What does God require of you?  He has told you.  Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.  These commands, act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God come from the Old Testament, specifically, the prophet Micah.  A prophet is one appointed by God to bring God’s Word to the people in the present so that they can repent and have a future.  Last week, we talked about what it means to act justly.  Justice starts with an uncorrupted life.  It is a justice that is uncorrupted by the status of others or the desire to obtain favor for the way we behave.  It is a justice that reflects the outward working of the Holy Spirit that is within.  It is not loud.  It is not proud.  It is a justice, a just way of behaving that does, however, let God shine in all things.  I believe that is the simple message of Micah’s first point of acting justly.  We are to imitate God, imitate Christ, Follow the Holy Spirit, not just in addressing the needs of others that are obvious but by being uncorrupted and continuously acting justly toward everyone in the house in everything we do.

          Today, I would like us to explore the second element of the Biblical statement, namely, “to love mercy.”  What is Micah speaking about when he said God requires three things, act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.  What is involved in the love of mercy?

          I think first we need to understand mercy.  The English word, mercy, comes from the Hebrew word, hesed.  What does hesed mean?  Hesed is an action taken by someone in a uniquely stronger position toward someone who is in a situationally weaker position.  And that behavior, that action, by the stronger toward the weaker is essential to the weaker because the weaker cannot remedy on their own or through other means an existential need, something that threatens their life or wellbeing. 

There are some fancy words in those definitions and often people confuse kindness and mercy.  So let’s consider two quick examples that might help our understanding.  Let’s say you are in the drive through line at Dunkin Donuts.  You place your order and drive up to the window to pay for coffee. You do so and then you also pay for the order for the people behind you.  In doing so, you have been kind to the person behind you but you have not extended mercy.  The person behind you is not in some in a situation they cannot remedy for themselves, a situation that leads or could lead to death or risk of their wellbeing.  The person behind you ordered coffee and perhaps something to eat and had the money to pay for it.  But you paid for it instead.  That is kind of you but not merciful.

Let’s look at a second example.  Let’s say you are alone with a friend.  Suddenly, you realize your friend is choking on some food.  Your friend collapses unconscious and is not breathing.  In that moment, your friend is in a situationally weaker position than you because they are not breathing, and you are breathing. You are in a uniquely stronger position than they are because there is no one else available to help them.  Your friend needs action because without it, he or she will die, or at the very least their well-being is threatened.  So, you act, and you remove the obstruction from the throat of your friend and he or she begins to breathe again and soon after regains consciousness.  This is an illustration of mercy.  You have been merciful to your friend.  By your actions, you removed your friend from a situation they could not escape from on their own and in doing so you gave them a new chance in life.  Hopefully these two illustrations help us understand the difference between kindness and mercy.  Said most broadly, mercy is acting to relieve a person from a threatening situation from which they cannot free themselves.

And so with that bit of understanding about the definition of mercy, we return to the Scripture from Micah, Chapter 6, verse 8 in which we are told one of the three things God requires is to “love mercy.”  We know what mercy is now but what does it mean to “love” mercy?  In this verse, in the Hebrew, the word for love is Ahava. This word, Ahava, is rooted, draws its meaning from the root word, the verb, Hav, which means “to give.”  This reveals to us that according to the original Hebrew usage, giving is at the root of love. To love then is to seek to fulfill, to give, to meet the needs of others.  So, to love mercy then is to seek to give to another to relieve that person from a situation from which they cannot free themselves.  The sense here is that we always should have a desire to give mercy.  Now that is a lot to take in.  In some ways, we might think, “How in the world can I exercise such love, such mercy to another person, that I relieve them of a situation from which they cannot free themselves?  How can I do what God requires when he says I must love mercy?”

