Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise

There are people in my family, and probably also in yours, who, when they get hungry and need food, tend to get out of sorts, even angry.  In other words, when they get hungry, their actions and behavior show it.  Their hunger causes them to be cranky and snap at others.  They develop that condition we often describe as “hangry.”  When we see this condition arise, we usually quickly work to fix the problem as soon as possible.  

Hunger is something that prompts a response.  And, throughout history, people have used the sensation of hunger to prompt a certain kind of response, a deeper sense of spiritual awareness in their lives by practicing fasting.  Fasting is spiritual practice utilized by people of many religious backgrounds in the belief that, by doing so, one will be drawn closer to God.  When used as a spiritual practice, it can help create more space for worship and reflection in one’s life. 

Fasting and worship are the spiritual practices described in our reading from Isaiah this morning as we find the people of Israel engaged in devoted acts of worship. The words of this passage were written around 520 BCE when the people had returned to Jerusalem following the exile.  The people were longing to live into the promises that are hoped for after extreme hardships.  Having been released from exile, they were trying extra hard to make things right because they did not want to return to the path that led them into what they perceived as great judgement and punishment.  They truly were hungry for a relationship with God.  So, they regularly and steadfastly gathered for worship.  In the process, they made worship look good.  That is where they put all their energies.  But, it did not take long for them to become so consumed by this that they became isolated from the rest of the world, closed off to anything beyond the walls of their worship space.  You see, what they did not do was let worship trouble their consciences and shape their way of living.  They did not want to make connections between their worship and their neighbors.  They ignored the poor and anyone else they wanted to choose to ignore.  Even though their intentions may have been genuine, they missed some of the point of what worship is all about. 

So, Isaiah critiques their worship practices, especially their fasting.  He says their fasting is self-serving and hollow.  They are just pretending to be righteous while allowing injustice to continue in their own backyards.  He offers very stern reminders that the practices of fasting and worship are not just about going through the motions.  It is about what happens after that, namely, how they are to live in the world.  Isaiah tells the people that rather than being so focused on hunger as a spiritual practice of fasting, their worship and fasting should make them hungry for something more – for breaking the bonds of injustice.  Then he gives several simple, concrete ways that they can accomplish this.  He identifies basic human needs – food, shelter, clothing, and indicates that these are the hunger pangs in the world that need undoing and he calls the people to be a part of that undoing process.  They are called to share bread, offer shelter, and cover those in need, even at the risk of exposing one’s very self. 

Theologian, Walter Brueggemann notes something important for us to understand about this reading in our context.  He writes that these instructions are not:

a theoretical debate about the merits of socialism or capitalism, a debate that is a smoke screen about human need and human resources. There is here no debate about governmental public welfare or “the private sector.” The poet does not care and would be likely to say, ‘Do it either way, but do not talk about the private sector in order to avoid public welfare, do not focus on public welfare in order to exempt the private sector.’ What we are in any case talking about is hunger, homelessness, nakedness, and your bread, your house, your self.

Isaiah gives us a definition of true worship, relative to how the people of God care for the most vulnerable in their midst. No doubt these words hit home with a people who had not too recently been in similar positions themselves, as strangers in Babylon, living in a foreign land, struggling to make it and longing to return to Jerusalem.

Isaiah brings the people of Israel back to their roots, with encouragement to plant and build and grow, and to help others do the same. In all of their attempts at worship and fasting, the people had been crying out to God, clamoring for a response and acknowledgment of how good of a job they were doing. The beginning of this reading echoes their frustrations that they are not getting the attention they feel they deserve. Isaiah says that perhaps it is because their worship has not been complete. By offering them the missing pieces, Isaiah helps again guide the people of Israel back home and into a connectional relationship with God – one that is only found when connecting with all of God’s children. And that means it is about the way we treat all others!  The prophet concludes with the promise that when this is the kind of worship they choose to embrace, “light shall break forth like the dawn” (Isaiah 58:8) and “light shall rise in the darkness” (Isaiah 58:10).

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says a something similar.  He continues his sermon on the mount with similar message.  He says, “Let your light shine.”  Jesus called the disciples, and calls each one of us, to do more than just hole up inside our Sanctuary walls and practice a private faith. Worship is not meant to be just a “me and Jesus” private moment. It’s meant to be a time when we recognize and experience the incredible relationship God has with the world through Jesus Christ, who connects us not only with God, but with all others and the world.

