It is impossible to preach today without acknowledging that on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11 month, a cease fire agreement was signed to bring an end to World War 1. World War 1, which became the first war to encompass nations encircling the globe. WW1, which took over 16 million lives..leaving virtually every family grieving a son, a father, a friend, a neighbor… someone they knew and loved. WW1, a war that many soldiers entered with excitement, looking for adventure… which dragged on in trenches and misery. WW1, which many imagined, in HG Wells words, would be “The War to End All Wars”. In an essay by that title, written in 1914 at the war’s beginning, he wrote: This is already the vastest war in history. It is a war not of nations, but of mankind. It is a war to exorcise a world-madness and end an age… For this is now a war for peace. It aims straight at disarmament. It aims at a settlement that shall stop this sort of thing for ever. Every soldier who fights against Germany now is a crusader against war. This, the greatest of all wars, is not just another war—it is the last war!
Yes, many imagined, including President Woodrow Wilson…that this war would lead to the demilitarization of nations around the globe. Humanity would finally see the error of its bloodthirsty ways and lust for power…and democracy would prevail. Yeah….right. And in 20 years…a war far vaster and 4 times more deadly would begin. A British baby who was born at exactly 11 a.m. on the great day of the Armistice was christened Pax. At the age of twenty-one, he would be killed in the next war. And we learn that it is impossible for a war to bring an end to war. Rather, wars beget wars. That’s how it works. Every single one sows the seeds for the next.
Friends…this is not new news. Not to humanity. Not to God. Our human predisposition to greed and power and selfish ambition at the expense of others …our inclination to see our brothers and sisters as threats instead of family members…is as old as Cain and Abel. And that persistent reality is what Micah is facing in Israel. Micah confronts a nation that has chosen pride and greed and cruelty. And God’s anger burns hot enough to melt the mountains God created. God hates, despises…the evil we do. Our violence and our injustice.
That’s why Micah’s words aren’t just for Israel…they are for the whole world. Micah says “hear, you peoples, ALL of you; Listen , O earth, and all that is in it.” God has a bone to pick with all of us. We are all God’s people. We are all the work of God’s hands, the beloved children of God’s creation. We are all as guilty as Israel.
But Israel, Micah believes, should know better. After all, it is Israel who claims to be God chosen people. It is Israel who has experienced the goodness, the grace, the salvation of God so clearly…coming out of slavery in Egypt and finding a home in the Promised Land. How can those who have known God’s love so deeply…now be the authors of injustice and evil?
And…feeling convicted, Israel responds. So what should we do? How can we make it better? They don’t want God to be mad at them. So…they offer to pay God off — they offer money, livestock, rivers of oil…their own children…anything to appease God. You see, they still don’t get it. Just like we don’t get it. Because God doesn’t want sacrifices or grand gestures. God’s not looking for majestic buildings or impressive achievements. God wants only this: for them to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.
God only wants this…for all the people of the earth, all the children of God’s heart, for US…to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.
“To do justice” — so what do we mean by that? In Micah and throughout the prophets, God isn’t talking about the justice of getting even or exacting punishment. We equate justice with courts of law…criminal justice..prison sentences and penalties. But that isn’t the justice the prophets are concerned with. The justice the prophets are concerned with is how people with no legal standing, no security, no support system are treated. Over and over again, Micah and all the prophets will lift up God’s concern for widows and orphans and people who are not citizens… “aliens”. They are concerned with with the fact that the poor do not get a fair hearing in the courts…or at “the gate” which served as the court of law for Israel. They are concerned with the fact that people ignore their neighbors who are hurting, as long as they are comfortable themselves. “Doing justice”, as far as God is concerned…is about seeking the good of our neighbors, not just ourselves. It is about ensuring that every person matters…particularly those who have little representation in positions of power. What does God want? God wants us to see that how my neighbor is doing IS my business. Because we are all God’s family. The whole world. Every one of us.
And God wants us “to love kindness”. Not tough talk or hard lines in the sand. Not cruel words or arrogance. But kindness. Mercy. For everyone. God wants kindness to be our natural human response to another human being….whoever they are. Whatever their background. Whether they are in prison on the street …whether they are political foes or undocumented aliens. Because when we practice kindness…we are transformed. Our way of seeing is transformed. We see people, instead of dehumanizing one another. We build relationships and connections instead of walls and resentments. Two examples struck me this week– one was an article about a professor who was teaching his students about Johnny Cash’s legendary concert album “Live from Folsom Prison, that was recorded in 1968….50 years ago. Cash had written Folsom Prison Blues about prison life…and had performed in prisons over the years because he believed that compassion for prisoners…for the downtrodden and disenfranchised… was the beginning of the redemption of us all. I don’t know…maybe he got it from Jesus?…”I was in prison and you visited me…” But, anyway, the the students in his class just didn’t get it. They could not get why he went, or why it was significant. They could not grasp why anyone would care how prisoners were treated…because they were getting what they deserved after all …or “Justice”, as they understood it. But Johnny Cash went there and met people…men…who he believed still mattered. And he saw them, not by the measure of the worst thing they had done….but as part of the human family…deserving still of dignity and compassion…and kindness…even as they paid for their crimes. He demonstrated kindness in a place that saw none, and it was profound.
The other example was a study I read years ago about the “Secret to Happily Ever After”…or how to have a successful marriage. A group of researchers did a study of 130 couples, newly married, and followed up with them over the years. They found they could predict which couples would stay together with 94% accuracy…and it didn’t matter whether they were gay or straight, rich or poor, childless or not. Because across the board, the single most important thing that made for a strong and lasting marriage was “kindness”. Couples that demonstrated kindness for one another — listening to one another…appreciating one another…being thoughtful — those were the couples whose marriages thrived. Kindness matters. God wants us to love kindness.
And finally, we are asked to “walk humbly with God”. And maybe more than anything, this is really what really gets us in trouble. It has gotten us in trouble from the beginning. Adam and Eve ate the fruit…why? Because they wanted to determine what was good and evil. They wanted to be like be God.They wanted to judge others…to judge the world. But it wasn’t theirs to judge. Because this is God’s world. God’s creation. And God’s people, in all their wild and wonderful variety, fill it. No group or individual is the full measure of God and how God works or who God loves or what God does. Neither Jews nor Christians, neither Muslims nor Buddhists nor anyone else is the “gold standard”. No, we are each just a little sliver of God’s Wide, wide world….and our perspective is limited. Narrow. Woefully incomplete. We are not God. God is not “us”. And we do well…to walk humbly. To remember that. But think about it — every war is started by people who don’t do that, isn’t it? Every war is started by people who want to control others. Or get rid of others. Or use and abuse others. Or have their way in one version or another. Every war is started by people who are incapable of saying they might be wrong… whether for religious or political or economic reasons. I wonder…what would it mean if we were to truly walk humbly with God?
This is the way of God. God’s way is not found on moral high ground or in pledges of purity that lead to arrogance and judgment and meanness. No, on this anniversary of the end of the war that did not end all wars… what God asks once again is that we seek justice. That we love kindness. And that we walk humbly with God. For that IS the will of God for you and for me…from the beginning and forevermore. Amen.
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