KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
December 20, 2009
Micah 5:2-5a
Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever been in one of those conversations? “It sucks to be me.” “Oh, no, it really sucks to be me.” “Well, if you think that’s bad, let me tell you how much my life sucks.” This is normal life for us. My job sucks. My apartment stinks. My husband never helps around the house. My mom drives me crazy. My bosses keep changing everything. I have a cold. My back hurts.
What is this a contest or something? Do we really want to win this game? “Yeah, it really sucks to be you! Whew, you’re life is terrible!”
“See! I told you!”
But sometimes, we really do feel pretty terrible. This week, I sat at my computer pouting, with my bottom lip sticking out like a little kid who just dropped his ice cream. Sometimes, we just feel like joining the song, “It sucks to be me!”
Israel would understand. Israel was a small fish in a big sea with sharks all around. The biggest shark of all was Assyria. Assyria was pressing down upon Israel like a lion on a mouse. It seemed to be only a matter of time before Assyria would annex Israel like it had already done to all the other nations. They would lay siege Jerusalem, and if they won, they would make the king of Israel stand in the town square. The commander of the Assyrian army would take a rod and smack Israel’s king in the face with it, maybe knock a few teeth out. When Israel looked into the future, they saw defeat and public humiliation. So, yeah, they were singing, “It sucks to be me.”
But God answers Israel in a surprising way. God says, “Your life sucks so bad because of your own bad choices.” God tells Israel, “Look, you lie, cheat, and steal. You bend the law to your own cause. You evict widows and neglect children. Your rulers are corrupt. Your priests just want money. Your prophets only tell you what you want to hear. You believe that God will protect you simply because you claim to be God’s people. You are just using religion to cover your greed. You have brought trouble upon yourselves because you reject my ways.”
Maybe God would say something similar to us. Sometimes when our lives suck, it’s because of our own bad choices, too. Maybe we are working harder than we really have to work. Maybe we are tired and grumpy all the time because we don’t sleep enough. Maybe we’re lonely because we haven’t learned how to be a friend. Maybe we are bored with our stuff because we simply have too much stuff. Maybe we are bored with our lives because we choose to do nothing meaningful with our lives. Maybe we have that hollow feeling inside because we know that there is something wrong with the world when we can have ice cream any time we want it but children die because they can’t get rice. Maybe we have brought trouble upon ourselves because we reject God’s ways.
And in our passage today, God speaks through Micah to give Israel a standard promise in a surprising way. The standard promise is the promise for the Messiah. Whenever Israel struggled, whenever Israel’s leadership failed, whenever Israel cried out for healing, God promised them a leader like David, the great king. God promised the Messiah would make everything right. The Messiah would restore justice and protect Israel from her enemies.
But there are some surprises in this passage. The Messiah will come from Bethlehem. That’s David’s hometown. It’s a country farming community. David’s father was a shepherd. David was a shepherd, one of the lowest jobs in Israel. It was long, dirty, difficult, thankless work.
The people of Israel expected a mighty king, robed in velvet and silk and gold. They wanted a king who would lead from a huge throne and make everything right right away. They wanted a Burger-King-king, “Your way right away.”
God promised a Shepherd who would enter the world from the margins. He would be a leader who was born and raised and lived in the unimportant places. He would lead gently like a shepherd not fiercely like an army general. He would live peace and teach peace, and peace would flow through him to others and on to others and on and on.
But he would not make everything right right away. Look at verse 3, “The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the woman in labor gives birth. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land.” Even after God gives the promise, there will be trouble. Even after God sends the Messiah, there will be exiles and hardships.
When we read this passage now, we naturally think of Jesus. This is one of the most famous prophecies about Jesus. In Matthew chapter 2, the leading priests and teachers quoted this prophecy to say that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
But Jesus was born on the margins – really on the margins of the margins. Not only was he born in Bethlehem, a small farming town, but his parents couldn’t even get a place indoors. Jesus was born in an animal shelter between cattle and goats and hay and oats.
Fresh out of the womb, Jesus faced danger. Herod, the ruler of Israel, didn’t want any Messiahs taking his power, so he sent soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem. Jesus was chased out of his marginal position and off the map of Israel – the fugitive Messiah.
The Messiah came, but he still had to run for his life. The Messiah came, but a dictator still killed a whole village of innocent babies. The Messiah came, but mothers were still crying in the streets. The Messiah came, but he was on the margins and in the middle of the mess of life.
When Jesus grew up and began leading, he still led from the margins. He didn’t lead an overwhelming take-over campaign. He started in the Galilean countryside with fishermen and rebels and corrupt accountants. He never took a religious office or held a position of power. He didn’t change the religious system or the political system or the medical system or the economic system. If he were a CEO or president of a nation today, we would say he was a total failure.
So what did Jesus do? How is Jesus the Messiah predicted in Micah 5? How is Jesus a shepherd-ruler who gives his people peace?
