. These are requirements.

You, and you, and I, are REQUIRED to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

Our God. You, plural. WE are REQUIRED as a group, required as a people, required as a church that's part of Christ's church universal to: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

So, in the previous weeks, we've done justice and we've loved kindness. Check. And check. At least, I hope we have. Today we're walking humbly with our God.

---

Body language tells us a lot about people. You can tell in an instant when someone is NOT walking humbly, right? People who do NOT walk humbly walk with attitude. They have a swagger. Actually, I think that's pronounced, "Swaggah." Quarterbacks. Models. Billionaires. They've got serious swag. It's men who tug on their shirt cuffs a lot. It's women who carry very tiny purses.

It's hard to walk with attitude when your purse is large enough to carry your kid's soccer pads. Hard to maintain attitude when you get in a meeting and realize your business suit is covered in dog hair. Hard to be cool when your emergency phone calls are about bringing home more toilet paper. Really quick. It's hard to walk with attitude if you're walking with a cane, unless you're British, or Dumbledore.

I don't usually hang out with models or billionaires. Maybe you do. The people I normally hang out with tend to walk more carefully. Maybe it's because they're wearing bifocals. Or maybe it's because of the time they walked face-first into the stop sign they forgot was behind them. One person I got behind last week was involved in a meandering phone call and likewise was mindlessly wandering to the left, to the right, left, no, right again, as if there was no one else in the world. There's a difference between walking with attitude and walking clueless.

I know people who walk with attitude with God. I also know people who walk cluelessly with God. I know people who walk as though God, or life in general, has placed the weight of the world on their shoulders.

How's your walk going?

---

Back in Bible times, when people carried water, instead of cell phones, they had yokes that they'd brace over their shoulders and hang their buckets from each end. It was pretty good technology. It kept you in shape and it kept you in balance. It gave you the power to carry at least twice what you ordinarily could. Your yoke made you stronger. Your yoke gave purpose to your walk.

About 500 years after Micah, Jesus talked about walking humbly, too. He used the image of a yoke. He said,

"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

People who carried yokes were obviously humble. If you had attitude, you had someone else carrying your yoke for you. If you had a yoke, you put stuff on it you didn't mind the world seeing. You carried your water, maybe your food. You didn't hang flat-screen TVs from a yoke. You carried essentials. And, by the very nature of the technology, you carried it humbly.

So when Jesus says to "take my yoke upon you" he's saying to not worry about letting the world see what you've got on you. And what do you have? You've got the good news of Jesus Christ. The one who comes to relieve the burdens of the people who've got the whole world on their shoulders.

When Jesus says to "take my yoke upon you," he's also saying someone who walks with Christ walks humbly. In other words, lose the attitude, take on the yoke.

Jesus says, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." In other words, if you're all grumpy, and judgmental, and burdened with enduring this wretched world, you may have picked up the wrong yoke at baggage claim.

On the other hand, it's still a yoke. Your yoke's not a joke and it's OK not to be doing that coat-hanger Christian smile all the time.

Carrying a yoke takes a sense of balance. And if your sense of life feels out of balance, that's sign number one you could use an adjustment. Or someone to help you carry your burdens, whatever they are.

---

Because, you see, ultimately, it's not how YOU walk, or how much justice YOU do, or how much kindness YOU feel all tingly and loving about. If you do walk humbly, and if you do love kindness and if you do do justice, awesome. Remember, though, this isn't about iMortal; it's about O Mortal.

If we take the book of Micah, or the preachings of Jesus and if we think they're written specifically for me, or for you, then we miss the whole point. Unlike all the other advice in the world, the Bible isn't a book about self-improvement. Oprah's about self-improvement. Jesus is not Oprah. Jesus is about something else. God is about something greater than self-improvement. God is about something greater than self-preservation.