When talking about Jesus’ words to us today, Lutheran theologian and professor, Barbara Lundblad, connects his message to the words of the prophets before him, including Isaiah, when she writes:

For Jesus, salt and light came out of a long tradition of biblical teaching: salt and light were images for the law of God. Salt and light must take us back to the fullness of the law and the prophets, and the fullness of Jesus’ radical teaching in this Sermon on the Mount. The prophets plead for fullness of life: freedom from oppression, bread for the hungry, homes for those who have none, clothing for the naked. Is this not what it means to be the salt of the earth, to keep this prophetic word alive in the midst of our world? If we lose this vision, if we give in to other values, if we forget God’s longing for justice, our salt has lost its taste. If you think Jesus’ call is impossible, remember that the One who is our bread is with us and within us, empowering us to be salt and light in this world.

Friends, our worship should make us hungry for what is to come, eager and enthusiastic to go out and live as followers of Christ in the world. That hunger is represented each time we gather around the table for communion, as we demonstrate our longing for a closer relationship with Christ, and as we join together in the meal which Christ has prepared. We consume the “bread of life” and the “cup of salvation,” and are then refreshed by the Holy Spirit, filled and restored. But for what? Isaiah has some answers, and Jesus did, too.  The answer is to go out.  We are called to go out into the world and participate in relationships will all others, especially the most vulnerable in this world, doing so in the name of the One who came to be in relationship with us.  Both of our readings this morning call us, good little worshippers in the pews, to NOT let our worship in this sanctuary be all that our faith is about.  If we only focus on what is happening within these walls, and how good we are at it, we have missed the point.  Our worship of God should not end when Bruce’s postlude is over; that is where it should begin. The truest sign of our worship happens on Monday through Saturday, as we live out our faith in the world.

Listen again to Jesus’ words to us today as I read them from Eugene Peterson’s translation, The Message.  Listen as Jesus speaks to you:

Let me tell you why you are here.  You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.  If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?  You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.  Here’s another way to put it:  You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.  God is not a secret to be kept.  We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.  If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you?  I’m putting you on a light stand.  Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand – shine!  Keep open house; be generous with your lives.  By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. 

          So, go my friends, leave here with a deep hunger, a hunger that drives you to go out to the world, living and proclaiming God’s justice, God’s love and peace for all people, and telling of a way of life that will bring healing to the world.

This is a special musical presentation of Chariot by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

This is a special musical presentation of Eventide by the Faith Bells at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

I know many of us have favorite passages in scripture, certain passages that have deep meaning for us.  I also know there are some passages that are essential for all of us as we walk and live this journey of faith.  And, one of those passages is today’s reading from Micah. 

While we do not know a lot about the prophet Micah, we do know the justice issues he faced during the eighth century B.C. were not unlike some of the issues we face today.  Micah lived in the land of Judah during a time of great wealth and prosperity.  On the outside it appeared that God’s people were thriving, but on the inside, they were rotting to the core. Political corruption was pervasive.  Economic exploitation was rampant!  Ethical violations were voracious. The nation had drifted so far from God they could no longer tell the difference between good and evil. Even though they were going through the outward motions of worship, their hearts were far from the Lord.  Much like America today, their society was characterized by overconfidence and self-indulgence.  Most of the wealth was concentrated in the hands of the ruling elite while the poor were scraping to get by. Unbridled greed and arrogance made those in power callous to meting out justice fairly and evenly.  People were talking the talk, but they were not walking the walk.  Consequently, their words were empty.

So, Micah blew the whistle on this blatant hypocrisy by announcing God’s ensuing judgment on God’s people unless they repented from their sin.  His whistle blowing prophecy blends a harsh message of judgment with the hope of future restoration at the coming of the Messiah.  Through it all, he pleads with his people to come back to the Lord.  And, Micah 6:1-8 forms the climax of his prophecy.  He reminds the people that God is not interested in hollow sacrifices or empty acts of worship and he sums everything up in verse 8 saying, “Israel would please God by simply acting justly, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.”

Micah’s words take the form of a legal controversy.  And, as we look at verses 1 & 2, even the world of nature is asked to enter the dialogue.  The mountains and the hills are the everlasting foundations of the earth and they are called to be witnesses of what has happened to the God-Israel relationship. They have been around longer than the Israelites and have witnessed the Lord’s faithfulness and Israel’s rebellion.  This seems to heighten the drama and intensify the sarcasm of the passage.