          To answer those questions, let’s look at God’s Word as taught to us by Jesus, God, himself.  Let’s turn our attention to the Gospel of Matthew, which has significant interplay with the Old Testament.  In Chapter 18 of the Gospel of Matthew we find Jesus teaching his disciples using parables.  While together, “21 Peter asked Jesus, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’ 22 Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times’” (Matthew 18:21-22).  Some translations have the number of times someone should be forgiven as seven times seventy.  In other words, Jesus is saying forgive often and so frequently as to make it impractical to remember the number of times you have forgiven.

          Now immediately following the exchange between Jesus and Peter about forgiveness, Jesus told this parable.  Jesus said, “23 Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he [the king] began the settlement, a man [a servant] who owed him [the king] ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him [the king]. 25 Since he [the servant] was not able to pay, the master ordered that he [the servant] and his wife and his children and all that he [the servant] had be sold to repay the debt.  26 At this the servant fell on his knees before him [the king]. ‘Be patient with me,’ he [the servant] begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master [the king] took pity on him [the servant], canceled the debt and let him go” (Matthew 18:23-27). 

Let’s pause there for a moment.  The servant owed the king 10,000 bags of gold.  Clearly the servant could never repay such a debt.  That was Jesus’ point in picking such a large sum of money. The debt could not be repaid, ever. Therefore, the servant found himself in a position in which the servant’s wellbeing was threatened and the servant could not free himself.  The king was in a uniquely superior position to the servant.  The debt was to the king and only the king could receive payment of the debt, or the king could cancel the debt.  In this parable, the king chose to pardon the servant, to relieve that servant, from a situation from which the servant could not free himself.  As the giver, the king loved mercy and gave mercy to the servant by canceling the servant’s debt. 

But by the end of the parable, we are going to find out that the forgiven servant did not love mercy. The servant did not have any sense of what it meant to love mercy.  We will also learn at the end of the parable that Jesus expects his disciples to understand that king in the story represents God and the servant represents the disciples of Christ, who now include us.  And so, through this story, Jesus was teaching his disciples that each of us owes a debt to God, a debt brought about by our own sin.  The cumulative effect of that debt is as if his disciples, we, owed the king 10,000 bags of gold, a sum we could not hope to pay.  But Jesus wanted his disciples to know, and for us to know, that God loves them, loves us, and that God is merciful.  If we ask God, “Please forgive me,” God is willing and merciful to cancel our debt.  God canceled our debt through the completed work of Jesus upon the cross.  When we repent, that is to turn toward God’s way, and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, accept what Jesus has done for us, then God grants forgiveness of our sins, not some of our sins but all our sins.  We have at that point then received mercy through the love of Christ.

The lyrics in our opening song today, “My Life is Proof,” poetically put the act of mercy this way: There were things I couldn't quit.  Damage I just couldn't fix.  I couldn't do it on my own.  But Jesus did.  All of my sins are washed away.  Whoever I was ain't here today.  My life is proof.  Of all the stories I could tell.  This is the one that haunts me still.  How your mercy pulled me from the gates of hell.  No matter how long it has been.  Don't ever let my soul forget.  How you loved me back to life.  When I was dead.”  This is a song about the love of the mercy that singer has received through Christ.

 And so, we are left with an important question.  If I have accepted Christ, do we love the mercy I have received?  Do I love having been forgiven, brought back from the gates of hell?  Do I love mercy?

          We are going to learn that the forgiven servant did not love the mercy he had received and thus did not love mercy when given the opportunity to grant mercy.  Jesus said, “28 But when that [forgiven] servant went out [from the presence of the king], he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. The [forgiven] servant grabbed this fellow servant and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ the [forgiven] servant demanded. 29 His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him [the forgiven servant], ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’  30 But he [forgiven servant] refused. Instead, he [the forgiven servant] went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master [the king] everything that had happened.  32 “Then the master called the [forgiven] servant in [into the king’s presence]. ‘You wicked servant,’ he [the king] said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master [the king] handed him [the wicked servant] over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed, [which the wicked servant could not do] (Matthew 18:28-34).