The Bible speaks to all of us, together. Micah spoke to his whole nation. The Bible speaks to our nation. The Bible speaks to our world. And it says, "You want a place you can be proud of? Then do justice. Not just with O. J. Simpson and Muammar Gaddafi and Lindsay Lohan. Do justice with your family. Do justice with the people who don't have health care. Do justice with people who don't have jobs.

The Bible speaks to our world. And it says, "You want a place you can be proud of? Then love kindness. And not just with the people who are kind to you first. Or who you're relatively sure can repay their debt of kindness back to you. Be kind to the people who don't deserve kindness. Be kind to the people who'll never know you're being kind. Be kind, even if it means not giving people what they say they want because in the end what they want would hurt them."

And, the Bible speaks to our world. And it says, "You want a place you can be proud of? Then walk humbly with your God. And maybe, in 2011, that means letting other people walk humbly with their god, or their interpretation of God, and not getting all defensive about it. It means walking with balance. Walking with neither attitude nor chronic unhappiness. It means helping people who are out of balance, or carrying more than they can handle.

---

We as individuals, can always tell how far away from the mark we are, or how close we are, if we measure ourselves by the question: "Am I doing justice? Am I loving kindness? Am I walking humbly with our God?"

As a church, the same questions apply, too. We can tell how well we're doing by asking how we're doing. Are we as a congregation doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God?

And, as a church, we can be modern-day Micahs. We can ask of our society, our culture, our government, "Are we doing justice, are we loving kindness, and are we walking humbly with our God? Really?"

But I phrased the question the wrong way. I said, "We can," we can, we can. But that's wrong. Because if we're followers of Christ, if we're people who walk, if we're people who find our way in the footsteps of Jesus, then this is not optional. This is not a "we can." This is a "we must." Because all this stuff is required of you, O Mortal.

So take that yoke upon you. And may we all do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

Sent with Writer.

- James

Finding Your Way (Part 3) Love Kindness

2011-10-16

Finding Your Way, Part 3: Love Kindness

Micah 6:6-8, Luke 6:27-36

Micah 6:8

8 He has told you, O mortal, 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?

Luke 6:27-36

    27 "But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

   32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

---

So today we're on Part Three of a series called, "Finding Your Way." 

It's a study of the Book of Micah. 

Micah's a small book by a Minor Prophet. 

But his message is huge and timeless. 

"What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" is Micah, chapter 6, verse 8. 

Last week we did justice. 

This week we're loving kindness.

I hope you've been reading Micah at home, because there's much more to him than we can get to on Sunday mornings. 

If you haven't and you want to catch up, just go to our website, www.lakehillspres.org, and click on Worship. 

You can read Micah right there, on the computer. 

You can even have Micah read aloud to you by a guy who sounds remarkably like Darth Vader. 

Finding Your Way is easy. 

Finding direction is easy to do. 

All you have to do is follow the crowd. 

If you want to find direction all you have to do is exactly the same thing everybody around you is doing. 

Surely, your family, your neighbors, your city, your entire country can't be wrong. 

Right?

If you want guidance, if you want direction for life, just follow the people, follow the fads, follow the money. 

Find out what the cool people are doing and do that. 

That's pretty much what people in the twin countries of Israel and Judah were doing back when God called Micah to prophesy to them around 700 BC. 

They were carried away, getting rich. 

They were carried away keeping the poor people poor. 

They were carried away listening to preachers who preached that everything was exactly the way it was supposed to be. 

God says, "Don't go changing to try and please me. I love you just the way you are."

So God sent Micah to tell them, "No."

We're working through Micah, and in particular, working through the summary message of chapter 6, verse 8: 

Do justice, Love kindness, Walk humbly with your God. 

This morning our message is "Love Kindness." 

And my first thought is, 

"This should be a short one." 

Everybody loves kindness, right? 

Anybody not like kindness? 

Anybody ever said, "Oh, I can't stand her!  She's just so... kind!"?? 

OK, maybe you HAVE said that, but that's a sermon on jealousy, and Micah doesn't talk about that. 

