The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for January 15, 2006

Texts: Micah 6:1-8/1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Title: “When Obvious Isn’t Obvious”

              Remember the last disagreement you had with someone over an issue the two of you could not resolve? Your take on the situation was so obvious that you could not understand how anyone could argue the opposing view.  When I was younger and my dad was still living, the two of us used to get caught up in that thicket of conflicting opinions regularly.  Man, he was stubborn.  I used to walk away from him shaking my head that he could be so wrong, and yet continue to argue his point.  I did my best to set him straight but I never really succeeded.  If he were here today he would no doubt argue that I was equally unyielding.  The obvious should be obvious, right?  But that truism as it turns out is not as obvious at it might seem.

              Judge Sam Alioto, grilled relentlessly in his hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee by the Democratic members of the committee, enjoys the unqualified support of the Republican members of the committee.  One side argues that he is a perfect candidate to sit on the Supreme Court, the other side voices stiff opposition.  The trenches have been dug, the opposing sides firmly established in their positions.  What is obvious to one is not so to the other.

              There are reasons to explain why the obvious isn’t the obvious, aren’t there?  There are things out there you and I just don’t want to see, we dismiss, or turn our backs on.  Opinionated people, and we are all opinionated on some subject or other, have gates that remain closed to certain information. 

              Your obvious can be anything but obvious to me, and vice versa.  That they were spokesmen for the Living God prompted no doubt whatsoever in the minds of the prophets.  They were willing to suffer extraordinary hardship and castigation as they made that claim, knowing that God’s will would ultimately be done. It was that obvious. Their detractors, however, had different ideas, and the reality they saw was just as obvious.  “Wait just a minute [they protested], why should we pay any attention to you?”  You see the problem, don’t you, neither side was prepared to give. 

              There is little give when you know you are right.  We can be very tenacious on topics we believe in.  How tenacious?  Ask old Micah. His detractors were ready to string the poor man up.  The price a guy like Micah could pay for being right might be life itself.  Facing such prospects, the obvious Micah upheld might well have become far less obvious were it not for his faithfulness to God.  No, Micah didn’t back off.  

              Micah, you see, took his prophetic calling seriously enough to put himself in the crosshairs of people in high places.  Though the verses we read this morning are perhaps the most well known verses in the entire book, the companion verses and chapters add important detail to the message Micah delivered.  His message can be summarized in a mere three words: woe, repentance, and judgment.  Don’t blame the people for ignoring him, after all the levies were sturdy to any category of assault, the wetlands were broad and deep.  Any storm the Lord might send would easy lose its force by the time it reached them, or, if worse came to worse, they could protect themselves if things got out of hand. It was obvious. 

              There stood Micah’s audience, the most recent Corps of Engineers’ certification clasped tightly in their fists. They felt safe and secure.  Micah, however, attacked the prevailing wisdom.  “You can forget about that certification, it won’t save you.” God fed him the lines we was to speak, “O my people, what have I don to you?  How have I wearied you?  Remember me?  I’m your God.”    

              The Jews remembered God alright, but their recollection was self-serving. They faired much better in their recounting of events then in Micah’s.  No, they recalled nothing of the C- or D grades they received in obedience, to their mind they scored A’s all across the board.  The peoples’ arrogance stunned Micah, for they wanted their ticket punched at the synagogue, and a little lose change was all it would take.  The Israelites were prepared to give God the equivalent of Mardi Gras throws, things that look impressive, but are really worthless. No heavy lifting for them.  A tithe, a good deed, got to keep the public image polished to a high gloss.  Trouble was the people bought into the high gloss themselves. Constantly reminding themselves of how virtuous they were, they came to believe they were virtuous.  

              When we think we have done all the right things, when we think we have covered all the bases, when we think the resume is looking as good as it has ever looked, or ever likely to look, then we might be wise to take a little time to inspect things more closely.  God might be holding a lesson or two to teach us.  Give those old Reformers their due, dour, stern, might not be the kind of people you would want to have a beer with, they insisted that public confession of sin incorporated into each worship service they organized.  The Pope and his cohorts had taken the church into the ditch, so declared the Reformers.  The church needed a good gutting, why wasn’t it obvious to those who served in its name?