          How quickly the situation for this servant changed. This servant was indebted to the king owing an amount he could never pay.  The servant was, if you will at the gates of hell.  The king gave mercy to the servant, forgiving the servant everything, if you will, giving life to the servant when he was dead.  The forgiven servant, when presented with the opportunity to love mercy by forgiving a fellow servant, did not.  Instead, the forgiven servant withheld forgiveness and became known as wicked.  The king then reinstated the debt the wicked servant owed and sent him to eternal punishment, to hell itself.  I suspect the disciples were quiet as Jesus reached this point in the story.

          In the tension of that quiet, Jesus then said, “35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart” (Matthew 18:35). And so we hear the words of Micah ringing loudly in our ears, “8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?” (Micah 6:8a) but “to love mercy.” Jesus was making it clear that the most obvious way for us to love mercy is to grant forgiveness to one another. When we forgive someone for their debt against us, for a sin against us, we are showing mercy because we have released someone from a situation from which they cannot release themselves.  If I sin against someone, it does matter how many times I say to myself “George, I forgive you, George,” it does not change my situation, my debt remains, because I need forgiveness from the person whom I offended.  And so, forgiveness is at the heart of the way that each of us can act to love mercy. Forgiveness is such an important part of the love mercy command that Jesus included it in what we now call the Lord’s prayer, “And forgive us our debts, pull us back from the gates of hell, as we forgive, show mercy, our debtors.”  The Lord grants us mercy so that we can too can love the mercy we have received and extend that love of mercy to those around us.

          Micah said, ““8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good” (Micah 6:8a).  God has shown you what is good because God loves mercy and, if you have accepted Jesus, then you have received God’s mercy.  Again, that leaves us with the question, “Do you, do I, love the mercy God has shown us?  Do you, do I, see that mercy as good in all regards?”  These are not questions that we should answer with our voices.  These are questions that we should answer by our actions.  If we love the mercy of God that we have received, then that should be evident in all our actions towards others because we have shown mercy to them.

          Do we forgive others for their offenses against us? If we do, then we love mercy.  Do we use our time to enter someone’s life to break the loneliness of another?  If we do, then we love mercy.  Do we come along side those who are hopeless and offer our tears of encouragement?  If we do, then we love mercy.  Do we share the good news of Christ and his mercy with those who if their lives do not change because at this moment they are at the gates of hell and stand before Christ the Judge not the Savior?  If we do, if we share Christ, then we love mercy. 

There are so many ways we can be merciful, but we will only do so if we first love the mercy we have already received from God.  If we treat the embodied in our own salvation with indifference, as though it is no big deal, then we will treat the hardships of others with indifference and not mercy.

          “8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.” (Micah 6:8a).  Love mercy. Amen and Amen.

          It is the first Sunday of September 2024 and as is our custom we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  We set this Sunday aside as special.   We sing hymns of praise, we share prayers for one another, and we hear the Word of God proclaimed as we do each Sunday.  But before we leave here today, we share the bread and drink of the cup, as a remembrance of Christ Jesus.  What is it that Christ calls us to remember?

          I read some thoughts on this question and some said that the Lord’s Supper is a memorial of Christ's life and death. It is a symbol of Christ's work. It represents the union of all God's people; at the table of the Lord all human souls are on the same level. It represents the soul's constant dependence upon Christ for strength. Christ is the daily bread of life to the soul. It represents the mystic union of Christ and his people; he lives in them and they in him.  The Lord's Supper is a special communion with Christ when, in a particular manner, he reveals himself to the believing heart (Dr. Smith Baker).

The Lord’s Supper certainly is all those things and we certainly would do well to remember Christ in those terms.  I am just not sure, however, that those words and those thoughts quite do it for me.  I am not quite sure that was what Jesus was saying to his small band of intimate friends.

