Not One-and-Done

Sermon preached Sunday, January 29, 2023, the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany at Lutheran Church of Our Saviour in North Chesterfield, VA.

Who here was a “good kid” (quotes included) growing up? Who made sure they did every school assignment, followed every rule, and did their best to be liked and approved of by the authority figures in their life, whether they be parents, teachers, coaches, whoever? Any of you?

I kind of was, to a certain extent. It’s a common tendency!

And it’s a tendency that doesn’t leave us when we become adults. And it isn’t limited just to schoolwork or extracurricular activities. It’s one that can be carried with us throughout our lives… and into different aspects of our lives, even our faith.

We want to “do the right things,” the things that will make God happy and the things that will make other people regard us positively…the things that will make us a “good Christian.” And so we come up with a list of things that need to be done, often things like: attend worship every week, give, pray at least once a day, read the Bible every day…or maybe it gets even stricter: you must have this many passages of scripture memorized, you must never use a curse word, you must give a certain percentage to the church, regardless of whatever other charitable giving you do, you must dress a certain way, act a certain way.

It becomes a legalistic trap that leaves no one happy, not even God.

The ancient Jews were given the gift of the Torah, the law, to help them live in harmony with each other and with God. At certain times, though, this gift was not appreciated for what it was. It was either flat-out ignored and led to the oppression and dismissal of the poor, the orphaned and widowed, and others on the edge of society…or it was treated like a pass: if you check these boxes or do X, then it doesn’t really matter what else happens. You can still ignore the marginalized. You can still keep distance in your relationship with God.

That’s where the prophets come in. This morning we hear from Micah, a prophet who wants to bring God’s people back into better alignment with God’s desires.

It’s not that the people have been ignoring God or that they haven’t been trying to please God…but it’s clear that they’ve been going about it in the wrong way.

Hear again verses six and seven:

  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?” (Micah 6:6-7)

Burnt offerings of calves. A thousand rams. Ten thousand rivers of oil. And that last one, did you catch it? The firstborn child.

These are things offered to God in an effort to check to boxes and achieve salvation. Do the things, get the reward, move on.

But that’s not what God is looking for, is it? In the very next verse, Micah comes back with the Word of the Lord, almost like a patient parent, calmly reiterating the same request already given so many times:

  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 6:8)

I imagine you’ve heard this verse before.

It sounds simple, doesn’t it? Then why did the ancient Jews, why do we seem to do whatever we can to avoid it?

In many ways, we’re more ready to jump on the burnt offering, on the giving of a certain amount, on the accomplishing of a certain set of tasks. We want the checklist. We want the one-and-done. We want the things that we can look back on and say, “done,” before moving on with our lives.

But that’s not what’s happening here. That’s not what Micah is reporting God requires of us.

God does not require things that we accomplish once and then move on.

“…what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

These are not one-and-done. It is not to “have done justice, to have loved kindness, and to have walked humbly with your God.”

These are ongoing things. They are not boxes to be checked but a way of living, a way of living that remains with us from our entrance into a life of faith until the moment we die.

But that’s the life we’re called to, isn’t it? That’s the life of baptism.

In our baptismal promises, we promise:

to live among God’s faithful people,
to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper,
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,
and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?
(ELW Affirmation of Baptism)

I don’t know about you, but I certainly hear echoes of Micah in there. And, once again, these are not one-time actions, but things that we are called to throughout our lives. It is a constant wrestling within us, to listen for God’s voice and to seek out the ways God is calling us to serve in the world. It can be messy and complicated and sometimes tiring, but it is the work of faith.

It is for this very reason that Christianity wasn’t necessarily all that appealing in the immediate years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The prevailing wisdom, particularly for Gentiles, was “offer this deity this thing, get this result.” From this point of view, Christianity made no sense. Humans are supposed to sacrifice to gods, gods are not supposed to sacrifice for humans, especially not their life.

That’s why we have this whole passage from Paul’s letter to Corinthians about foolishness and wisdom: ”The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians18)

This path that we are called to as disciples of Jesus is not the easy, straightforward one we might want. It is a journey, one with ups and downs and constant listening for where God might be leading us. It is about finding little ways and big ways, by ourselves and in community, to follow the guidance of Micah: to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.

None of it to earn our salvation: God has already done that for us. But it is our response to God’s liberating salvation, our way of letting God’s love and righteousness flow through us, our way to participating in God’s reign in our world.

It might not be a checklist you can accomplish the same way you would your Saturday errands.