              Paul the Apostle, of course, was the first serious church builder.  That founder and sustainer of congregations got off to a good start, but then egos and factions made their play.  Before long you had groupees declaring their allegiance to their favorite pastor.  “Apollos is my guy.”  “Not me, Cephas is the man.”  Others played the trump card, confidently asserting, “I belong to Christ.”

              The Apostle had his work cut out for him.  Why couldn’t people see what was so obvious to him?  The church, he insisted, only exists in and through Christ, its head. To claim a separate allegiance to the favorite pastor, he vigorously argued, made a mockery of the unity which was the chief mark of the church. 

              Paul, of course, fought an uphill battle in teaching that concept because no one in that Corinthian church was prepared to concede his or her position.  Allegiance was committed to the individual leader, and the individual principles the leader espoused, and this notion about the body of Christ that Paul was attempting to teach could not displace those allegiances.

              Allegiances proliferate in the church today, don’t they?  Now I’m not saying that there aren’t sound historical, biblical, and theological reasons to support our allegiance to the Presbyterian branch of Christ’s household, or someone else’s allegiance to the Methodist branch, the Lutheran branch, the Roman Catholic branch, or the growing non-denominational branch.  But none of that is what Christ intended, not if allegiance to the branch displaces allegiance to the trunk from which the branch draws its nutrients.

              One of the signs of grace we have seen repeatedly occur over the course of church history is the recovery of priority allegiance in the aftermath of events such as impacted us this summer.  One of the first, if not the very first, call I received after the storm was from a Presbyterian pastor in Pennsylvania, a man I have not had the privilege to meet.  After assuring me of his congregation’s support and offering assistance, he shared with me this thought.  He said to me, “this event presents the church with an opportunity to be the church.”  Presents the church “with an opportunity to be the church.” How that point was driven home last week with the visit of our friends from the Presbytery of the Palisades. During their visit not one word was uttered about church politics or policies, no one was complaining about the state of the church.  When you are serving the agenda that Christ sets for the church, everything so naturally falls into place that all the extraneous things fall away. And so it was last week, they came to us strangers, they left us brothers and sisters.  What wonderful possibilities exist when the church is unified, its allegiance firmly sealed in Christ.

              There are very good reasons, as Micah, Paul, the Reformers discovered, that the obvious isn’t obvious.  Were not God’s expectations obvious? Not really.  Micah saw the Israelites absorbed in strategies to placate God.  Trinkets is what they offered, foolishly believing that God would be bought off with the spare change of their lives.  Fast forward to Paul and his battle against factionalism in the Corinthian church, the folks over there were content to do their own thing.  “Apollos is my guy.”  “Cephas is my guy.”

                  It was all so obvious, thought Micah and Paul.  But their allegiances to God were so profound that they could not understand how others could stray.  But stray they had.   The people had lost the message, placing their own agendas and preferences ahead of God’s. 

                   Wise, sure they were wise.  In their self-conceit those Jews Micah addressed, and those Corinthians Paul addressed, thought they had the religion thing all figured out.  And, friends, that arrogance is still rampant in the church today. We have these extraordinary filters that filter out all that is uncomfortable and unpleasant, things we would rather not see.  We are pros in that domain.  We come to church to be inspired, to be encouraged, to be blessed, and we feel cheated if the experience is a downer.  We want approval, not agitation, comfort, not confrontation.  Truth is, our experience under God doesn’t work that way.  The message the prophets carried, the message placed in the hands of the church to carry, is meant to agitate and confront as much as to approve and comfort.

                  It’s so obvious.  The God who loves and sustains us wishes to be loved in return.  Loved mind you, not on our terms, loved with the energies we can commit after we have taken care of everything else, but loved as a first priority. 

                 “With what shall I come before the Lord?  What offering will satisfy him?  We are here, isn’t that enough? We put our fair share in the offering plate.  Sets us apart from the others that aren’t here, doesn’t it.”  Makes us feel pretty good about ourselves.