Once the court scene is set and the witnesses are in place, the legal procedure begins with the Lord’s accusations against God’s people in verses 3-5.  The Lord’s indictment begins with a series of scathing interrogatives and their tone is sarcastic, for God already knew God was not guilty of anything.  God had been totally faithful to God’s own people, but the people had abandoned God. Not only has the Lord not harmed God’s people, God has also lavished grace and mercy upon them.  Verses 4 and 5 provide three illustrations of the Lord’s faithfulness to the people, God was faithful to God’s covenant promises even though the people were not.  That is always the story of God’s great love for humanity.

Then, after a direct address from God, the prophet speaks.  In verses 6-8, we hear Micah speak some of what I believe are the most empowering words in scripture.   Micah offers four rhetorical questions with increasing severity.  The first question is vague and general: “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?”  Micah asks this question on behalf of the Israelite people.  They wanted to know what they must do to please God. The second through fourth questions specifically ask about sacrifices, about giving “things,” stuff, even children to God.  Micah employs hyperbole to heighten the effect of his line of questioning.  And, the implied answer to all these questions is “no.”  God was not impressed or interested in thousands of animal sacrifices, nor “things,” or any other form of empty religion.  God certainly would not have been pleased with the pagan practice of human sacrifice.  God wanted something much deeper.  What does the Lord want from God’s people?  How does God want them to live?  What is pleasing to God?  In verse 8, Micah finally answers the questions he raised – God wants people’s hearts.

If Judeo-Christian ethics had to be summed up in a short phrase that could be placed on a button, verse 8 is the verse that fits the bill.  “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  The ultimate point of this passage is that we should be faithful to the Lord because the Lord is faithful to us.  We show our faithfulness through right ethical actions, not empty religious rituals.  If we want to live a life that pleases the Lord, we must act justly, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

Now, like the land of Judah in Micah’s day, America is experiencing a time of abundant wealth and prosperity; but our country is plagued by the sins of overconfidence, self-sufficiency, self-indulgence, economic injustice, racism, bigotry, hatred, greed and much more.  Outwardly, many have more money and resources than at any other period in history, yet we have drifted dangerously far from the Lord.  Some people still go to church, but why are they there?  Is it because they really want to worship and live for the Lord, or is it just the habit of empty religion and empty words, with no change in the way people actually live their lives?    

So, what are we to do about it?  How do we change from simply going through the motions to genuinely living for God?  Does our relationship with God entail any expectations?  How can we live a life that truly pleases God?  Well, Micah answers these questions by showing us the three things God wants most: to act justly, love kindness, and walk humbly with God’s very self.  In this answer, the orientation of our expected response is toward both neighbor and God.  This is very clear.

            To act justly means to do what is right and truthful according to God’s Word.  We are each presented with decisions like this all the time.  When we see injustice, will we do something about it and work to bring about change, or will we ignore it and pretend it isn’t happening?  To act justly may mean blowing the whistle on unethical practices at our workplace, in our community or even in the country; it might require calling the authorities on a neighbor who is physically abusing his wife, children or girlfriend; it might mean refusing to laugh at an ethnic joke; it might mean confronting racism and bigotry when we see it.  Justice is something we do.  No concept is more Christian than is the demand for justice. Wherever there are people who face oppression – whether it is political oppression, economic oppression, racial oppression, or whatever form that oppression may take – we are called to raise our voices and do justice.

            In addition to acting justly, we also please God by loving kindness and showing mercy.  There are so many ways we can live showing our love for kindness and mercy.  This is the most basic, minimal requirement of all religion, that we should treat other people as we would like to be treated. It can be as simple as volunteering at a homeless shelter.  But it can also be as difficult as forgiving someone who has wounded you with their words or injured you by their actions.

            These first two requirements emphasize our relationship with people, our horizontal relationships with all others.  But, the third desire of God focuses on our relationship with God.  To walk humbly with God is to live in awe of God, in relationship with God, and live honoring God. 

Friends, we have three jobs: Do justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly.  And, living into these ideals enables us to get a glimpse of the kind of world Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel reading, a glimpse of the world as God sees it. This, in the end, is the true goal of our discipleship – to be a part of the vision for the world that Christ already sees as a reality. And when we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God, our very lives and beings become a part of that picture Jesus shares. We will become living depictions of what God’s presence in the world looks like.

This is a special musical performance of Offertory by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

This is a special musical presentation for the song For Everyone Born at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

This is a special musical presentation for the song Footprints in the Sand at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

Grace to you and peace from God and Jesus, our advocate, Lord, and Savior. Amen. Please pray with me. Lord, we are called to be advocates for all your children especially those who are vulnerable in society. Open our minds and hearts so that your word may be made clearer to us. Help us to hear the message of love, peace, and unity, so that we may be strong advocates for your kin-dom of wholeness on Earth. Amen.

