CPAC sermon “A Champion for God” Micah 6:1-8 01 March 2009
Continuing with the Minor prophets - Micah – a powerful and memorable passage of scripture…
It is full of conviction and justice.
Have you seen ispiring movie "Freedom Writers," based on a true story?
In the movie Hillary Swank plays a young teacher (Erin Gruwell) whose first teaching job is at Wilson High School in Los Angeles.
She is given the difficult task of teaching English to a class of very troubled teenagers.
They live in communities that are still boiling with anger from the effects of the Rodney King riots.
Drugs and gun battles, fueled by gang violence, are an every day occurrence.
Most of them have criminal records. And on the first day of class, Gruwell’s idealistic hopes of making a difference as a teacher are almost crushed. She learns that her students do not come to class on their own, but have to be forced to do so every day by campus security. And the minute they reluctantly come through the door they group themselves according to gang affiliation. They form groups of Asian teens, Hispanic teens, African American teens, etc.--each group glaring hatefully at the other groups. Tension is high, fights in class are common place, none of her students do their work, and Gruwell almost gives up. Gruwell discovers that the school administration has written these kids off as being hopeless and unteachable.
They are even unwilling to provide any books for fear the kids will destroy them.
However Gruwell’s compassion for these students compels her to find a way to reach them, and she does.
One day she tells them about a chapter of history in which there was a gang that did incredible evil.
She refers to the Nazi's and what that "gang" did to the Jews in WW2.
This particular "gang story" gets her student's attention.
They want to hear more so they agree to read books from that period of history including The Diary of Ann Frank, which Mrs. Gruwell pays for out of her own pocket.
They ALL read this book and are fascinated about the family that hid Ann Frank and her family from the Nazis.
Gruwell uses their interest to motivate them to learn more, and they do.
The class soon comes to realize how very much they have in common. Friendships develop and the class starts to bond as they all begin to experience the thrill of learning.
There are a number of key learnings we could draw from this real life story.
One of them is about conviction and justice. The school had all but given up on this group of teenagers.
However their teacher had this overwhelming conviction that things like this shouldn't happen to young people
Where does this CONVICTION come from?
Where do we get our opinion that this is unjust?
Well, according to texts like Isaiah 51:7, we know what is wrong and what is right because God has written His values (Law) on our hearts.
In other words, spotting injustice is part of the wiring and programming that our holy and JUST God has given us as human beings.
Theologian N. T. Wright puts it this way,
"A sense of justice comes with the kit of being human."
Pick up a copy of any newspaper and note the number of articles that relate to humanity's longing and aching for peace and justice.
You’ll find dozens of examples. This is why stories are written about murder, child abuse, theft, drug busts, epidemics and wars. This is why things like this are considered NEWS, because we all instinctively know their presence is a bad thing.
We think, "This is wrong. Someone should do something!" We can get incensed!
Robert Mugabe’s treatment of his own people in Zimbabwe is a classic example. - his 85th birthday celebration is costing $150,000, has bought a M$10 house in another country… while his people are dying in the streets!!!.
Our inner voice cries out that something has to be done to deal with all the injustice in the world.
This inner voice is the same voice we read about in the pages of the Bible, coming from God, through the lips of His prophets.
They spoke out again and again against actions and attitudes they saw as being just plain wrong.
Their message is full of angry emotion, more so than joy and calm.
The prophets of the Bible can appear to be kind of cranky!
For example…
The prophet Amos said,
"Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who oppress the poor and crush the needy!" (Amos 4:1)
Isaiah says,
"Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to Me;
I cannot STAND your evil assemblies!" (Isaiah 1:13)
Micah 3:1-6 says,
"Should you not know justice, you who hate good and love evil, who tear the skin from My people and the flesh from their bones, who eat My people's flesh, strip off their skin, break their bones in pieces, chop them up like meat for the pan?" (Micah 3:1-3)
Do you feel the anger in those words?
Abraham Heschel writes,
"The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God has thrust a burden upon his soul, and he is bowed and stunned at man's fierce greed. Prophecy is the voice God has lent to their silent agony.
God is raging in the prophet's words."
However, most importantly, understand this:
God used, and continues to use such “prophets”, to give us hope.
They are champions for God.
