Sermon Cloud

Justice

Please stand up.  Look around you.  What do you see?  What do you see in the back?  Up on the balcony?  Do you see empty seats?  Do you see your neighbors, friends, co-workers?  Can you envision that?  Who are these empty seats for?

When you look at these empty seats do you think of your freedom?  Are you reminded of how others are prisoners or slaves?

Open in prayer.

I just wanted to kind of set the stage for this sermon.  The thing is, you will hear this sermon differently depending on what you saw or imagined just now.  You see, every sermon past creation ought to, in some way, point to what we see when we see empty seats in a worship gathering.  Tonight's topic, justice, is no exception, rather it is a powerful reminder of that.  We need to be reminded that the world was not always like this.  God's original creation, and His relationship with the first people was unspoiled in every way.  In His righteousness, God gave humanity everything it could have wanted, but humans fractured that relationship and incurred a debt to God.  The justice of a perfect and righteous God demands that the debt be paid.

The righteousness of God demands justice.  The history of God's people recorded in scripture tells us that God gave His people laws that they could follow.  He gave those laws as an opportunity to humanity to pay the debt of justice, but we failed miserably.  Holiness, perfect righteousness, is impossible for mistake prone people to achieve.  God's justice required that the debt be paid, that the fractured relationship be repaired.  And God, being merciful, compassionate, and loving gave us the means.

Romans 3:21-26 - But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Propitiation means to satisfy the demands for justice.

Review:

Isaiah 61:8 – “I the LORD love justice”

Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew

History

Micah prophesied to God's people during a period of instability and crisis. The reign of king Ahaz had brought about spiritual lethargy, apostasy and hypocrisy. The people still worshiped God, but it was ritual without life-changing reality.  God's people had sunk into a malaise.  Sure, they were financially prosperous, but their treatment of one another violated the basic instructions God had given. They failed to practice justice, be merciful, or love one another, and their pursuit of idolatry revealed their failure to walk humbly before God.

The first 5 chapters outline God's intended judgment against the people for their behavior.  God reminds them of what He has done for them as a people, and how they have been unfaithful and disobedient to His law.  And it chapter 6, we reach the point where the tension climaxes.  The prophet writes in verses 6 and 7  words that reflect the general response of the people.  There response not unlike modern people's response when challenged with the requirements of a righteous God.  Then in verse 8, he responds to those questions.

Micah 6:6-8

 6 "With what shall I come before the LORD,
   and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
   with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
   with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
   the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
8He has told you, O man, what is good;
   and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
   and to walk humbly with your God?

This passage is profound in its representation of the tension that is felt by fallen humanity coming to terms with the righteous demand of a holy God.  It also illustrates how a people who have been promised by God great things can forget about His goodness and forgiveness, and get caught up in their badness and shame. 

When verse 8 talks of “walking humbly with your God”, it means to completely rid yourself of idolatrous behavior and thinking.

When it talks of “loving kindness (or mercy)”, it means to understand how God is merciful toward us and to imitate that.

When it talks of justice...

God sent his son to pay the price. And in him we find the best possible example of justice.  In his words, we find instruction.  Matthew 25 tells us how we are to reach out to the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and imprisoned.  Sacrifice! 

In James 1:27 we read:

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

What does it look like to do justice?

So, Jesus is the example.  A life lived in a sacrificial way, giving up everything for others.  Is it something that is all about selfless sacrifice?  Is justice something that has only great cost, but no blessing?  Of course not!  In life there are many good things to find, and I believe that the best will be found when we are looking to do justice.

If we want to learn of wisdom, why not look for it among elderly widows?

If we want to learn of faith, why not look for it among orphaned children?

If we want to learn of humility, why not look for it among the homeless?

If we want to learn of peace, why not look for it among the terminally ill?

If we want to learn of courage, why not look for it among returning soldiers?

If we want to learn of repentance, why not look for it among the imprisoned?

If we want to learn of optimism, why not look for it in the immigrant and the alien?

If we want to learn of love, why not look for it in our neighborhoods?

If we want to learn of thankfulness, why not give food and drink to the hungry and thirsty?

If we want to see shame dissolve, why not give clothing to those who need it?

If we want to learn of freedom, why not look for it among recovering addicts?

If we want to learn of acceptance, why not look for it in befriending a stranger?

If we want to know generosity, why not find the bottom of our pockets?

Justice Embodied By Ethnos People

It is a couple single young men volunteering to spend time with a boy whose dad has left the family.

It is a busy home school mom sacrificing time to help teenage girls through crisis pregnancy.

It is a single mom of 3 teaching a birthing class to those same girls.

It is teams of people making the journey to Kenya and Malawi to help some of the world’s poorest people.

It is giving up Friday nights to go minister to and serve the homeless of Portland.

It is washing the feet and listening to the stories of those same homeless.

It is sorting clothes and toys to be distributed to families in need in our community.

It is starting a food pantry and donating to it.

It is helping spouses to be reconciled.

It is taking care of an elderly neighbor’s yard.

“Rain Drops Of Justice”

How does a mighty river become?

Rain drops.

Rain drops fall on the earth, on the mountains and the valleys.

Those individual drops of clear liquid create pools,

or soak in to moisten parched earth.

They give sustenance to vegetation that needs it dearly.

The drops who don't offer themselves immediately gather and form streams.

Streams flow into lakes, or join other streams.

Along the way plant and creature alike drink.

The streams continue on and join others becoming creeks.

Flowing water carves its way through the land it traverses and tumbles over.

Creeks join others and become rivers.

Rivers join and become MIGHTY rivers.

My acts of justice are like rain drops, so are yours.

The prophet Amos proclaimed,

“Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream.”

The river of JUSTICE needs your drop of rain.

Together our drops become a mighty river!