Even your grouchy neighbor, who keeps the footballs kicked over his fence, the one who yells, "Hey you kids! Get off my lawn!" even he likes kindness, especially when it's directed at him.

I can't preach on kindness without thinking of Blance DuBois' famous line from "A Streetcar Named Desire." 

Remember it? 

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." 

Yes, thank goodness for good, Christian men. 

Whose kindness do you depend upon?

---

Blanche isn't all that far from the truth, for all of us. 

We all depend in one way or another upon the kindness of strangers. 

We don't know who installed the gas lines down our streets and into our homes. 

But we trust that they knew what they were doing. 

We don't know who programs the acceleration units in our cars, but we're kinda sure we'd know if there had been a recall.

We don't know who writes our textbooks, but we hope they're historically accurate and mathematically correct.

We hope our water is drinkable, our beef is edible, our medicines are medicinal, and our daughters are impregnable.

We don't know who sewed our clothes. 

We don't know who made our electronics. 

We see "Hecho in Mexico" or El Salvador, or China, or Korea and we don't stop to ask if the person making whatever it was adequately paid or even out of their teens.

We depend on strangers and we depend on their kindness more and more, and more.

And... at the same time we depend on strangers more and more, and more... 

at the same time we're dependent on strangers more and more, and more...

it seems to me that at the same time we fear strangers more and more, and more.

It's like we're saying to the strangers, 

"We will depend on your kindness, or at least your tacit cooperation, but we are very scared of what you could do, and what you might do, if you stop playing nice."

I think - 

and hang with me for a minute on this - 

I think that the world (left on its own) does not teach us to love kindness. 

I think that the world (left on its own) teaches us to suspect kindness... 

I think the world teaches us to be suspicious of kindness... 

instead of loving it.  

Micah preached that we should love kindness. 

That is true. 

But Micah also preached God's justice. 

Reading Micah and knowing how the world is, I think it's fair to say that wherever there is injustice, kindness is not loved. 

Wherever there is injustice, kindness is suspect. 

Wherever there is injustice, people who might be kind and loving turn suspicious, turn worried, turn hostile. 

If you are suspicious, worried, or hostile, you will hold back your kindness. 

If you are suspicious, worried, or hostile, you cannot love kindness.

God loves kindness. 

Jesus loves kindness. 

Micah loved kindness. 

In fact - did you know this from your reading on our website? - 

Micah's name literally means, "Who is like God?" 

The name Micah is a question, "Who is like God?"

If we don't love kindness, then the answer is, "Nobody." 

If we don't love kindness, then we are not like God. 

If we are suspicious, if we are worried, if we are hostile, we physically cannot love kindness. 

We will withhold our kindness. 

We are not like God.

---

Oh, man. 

This easy, short little message just grew sharp teeth. 

I am so sorry, because on the inside I really, really want to say something like, "But it's OK. Jesus loves you. Jesus forgives us. Let's go to lunch." 

Unfortunately, we're working with the Bible, here. 

Unfortunately, we're working with Jesus, and Jesus just takes Micah's nice little saying about "love kindness," and makes it much, much worse. 

Jesus makes loving kindness hard. 

You think Micah was tough? 

You think, "Who is like God?" was rough? 

Try the guy "Who Is God."

Jesus says this. 

He says, "But I say to you that listen"

(In other words, I say to you who haven't already mentally checked out), 

"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."

Jesus who IS God says, 

"...love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked."

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What kind of world does Jesus think he's living in?

What kind of world does Jesus think WE'RE living in?

I don't know. Maybe... God's?

Jesus is saying some really, real world stuff here.

He's saying, You know that nice little tacit cooperation you have with the strangers whose kindness you depend on? 

You know, the strangers who build your cars, and make your clothes, and solder your circuits, and grow your food, and wait on your table? 

You know, THOSE strangers? 

The ones you depend on whether you admit it or not? 

Jesus is saying, You know what? 

Your neat little arrangement is going to break down. 

You can't depend on their kindness. 

You can't trust that they have your best interests at heart. 

The system will crash. 