         Jesus and His friends were celebrating the Passover meal and it was an opportunity to remember God’s redemption of the people of Israel from the hands of the Egyptians.  And so the Lord’s Supper has come to be seen as a new Passover meal for those who follow Christ.  It is certainly that as well and we would be on solid theological ground to remember Christ in that way.  It certainly was something that Jesus asked his friends to remember. 

Yet I still wonder if we are stopping too early in our thinking about that night.  It was a night in which his friends had argued about who was the greatest.  It was a night in which they gathered and all but Jesus was too proud to wash the feet of the others.  It was a night in which one brother from this band would betray Jesus for a few silver coins. It was a night in which the most outspoken of them, the one with the biggest measure of self-confidence was told he would deny Jesus; not just once but three times.  Sometimes I think we need to pause and contemplate the scene a little longer before we conclude we understand it.  We need to enter the scene and see who is there, what is really said, and what those words meant to the people.  Sometimes we need to be willing to pay the price for doing so because whenever we spend time with Jesus there is a definite risk that he will change us.  Sometimes I think we don’t really want that to occur, and we approach Scripture in a manner that Tim Hansel wrote about in his book "When I Relax, I Feel Guilty."  He writes that sometimes we approach with a mindset that we would like to purchase $3.00 worth of God.  He says, "I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal, just put it in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please."   If we would be totally honest, the idea of transformation really scares us. That is because we know that such a radical change would be quite uncomfortable. We realize that with transformation comes a major overhaul of our lives and priorities.  Was there something then about the Lord’s Supper that was more radical and transformational that Jesus wanted his friends to remember?

I would like to explore that question a little beginning with some information from our Old Testament reading.  We find there in Exodus that God, working through Moses, was establishing a covenant with the people of Israel.  He was calling out Israel from the population of the world to be his people, set aside for a blessing of a relationship with God. It was a covenant given to Israel, not a contract.  The Israelites did not offer a deal to God, it was a commitment God gave to them. God made the choice.  The Israelites were to be His people, and He was to be there God.  The understanding of the covenant was spoken and put down in the words of the Law. They were words of life that were then bound by sacrifice and blood between God and His people.  Exodus 24 verses 4 through 8: 4 Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.

He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.  8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exodus 24:4-8).

The blood on the altar and the people linked them together and symbolized the union of God and Israel in the covenant.  The sacrificing and sprinkling of blood would continue throughout the centuries by the Israelites as a reminder of that union. This scene from Exodus gives us some sense of history and context to God’ covenantal relationships.  They are an unmerited gift from God.

          Moving forward to the New Testament period we come to the evening in which Jesus and his disciples gathered for the Passover meal.  Unlike the scene from Exodus where the backdrop was a mountain, an altar, twelve pillars, burnt offerings, basins of blood, and the gathering of the nation of Israel, this evening was a very private moment.  All were assembled in a simple room.  Everything was in place as Jesus had wanted.  Luke tells us, 14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God” (Luke 22:14-16).   The King James Version of the Bible says that, “with desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you.”  It was an intense feeling.  The Greek word used here was ἐπιθυμία, epithymia, e-pē-thü-mē'-ä, meaning a craving or longing.  You see Luke said, “And when the hour came.” These words are so significant to the story.  They do not speak of a time of day or hour in which the preparations for the meal had been completed but really stood for just the right moment in Jesus’ journey. 

At times throughout his ministry people sought to seize Jesus and do harm to him but could not because Scripture repeatedly tells us, “his hour had not yet come.”  This time was different.  The Gospel of John tells us, “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father” (John 13:1a).  John was not referring to a time of day; he was referring to a precise moment in history.  Luke’s words and John’s words tell us this was not just a meal, this was a moment of history like no other.  And when that hour came, that moment in history, Jesus reclined at table, and the apostles with him. [15] And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you.”  Jesus knew he only had a few hours before he would face the cross and what he craved most at this precise moment in history was to spend some of those precious moments in a meal with his disciples.  There was no other place Jesus wanted to be than at this intimate gathering.

