It’s Time…
To Do Justice and Mercy
Micah 6:8
March 6, 2005
First Baptist Church, Wilson, NC

One of our members, Sandy Pittman, teaches courses on religion at Wilson Tech. One day one of her classes was discussing how religion informs ethics, how belief affects behavior. Her class had a lot to say about that, and it wasn’t pretty. You see, many of her students make ends meet by waiting tables. They work in Applebee’s and at the Steakhouse, at Golden Corral and at Paul’s etc. Guess what day is their worst day to work in a restaurant? Sundays. On Sundays you have all these people piling out of the churches of Wilson. Here they come in their Sunday best, having just studied the Word of God about "Do unto others as you would have them do to you," having just heard sermons on the gifts of the Spirit, on "patience, kindness, and humility." But when they sit down at their table on Sunday, they are hungry, and they want their food now, and they want it just like they want it. In short, we, the light of the world, the salt of the earth, are the most demanding, the most impatient, the most condescending people in town. And then we leave a stingy tip and go out to our cars plastered with bumper stickers saying "What Would Jesus Do." Needless to say, the members of Sandy Pittman’s religion class at Wilson Tech are not impressed with church people. Between what we profess in church on Sunday morning and how we act in the restaurant on Sunday afternoon, there is a great disconnect.

A long time ago, the prophet Micah fought against that same kind of disconnect. The people of his country were very religious. The Temple was full of worshippers. The The worshippers took care to do every ritual just right. But when they went out from the Temple, they resumed their greed and selfishness and oppression under the cover of piety. And God was just as disgusted with them as Wilson Tech students are disgusted with religious people in Wilson.

Another prophet named Amos pointed out this disconnect between their worship and their conduct:

This problem was not just an occasional personal transgression. This was a national problem, a greedy cancer spreading through the whole society. Everyone was caught up in the web of sinful oppression of the poor. The judges were taking bribes to ignore the poor in court. The priests and the prophets were enjoying the great worship attendance and offerings and therefore kept quiet about what their people were doing after worship. It was sin on a scale that was beyond personal sin. It was a web of systematic sin against the poor of the land. But all those involved continued to go to the Temple and present themselves to God as pious and proper people. It made God sick:

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

God gave the prophet Micah the same message. And so Micah went about proclaiming that it is time … to get right with God. Now when the people heard this, they assumed they could get right by doing what they were doing in the Temple better. The people had no concept that getting right with God had more to do with how they treated people outside of worship. So they said let’s sacrifice more of our youngest and tenderest livestock to God. Let’s pour on more ceremonial oil during the ritual. Micah just made fun of them and took their error to its ridiculous extreme:

Micah tells them they just don’t get it. And then Micah tells them what they need to get:

It’s time to get right with God, and this is how you do it. We begin a humble and honest walk with God. As we walk together with God, God will show us how we have been cheating the poor and the struggling and the least of our brethren. And then we make things right with justice and kindness. We make things right at the restaurant after church. We make things right at the workplace. We make things right in Wilson. We make things right in our nation.

Once there was a town council meeting. On the agenda was a new project to build a swimming pool for the town. There was discussion, and then a motion, and then the vote: Aye, aye, the council members saying aye in turn. The last council member -- the most progressive and the most expected to say aye -- said nay. Why? He said, "I cannot vote for water for children to swim in, when there are still places in town where our children do not have water to drink." In our own town, Jim MacKinnon of First Presbyterian Church has been asking the question: "If the City of Wilson is charging late fees to poor people when they don’t pay their utility bills, can we not at least make sure those late fee collections are directed to help the poor?"

What does this have to do with getting right with God? Remember, when people asked Micah how to get right, God’s answer was to forget about the quantity of their worship, but to work on the quality of their daily lives in their cities and in their nation. Do justice, and love kindness.

And especially, do justice for the poor. If you were to take your Bible and cut out every reference to justice and the poor, your Bible would be full of holes. It would be in shreds all the way from the Books of the Law to the Psalms to the Prophets to the Gospels to the Pastoral Epistles. Here are a few examples from the words of Jesus:

• Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…

• Luke 6:20b "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…"

• Matthew 25:37-40 "…Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and give you something to eat, or thirsty, and give you something to drink? When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you to our homes, or needing clothes and put them on you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and come to see you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘I solemnly say to you, every time you did a good deed to one of these most insignificant brothers of mine, you did a good deed to me.’" (Williams translation)

God’s problem with us 21^st century Americans is the same as with Micah’s people. When we leave the sanctuary, the gospel we present to all who see us is full of holes, because we have cut out and left behind God’s Word about justice and the poor.

But a church that is ‘sold-out-committed" to the mission of God will hear God’s Word and will recover God’s commands to bring justice and mercy to the poor, the hopeless, and the helpless. It is time for justice and mercy.

When I came to this church, one thing that immediately grabbed my attention about you was this: First Baptist Church is a church that God has granted amazing gifts of spirit and every other kind of resource. And for some reason, God has placed the sanctuary of this church right in the middle of a community that desperately needs those same spiritual and material gifts. I looked at this church and I looked around at this neighborhood, and I said, "Hooee, God is going to do something there! And wouldn’t it be fun to be around when that happens." And for me some of the great joys of being pastor among you have been the moments when God has matched those gifts with the hunger of our neighbors for God. In fact, I‘ve never been in a congregation that has had so many disciples in such regular face to face ministry with the poor as this congregation has. As one example, in the After School Ministry as you tutor those beautiful smart children, you have loved them and they have loved you. If I were to list the ways you have shared yourselves with our neighbors, I would surely leave some out. But today I have asked Jennie Lee to reflect on her experiences in the ministry at Hope Station, on how justice and mercy require a change of heart and mind and action…..

Today we celebrate the Lord’s Supper in the midst of a hungry and hurting world. That may seem a bit ironic. But the Lord’s Supper is a sign of justice and mercy for rich and poor alike. Remember how Jesus was at meals? Remember the trouble he got into just because he included all kinds of people at his table? This table is the same way. There is room for all at this table. No matter how poor you are, no matter how rich you are, if you know you need Jesus, this supper is for you. The justice of God means there is room for all here. And the mercy of God means there is room for you, and room for me.

-- Douglas E. Murray