And you know what you have to do?

You have to love them.

You have to love them, anyway.

You have to show them that you love kindness, whether they get it, or whether they give it, or not.

That's what Jesus says we have to do. 

Fully expecting nothing in return.

The world tells us, "Go ahead. Turn suspicious, turn worried, turn hostile.

Jesus says, "Turn kinder." 

Jesus says to turn to the people we know are going to break their side of the bargain, and love them, expecting absolutely nothing in return.

Do justice. Love kindness.

"Who is like God?"

How about you? How about us?

---

But what if people don't want your kindness?

I know people... you probably know people, too... who have a really hard time accepting kindness. 

They have a hard time accepting kindness from strangers. 

But they have an even harder time even accepting kindness from their family or friends, from the people who are trying so hard to love them.

Why is that? 

Why is accepting kindness so hard?

Maybe it's not because they're suspicious, worried, and hostile toward other people. 

Maybe because they're suspicious and hostile about themselves.

"You wouldn't be so nice to me if you knew how I really am." 

And so they push people away who would share some loving kindness.

Have you ever done that?

Have you ever been on the receiving end of that?

A lot of times the people who need your help the most know, deep down, they need your help so badly. 

But they keep pushing you away, for your own protection.

Have you ever felt that way toward someone who wants to show loving kindness to you?

Or maybe someone hurt you so badly that you'll never, ever, ever trust them again. 

Maybe you have such disgust for someone that the mere mention of their name makes your stomach boil.

I think Jesus would probably say, "So?"

We think love is always an emotion. 

With flowers and restaurants and jewelry. 

To the best of my knowledge, not once did Jesus ever give anyone flowers or jewelry. 

And yet he says to love them, to love kindness.

You don't have to "feel" love to "do" loving things.

So what if that person makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up? 

You don't have to feel loving towards them in order to show them loving kindness.

Kindness of strangers? 

That's actually pretty easy.

The kindness of people we know a little too well?

Or the kindness of people who know us a little too well?

That's a bit tougher.

Oh, mercy, mercy, mercy. 

This is hard.

Maybe that's why Jesus ended by saying, Oh mercy, mercy, mercy. 

He said, "Be merciful, then, just as God is merciful."

God knows this is hard stuff.

---

We've got a lot of kind, loving people here, at Lake Hills Presbyterian Church. 

And that's a wonderful thing. 

You would hope that people who come to church would be kind and loving. 

Not just here, but you'd hope that people at all churches are kind and loving, just as Jesus was kind and loving.

Because if you're a Christian, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, then, really, you don't have any choice. 

If you've signed on as a follower of Christ, then you have to be kind and loving, as he was. 

Whether you like it or not. 

Whether you feel kind and loving or not. 

If you signed up to be a follower of Jesus, that's just what you have to do, even if you don't like doing it sometimes. 

I think we forget that doing justice and loving kindness is not optional. 

Doing justice and loving kindness is not dependent on our mood.

The other thing I think we forget, too, is that doing justice and loving kindness is not normal behavior. 

Doing justice and loving kindness like Micah did, and like Jesus did, is kind of weird. 

We forget that as Christians, we're supposed to be weird. 

Not normal.

Some of you are thinking, "Whew! At least I've got that part right." 

Yes, we are supposed to be odd. 

But in a good way. 

The way Jesus was odd.

Now, maybe you're already an expert in being weird this way. 

But here's what I'd like all of us to do this week. 

Try being even more odd. 

Try bucking the world's system by being loving, and loving the kindness you receive, and loving people in kindness even if you don't like them. 

Can you do that? 

Will you try it?

But here's the deal.

Don't do it because the preacher's asking you to. 

Do it because it's what the Lord requires of you. 

The Lord requires of you... 

to do justice, whether you receive it or not. 

The Lord requires of you... 

to love kindness, whether it's returned or not. 

Lord, have mercy. 

And the Lord does. 

Whether we accept it, or not.

Whether the world accepts it or not.