Walk Humbly

“Do Justice, Love Kindness and Walk Humbly with your God.”

These words are part of a longer passage from the Old Testament prophet Micah.

¹ Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. ² Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. ³ “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! ⁴ For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. ⁵ O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.” ⁶ “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 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? Micah 6:1–8 (NRSV)

Reflection:

Micah saw the people of Israel off doing things which were not what God expected of them. They found lots of gods to worship other than God. God’s chosen people had decided that they valued their own affluence and lifestyles more than caring for their neighbors. Their business practices were deceitful. Care for widows and orphans had fallen off their priority lists. They were a people who were living for themselves.

Micah calls them on the carpet and reminds them of all that God has done for them. The people’s first reaction is to say we better get back to our regular worship practices. We better start doing regular sacrifices and bring offerings of oil to God. Micah’s answer to the suggestion of making amends by ritual practices is to tell the people what God requires—“to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God.”

I have been at Camp Calumet on retreat this week and these words are emblazoned at the top of the wall in the room where we have been meeting and worshipping. I have had ample opportunity to reflect on what these words mean for our lives as Christians today. These are words that call us outside of ourselves and our narrow communities. These words remind us that although a community needs to worship together, our worship time is only a preparation for and a strengthening for our service outside of our church doors.

Walking humbly with God, does not mean a solitary walk with God out in the woods somewhere. Rather walking humbly with God means that we recognize that is God who powers our work and our lives. God shapes and forms our communities, and it is God who gives us the power to do justice and love kindness. God, through the Holy Spirit, calls, gathers and sends us in service to the world. God helps us to realize what other people need and then helps us to find a way to meet those needs.

Walking humbly with God means that when we make decisions, choices and priorities we look at the impacts on everyone around us, not just what it is that we want. We pray and ask what God is calling us to do, not just what we would like to see happen because it suits our personal needs. God does not always call us to the easiest path or the path that looks the most pleasant to us, personally. Walking humbly with God means being able to say and mean—“Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”. Your will O God, not mine!

Prayer:

Dear God, help me to remember that worship is your gift to me, not my gift to you. Help me Lord, in our worship as a community, to learn to be humble. Help me to hear your words and your call rather than giving you my “to do” list. Help me Lord to think of others’ needs, not just what it is that I want. Amen

Immediately...

“Immediately, they left their nets and followed Him”

¹⁸ As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹ As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. Matthew 4:18–22

Reflection:

I find it a little hard to wrap my head around the idea of four people immediately leaving their life’s work and following Jesus. In one sense, in our culture, we understand immediacy. We are really into instant gratification. I can download a song from iTunes in under a minute, and I can have a Kindle book ready to read in only few minutes. Instantly, I can connect with friends all over the world. Information flows seamlessly at incredible speeds.

But on the other hand, the easy access to information can make choices more difficult to make. If I want to make a career change, I can immediately find out all kinds of information about job prospects, salary ranges and long term career potential. With all that information, I can spend almost endless time weighing the pros and cons of any possible change.

Even when I, personally, felt called to ministry, I had internet access to programs of study at multiple seminaries and access to the details of the ELCA candidacy process. I “knew” what I was getting into (or so I thought)!!!

Jesus’ potential disciples had no such access to information. They met Jesus, he called them to follow him, and immediately they left their nets and followed him. What was it about Jesus that drew them to him? How did they know what an impact Jesus was going to have? How did they deal with the fallout from their decision to follow Jesus? Who cleaned the nets they dropped? Who provided support for their families, and what did Zebedee think when his sons suddenly abandoned him?

Although it is hard to picture dropping everything and immediately following Jesus, are there things we can learn from these disciples’ actions? When we, personally, come up with all kinds of objections to a call that God gives us, how might the experience of the disciples influence us? How might we calm our quest for one more piece of instantaneous information to logically support our decision making, and instead, let God act in and through us?

Prayer:

Gracious God, you call me to do things that sometimes I can’t understand. Sometimes the things seem to difficult to take on. Help me Lord to learn from the immediacy of the disciples call response and help me to calm my need for “one more” piece of information. Let me respond for Jesus’ sake and not on the basis of human logic. Amen

A Light to the Nations

In Isaiah 49, (included in this Old Testament reading for January 16), the Lord tells the the servant that “I will give you as a light to the nations, so that my salvation might reach to the end of the earth.” What challenge does this text offer us? How do we become light to the nations?

In a dark and cold world, light is a powerful force. Much of our literature portrays light in a positive way. I think on a poem by Helge Stangnes, who writes

Come, let us light small lights for one another;

fires to ward off night in a wintry world

(Quoted in ‘The Nordic Light’, Natur Og Kultureforlaget As)

The call to us to be “light to the nations” is a call to be a positive force in a dark and dreary world. It is a call to spread God’s word of saving grace to people near and far. It is a command to show a different way, a way of light, in a world that is dominated by greed, self-interest and evil.

What are ways that you could be a light to the nations? It may seem overwhelming to deal with the problems we see around us. But is there a way that you could light just one candle, brightening someone else’s life and making a difference. Is there a way that you could bring the light of Christ into someone else’s life?

Prayer:

Lord, you call us to the difficult task of being a light to the nations. Guide us and lead us in lighting even one candle to brighten the darkness. Amen

Epiphany!!

Some thoughts about Epiphany and Baptism of our Lord

This year, in the Church Calendar, the Feast of the Epiphany and the Celebration of the Baptism of our Lord are only three calendar days apart. It seems like an awfully short time between the arrival of the Magi (Kings, Wise Men or Sages) to see the baby Jesus and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as an adult! In the Gospel of Matthew we move, in one chapter, from the arrival of the Wise Men to the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt to John’s ministry along the Jordan, right to Jesus’ own baptism in the Jordan. We have hardly had a chance to cuddle and coo over the baby, before he is a full grown adult!

What do these two events, the arrival of the Wise Men and the Baptism of Jesus, have in common? These events both reveal something to Matthew’s readers and listeners about Jesus. The Wise Men reveal that a child has been born, who is to be King of the Jews. The way in which Matthew relates the story of the Wise Men leaves no doubt that this child, destined to be King, is indeed the baby Jesus. Matthew also links Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem with prophecies that the Messiah, the ruler who is to shepherd God’s people, would be born in Bethlehem. Very early in this Gospel Matthew uses the story of the Magi to signal the importance of this child.

At the baptism of Jesus, Matthew again signals who Jesus is. First, John wants to refuse to baptize Jesus, claiming that Jesus should baptize him. Then during the Baptism, Matthew’s readers observe a voice from heaven declaring Jesus to be “my Son”.

Two events, two revelations! The first reveals that Jesus has been born King of the Jews and is the fulfillment of the prophecy that the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem. The second reveals Jesus to be the Son of God.

Included among the definitions of “epiphany” are a revealing or a manifestation. Both the arrival of the Wise Men and the Baptism of Jesus reveal to us who Jesus is! Although there is a huge temporal change between the events of the Wise Men and the Baptism of Jesus, both serve Matthew’s purpose of revealing who Jesus is.

Prayer:

Gracious God, in this Epiphany season you reveal your Son to us. Help us to see the light of Christ made evident in our own lives. May our lives be guided by the light that is Christ. Amen