Imagine for a moment that you are at your daily job. Just sitting or standing doing your daily work - teaching, working on a computer, driving around, whatever it is you do on a daily basis. Then, out of the blue comes this strange man, maybe a little rough looking, someone you haven’t seen before. He stops you in what you are doing and tells you to follow him and he’ll give you a new job of working to make people’s lives better. He wants you to drop everything, your job, your family, your friends, your whole life and just follow him to do something strange and new. Do you? Do you suddenly upset your whole life simply because a stranger asks you to? If you are anything like me, I’m sure you are thinking - “No way! I’d never do that!”

This is apparently what happens in the second part of today’s Gospel reading. A story that is well known to most people. Where Jesus starts calling his disciples to follow him to be fishers of people. The story clearly states “immediately they left their nets and followed him” (Matthew 4:20) and “Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.” (Matthew 4:22).

For many people and many interpretations, this is clear cut for people. If we truly want to be followers of Christ we must give up our lives and completely devote them to following Christ and God. Even if it means leaving everything we know and love and changing our lives completely. I don’t know about you, but this seems quite hard for me to believe, that we would be expected to uproot our lives like that for the sake of the Gospel. I mean, why would God give us our lives we already have if we are just supposed to push them aside and leave everything to devote ourselves solely for God? I’ll get back to this later.

Now, let’s take a look at why Jesus was calling them in the first place. In verse 23 of the reading, we hear that “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” At a quick glance, it sounds like he did three things: taught, proclaimed, and cured people. But are they really three separate things? Or are they really just one? Could it be that they are all forms of advocacy?

The Oxford dictionary defines an advocate as “a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy”. Well Jesus certainly did things publicly and encouraged others to do so as well. His particular cause or policy? Simply that the good news of God’s love, is for all. All of Jesus’s actions were around this. He wanted to bring the wholeness, the completeness, that only is fully realized when we know that God’s love is here and now and for all people, that everyone gets to experience a full and complete life. Without people being able to have a full and complete life, then God’s kin-dom isn’t fully realized.

In the Old Testament there is the focus on God’s chosen people and a lot of laws that were set down for these people. At the time, these laws made perfect sense to ensure that people could lead full and complete lives. Over time these laws became so ingrained in the faith that people believed that the only way to be saved and be right in God’s eyes was to follow these laws (created for a certain time and place) to the exact letter. One might even say they worshiped the laws more than God, since in their eyes one could only get to God through the laws. Often times these laws were even changed or given more detailed rules and rituals that had to be followed to be considered meeting the letter of the law. This left people not being able to “access” God anymore because this access was being controlled by the church and all their laws and rituals. Jesus came to advocate for these people to show them that there is a different way. A way that allows “access” to God for all.

How does advocacy tie into when Matthew says that Jesus taught, proclaimed, and healed? First, Jesus’s teachings. He knew that the way to reach some of the people is

to meet them where they were most comfortable. With the old testament, the history and the laws. He met them in the synagogues where they were comfortable. However, he then took their readings they were so used to hearing and challenged them to think about them in new ways. Ways that would help them see there is a new way that God is working, a way that opens up God’s love and wholeness to all by looking at the laws in a new way and understanding the reason the laws were created in the first place. Next, Jesus proclaimed the good news. He did this in his everyday life with everyday people around him. Making sure that everyone would hear his message of a new way of life with God. A way that is open to all. For example, in several cases Jesus was accused of working on the Sabbath which people viewed as being against the commandments. He healed several times on the Sabbath and also allowed his disciples to pick corn on the Sabbath. According to the strict interpretations of the laws that the religious leaders created, Jesus was sinning. From a commentary by David Pratte: “The Pharisees criticized the act, not as stealing, but as a violation of the Sabbath. This was the first of a whole series of conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees about the Sabbath. Two things must be remembered. (1) The Pharisees, as they had done with other things (Matthew 15:1-14), had added a whole complex system of traditions about Sabbath observance. Much of this was intricate and detailed; but above all it was based on their own ideas, not on what God's law really said. (2) They were motivated in their criticisms, not by sincere concern for the Sabbath, but by a desire to trap Jesus (v10).” ( https://www.gospelway.com/topics/bible/jesus_sabbath.php )

So Jesus is working to show people that our actions must be done in a way that shows forth God’s kin-dom, not by other motivations or human made laws and customs. Jesus’s whole life was about proclaiming this Good News that our connection with God, is just that - a connection with God, not one that has to be made through laws and sacrifices and that if we don’t do something “just right” that connection is gone, but instead that connection is made by God and is permanent and unbreakable.

