Asked and Answered

Scripture Micah 6:1-8    (CEB)  

1  Hear what the Lord is saying:
Arise, lay out the lawsuit before the mountains;
        let the hills hear your voice!

2  Hear, mountains, the lawsuit of the Lord!
        Hear, eternal foundations of the earth!
The Lord has a lawsuit against his people;
        with Israel he will argue.

3 “My people, what did I ever do to you?
        How have I wearied you? Answer me!

4 I brought you up out of the land of Egypt;
        I redeemed you from the house of slavery.
        I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you.

5 My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak had planned,
        and how Balaam, Beor’s son, answered him!
        Remember everything from Shittim to Gilgal,
        that you might learn to recognize the righteous acts of the Lord!”

6 With what should I approach the Lord
        and bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings,
        with year-old calves?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
        with many torrents of oil?
Should I give my oldest child for my crime;
        the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?

8 He has told you, human one, what is good and
        what the Lord requires from you:
            to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.

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The message title comes from my decades of legal experience. I have, after all, watched thousands of hours of TV courtroom drama from Perry Mason to JAG to all of the Law & Order series to Matlock to Boston Legal and so many others.   I always loved seeing the defense lawyer growling “asked and answered” at the prosecutor when they had just asked the totally innocent defendant the same question in a slightly different way for the 5th time.  The detectives on those programs do it too, when trying to get a confession from the accused.  For some reason people tend to believe that asking the same question in a different way will elicit a different response, maybe hoping the person they are asking will give up and agree with whatever just to get them to stop asking.   Children seem to do this instinctively.   The leaders of Israel do it here.  

Of course, this passage is not a script from a courtroom drama about criminal matters.  The lawsuit Micah is describing is more in the realm of contract law.  God made a covenant with Israel, saying “I am your God and you are my people” and wants know why they are not keeping up their end of the bargain - again.   God’s covenant with Israel had always been this,”  No matter what happened, in every situation, every time Israel strayed, God remained faithful to the covenant, even if they did not.   The prophet Micah, God’s mouthpiece, begins with God’s lament - “What have I done to you that you should turn away from me?"  and reminds them of how they were liberated from Egypt.  He said, 

My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak had planned,
        and how Balaam, Beor’s son, answered him!

What Balak had planned was to get Balaam to curse Israel so that they wouldn’t be able to defeat and over run his country, Moab, as they had the other Canaanite nations when they entered the Promised Land.  He had Balaam, a holy man, brought to him, gave him instructions, and sent him out to  curse Israel and - Three times, God stepped in to prevent evil from befalling Israel by giving Balaam the words to say.  Three times Balaam pronounced a blessing on Israel instead of a curse.  Three times Balak asked him why he was blessing Israel instead of cursing her.  Three times Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘Whatever the Lord says, that is what I must do’?” 

Whatever the Lord says, that is what I must do.  See, this is the part that the leadership of Israel kept getting wrong.   They would do part of what they had been told to do.  The ritual stuff came easily to them - the fancy vestments and ritualized ceremonies, the sacrifices and tithing - they had those down.  They kept falling short on the “love one another” parts - caring for the widows and orphans who have no one to give them food and shelter.  Treating resident aliens equally under the law.   Making sure no one in their land is oppressed, that all are treated fairly, and all are afforded equal rights.  In the next few verses God will denounce those who put profit ahead of ethical behavior, and who follow the policies of kings instead of God.  

“What do you want from us?”  they asked.  And they offer increasingly expensive sacrifices.  And Micah answered, you know what God wants.  You have been told repeatedly.  God wants you - all of you, not your burnt offerings or incense or oil or gold or even your oldest child.  God wants you to care for each other, to help where you can, to treat others as you would be treated, to do good without bragging.    God wants you to keep the covenant and be his people, fully and unreservedly.  Asked and answered.  What God wants, what the Lord requires of you is to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.

We are coming to the time in our service when we install the Board officers, elders, deacons, and team leaders who just last week were newly elected, or re-elected for a second term, joining those leaders  were elected in previous years whose terms have not yet expired.  The words of installation are a covenant between the new leaders and the congregation, a promise made to each other and to God.  The leaders will promise to serve to the best of their ability with God’s help, the congregation will pledge eager support for God’ ministry under the leadership of those they have elected.  

Eager support - not sitting back and letting the elected leaders do everything, but offering to be helpful when help is needed.   The leaders cannot do everything - and they shouldn’t try to do everything.  All of us, everyone here, will be bound by that covenant - to serve faithfully and to eagerly support God’s ministry.   What God wants from us, requires from us, is to serve selflessly, with love and humility, doing all things in God’s name.   What God requires from us is to keep that ancient covenant - for he is our God, and we are his people.