The Simple Walk

January 31, 1999

Micah 6:1-8, Matthew 5:1-12, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Introduction: This statement by the Prophet Micah, in the Old Testament, is one of the most concise summaries of what it means to be a genuine person of faith in all the scriptures: (Micah 6:8) He has shown you, O mortal, what is right; and what does God require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

The background of this summary statement is almost like a courtroom trail scene. God is making accusations again his people, Israel, who through selfishness and cruelty are in danger of his judgment. Most have forgotten him altogether. And even though there is the promise of Messiah, God's people are called to repent and turn to him.

In the verses just preceding the text (vv 6 - 7) Israel asks: With what sall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the High God? Shall I make spectacular sacrifices? Shall I pour out libations of rivers of oil? Shall I sacrifice my first born son for the sins of my body? And the answer, a resounding "No!" comes in the text: (reprieve)

I. A SIMPLE OFFER OF GRACE

Invitation to walk with God

  1. God alone can show us what is good. It is easy to overlook the premise of the statement of grace: God is the only one who can (ultimately) determine good and evil. Basic to a right relationship with God is accepting that GOD IS GOD!
  2. Here is a 'trinity of righteousness.' DO justice: doing flows out of who and what we are. LOVE mercy: LOVE speaks of "WHY" we do what we do. Ultimately, we do what we LOVE to do! Most important, in God's eyes, are our MOTIVES! Love mercy! WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD! This is both the GOAL, and the MEANS OF ATTAINTING THE GOAL! As we "agree with God" is is honor-bound to show us "what is good!" (Amos 3:3 "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?")
  3. Being a Christian is not for the casual or foolish. It is a simple thing, in theory, to 'walk with God.' In practice, it takes every bit of loyalty and faith we have!

[R. C. Sproul likes to tell of a conversation between a minister-theologian and a scientist-astronomer. The star-gazer said, "When it comes to religion we don't need all this study- these big words, Faith and salvation are simply "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." And the pastor came right back: "I think I see what you mean about technical terms and study: I don't understand "expanding universe" and "novae" and "black holes" and the like. Such terms are unnecessary; astronomy is simply, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star . . ."]

It is a challenge to walk with God. Is it realistic to say we can?

II. JESUS SPELLS OUT WHAT WALKING HUMBLY WITH GOD MEANS.

Here in the Sermon on the Mount, particularly in the Beatitudes, Jesus is KEY-NOTING what amounts to A COUNTER-CULTURE. Blessed are the poor in spirit! What? Blessed are they that mourn! Are you serious? Blessed are the meek! All this on Super Bowl Sunday!

  1. CHRIST'S KINGDOM DOESN'T MAKE "NATURAL" SENSE! THE PERCEPTION OF FALLEN MANKIND IS: I AM THE CENTER. It makes sense to put others down, to compete, to climb over, to say: "We're Number ONE!" We are BORN into the CENTER of our own little universe. Little children, as wonderful as they are, have a very small world that slowly expands but always has "EGO" at the center!
  2. THE CENTRAL THEME OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM IS: GOD IS GOD THE TRUTH THAT DAWNS IN A BELIEVER'S HEART IS: IAM NOT GOD! I am NOT at the center! I'm not SUPPOSED to be at the center! Apart from grace I have NOTHING! In the LOSSES I have experienced I both know my need of God, and realize HE IS WITH ME!

These "be-attitudes DON'T make sense in our world; but to be BORN AGAIN is to enter into the REAL WORLD, where God is at the CENTER. We come to believe spiritual reality by the ministry of the Holy Spirit but we still see things, humanly, from our own eyes, from within our own frame of reference. The secret to walking humbly with our God is to keep looking to Jesus.

III. JESUS TAUGHT ON ONE MOUNT WHAT HE PROVED ON ANOTHER

  1. IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST, GOD HAS REVEALED HIS LOVE TO US

    Yes, it is mystery, in that we can not know 'why' or 'how' God should love us so much.

    The cross unlocks the treasure chest of grace. Paul writes: I Corinthians 1: 18 - 31 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. . . . 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; 27 but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

    [Roman/cross = weakness] Pilate thought he could use the cross to prove how Roman power was greater than anything else; might makes right. [Jewish/cross = non-sense] The enemies of Jesus thought that the cross would prove the claims of the Galilean Messiah were silly: that God loved the world and that love is stronger than legalism and hatred.

