Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 29, 2023 “Happy People” Micah 6: 1-8 – Common English Bible Hear what the Lord is saying: Arise, lay out the lawsuit before the mountains; let the hills hear your voice! 2 Hear, mountains, the lawsuit of the Lord! Hear, eternal foundations of the earth! The Lord has a lawsuit against his people; with Israel he will argue. 3 “My people, what did I ever do to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! 4 I brought you up out of the land of Egypt; I redeemed you from the house of slavery. I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you. 5 My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak had planned, and how Balaam, Beor’s son, answered him! Remember everything[a] from Shittim to Gilgal, that you might learn to recognize the righteous acts of the Lord!” What does the Lord require? 6 With what should I approach the Lord and bow down before God on high? Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings, with year-old calves? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with many torrents of oil? Should I give my oldest child for my crime; the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit? 8 He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God. Matthew 5: 1-12 - Common English Bible Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up a mountain. He sat down and his disciples came to him. 2 He taught them, saying: 3 “Happy are people who are hopeless, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 4 “Happy are people who grieve, because they will be made glad. 5 “Happy are people who are humble, because they will inherit the earth. 6 “Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full. 7 “Happy are people who show mercy, because they will receive mercy. 8 “Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God. 9 “Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children. 10 “Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “Happy are you when people insult you and harass you and speak all kinds of bad and false things about you, all because of me. 12 Be full of joy and be glad, because you have a great reward in heaven. In the same way, people harassed the prophets who came before you. In the reading from the Prophet Micah, the lectionary today provides one of the most familiar verses in the entire Old Testament – the Hebrew Scripture. But what is the rest of the story? It all starts with God encouraging the people, if you have a problem with me, please tell me. God invites a jury. If I’m at fault, tell it to the mountains and hills, make your charge to the eternal foundations of the earth. And then, let them, the jury, decide. So, God lays out a defense. God doesn’t complain about ungrateful people or say they are wrong. It’s not the voice of an angry God demanding an answer. It is the voice of a God who agonizes and is filled with sorrow. God doesn’t deflect and instead accuse them of unfaithfulness. This is a God who simply wants to know. What have I done to you? How have I wearied you? This is relevant to so many of us who struggle with who is God. Last week I asked who is Jesus. It might not be the Jesus we grew up with. And this week, who is God? Some of us grew up hearing about a God who is violent and hate-filled and angry, not just from the pulpit but I remember our high school literature class reading Jonathon Edwards’ famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” I hope it’s not read in high school or college literature classes anymore! To do it justice, I need Bruce’s voice to read just one sentence: “The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.” Yikes! Sadly, this is the one sermon Edwards’ best known for but he was really a transcendentalist in the same category as Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Edwards, a Congregational minister preaching in the seventeen-hundreds, marveled at the divinity of nature. The same preacher of the “angry God” said, ”Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts: the sight of the deep-blue sky, and the clustering stars above, seem to impart a quiet to the mind.” This is the kind of God Micah speaks of in our text. What have I done to you? How have I wearied you? God pleads for them to remember their history together:
God lays out this defense, without defensiveness. Without animosity or blame. As Edwards delightfully described: unruffled calm that overawes our little anxieties and doubts. But then the lawyer for the people gets up and rants and raves and blows everything out of proportion, providing a litany of the most preposterous illustrations. For example, imagine that you lend a friend $10. They promise to pay you back by the end of the week. Months later you finally approach your friend, apologetically… I’m sorry to ask, but could you… But instead of being embarrassed for having forgotten to pay you back, “I’m so sorry…” Rather, they respond “I suppose you want interest from me too. What would be enough? Ten million dollars? Will that be enough to satisfy your greed?” Do you know anyone like that? I’ve actually had it happen. Well, that’s what the lawyer for the people demands. “What do you want? Would a thousand rams be enough for you? How