Woe to those who plan iniquity,
to those who plot evil on their beds!
At morning’s light they carry it out
because it is in their power to do it.
They covet fields and seize them,
and houses, and take them.
They defraud people of their homes,
they rob them of their inheritance.
Therefore, the Lord says:
“I am planning disaster against this people,
from which you cannot save yourselves.
You will no longer walk proudly,
for it will be a time of calamity.
In that day people will ridicule you;
they will taunt you with this mournful song:
‘We are utterly ruined;
my people’s possession is divided up.
He takes it from me!
He assigns our fields to traitors.’”
Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the Lord
to divide the land by lot.
“Do not prophesy,” their prophets say.
“Do not prophesy about these things;
disgrace will not overtake us.”
You descendants of Jacob, should it be said,
“Does the Lord become impatient?
Does he do such things?”
“Do not my words do good
to the one whose ways are upright?
Lately my people have risen up
like an enemy.
You strip off the rich robe
from those who pass by without a care,
like men returning from battle.
You drive the women of my people
from their pleasant homes.
You take away my blessing
from their children forever.
Get up, go away!
For this is not your resting place,
because it is defiled,
it is ruined, beyond all remedy.
If a liar and deceiver comes and says,
‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’
that would be just the prophet for this people!
“I will surely gather all of you, Jacob;
I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,
like a flock in its pasture;
the place will throng with people.
The One who breaks open the way will go up before them;
they will break through the gate and go out.
Their King will pass through before them,
the Lord at their head.” (New International Version)
One of the reasons the Daily Lectionary has been giving us a generous portion of prophetic and divine judgment, is that Advent is upon us. In other words, Jesus didn’t just show up in a vacuum. Christ came in his incarnation because the world needs him. The time was ripe for the Lord to come.
We were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. (Galatians 4:3b-5, NIV)
Sin is like a humungous rat’s nest that’s been intertwined with the human heart. You cannot simply destroy the nest without also destroying the heart. It takes painstaking attention and patience to undo the connection. And it requires such consummate skill that only God has the combination of motivation, endurance, and ability to do the job.
Perhaps you, like me, are weary of sin’s presence in this world – not to mention having to deal with it daily within the shadows of our own hearts. To keep going, we need God. Secularism cannot help us here, because secular answers cannot offer us good and permanent directives for life.
What’s more, even our religious institutions and faith communities have become, for many, a source of grief instead of hope. Churches can be wracked with sin as much, or more, than any secular system. Though religion ought to help connect us with our true selves, it too often causes us to stray from our authentic self.
Religious bodies too often wed themselves with secular bodies, and encourage us toward extreme independence. Thus, we forget that our real destiny is to live in community within a larger human context – to contribute to the whole of humanity, and in turn, be enriched by others.
This situation is one of the reasons God sent the prophets to warn the people and call them back to a healthy and holistic way of life, connected to the divine and to one another in vital and joyous community.
Any time we put our emotions and energy into dogmatic and parochial concerns – instead of focusing on the ethical, philosophical, and mystical branches of our shared humanity with God – then we, at best, become useless to the great needs of this world, and at worst, contribute to its downward spiral of destruction.
The prophet Micah, along with his fellow prophets, warned and lamented that the people are abandoning the soul of Holy Scripture – keeping up appearances of holiness, while actually planning to take advantage of others for self-centered purposes.
Religious faith in the prophet’s day, as well as our own, is continuing to wane because its biblical foundation is being undermined – not by liberal or progressive theologians, as much as conservative and fundamental adherents who lose sight of Scripture’s spirit and gospel, in favor of hardline law.
We need light – not the dark negations of those who insist on remaining religious masters of extremely small worlds. We must pay attention to, and cultivate, the vineyard of the Lord. Let the faithful concern themselves with clarifying the important elements of religion, such as the nature of prophecy, the Holy Spirit, redemption, and the sanctification of individuals and the community.
As long as we only absorb ourselves with one’s personal piety and one’s small group of cronies, and ignores the common good of all persons, and justice in the world, refusing to look beyond the end of one’s nose, then we will continue to turn away from the prophetic utterance we already have within Scripture. And we will have no ability to discern nor hear the modern day prophet when they speak.
Micah the prophet made a specific charge against his fellow citizens who were powerful businessmen. They spent their time devising schemes to get possession of land from small farmers. Much like the big corporation today, the ancient business people carried out their schemes because they had the financial backing, political influence, and judicial power to do it.
In response, God devises his own plans to thwart the evil machinations of greedy and powerful persons. Micah was supremely confident that the wrongs in this world would eventually be made right; he firmly believed that a sovereign and just God would handle it.
Also, much like today, the greedy business persons and corporations simply dismiss all this God-talk as irrelevant; calamity will not overtake them. But keeping God out of sight and out of mind doesn’t mean that God isn’t there. They will have to give an account for their unethical business practices.
It seems, as in the day of Micah, that our contemporary situation is not so different. Much of the world’s institutions, corporations, and governments are so out of touch with religion and religious ethics, that if a charismatic person comes along proclaiming a gospel of injustice, the business leaders would hire that person on the spot.
Lord, have mercy.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 