          I have tried to imagine being there and hearing his words, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”  I can imagine my feeling of pleasure rise rapidly as I hear Jesus’ craving to eat with me, and then just as suddenly drop as he says he is to suffer.  We want to hear the first part of eating together, but we do not want anything to do with the second part of Jesus suffering.  We want to say, “I only wanted $3.00 of God.  Given me only what I want to hear, I do not want to hear of your suffering.”  It must have been that way at that table that evening because no one asks of what suffering he was to endure. 

          The group began to eat the meal.  From our New Testament reading, Matthew writes, “[26] Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Imagining again, the room must have gotten very still and exceptionally quiet as they received the bread.  Jesus who craved this moment with his disciples was giving them bread and saying this is my body.  This was such an intimate moment, within this moment of history. Jesus who knew all of their follies and shortcomings better than they knew themselves still accepted them.  He was saying to them, I hold nothing back from you for I crave with the deepest longings of my heart for your closeness. “Take, eat; this is my body.”  Put yourself in that place.  When I did, I found myself, silently eating the bread wondering the meaning of the suffering Jesus was to endure and now the significance of eating bread, that represented his body.  Why are you doing this Jesus?  I find it hard to lift my eyes from the table and look at you Jesus for fear I will cry.

         Before composure can come over the room again, Matthew tell us, “[27] And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, [28] for this is my blood.” Jesus is moving them to a new level of intimacy.  He is offering this cup as a symbol of an inseparable union, and merging of their lives as one through the substance that gives us life itself.  They sip from the cup slowly as they drink in the rest of Jesus words.  “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  As they drink, a new covenant was born.  It is not to be one of altars, pillars, and recurring sacrifice.  It is one formed by uniting believers with God and with one another through the suffering of Christ, through the giving of his body, and through the pouring out of his blood.  And for that we are forgiven of our sins. 

Why did Jesus do this? Why did he choose suffering?  Why did he choose to give his body?  Why did he choose to pour out his blood?  Why did he choose to forgive our sins?  He did so because of love.  He had come, to this moment in history for this hour to share love – unimaginable love expressed through the giving of the bread, giving of the cup, and giving himself in our place to suffer.  “Almost everything ever written on the subject of love indicates that at the heart of love is the spirit of giving.” (Chapman 82)  “Love is a choice.  Love is always feely given.” (96)  And Jesus came to earth to give.  “Love is something you do for someone else, not something you do for yourself.” (140)  Jesus came to love us and to give us life.

The disciples in particularly, at this moment in history, needed to know that they were loved. They who argued over greatness, who would abandon and deny Christ, who would witness his death, were heading to crisis after crisis like no other point in history.  Jesus needed them ready for what was to come ahead.  “In a time of crisis, more than anything, we need to feel loved.  We cannot always change events, but we can survive if we feel loved.” (113)  This was radical, transforming love beyond what they could have asked for.  With it they would choose to love one another and choose to overcome the hatred of their enemies with love. 

Many communion tables have these words etched into them, “This do in remembrance of me.”  We may forget at times the theology of the bread and the cup or even disagree with one another over the substance of the bread and the wine.  We may forget at times the details linking that evening with the history of Israel. But let us always share the bread and the cup remembering that Jesus made a choice.  He made the choice to love you and me, with all of our follies and shortcomings.  He made a choice to let us know that the even though the events of your life may not be changed, you know that you are loved.  How will you choose to respond to that love? 

As I thought about the scene at the Lord’s Table, I was reminded of the closing words from Exodus Old Testament reading today, which said, “and they beheld God, and ate and drank” (Exodus 24:11b). This day, come to the table, come to the Lord’s Table, feel his love, behold him, and eat and drink.  Amen.

