A Vision of Obedience
This past week, Emma and I welcomed her parents and sister to town. We took them up and down the valley—from Missoula to Painted Rocks. We went hiking, swimming, paddle boarding, and, as you might imagine, rested quite well at night. It was lovely to show them our church, to discuss some of the history of the area, and for them to experience our home. As we have been married almost two years, I have learned a lot about the similarities and the differences in our family dynamics. Emma has three sisters and I have two brothers. Emma is the youngest and I am the oldest. Both sets of parents have college degrees. Each of us had pets growing up. She hails from Grand Rapids and I from Dearborn. We both come from Michigan. But perhaps the biggest difference I have noticed was in the different ways we play.
Recently, while visiting Emma’s sister in Ypsilanti I noticed this acutely. I was sitting on the couch while our nieces Nathalie and Lena were playing with their dolls. They asked me if I wanted to play, so I happily obliged. After less than a minute of playing with these dolls, my nieces looked at each other, frowned, and then laughed! I was quite confused. Was I doing something wrong? Growing up in a house with three boys, we did not play with dolls… I had been taking the dolls and doing pushups with them. The epic boxing match I had set up with two American girl dolls was not it either… Both Nathalie and Lena have resolved to teach me how to play with dolls properly. After careful research, I have discovered that dolls are not supposed to fight each other, but ride horses, drink tea, and play dress up. Weird!
In our passage this morning, we find a similar disconnect. The prophet begins by speaking on behalf of God with statements like, “What have I done to you?” and the people respond by asking “With what shall I come before you?” Amidst this back and forth of “what’s” and “why’s,” are expectations. Expectations that are often unsaid but are felt acutely when they are not met and lead to conflict, resentment, and fractured relationships. Expectations as little as how we play with dolls or as large was the lifestyle choices we make have a deep impact on our relationships. Expectations not only permeate our human relationships but also our relationship with God. Perhaps we hear the Israelite’s pleas as our own, “God, where are you?” “What have you done lately?” Micah describes God as attentive to these charges—as wanting to clear the air of all grievances. God replies, “What have I done that you should respond with such charges against me?” I can’t help but notice the urgency in God’s voice. “How have I burdened you? Answer me!” The openness of God to engage in such a dialogue with the people of Israel is remarkable. Far and away from dismissing or condemning them for their unmet expectations, God addresses the people about their concerns. We neither find God dismissing their complaining as irrelevant nor charge them because they have dared to question God. Instead, we that find God hears and sees their concern; we find that God knows their troubled hearts; we find that God is inclined to act on Israel’s behalf. We find a God that is intimately near.
In their moment of struggle and tribulation, the people feel that God has it out for them. Despite the feeling that God was absent, and that God must have removed God’s presence from them, God invites them to look back and be reminded of God’s good deeds throughout history. God brought them out of Egypt, delivered them from slavery, and raised up leaders to guide and protect them. Though life has been oh so difficult, God’s activity in previous chapters of their lives proves God’s loyalty in this current chapter. As God delivered the Israelites from slavery, from the desert, from the Moabite King Balak, and from the wilderness into the promised land, so God will deliver us again. The past proves that God will make a new, brighter future possible. This story is not yet over. Recalling these saving acts help us to remember and to know, the work of God which is present with us. What God has done both grounds and gives shape for our activity in the present. Just as God has brought health, life, and well-being to individuals and community in the past, so will it be in the present. We, the people can expect that God is delivering, reconciling, and redeeming all things.
The people then have a moment of realization. “Maybe we aren’t playing properly.” “Maybe we are the problem.” The people finally come to terms with the reality of their sin. Frantically, they wonder what they have done wrong. “You mean dolls aren’t supposed to do pushups?” The Israelites wonder what worship practices they should or shouldn’t do. “Shall I bow down before God?” “Shall I come before him with burnt offerings?” “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams?” What do I, a sinner, have to do to please God? “With what shall I come before the Lord?” The list ranges from traditional burnt offerings and old calves to large numbers of rams and rivers of oil. Finally, their desperation reaches a climactic point: would the sacrifice of my first-born child be enough? Interestingly, the basic issue at stake with their relationship with God was not the nature of their worship. It was not whether they sang from hymns or screens. It was not whether their dolls had tea parties or did pushups. Rather, it is that they were inattentive to God and to their neighbor. As it turns out, in my case and the case for the Israelites the answer has been in front of us the entire time. God has already shown us what is good and what is required of us:
To act justly
And to love mercy
And to walk humbly with your God.
This verse is a well-loved one, because it simplifies all that God really asks of us. Someone we know has the three parts of Micah 6:8 tattooed on three parts of his body: written on his hands, it says, “Act Justly.” On his chest by his heart is says, “Love Mercy”. And on his feet is written, “Walk humbly.”
The orientation toward both God and neighbor is clear. We are called to give ourselves on behalf of others, particularly those in need, by doing justice and loving kindness. We are called to emulate the very same steadfast love and commitment that God has shown with us. This attention to and “walk” with God has to do with the shape and orientation of our lives. God’s call for action on behalf of the less fortunate is intimately joined with the call to journey with God—for we were once the less fortunate ourselves. Grace does not deliver us from our responsibility but enables us to partake in it. Micah’s vision of obedience shows that grace frees us from bondage that we might free others from theirs. This means that Godly freedom is not the freedom to do anything, but the freedom to love others as God has loved us. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10,
“Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial.
I have the right to do anything, but not everything is constructive.
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.”
As in life, with dolls or toys, there are endless possibilities for play. We can build up block towers and smash them down. We can have a tea party or we can box. We can bring joy or derision. The crucial question for us is how we shall respond. How will we respond to God’s grace in our lives? How will we respond to the freedoms and choices we have been given? Will we use our freedom to bring joy and laughter or to do whatever we want? Will we use our freedom to gratify ourselves or to bring life to our neighbor? We need not offer our first born. We need not offer rivers of oil. We are given the simple opportunity to respond to the grace we have been given. We do not forget the past but correct our mistakes—we blush, laugh, and apologize. We resolve to play dress up next time and to make tomorrow a better future. We learn, we grow, and we respond as people who have experienced the grace of God. Whatever we do—whether we have a tea party or play dress up—do it all for the glory of God.