Well, it’s kind of like this. If you walk down the street outside KNU, past the fire station, past the post office, right about the time you get to the hair shop or KimBap Nara, you start to smell this amazing aroma. It’s like cinnamon and sugar and butter, and it’s just floating in the air, calling to you. It’s the smell of RotiBuns baking in the RotiBoy Coffee Shop. I’ll just be walking on my way to the bank, minding my own business, doing my own thing, and that lush aroma of fresh-baked sweet breads floats out onto the sidewalks and starts talking to me, “Hey you. Yes, you. Don’t you want some of this sweet buttery goodness. You’re hungry even if you don’t realize it yet. Come on inside and have a RotiBun.” It’s like the smell awakens my hunger.
This is how Jesus works. Irish theologian Peter Rollins explains it like this:
Instead of religious discourse being a type of drink designed to satisfy our thirst for answers, Jesus made his teaching salty, evoking thirst. Instead of offering a scientific explanation that would convince, or publicizing the miracles so as to compel his listeners, Jesus engaged in a poetic discourse that spoke to the hearts of those who would listen. In a world where people believe they are not hungry, we must not offer food but rather an aroma that helps them desire the food that we cannot provide. We are a people born from a response to hints of the divine. Note only this, but we must embrace the idea that we are also called to be hints of the divine.
Jesus traveled around Israel creating the smell of peace. He healed some, taught some, and loved as much as one limited body can love. He gave bits and pieces of peace, samples of peace, like the taste test ladies in E-Mart. All around Jesus, there was this aroma of peace, a hint of something more, the smell of a deeper kind of life.
People were going their own way, doing their own thing, making money, raising kids, working the farm, selling their products, and then they ran into Jesus, and this smell of peace was overwhelming. It wasn’t the full substance of peace. It was peace from this marginal place, in this marginal place. It wasn’t a peace that made everything OK or made the Roman oppressors go away. It was peace in and among the messiness of life.
Jesus was a living embodiment of peace, and he called people to follow their spiritual noses, to follow his way of peace. Jesus gave off the smell of peace everywhere he went, giving out a few samples here and there. He invited people to recognize their hunger for peace, for wholeness, for justice, for love – and having recognized that hunger, to follow him.
This is how Jesus is the source of our peace. This is how Jesus is the Messiah. He lives peace. He exudes peace. He smells of peace. He gives samples of peace. And he invites us to follow him into the way of peace. One by one, family by family, group by group, we begin to follow the smell of our Peace-filled Messiah, and slowly we too become samples of peace. Slowly, we too begin to live peace. We too begin to smell of peace and give little tastes of peace to others.
How do we do this? How do we follow Jesus in this way of peace? In the next chapter of Micah, the people ask what God really wants from them. They say, “Should we offer him thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our children to pay for our sins?” (Micah 6:7). But Micah gives a simple answer that summarizes Jesus’ way of life, Jesus’ way of peace, “No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
You don’t need to give millions of dollars. You don’t need to abandon your kids to serve the church. What God wants is simple. Jesus’ way of peace is simple.
Do justice. Someone once said: “Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it.” The question came back: “Well, why don’t you ask Him?” The answer: “Because I’m afraid He would ask me the same question.” Bob Pierce founded World Vision (one of the largest relief agencies in the world), and he said something very simple yet very profound: “Don’t fail to do something just because you can’t do everything.” Do justice. Do something!
Love mercy. As James said, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (James 1:19). We can be so quick to complain and criticize others. Let’s work together to love mercy instead. Show a little mercy to your church. You may not get everything you want here. The songs or the preaching or the whatever may not be just to your tastes, but show a little mercy. Show a little mercy at work. The people in charge may not do everything the way you want, but you probably don’t want to be in charge either. Love mercy.
Walk humbly. One of the first steps of humility is slowing down. Sometimes we have to have the humility to say, “No, I just can’t do that. I don’t have time. I’m not a superman or superwoman. It’s OK if you think less of me, but I can’t do it.” When we walk through life more slowly, we are far more likely to be walking with God.
If we do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God, the world will not be radically different tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, maybe not even next year. There will still be problems and crises. There will still be people on the margins and in messes. Sometimes, we will be the messy, marginal people.
But that’s OK because Jesus, our Messiah is in the mess and in the margins. He is there baking his bread of peace, sending out the aroma of peace all over the world from the margins. And if we will follow his smell, and begin to walk in his ways of peace, more and more of our world will smell of peace. More and more of our world will become whole and healthy and well.
“And he will stand to lead his flock with the LORD’s strength, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored around the world. And he will be the source of peace” (Micah 5:4-5a).
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Malachi's Christmas (Malachi 2:17 - 3:5)
Josh Broward
Malachi’s Christmas
Malachi
Christmas is my favorite holiday. I loved the relaxed time, spending all day together with my family for several days in a row. For many of us Christmas means family time.
But food always goes together with family. In my house there was always more food than we could possibly eat: turkey, honey-baked ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce (sometimes still shaped like the can), and best of all pumpkin pie with whipped cream and pecan pie with old-fashioned vanilla ice cream. (I know I’m making myself hungry, too!) Nothing says Christmas like the sin of gluttony!
