SERMONS

Micah 6:1-8
The Reverend Angela L. Ying
Bethany United Church of Christ, Seattle
February 1, 2009

I have question for you. How is God Calling You to Walk Humbly with God?

After Rabbi Jim and I prayerfully reflect on the Micah 6 passage, which Bethany has come to see as its purpose: O mortal, you know what is good and what does the Lord require, but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

I am not into memorizing the Bible for it is much more important to live out the Word of God, but this is one passage our church should put to memory.

What does the Lord require?

Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.

For years, Bethany thought our purpose was the same as our identity which is a very good one, but it is who we are, not what God is calling us to. For who we are is a community of people who come from different walks of life yet have a common vision to grow a multiracial, multicultural, intergenerational church.

But how many of us can ramble that off your tongue at gunpoint!

Though Bethany seeks to be a cross-cultural, interracial, intergenerational, open and affirming church, it will takes years to get there — and some of us may live to see through our great grandchildren, what we truly envision in this faith community.

But that’s okay, so long as we keep to the purpose in which God has for Bethany Church. And what does the Lord require of us? But to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.

That’s right! Say it with me — if not, you will have our chorister invite you to sing it! What does the Lord require of you? Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.

In this fourth week of focusing on God’s purpose of Bethany Church through the words of the prophet Micah in chapter six verse eight, the Rabbi and I would like to invite you to prayerfully reflect on the third part of Micah’s words: to walk humbly with God.

How is God calling you to walk humbly with God?

Notice that we are not asking, how do you walk humbly, period — which is something some churches insist on telling their people, as in “stay humble” as if people of faith are nice, doormats for the world.

Well, I do not know about you, but given that it is simply tough — okay, very tough these days, telling people to walk humbly just does not cut it.

For Bethany Church is not about being a nice church.

As one colleague shared with me this week, “why is it that so many dwindling churches choose to be nice to one at the cost of being unjust to the many?”

Perhaps, Bethany Church is growing, by God’s grace, because being nice is not the priority. Doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God IS. And there is a distinct different between the two kinds of churches.

What does it mean to be a nice church, anyways?

Strangely enough, but not surprisingly, with three daughters and no son, my parents brought us women up head strong, straight forward, honest and direct — sometimes to a fault — it was not until I entered Princeton Theological Seminary that a friend explained what passive aggressive behavior was. Must be a cultural thing, I thought to myself. Like learning idioms, something I never learned until I had to take the SAT’s.

Seriously. Why would a church person smile and say “Yes, whatever you want” when she really means to say “No, so I will do it my way behind your back.” Is that being a nice church? Hardly.

No, Bethany does not want to be a nice church if it means moving away from our purpose of doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God. I have seen too many churches, in the spirit of being nice, actually engage in work avoidance.

The simple, and yet much harder, task for our Bethany faith community is to keep to our purpose of knowing what is good and to do what God requires.

And let me tell you, Bethany will not always get it right. People will choose to leave and people will choose to come. And those who continue to come will come because they want to give their lives in doing what God requires, and not be a part of a nice club.

No need for blame or shame, guilt or heaven forbid, passive aggressive behavior — the people of God throughout the Scriptures wrestled to do what was good and what God requires their whole lives.

So, back to our original question: how is God calling you to walk humbly with God? You as an individual, and you as a congregation. For as I have shared before, when we grow in faith as individuals, we inevitably grow as a congregation.

Need more time? Good. I still have more to say.

Our time is not God’s time. If anything, it is the other way around.

Kosuke Koyama reminds us the God is a three mile an hour God, which is a good pace, if you are walking humbly with God, but nothing like our society’s 90-miles-an-hour frantic, multitasking, attempting to drive with a cellphone, radio and kid’s DVD in the backseat.

For to walk humbly — with God — for walking humbly does nothing, whereas walking humbly with God is life changing — you and I need to walk at God’s pace. Not too fast and not too slow.

Our time is not God’s time.
Just as our plans are not God’s plans.

You have heard the joke: If you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans! Well, it is true in many ways if we are not listening.

In seeking God’s purpose and plan for us, we need to listen and listen hard.

If I want to have my daughter go on a long hike or journey with me that will take endurance, training, and discipline, while I am walking alongside with her, I will need to listen hard and to speak her language. And in so doing, I will not only share with her that there are things that she may not want to do, but will be asked by her parents to do, because it is good for her.

And also, it will require that I too am listening by coming to realize not just the evolution and changes happening in her, but learn the evolution and changes in what is important to her, say her Pokemon friends like Evee — who evolves and changes into Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Espeon and Umbreon and lately even Leafeon and Glaceon. But I will certainly miss all of this if I am not listening for it. And we as a church will miss walking with our Bethany children and youth if we are not willing to listen and speak their language.

There is a difference between having a strong ego that can walk humbly with God, because he/she knows to whom he/she is being directed. And a big ego, as in EGO, which a colleague shares is, to put it plain and simple, Edging God Out.

It will take all of us at Bethany — 100% active participation in remembering what God has told us and what is good and what does the Lord require of us, but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.

In God’s time
Following God’s purpose and plan
By listening and listening hard
With God’s help.

So, how is God calling you to walk humbly with God?