For Goodness Sake, Why Wait? :: Micah 6:6-8
He has made known to you, man, what is good. And what does Yahweh seek from you except to do justice, to love covenantal love, and to be caused to walk humbly with your God (v 8).
If there is one thing everyone in the world loves, it’s goodness. We want the good life. We value good health and good friends. We desire to have a good family. We want the good life. ... We seek a good education at a good school so that we can get a good job with a good income. We want the good life. ... We want to drive a good car and live in a good house in a good neighborhood. We prefer hearing the good news. And more than that, we want others to think we’re good people. It’s good to be good, we say. We love the good life.
But do we even understand this word “good”? Or do we just think we do?
As Christians we should be concerned above all else with how God defines good. As the Prophet Micah revealed for us today in our Old Testament reading for this Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity, the Lord has made known to us what is good ... that is, to do justice ... to love covenantal love ... and to be caused to walk humbly with our God (v 8).
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what is good and pleasing to God. This is good. This is what he has made known to us.
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Under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, we’ll do well to hear and to heed these words today ... to embrace them for the rest of our lives. When we do this good thing that God prepared for us to do beforehand (Eph 2:10), like the Apostle Paul, I have been persuaded that he who began in you a good work will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ (Pp 1:6).
When Micah proclaimed the Word of the Lord to the Kingdoms of Judah and Samaria some 700 years before Christ, the message pretty much fell upon deaf ears ... and the final result was devastating: Seventy years of exile and the destruction of the temple. Not good.
The Israelites ignored these words because they thought they had it good. They didn’t think they needed to repent of anything. They loved their traditions. They continually told themselves that we are God’s chosen people ... that we can choose our robes and are therefore good to go. They acted like they didn’t need God. They convinced themselves that they just needed to walk on the straight and narrow to merit God’s favor and good will, simply by their own efforts.
What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me, they sang to themselves. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. That will be good enough, they thought to themselves.
Like the people back then, our nation has enjoyed good wealth, prosperity, peace, and growth ... you know, the good life. So too has this congregation. And as a result, people have felt so good about themselves and their place in life ... they didn’t think they needed a thing ... especially repentance. They started ignoring all kinds of sin in their lives.
I’m good, we tell ourselves ... I don’t need help.
I’m good, so I think we can skip church this week.
I’m so good that I don’t think I need to be reminded that I need the forgiveness of sins at all.
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Just like Israel before us, that’s what we invariably tell ourselves. That’s because, like Israel before us, we forget the mighty works God has done for us. We forget what is actually good ... the Divine Service ... God’s service to us. We forget how to confess our sins to our pastor and to receive absolution, trusting that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by his divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us himself (SC).
Worse than that, we even start thinking our worship is about the order of worship we are using ... what we are doing ... what we are singing ... what we are giving. How else will I confront Yahweh, they’re asking. Will I bow to the most high God? Will I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, these replies betray our appalling ignorance of what God actually wants from us. It shows we don’t have the slightest realization of the unalterable holiness of God. It shows how we think we can merit the forgiveness of sins, and buy our way into heaven. It shows us how little recognition of the wickedness and sin that is destroying us.
In the name of Jesus, repent ... every one of you.
You cannot merit God’s good will and favor. You cannot adequately prepare yourself to stand before the Lord of heaven and earth. You cannot make yourself holy enough. You cannot return to your baptism often enough. You cannot even receive the Lord’s supper often enough. You cannot provide enough sacrifices to God. … A thousand head of cattle? A reservoir of oil the size of Truman Lake? It’s not enough.
Instead, hear the Gospel ... the Good News … what is actually good. Yahweh has made known to you what is good.
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A good place to start is with genuine humility.
No matter how close we would like to be to our heavenly Father, we dare not lose sight of the fact that he is the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier ... who humbled himself. That he became like one of us, one with us ... Immanuel ... that the sinless one took our sin upon himself ... that he passed over our sins and brought us out of bondage to that sin ... that he is the one he redeemed you from slavery to that sin. Jesus died and was buried for you!
Micah reminds us of all these truths just like Paul did when he wrote in Philippians: Though Christ was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he made himself nothing ... true humility ... taking the form of a slave ... true humility. ... And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ... True humility.
And when we resolve ourselves to know this truth, our Lord causes us to walk in humility with him. He raises us into new life and leads us here ... to Trinity ... for his Divine Service. Christ leads us here ... because he lives in us ... so that we can hear his call to repentance, trust his promises, and then rejoice in the Good News he proclaims to us.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, allow yourself to be served here by our ascended Lord himself, receiving instead of giving, confessing and being absolved. That is true humility. That is one thing he has made known to you.
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As we seek these good things, he then reminds us of what his covenantal love really does: washing clean in baptism and feeding and nourishing us with his Supper. What’s not to love about his sacraments? They fulfill God’s good promises to you.
Our heavenly Father longs to deliver these good things to you. He loves his covenantal love ... it is who he is. And if only we’d allow him, he would eagerly deliver to us the fruit of his body (v 7) that was once dead on a cross but is now living and giving life in his holy meal ... a meal that never ends ... a meal that should always be available to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Because he releases us from our enormous debt of sin against him, we need not imprison our fellow sinners with our refusal of forgiveness (Mt 18:24, 27, 30). Instead, allow yourselves to be partakers of his grace. Then as forgiven sinners, [our] love may abound more and more again, in knowledge and all discernment, so that [we] may approve the things that are more valuable, and therefore be pure and blameless into the day of Christ, being filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ (Pp 1:9-11).
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And then finally, you too will be enabled to actually do justice ... forgiving just as the Father in his goodness forgave you. You can because through faith in Jesus, you are being guided by our Lord’s words to do unto others as you would have them to do unto you. You are being enabled to act in fairness towards others, working to ensure that they are treated fairly ... that is doing justice. More than that you are to serve your neighbor with justice, forgiving your brother because your heavenly Father forgave you. When you remember how Christ forgave you, how can you ever withhold forgiveness from one another? How can you ever hold a grudge again? You have the forgiveness of sins through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord. Share this good news with each other.
FOR THE SAKE OF GOODNESS, WHY WAIT ANY LONGER?
As his forgiven people, let us go forth doing justice, loving covenantal love, and walking humbling ... looking forward to the final day of our Lord Jesus Christ when he raises us all and finally gives eternal life to all who trust in Jesus and his promises.