The prophet Micah’s harsh words are soon balanced by more soothing and hope-filled words such as, “…the Lord will mediate between peoples and will settle disputes
between strong nations…they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. Everyone will live in peace and prosperity…”. (Micah 4:3,4)
Over the centuries God used His prophets to tell people that a Deliverer would come, a "wrong-righter", a "justice-bringer". So in the face of nations rising against them, Micah prophesies to the people of Israel, and says,
“But you O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you… and He will be the source of peace…” (Micah 5:1-5)
We know that ruler of Israel, that source of peace, as the Messiah, the Son of God Jesus Christ.
Micah wasn't alone in speaking for God. The prophet Isaiah was his contemporary, as were Hosea and Amos.
The Hebrew word for prophet literally means "to see."
These prophets saw things that the general public tended to become blind to.
The truth is, there is so much injustice in the world that, that if we're not careful, after a while we can become indifferent and insensitive to it, and dare I say, get used to it.
So God has preserved their messages in His written Word to remind us to open our eyes and ears and mouths to take action against the injustice we see around us.
Micah 6:8 is a perfect example of this kind of God-given REMINDER where it says,
"God has showed you what is good. And what does the LORD
require of you? To act justly (to do what is right), and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." So Micah reaches across the centuries and says to you and to me, "You guys have no excuse. Don't plead ignorance because God HAS shown you what is good and what He requires. He put it in His book and He has wired it into your programming so that you know better!" And we DO all know better, so we need to guard against turning a blind eye to injustice.
Nothing makes us notice injustice like those times when we think WE are treated unfairly.
When that happens we want justice! We want to get even!
When we feel we have been dealt with unjustly,
we get angry and we expect something to be done to make things right again.
Likewise, the things Micah saw in his day not only angered him,
but also connected him once again with the ancient promises of a Redeemer, a justice-bringer.
In the midst of his anger over all the wrongdoing he saw, God whispered into Micah's ear and said, "Remember, Micah, Someone is coming Who will make things right. The Messiah is coming, Micah, and He will bring My peace to this fallen, fearful world.
In the end, we can trust God’s promise that He will bring restoration and peace to our world that is presently, slowly, self-destructing.
In the meantime, you and I are God’s voice, especially in matters of injustice.
You too are champions for God!
In 1 Corinthians 1 (1:26ff), the apostle Paul writes,
"…Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one
may boast before Him.
Other Biblical examples of this principle are:
God chose two weak and aged childless senior adults, named
Abraham and Sarah to be the source from whom an entire nation would spring.
He used a boy named Joseph sold into slavery by his jealous brothers to rule the nation of Egypt and eventually provide a food source for His people.
God used the tiny tear of a baby named Moses to move the heart of Pharaoh's daughter so that Israel could have a great leader to deliver them from bondage.
God made a shepherd boy, named David, into Israel's greatest King.
He used twelve uneducated men to turn the world upside down.
This means that there is no one too small, no one too untalented, for God to use to accomplish GREAT tasks in His kingdom.
Someone once said,
"If you feel weak, limited, or ordinary, then you are the best material through which God can work."
In the midst of uncertain, or difficult times -- times when we face injustice and hardship--we need to remember that God is in control, Because you and I are IN Christ Jesus, we are united with Christ.
Whatever is for His glory is also for our good.
And whatever is for our good is for His glory.
One of the more popular laws of physics goes like this, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
This law of physics applies not just to physical objects but also applies to the problems we find in our unjust, peace-less world.
Here's how it works.
One person, changed by a relationship with Jesus Christ, who acknowledges the Messiah as His or Her Shepherd, can change his or her world like Erin Gruwell did at Wilson High in Los Angeles. And when that happens, like dominoes beginning to fall,
the world gets better for other people. Of Mrs. Gruwell's students, many of them went on to college. They all banded together to start the Freedom Writers Foundation, dedicated to recreating the success of their class in classrooms across America.
Do you see the dominoes falling, the ripple effect that one teacher, Erin Gruwell, made?
So where do you see injustice?... in your family, workplace, community, city, nation, sports field, university, school, neighbourhood setting…??
As a follower of God, the God of justice, you too can be a champion for God…. in issues of justice.
Are you willing to take up that mantle? Amen....
