PROPERS: FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR A
TEXT: MICAH 6:1-8
PREACHED AT HOLY TRINITY, PENSACOLA, ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2023.
ONE SENTENCE: The essence of a faithful life is found in a few simple words from the prophet Micah.
The fall of 1984 was perhaps the time of greatest anxiety in my life. It was my first semester of seminary at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
Nora and I had left our hometown of nine years to venture north. We had left a congregation which was an anchor for us. We had both left productive jobs. We had left our home in Northeast Jackson. And we had two young children in tow.
It was a challenging time.
I had been away from fulltime studies for nine years. I was unsure of my academic abilities – especially in a challenging graduate environment. It was a very vulnerable time. My weight dropped precipitously.
It did not help that nearly all the chips were on one course – the study of the Old Testament. Some 80 percent of our class time was focused on that one course. That course would decide my academic fate in my first semester of a three-year regimen.
The professor was an Old Testament bear of a man. His name was William Augustin Griffin. He had taught Old Testament at Sewanee for thirty years. He had taken the previous year off as he struggled with a health issue.
But now he was back. A towering man with a booming voice. His ruddy, florid complexion made him even more intimidating. He was the personification of an Old Testament prophet. And he brooked no nonsense. He was the focus of his classroom.
During that first semester, we studied Genesis and Exodus to a great extent. We delved into the prophets as well. We came to know the timeline of the Old Testament and the key figures of its many stories. I gained a love of the Hebrew Scriptures that I never lost.
We took copious notes. Page after page after page. But occasionally, we knew to put our pens down and just listen. Mr. Griffin was preaching. And it was magnificent. His voice boomed with passion. We could almost see coals of fire in his eyes. His message was always clear.
I came to love Mr. Griffin. The ferocity of his teaching was not aimed at students but reflected his passion for the subject.
One way in which we came to know his essential emphasis was his identification of what he would call purple passages in the scriptures. Those passages, perhaps more than others, disclose the essential nature of God.
One, of course, was from the climax of the Joseph saga in Genesis, chapter 50. Isaac has died, and Joseph’s brothers who many years earlier had sold Joseph into slavery, fear retribution from Joseph now that their father was gone.
Joseph, instead, responds with grace that reflects the nature of God: “No, brothers, you meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
That was one. Others could be found in other passages of scripture. One of my favorites is from the 38th chapter of Job.
But we have one of the most disclosive purple passages in the first lesson today – a reading from one of the minor prophets, known as The Twelve, in the Book of Micah.
Micah is offering the voice of God, recounting God’s actions in history to save his people. And he is giving voice to the responses that God expects as thanks for his salvific actions. It is quite simple:
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
As one of the ancient rabbinical sages said, “Go and do likewise.” In those few words, the prophet Micah has summarized the call to those who proclaim their faith -- to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
It’s really not hard or complex. If we live a life that reflects that simple teaching, we needn’t worry about the complexities of the Law or its various applications over the millennia. We will truly have understood God’s purposes for us, and we will walk in the light of faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment