1.
Here
ye, here ye!
The
Court Case, entitled Micah 6:8: Lord God v. The People, is ready for jury
selection.
You
are all called to jury duty!
Yes,
you, and you, and you!
And
you, here, church building, roof made from solemn and just trees, walls of
stone and cement foundations.
You,
little hills and Washington Rock!
You
deer family and Raritan River—you Atlantic Ocean
and majestic continents.
All
that has a voice, hear God’s case.
All
that lives and moves and has its being, hear the accusation the LORD God has
against the people, listen with great granite ears to the controversy o’ Earth!
2. “O my people, what have I done to you? In what way have I
wearied you? Answer me and I will be satisfied!
For the earth I enveloped with
atmosphere, the water with hydrogen bonds and formed you all from carbon and
other stuff! From the humus I made humans!
I rescued Noah and revealed myself to Abraham and kept
faith with him when he traveled from Ur to Israel.
I
brought you up from the land
of Egypt, and redeemed
you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
I
made promise after promise to you.
I
infused my prophets with hopes and dreams for your sake!
Mary
brought you and I eye to eye, I came to you, Word made flesh.
When
you are poor in spirit and mourning—I dwell with you.
When
you are meek or hungry and thirsty for righteousness, I fill you!
When
I see mercy, purity, peace, righteousness to the point of persecution and
revilement—I enter into your life and reign in it for your sake!
In
short, I have saved you at every turn and continue to!
And
you seem not to care! You do not live like the Kingdom of Heaven
is real.
3. What
then do you want from us then? Shall we grovel?
Should
I scrape my face against the pavement? Sacrifice goats until they call me Billy
the kid? Or even cows… send a herd to the slaughter for your sake? Pour oil on
an altar until it looks like the Exxon-Valdez oil spill?
Or
how about humans? Shall we offer the next generation, to make You happy?
That’s
all rather impractical though… we’re modern right? We can do better, right?
What
if I spent my whole life in service of You? Or built up an institution for Your
sake? Or built grand cathedrals to the sky and in my soul for your sake, God?
What
if I gathered every ounce of wit and will that I have and pointed it at the
problem of finding You, would You then be satisfied?
What
if I built a neon sign the size of Saturn that pointed to you?
What
if I gathered power and influence around me, raised myself up by sheer
willpower and guts, to the pinnacle of our society and made sure Your name was
praised on every street corner and household? Would that be enough for You?
4. Has
he not told you O mortals, what is good; what does the LORD require of you but
to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
You
are called to do justice—
That is, work in your self, and among
your whole society, to make sure impartiality and fairness is for everyone,
especially those who have been left out.
You
are called to love kindness—
I know, it sounds weak, and doesn’t
get much traction, treating people like you’d like to be treated, even if they
don’t reciprocate, being the bigger person and building people up even when
they are in tear down mode—but I promise is you it is your calling.
You
are called to walk humbly with your God—
Because you know what? Nothing you
can do, will do it, will make me love you.
I
loved you when you acted the fool, when you were puny, a loser, and not a soul
would look you in your eyes.
I
just wish you’d show the same kind of courtesy to other people that I’ve shown
you.
Notice the poor and mourning, the
meek, those sincerely seeking righteousness… the persecuted and reviled, the
peaceful, pure, and merciful
If you really
want to find me… be among them… because that’s where I am, just as I was for
you.
A+A
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