Now the third activity that Matthew says Jesus did - healing people. The biggest part of this isn’t that Jesus healed, but who he healed. As Matthew says in verse 23, Jesus was “curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” Nothing about “the deserving people” or “people who go to synagogue every Sabbath” or “people who have followed every law perfectly” or “people who have been deemed by society to be male” or “people who have a certain skin tone” or “people from certain countries”. Nope, none of this - he healed everyone who needed it. And most of the time these people that needed healing were the lowest of the people in society at the time. The people who were lacking food or money or status or were shunned by society once they became ill.  None of this mattered to Jesus - he healed all.

Wow - he was a busy person! And - he is asking us, as individuals and as the church body, to follow him and do all this? To be advocates for everyone in society? To publicly support this cause? To make sure that God’s love and fullness of his kin-dom are available and accessible to all? Those are some big sandals to fill.

Yes, it is a lot to do, but that is what we are called to be, to be advocates for all of society, especially those most vulnerable, those fleeing persecution, those who are shunned from society, including members of the LBGTQIA+ community, those who are hungry or poor. Anyone who does not have the means to live their lives fully and freely to experience the true wholeness and love of God. It is hard work. But yet, we are called.

Many times, people say church and politics shouldn’t be mixed, but that simply can’t be, if we are to fully live into our call to be advocates. Just like Jesus challenged the religious and governmental system of his time, we need to challenge our system. If that means teaching others so they better understand the minorities in society by holding community forums and movie screenings, do that. If it means spreading the good news of God’s love for all at Pride events, do that. If it means healing or helping people in need by providing shelter in our parish house and taking care of all their needs, do that. Writing letters to elected officials, protesting, signing petitions to amend state law so that people can’t get fired for simply being gay, do that. And, hopefully we don’t need to, but if it calls for some rage and throwing over some tables and demanding change, as Jesus did in the temple with the money changers, then maybe we do that.

No matter what form our advocacy takes, we are called and cannot sit silently in our chairs inside these walls and do nothing. We must publicly support God’s call for us to share his kin-dom of love and wholeness for all. How can we fully feel God’s love in us knowing that others are prevented from living fully into their lives? To share the Gospel, the Good News of God’s love for all, we must be strong advocates for all.

Now, back to panicking that to do all this we must drop everything, leave our jobs and families, and follow Jesus immediately and uproot our lives, as we heard in today’s Gospel. Well, here is the Good News - that isn’t what the Gospel says. Without getting into too much detail (more info at https://www.answers.com/Q/Did_disciples_know_Jesus_before_being_called), remember that in Jesus’s time, the world population was a lot smaller, and that the disciples had certainly heard about Jesus before he came up to him, in fact many were most likely related to him. So it wasn’t a complete stranger, it was someone they knew and most likely already had a personal connection to. It would be like asking your friends and family to join you in a project of yours that you find valuable, to sign a petition, to march in a parade or rally, to build a house, and more.

Also, again without getting into detail (more info at http://blog.michaelhalcomb.com/2007/07/did-disciples-know-jesus-before-he-them.html ) the disciples didn’t drop everything and never return to their lives they were living. There are stories in the bible where they still met with their families and they still had their boats, etc.

So instead of a stranger asking people to completely drop everything in their current lives and do new work, this story is about advocacy. About hearing God’s call to be an advocate for ensuring that God’s kin-dom is available for all, and then using your skills and talents God has given you, so that you can do the needed work, and then get your friends and family, and maybe a stranger or two, to do the work with you.

Wow! This is so much better - and much easier to say “Yes!” to. Yes! I can work with you to create some cards to make a senior’s life a bit better. Yes! I can work to take some actions at home to reduce my carbon footprint or release some butterflies. Yes! I can go march in the pride parade this summer. Yes! I can donate to help provide for the needs of the young people living in our parish house.

And since God’s grace, love, and forgiveness is freely given to all, we don’t have to focus on how to “win God over” and be right with God, since Jesus ensured this is already done for all of us, we can focus on doing the advocacy needed to bring God’s kin-dom to fruition.

We, as individuals and as a community of Faith, are currently doing advocacy all the time. Is there more we can do - certainly, but we need to celebrate what we have and currently do, learn from it, and then work to do even more in this broken world that for many fall way short of being whole and complete, so that God’s love, hope, and dream for all may be made fully known, so that His kin-dom can truly come to us and God’s will be done on Earth. Amen.

This is a special musical performance of Psalm 19 from the Faith Bells Bell Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of Be Thou My Vision by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.