                  “With what shall we come before the Lord?”  Micah looked out across the audience and he saw a multitude of banners proudly announcing, “I pray regularly.”  “I tithe.” “I do the budget.”  “I teach.”  “I preach.” “I serve on three committees.”  Micah looked out across the audience and he admired the gifts, talents, and commitment those people were willing to offer to the Lord.  He was moved. Then he turned his head and his eyes focused on rampant injustice, cruelty, the arrogance of power, and the neglect of the weak.  And he could be heard to say, “it should be obvious to these people that this is not what God wants.”

                   Obvious for God isn’t always obvious for us, if it were so there would be not need for a church.  As it is you and I live with an obstructed view of the world, a view obstructed by the narrow agendas that so often engage us.  However, if we continue to ask, “what does God require,” and earnestly live with the question and maintain a willingness to act when God calls, God will do amazing things. You might want to consider this: two thousand years ago plus or minus a few years, God saw the state of the world, and in response he did the most amazing thing.  He took on flesh and became one of us, and as if that was not enough, he even gave his life for us.  Pretty impressive commitment to make when humanity constantly spurned his attention, wasn’t it?

              The obvious isn’t always obvious. What becomes obvious about God and his ways when you get inside this book, isn’t obvious from the outside.  But when we get to know the God who discloses himself in this book, the sacrifice God made in sending Jesus the Savior into this world to live with us, be tried, crucified, and raised from the dead, makes all the sense in the world. 

              There is a great deal to know about God.  That’s obvious.  But God wants nothing more than to be known, and be known well by us.  That, friends, is obvious too.  But don’t take from me, so says Micah, Paul and all the millions who have ever risen to speak in God’s name.

PRAYER

               Eternal God, you are the peace we crave, the hope that sustains us, and the truth that undergirds our lives.  We have come here today to honor you, the quiet and solemnity of this place a welcome respite from the demands and expectations levied upon us elsewhere.  A needy people, we seek your presence, your comfort and consolation, O God.  The brave front we erect for ourselves, our public face, is but a moveable prop we use to conceal the pain and frustration that so often undermines our personal happiness and strains our relationship with others.  Freedom is what we seek, O God, the  freedom to envision the  world as you see it, and respond to its challenges as you would have us respond.

               O Lord, you have taught us that your strength is perfected in our weakness.  Why then do we find it so difficult to admit that we are weak?  That we are needy?  We bear our burdens alone, in silence, and call it virtue.  We maintain our guard, keeping a tight reign on the controls, and call it prudence.  Be our wisdom, O God, that we may understand more clearly what the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit are prepared to teach us about ourselves and our world.  Grant us sufficient confidence of faith to place our lives in thy keeping, knowing that wheresoever we may go or whatsoever we may do, you are with us to guide and protect.

                   Heavenly Father, in every age your church has suffered divisions.  Interest groups have undermined the common good, parochial agendas have fractured group unity.  In our support for this agenda or that doctrine we have failed to do what justice and righteousness demand.  Lord, help us to achieve sufficient maturity of faith to avoid the mistakes and misjudgments to which we are prone, to establish our identities around Christ’s unifying center rather than our partisan agendas.  May the decisions we make in your name reflect your holy will and fulfill your holy purposes.

                   O Savior, we thank you for the church and its ministry.  Lord, we thank you for the persons whose efforts and sacrifices have been so prominent in the witness of the church, and pray that they may continue to be sustained by your word. 

                    O Spirit divine, continue to set our agenda and excite our imaginations that the potential you have given us not be wasted but be molded and directed according to your design.

Bless and sustain all who worship here today that words sung, prayers prayed, and fellowship enjoyed may bring peace and consolation to the restless spirit.  May we leave this place strengthened for the challenges that await us outside these doors.

                   O Lord, our Lord, these prayers but imperfectly represent the content of our hearts, or the vastness of our concerns, but we pray in confidence knowing that each prayer earnestly prayed in your name is a worthy offering to place at your feet.  With confidence and thanksgiving borne of the hope we have found in Jesus Christ, we unite our several voices into one unified voice praying the prayer Jesus himself taught us: