By the Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector
The lesson from Micah is a well known passage and quoted often. "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?"
Micah was a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah. He was a bit younger though and from very different circumstances. Isaiah was very famous and had a prominent role in the court of the King. In his writings it's clear that Isaiah was able to speak to the King whenever he wanted and was also on call if the King wanted to talk to him. Isaiah was in a place of influence and on more than one occasion used it to sway the King's foreign policy.
Micah, on the other hand, was from a small town outside the capital city of Jerusalem and was not a man of position or stature. Since they were contemporaries they wrote about the same events, but what makes their prophecies interesting is the lenses through which they see those events, their causes and the impacts.
Through Isaiah's eyes we see how the King wrestled with the severe issues facing him. The biggest threat was the Assyrian army bearing down on them. It was a perennial threat that spanned the reigns of several kings. Both Isaiah and Micah lived and wrote over the course of those reigns, but through Isaiah's work we can see the complications of political intrigue and the difficult decisions each King faced regarding alliances and actions that would protect them without provoking their much larger neighbor.
Micah, could not have seen the inner workings of the court, but his writings have more of the common touch. He wrote from the perspective of the average person who looks at their leadership with an almost childlike trust and simple hope for solution. Political solutions always seem simple to the people on the outside. But where Micah is not naive is in his experience of the failure of society on the level of the common person.
He could see first hand the effects of injustice -- judges bribed or educated shop keepers taking advantage of uneducated customers. The inequality of power and the abuse of authority is nothing new to the common person for whom it was an every day experience.
I picked up a book recently titled, The Preacher and the Presidents. It's about Billy Graham and how his long career has spanned the presidencies from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. Like many, I don't agree with his theology, but I am also impressed by his ability to be among the inner circle of the presidents of two parties who looked to him as a pastor and adviser. In his work I can see a reflection of Isaiah as one who was close to the seat of power while maintaining the spiritual authority to speak out for or against issues of the day according to his faith and not his politics. Even that got complicated for him and he made some grave errors in judgment, but in terms of an illustration, it's helpful. Part of the book focuses on his relationship and interaction with Martin Luther King, Jr during the civil rights struggle. Two men of faith -- one close to the seat of power and one close to the injustice on the street seeing the solutions from very different lenses and yet their conversations with each other influenced some of the shape of the civil rights struggle.
It's fascinating history and also remarkable how often it's repeated through out history with different issues and different players. Micah and Isaiah also contrasted in their approach to the issues of their day based on the situations in which they lived and the information they had available to them. But where each of them agreed completely was in the need for true religion. Not the same beliefs, mind you, but the integrity of the behavior coming from those beliefs.
Micah watched and wrote about the carful attention to the temple worship -- as did Isaiah. Sometimes it was done perfectly and other times it was not, but both agreed that the worship meant nothing if the same people who attended it still cheated, still accepted bribes, and still abused their authority. Micah was exasperated by what he saw and simply said, "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God?"
This lesson is paired with the Gospel lesson we call the Beatitudes. It also is an often quoted part of scripture and lists the ways in which people are blessed by the ways in which they stay in relationship with God. It is a gathering of the promises of God for people who are in need -- those who hunger, those who thirst, those who are poor in spirit, meek, those who mourn, the pure in heart and the peacemakers. They are blessed not because they are lucky, certainly, but because God's love and grace will touch and heal them. They are blessed because they are not forgotten or forsaken. God comes to us in our times of need, and that is God's promise.
Friday and Saturday of this weekend was the annual convention of the Diocese of Newark. The theme of this convention was "Stepping Out in Audacious Faith." There are over a hundred churches in this Diocese of Newark which covers the geographical region of the top third of the state of New Jersey. Each year, the last weekend of January delegations from each church meet to take care of the business of the Diocese, such as passing a budget and voting on resolutions that impact the common lives of the churches. There's singing, eating, haggling, voting, witnessing and celebrating in varying degrees and with varying outcomes.
I have to pause here to recognize our delegates Tom Savoth, Cheryl Notari and Valyrie Laedlein. And also recognize our members who serve on the staff of the Diocese -- Michael Francaviglia, Nina Nicholson and Diane Sammons. Other members serve on Diocesan committees -- Lindsay McHugh, Martha Gardner, Aleeda Crawley, Susan Chrystal and myself. St. George's is well represented and we're proud of you all!
The guest speaker was Bishop Julio Murry from the Diocese of Panama. There has been a program within the National Church for many years called Companion Dioceses which pairs a Diocese in the US with other Dioceses outside the US especially among those in developing countries. Panama is our companion Diocese and through Bishop Murray we learned about the issues they face, particularly among the poor and struggling of that country. Missions trips will be planned and I hope that St. Georgians will be available to participate and take advantage of the opportunities such a relationship will bring. Adults and youth from this diocese who have been gave witness to their trips and told how life changing they were. How abstract issues that we hear in the news become real. For a young person to say he'd heard about the poor in school or the news and different it is to be in a place that is so poor and talk with other youth whose lives are very different from theirs. What became even more profound was not the comparisons of who has what, but the faith that sustains them in the challenges that each face. Our circumstances are very different, but our reliance on God is the same. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
We saw filmed accounts of churches in this diocese who have addressed the needs of their communities in some really creative ways. Some starting worship services for autistic children and other special needs, some creating soup kitchens, and others allowing people from the town to grow vegetables on unused church property that is used in the soup kitchens. Blessed are those who hunger for they shall be filled.
Conventions are a lot of work and very tiring. But they are a good time to see God working in this part of the state by the Episcopal church. We are a small denomination and as the Bishop said in an address, many people don't even know who we are, let alone how to spell our name. But we have a lens through which we see God and it's a good one and God calls us all, no matter who we are or where we are and shows us ministries that only we can do. The task of each church community is to discern, that is figure out, what that ministry is.
St. George's has had a long history of witnessing to social justice. From women's rights to advocacy for the homeless, co-founding shelters and gathering food and necessities for mothers and children, witnessing for marriage equality and much more. We've been a teaching parish hosting field education students from local seminaries and preparing them for ministry in many other places. We are a healing parish. Through prayer and anointing, welcome and fellowship, we heal those who have been hurt by other churches or injured by life's tragedies. We offer God's healing in prayer and witness that all people are loved by God. Our ministry is important to us and it grows and changes through out the years, but what remains the same is the desire to bring integrity to our worship through the love it inspires us to show each other and reflect in the world. Often we get it right, sometimes we fall short, but we are blessed in what we try to do when we keep in mind that all that God really requires of us is to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Amen.
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