          I was watching a short video the other day in which a Christian was publicly debating an atheist in about objective morality.  What is objective morality?  Objective morality is the idea that right and wrong exist; that right and wrong are not a matter of opinion.  To contend that objective morality exists means that we, as a human society, can agree that some actions are good, and some are inherently bad. The atheist, a well-mannered college student contended that objective morality does not exist.  We cannot say that any behavior is right or wrong.  He even contended that the holocaust, the killing of millions of people by the Nazis in World War 2, could not be said to be either wrong, bad, good, or right.  The rightness or wrongness of the holocaust was a matter of opinion.  This student did not believe that objective morality, the idea that some human behaviors are necessarily wrong, and other behaviors necessarily right, even existed.  Every behavior is just a matter of personal preference.  I would like to believe this student was alone in his beliefs, but I do not think that is the case.

In many ways, humanity has never been able to decide for itself what is objectively, meaning obviously wrong and obviously right.  Take for example what may have been the simplest of all times with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Here, the couple was made in the image of God, having God as part of their nature and that God told the couple that to eat of the fruit from the tree of good and evil was bad and wrong.  This means that human morality, knowing what is right and wrong, came from God.  We would then call this transcendent morality, meaning morality, the idea of what is right or wrong, was given to us by God, through being made in His image and being instructed by His Word.

But we know the story.  The first couple would come to want more than was necessary for humanity. They had the choice to choose between right and wrong and they chose wrong, by eating from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  One 17th Christian theologian (Balthasar Hübmaier) said that rather than acquiring the knowledge of good and evil by eating the forbidden fruit, the couple became like a horse or a mule in which there is no understanding of good and evil.  This lack of understanding allowed a plethora of sins to become possible.  The first couple, and we, no longer had the simple choice between right and wrong. Their choices, our choices, suddenly became choosing between wrong, and wrong, and wrong, and right.  With sin, humanity’s opportunities to make poor choices multiplied and with each set of wrong choices, our sense of inner peace, harmony, and tranquility diminished.  Anxiousness and strife entered God’s creation and humanity recalled less and less the transcendent morality of goodness and peace of God’s original creation and the image of God within us became more deformed.

Yet despite all of that, God’s plan was and is still the same.  God would provide us, re-equip us, with transcendent morality through His Word. God shared with a chosen group of people, the Hebrew people, the Ten Commandments and lead their judges, priests, and kings to understand and teach the Hebrew people what was right and what was wrong.  The Hebrews, God desired, would set the tone for all the other nations.  Yet, over and again, the Hebrew people slowly walked away from God’s transcendent morality and did whatever they wanted to do. 

Our Scripture reading today is from one of God’s prophets, a man named Micah.  Micah lived from about 750 to 698 BC.  He came from the city of Gath, located to the east of Jerusalem. The Old Testament book bearing Micah’s name is a powerful indictment of Israel and the Samaritans for having left the transcendent morality of God.

Micah prophesied, “2 Hear, you peoples, all of you, listen, earth and all who live in it, that the Sovereign Lord may bear witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple” (Micah 1:2).  “1 Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds!  At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.  2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them.  They defraud people of their homes, they rob them of their inheritance” (Micah 2:2). “11 Israel’s leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money” (Micah 3:11).  Israel had become corrupt.  The leaders were taking advantage of their positions of power, judges ruled by who brought the bigger bribe, priests taught but only if they were paid the right price, and prophets of God had become fortune tellers.  Israel no longer believed in transcendent morality, that is morality from God.  Instead, Israel had become a nation in which everyone determined for themselves what was right, what was wrong, what was fair, and what was moral.  God said that Israel would be refined by fire.  Samaria would be destroyed and never established again as its own nation.  Israel would be laid waste until such time as God would allow the Israelites to return and start again.