  2. IN TAKING UP THE CROSS TO FOLLOW JESUS WE DISCOVER THE 'SIMPLE' MEANING OF MICAH'S SUCCINCT STATEMENT: (DO justice, LOVE mercy, WALK HUMBLY WITH GOD!

    The DYNAMIC of THE CROSS-WALK! Unless we are willing to walk with God the best human intentions are actually ARROGANCE! Saying/thinking that WE know already what the Bible means we reflect that we have eaten from the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, but NOT from the Tree of Life!

CONCLUSION:     

The transcript from a "60 Minutes" TV show a two weeks ago this evening began with words something like this:

"Except for her passionate love of South Africa, AMY BIEHL was a typical Southern California kid, a straight A student and a college diving champion who would end her diatribes against apartheid with the words `Free Mandela!' So it was not surprising that when she won a Fulbright scholarship, she opted to go to South Africa and immerse herself in the country's culture and politics.

But her young life ended abruptly in 1994 when she was stoned and stabbed to death by a mob of angry, young, black militants. She was killed by the very people whose cause she was fighting for. But instead of being angry with her murderers, her parents did something so atypical that it boggles the mind. The Biehls dealt with their grief by doing what they believe their daughter would have wanted: understand the fury that drove the mob, forgive the killers, and become, in effect, the patron saints of the village that her very killers came from.

Amy's parents, Linda and Peter Biehl, decided they had to try and understand their daughter's commitment to the people for whom she had given her. They read her diaries, in which she wrote about her admiration for those who were suffering under apartheid. The Biehls and their three other children decided that they had to go to South Africa. Linda attended the trial of Amy's killers. They visited the squatter camps of Guguletu, the black township where Amy's killers had grown up. They came to understand how those squalid conditions could have led them to violence. Linda went into the home of one of the murderers and met with his mother. She says that after hugging her, "I walked out of that home. There was a rainbow in the sky. My heart was very light. I felt I had come to terms. And if that is forgiveness, I felt it. And I felt you know, I felt I feel at peace with myself. So to me, that's forgiveness."

When asked about the Biehl's forgiveness, Rhoda Khadalie, one of Amy's professors in South Africa and a close friend said "It is a gift from God that they can forgive the killers of their daughter, meet with the mother, go into the homes of the killers and understand who they are and where they come from." Not only do they understand, they spend much of their time in Guguletu, passing the very spot where their daughter was killed. What they've done to carry on for her is to establish the non profit Amy Biehl Foundation. With $1/2 million in grants, donations and their own money, they sponsor 15 programs, including welding classes and after school programs which involve thousands of young people, all in the very community where their daughter was killed. What the Biehls are doing is widely known in South Africa, and like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, everyone marvels at it. "The [Biehl's have] turned it all upside down,"

Tutu said. "It is the victims, in the depth of their own agony and pain, who are saying, `The community which produced these murderers, we want to help that community be transfigured.'"

The twelve year old sister of one of the murderers is enrolled in the after school program. And when her brother and the other two murderers applied for amnesty after serving four years in jail, Peter and Linda did not object, even though they could have blocked the release. There are more incredible details from their efforts in South Africa, but I think you get the point.

This is where walking with God took one family. This is the message of the beatitudes. Do the beatitudes tell us there is a BLESSEDNESS that seeks us out when we are empty? Do they say that JOY FROM GOD can be ours when we are at the end of our own hoarded resources?

The world will be watching a football game today. Millions will be spent for seconds of commercial time. But next year I, for one, will have a hard time remembering who won, and who played whom. The world's triumphs come and they go.

But God's people know a JOY and BLESSEDNESS that comes from being in the company of Jesus. The "blessedness" is not just for the vague and distant future. That humble walk with God can begin here in the reality of life as it really is. It is a companionship that will never, ever end.

But remember: Not great deeds of heroism: Just THE CHOICE TO WALK WITH GOD! To AGREE with Him! To let HIM show us what is GOOD! (Amos 3:3) "Can two walk together except they be agreed?"

An unbroken relationship that goes beyond DEATH into ETERNITY (Enoch like) for us ALL!     

#552 O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee