Epiphany 4A
February 2, 2020
Grace, Waseca, MN
Micah 6.1-8
“You hang by a slender thread!” Dr. Gerhard Alexis intoned to my Gustavus Adolphus College freshman English class. “You hang by a slender thread!” (I’ve learned since then that all academic persons named “Gerhard” are not to be trifled with.) “You hang by a slender thread!” Dr. Alexis was not only quoting the essay of 18th century revivalist preacher Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” he was also channeling him. Our performance in that class was not up to his expectations and this was a teaching moment for him and for us. We learned all too quickly that past performance in high school was no guarantee of future success in college. It was time to step up our game.
Expectations are at the heart of this well-known text from Micah, a late 8th century BCE prophet. We don’t know a lot about Micah, only what we can glean from the book itself. We can tell that he was a laborer rather from the “prophetic class.” We also know that he was probably a contemporary of three other prophets: Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah. We also know that he was prophesying in the southern kingdom of Judah, though he had a message for the northern kingdom of Israel, here referred to as Samaria. We do know that the Assyrians to the north threatened to overwhelm Judah and they tried to make sense of that incursion. The book itself alternates between oracles of doom and oracles of hope – Micah takes the people of Judah to task for unethical practices: the corruption of leaders, both religious and secular, and the exploitation of the people.
Like Jonathan Edwards, Gerhard Alexis, and other prophets, Micah brings an urgent message from God to God’s people. The relationship between God and God’s people is in danger of breaking; God wants a heart-to-heart conversation to correct that. So, in today’s passage, God enlists all of creation as witnesses to a crucial conversation about their relationship. God then reminds the people of a number of saving acts on God’s behalf that are designed to keep that relationship intact. Even so, the people are still confused about their part in that relationship and list several possible responses, from the simple to the extreme. God figuratively shakes his head and declares that they have known all along what God wants: God wants them to act justly in the world, love steadfastly in their relationship to God and each other, and walk as Jesus walks.
Like Micah, we don’t have to go very far to witness acts of injustice, hatred and arrogance in our world, nor do we have to think very hard where we’ve hung by slender threads as Edwards says. The good news is that we remember from our gospel last week that Jesus makes it possible for us to turn around and go a different way and today Jesus gives us a different vision of the world. Because of God’s saving acts in Jesus Christ we value things and people in a different way. In the Beatitudes, Jesus helps us to reorient our lives to those things that make for a blessed world. In other words, we have a lifeline, not a slender thread.
So often we get overwhelmed when we hear the Beatitudes or God’s invitation to justice, kindness, and humility, and we don’t know where to start. So, here’s an invitation to start with one thing this week. You can give someone a kind word when you see them struggling, cheering them for doing the best they can. You can correct an act of injustice, no matter how small, or you can meditate on what walking purposefully means. You can be a peacemaker instead of a peace-breaker, even for one small moment. You can offer a Kleenex to someone who is weeping. Whatever you do, know that you don’t hang by a slender thread. You have a lifeline, upheld by the loving arms of God who strengthens you to love and bless the world. Thank you for being a lifeline to others who are barely hanging on. Amen.
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