about not just one jug of oil but rivers of oil? How about my first-born child? Will that be enough to satisfy you?!” You know what I’m talking about – rant, rave, deflect – and now somehow, you’re the bad guy! So, the jury of mountains and hills and the eternal foundation of the earth has listened to God, then with their litany of increasingly absurd defenses the lawyer has spoken for the people, and now it’s Micah’s turn. Micah calmly asks, “What does God want? What would satisfy God’s supposed blood lust?” God’s already told you. What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God? “Get over yourselves and just do it!” Well, he probably didn’t say that, but I’ll add this: And if you do, it will make you happy. We often say this about others – I just want them to be happy. We say it about our children. Regardless of their choices in life, I just want them to be happy. We say it about ourselves. All I want is to be happy. Is that too much to ask? Well then, what does it mean to be happy? If you are at all familiar with the Beatitudes, Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, you’re used to hearing the word “blessed” or “bless-ed” over and over. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” and so forth. Well, the translators of the Common English Bible decided that the word happy is more accurate than blessed. “Happy are people who are hopeless.” I’m sure they got a lot of pushback on that, kind of like changing the words of Christmas carols. Part of our discomfort may be that Christians don’t talk much about happiness. We kind of poo-poo it and say we should be joyful. But to talk of happiness in this setting is certainly intriguing. What is the explanation of the translators? By the way, these are serious scholars, some of the best in the world. They’re not people who change words just to be intriguing. So, they said, the Greek term makarios is often translated as “blessed.” It refers to a person who is fortunate on account of their circumstances. In the Beatitudes, no one in the circumstances Jesus describes would ever be called “fortunate.” That’s the point. So, the translators explain, by using the word “happy” instead of “blessed,” the Common English Bible emphasizes the flourishing, contentment, and well-being of the people, more than simply circumstances.* It’s exactly the topsy-turvy, upside-down nature of the life that Jesus describes that is well-being and contentment – that will make us flourish. Happy. Most of it is not in our control. For example, people who are hopeless, people in mourning or grieving, people who are humble, people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness. You don’t control being hungry or thirsty. It’s something you are. And it often means you are unhappy. Cursed, even, sometimes. Jesus does not agree. In the midst of all those descriptions of what we would think of as unfortunate circumstances, there are things we do control, or at least we can decide. So, happy are people in unfortunate circumstances and happy are people who show mercy, who make peace, and who speak on behalf of Jesus regardless of the cost, such as harassment and insults. These are remarkably similar to the prophet Micah’s do justice and love kindness. Do you want to be happy? Show mercy and make peace. And that third one that’s a little harder to understand. To accept the cost of harassment and insults in order to speak on behalf of Jesus… will make us happy. What? Here’s an example in the news right now. Jesus is unconditional love – love of God, love of neighbor, love of self, and love of enemy. With all that love, how can anyone call out the name of Jesus to justify their prejudice? For example, Jesus hates the sin but loves the sinner. It’s such bull-doo-doo. It’s just hate. It’s the kind of hate that leads to hate crimes. That’s why transgender women of color have the highest rate of murder in the country and that’s the kind of thing Christians use to justify attacks against transgender people – right here in San Diego County. It’s wrong. It’s offensive. It is not Christ-like. And speaking out about it is the kind of thing that could sully your reputation – to speak love, only love, in the name of Jesus – and maybe subject you to becoming a target yourself. But this is what happy people do. They show mercy and make peace and ask what else does the Lord require? Happy people. It still doesn’t sit exactly right, but it’s growing on me and it kind of makes sense. Most of us don’t walk around wondering “what will make me blessed.” But I’ve certainly wondered, “what will make me happy?” And it’s surely the kind of question our neighbors who don’t go to church ask. It’s the kind of thing our youth want to know. And it’s why I’m so glad 25 youth and adults are going to Mexico next weekend to build a house. To work really hard. To experience that happiness is not more money, it’s not more influence, it’s not being more beautiful, it’s not more likes and followers, it’s not more of anything except doing justice, showing kindness, giving mercy, and making peace. That’s happiness 101. Sore muscles, tired backs, and sheer happiness. The CEB Study Bible with Apocrypha page 12 NT
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