And of course there are presents. My mom has two great spiritual gifts: giving and shopping. Christmas at our house overflowed with all of my mom’s bargain gifts. Christmas gift-giving is such an important image in American culture that economists gauge the health of the entire economy based on Christmas shopping.
And the presents have to go under a Christmas tree. Through some accident of history, green triangle shaped trees have become one of the world’s most recognizable symbols of the holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus.
In
Some people think mostly about the songs and the movies. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Charlie Brown Christmas.
For Christians, the primary images of Christmas are often a little different (at least when we’re thinking about church stuff). We usually think about Christmas carols and special Christmas Choir Cantatas. We think about the classic Christmas songs: “Away in a Manger,” “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” and others. These songs are always full of joy and appreciation for God’s greatest gift to the world – Jesus.
And of course, the single greatest image of Christmas for Christians is the baby in the manger – or feeding trough. Most Sunday School kids can draw that baby in the wooden box with the X-shaped legs and hay. We might even add a nice yellow glow of light coming from the quiet little baby in the hay.
Our images of God’s coming into the world are overwhelmingly positive. We think of joy and peace, family and friends, comfort and abundance. Even when we think theologically, our thoughts are deeply positive: light and salvation and grace and peace for the world and good news for all humankind.
Many of the Bible’s texts do lead us in this direction. But not today’s text. Today’s text is from the prophet Malachi – the last prophet recorded in the Old Testament. Listen as Malachi explains God’s coming into the world. This is Malachi’s Christmas.
Lectio Devina with Malachi
But reality was different. They still suffered from drought. They still suffered from enemies who seemed to be stronger than them. Their priests were still corrupt. Their worship was still hollow. Their poor were still poor. Their weak were still oppressed. The foreigners were still strangers without rights and legal support. Injustice ruled religiously and socially.
Malachi says, “Be careful what you ask for. God is coming. The Messiah is coming. Christmas is coming. But Christmas won’t be all blessings and presents and turkeys. Salvation begins with judgment. Correcting injustice in the world begins with correcting injustice in us.”
Malachi’s Christmas is different.
Malachi’s Christmas is like pouring hydrogen peroxide on a wound. It hurts, but it helps.
Riding a skateboard is fun. Going fast is fun. So riding a skateboard behind a bicycle going really fast will be really fun, right? Absolutely … until the wipeout. These kids didn’t have their camera ready for the wipeout, but they did video the First Aid.
--- PEROXIDE VIDEO --- [[Warning - This video has profanity. When we show it in the worship service, this will be edited out.]]
Malachi’s Christmas is like pouring peroxide on a wound. It hurts, but it helps. It gets the bad stuff out. It heals us, but the healing hurts like crazy.
Malachi’s Christmas is like lice shampoo. Have you ever gotten head lice? I have. That shampoo sucks! But it gets the yucky, itchy bugs out of your hair. It hurts, but it helps.
--- SHAMPOO VIDEO ---
Malachi’s Christmas is like lice shampoo. It burns. It stings. It gets in your eyes, but it gets the bad stuff out. It hurts, but it helps.
Malachi’s Christmas is like a wrecking ball. Sometimes a building is so old or so damaged it just has to come down. The wrecking ball does the job.
--- WRECKING BALL VIDEO ---
Malachi’s Christmas is like a wrecking ball. It breaks. It crushes. It destroys. It gets the old bad stuff out of the way so that new good stuff can be built. It hurts, but it helps.
Christmas begins with pain. Salvation begins with judgment. God heals us, but the process hurts. God cleans us, but the soap burns. God fixes our messed up lives, but sometimes he has to tear things down first.
As we prepare for Christmas, let’s not just expect blessings and turkeys and fun movies and a day off of work. Let’s join together to reconsider our lives. Jesus comes to us as a refining fire. Our lives need some strong soap to get the dirt out. We need the same kind of purification
Are we giving God our best or our leftovers? Are we giving God our leftover time? Whatever we have left after work and play and kids and study and TV – we’ll give that to God, but only that, whatever isn’t used up with other stuff. Are we giving God our leftover money? If we have a little extra, we’ll put some in the basket, but if we have to cut back, we’ll cut back on giving. Are we giving God our leftover energy? What happens if we don’t have any energy left?
Are we living with deep personal integrity? Do we ever try to manipulate others? Do we hold back a key piece of information because being completely honest might blow the deal? Do we keep our promises? Are we keeping our marriage vows to love, honor, and cherish at all times, for better or worse?
Are we caring for the weak in our society? Is it enough for us not to do wrong? Are we doing something that is actively right? Are we content to look the other way? Are we happy enough to have our happy Christmas without feeding the hungry or helping the oppressed?
We need Malachi’s Christmas. We need the refiner’s fire. We need God’s strong soap to clean up our lives. We need healing. Yes, it will hurt! But it will help us. It will help our church, and it will help our world!
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