Excerpts from: The Stuffless Soul "Home is where your dog is." It's a lesson author Megan Edwards learned living life on the road. Her adventure began when a firestorm roared out of the hills above Pasadena, California. Her "nice house in a nice neighborhood full of nice stuff" was one of the first to burn to ashes. All you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? Everybody's got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there. That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. In our text this morning, the children of Israel had become defined by their 'stuff'. Though divided to Jerusalem in the north and Judah in the south, the two kingdoms combined nearly equaled the opulence the nation enjoyed under the reign of King Solomon. Over 40 years of peace, (a long time in the middle east) commerce and calm had settled in with the people. Let us briefly talk about Micah. We know that he was one of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament. There are twelve "minor" prophets. These are twelve short-winded prophets. All these twelve shorter prophets could fit on one scroll. Micah is a little book, only seven chapters long. We know that Micah was a contemporary of Hosea, Isaiah, and Amos and Micah said similar things that these prophets said. We know that Micah was preaching at what I call, the "end of the good times" and just before his nation fell apart. There had been forty years of prosperity and peace. During times of prolonged prosperity and peace, people often forget God, ignore God, drift away from God. People get caught up in "the good life" for forty years and slowly begin to forget God and his ways. It was just before the end of the good times, just before the fall of Israel and Judah. In other words, the prophet Micah spoke to the people of God just before their country and their life began to fall apart. What had happened to Israel is in some ways similar to what's happening in our nation. The interpretation of the law and its polity ignored the needs of the people. The people representing the people had abused the law and commandments. It's like they were smacking down capitol police, and getting away with it. Kind of like driving around drunk in DC at 2 a.m. and getting away with it. Or like stashing your freezer full of bribe money. (can you say $90 grand in cold hard cash?) The ruling and religious elite of Micah's day had ignored the voice and the needs of joe six-pack, and then joe six-pack became consumed with his prosperity and own needs. What was popular in culture became the standard to obtain and soon everything around them began to morally and spiritually crumble. Simply put, God demanded justice and called his people to court. How would our lives change if we chose, or suddenly found, our lives "un-stuffed"? With Megan, as with Micah, becoming a stuffless soul is the key to a meaningful life. Not that our souls should be empty, cold and lifeless. Micah's message is that our souls should not be possessed of possessions, or that we should live our lives by what the popularity polls tell us is important. If we're going to have "stuff" it ought to be the "stuff" of doing justice, the "stuff" of loving kindness and the "stuff" of walking humbly with God. Micah's words were both simple and eternal. What does the Lord require of you? What God required of people in those days of Micah are the same things that God requires of us today.
To do justly: Love kindness: Jesus told the story about the Good Samaritan. A man was robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. Three people passed safely on the other side of the road. A Jewish priest. A Jewish rabbi. A third religious mucky-muck. It was only the Samaritan who stopped, knelt down and offered to help. Kindness. Mercy. Gentleness. The ingredient that God requires from his disciples is fundamental human kindness.to family, friends, work associates, classmates, and strangers in the hallway. Walk humbly with your God: Jesus said that the greatest person in the kingdom of God was a person who was humble like a little child. Jesus said that the greatest virtue of all the virtues was humility. The Apostle Paul, who wrote more than half of the New Testament, said that Jesus "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but humbled himself, becoming obedient onto death." In the New Testament, the followers of Jesus were called by the name of Christian only once, but they were repeatedly called servants. Humble servants were on the opposite continuum as kings, queens and royalty. The key to worshiping God is to sacrifice your own thoughts, your own conversations with others, your own business of minds. You need to sacrifice what is going on in you right now in order to give yourself in worship to God. To walk humbly with God is to sacrifice your busy and self centered self and focus on someone other than your self and your pleasures. To walk humbly with and then circle the word, "your." Your God. Your God belongs to you. It is not that God is your possession but that your God is personal to you. Your God, who made you. Your God who walks with you every step of every day. Your God who walks with you in the valleys of the shadows of death. Your God who walks with you when you climb the highest mountains of life. Your God who walks with you as you walk the circle of life. What does the Lord require of you? It's the same requirement for everyone, no matter who you are: To do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. |