But you’ve got this.

Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God.

You’re not doing it alone.
Amen.

Blessing and Woe

Sermon preached Sunday, February 17, 2019, the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Littlestown, PA. 

Today we hear the Beatitudes, a fancy name for the blessings Jesus gives to the people often ignored or mistreated by society. The Beatitudes are most often heard on All Saints Sunday, as we rarely get to the sixth and seventh weeks after Epiphany before the season of Lent begins. There are two versions, found in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, which I just read. The version from Matthew is the more well-known one. It includes eight words of blessing and is part of Jesus’ sermon on the mount. In contrast, Luke’s version contains only four blessings and four words of woe…and the location isn’t even the same! Instead of being on a mount, Jesus goes to a “level place,” and gives his “sermon on the plain.”

These might seem like minor differences, but they actually change quite a bit about the character of this particular bit of teaching. Being in a level place instead of on a mount lends a sense of egalitarianism to his words—literally, they are all on the same level. And attaching words of woe adds a sense of urgency and warning to his words—that there are certain expectations of followers of Jesus even as the good news of grace is shared.

This passage begs the question, “What does it mean to be blessed?” We use the word “blessed” all the time, especially when things are going well for us. It’s something we say when a child is born or when we express gratitude for our relationships or our jobs or even something as simple as a kind note. It’s a cliché to share something on social media with #blessed.

But being blessed is much more than having things go well for us or receiving things that make us feel good. Jesus makes this abundantly clear when he says:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
²²“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. (Luke 6:20b-22)

The blessed ones are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the persecuted. I don’t tend to think of those kinds of circumstances when I think of who is “blessed.” And yet, this is who Jesus points to! Maybe we’re interpreting “blessing” all wrong.

Maybe instead of being “blessed” when everything seems to be going right, perhaps being “blessed” means that even when everything is going wrong and seems to be coming apart at the seams, we can be confident that our struggle is not all there is. This doesn’t mean our pain or our hurt or our hunger or our difficulties aren’t real…but we find strength and resilience and hope in knowing Jesus is with us and that the reign of God will still find ways to break in.

This is what it means to be blessed: to be participating in the inbreaking of God’s reign of justice, grace, and peace in the world.

And if that’s what it means to be blessed…what does it mean that Jesus speaks these words of woe?

 ²⁵“Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
²⁶“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:25-26)

We can easily hear these as words of damnation: if you’re rich now, you’re in big trouble. If you laugh now, watch out. If people like you, too bad, you’re doomed. These are scary words because, well, who doesn’t like to be well-off? Who doesn’t like to laugh and enjoy life? Who doesn’t like it when other people are fond of them?

I think that way of thinking misses the point a bit. Instead of pure condemnation, I hear these words more as words of warning, a word of caution for folks who focus more on themselves than the people around them, their neighbor and the stranger in their midst.

Woe to you who are rich and build up your own wealth while ignoring the needs of those around you.

Woe to you who laugh now and disregard the pain and grief of others. Woe to you who tell others to just “cheer up” and “get over it” when faced with real hardship.

And woe to you who seek the approval of sycophants, abandoning what you know is right and what God is calling you to so that you will be praised by others.

These are the words of woe: a calling to something higher, a call to join the blessed in working towards the reign of God. When we look at it this way, it’s not a hard line, a boundary separating the blessing from the woe that can never by crossed. Instead, it’s the idea that anytime we are participating in God’s work, we are blessed.

As I was writing this sermon, I was trying to think of examples when a person was blessed, but not in a way that would make a great Instagram or Facebook post. I thought of people in this congregation who are struggling with relationships, with health issues, with money, but who still manage to do what they can because they sense that God is working with them and through them. I thought of friends of mine who put up with resistance and hateful words because they refuse to let hate and violence be the prevailing forces in our world. I thought of example after example of God’s reign breaking into our broken world and these wonderful, incredible, faithful people courageously rushing to join in.

These are the stories of the blessed ones. The stories of people who, despite their struggles, embrace the way God is working in the world and strive to be a part of it. They avoid the words of woe by remembering that they are in the same level place together with the rest of God’s children—by remembering that their wealth, their happiness, their social and political power should never come at the expense of society’s most vulnerable.

Some peoples’ stories are epic. Some are quiet and subtle. Some are well-known and some are known only to one or two others. As you think about your own life, think about the times you’ve seen God at work and the times you’ve been able to join in. In these moments, you are blessed. In these moments, you are a blessing to the people around you.

Amen.