God’s contempt for Israel reached a high point in Chapter 6 wherein Micah described God calling Israel into a courtroom to charge Israel.  The jurors in the courtroom are the mountains and hills of God’s creation with God serving as the complainant.  We read earlier, “1 Listen to what the Lord says: “Stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. [Micah the prosecutor now speaks] 2 “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.  For the Lord has a case against his people; he [God] is lodging a charge against Israel.  [God’s charge is now read].  3 “My people, what have I done to you?  How have I burdened you? Answer me.  4 I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery.  I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.  5 My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered.  Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”  God in his charge against Israel was recounting his faithfulness and his provision of the Hebrew people.  God wanted to know when did He fail the people of Israel that they in turn would fail to keep God’s way?  God wanted to know when did God so burden them that they would leave the company of God and go on their own?  Did the people feel burden when God rescued them from Egypt?  Did God overstep and become offensive when He appointed gifted leaders to guide the people?  When exactly was God so offensive and so burdensome that the people felt the only recourse they had was to walk away from God and His ways?

The people had nothing to say in their defense.  Instead, Micah gave a series of possible Israelite responses to God’s charges and questions, with each response being more ridiculous than the prior one.  Micah wrote, “6 With what shall I [Israel] come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?  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 thousand rivers of olive oil?  Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:6-7).  The response was not to acknowledge wrongdoing but an offer of progressively greater ritual sacrifices to include the deeply disturbing suggestion of child sacrifice.  The responses are rejected because Micah says to these foolish people that God had already furnished the answer of what He desired.

Somewhat famously, Micah wrote, “8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).  To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God form the heart of transcendent morality.  To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God are not universal behaviors that everyone would agree are universally good.  But these are behaviors that are to mark the people of God as good.

Today, I would like to look at that first mark of the people of God and that is to act justly. We will talk about the other two marks, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God, over the next two weeks.

What did Micah mean when he said God had already shown humanity that God’s desire is that His people would act justly?  The Hebrew word used for justly is mispat, which has a variety of meanings but here means God or man acting with justice and rightness or righteousness.  It should be no surprise to us then that mispat, the capacity to act with justice and righteousness comes from God and is to reflected in the image of God through His people.  In today’s culture, there is a great temptation by many to hear the word “justice” and automatically assume that Micah is speaking as the original social justice warrior, or social justice organization, or political party championing any cause that it claims to be making right a wrong.  There is also a great temptation to equate justice to caring for the hungry, the thirsty, the imprisoned, and the ill.  To act justly certainly includes those things.  But exactly does Micah mean to act justly or act with justice or rightness?

Micah used that term mispat, three other times.  First, in Micah 3:1, “3 Then I said, “Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel. Should you not embrace justice?”  Justice means those in authority are to act with neutral judgment, offering no favoritism to the wealthy over the poor, men over women, or one tribe over another.  Second, in Micah 3:8, “8 But as for me [Micah], I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin.”  Justice means that those who align themselves with God, who are filled with the Spirit of the Lord, can clearly discern, can rightly decide, matters because their motives are pure.  Finally, in Micah 3:9, “9 Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right.”  Justice again means an uncorrupted application of the laws and standards of human behavior. 

What then is the justice that Micah is speaking of when he wrote, “Act justly or do justice.”  The justice that Micah refers to cannot be a mindset or behavior that is practiced as a human ideal so how separate from God, the giver of transcendent morality.  To act justly is to reappropriate an unmarred image of God and act with discernment and right motives not for any cause or political issue or segment of society no matter how noble the effort may be.  To act well on behalf of a cause, say homelessness, does not mean that person is acting justly.  It means that a person has acted with kindness toward another but still may well be in other circumstances and with other people quite miserable and self-centered. To act justly or do justice then involves the transformation of a person giving them a desire to imitate God in all human dealings, at the dinner table with family, dealing with a neighbor, and addressing a serious human condition.  The purpose of transformed life expressing just behavior is not to correct a wrong or even prevent a wrong from occurring.  The purpose of just behavior is to let God shine.  It is to express outwardly the behavior of God, and it must begin with those who are called God’s children and then extend from that community to the broader world.  Whenever God shines wrong and corrupt behavior withers and disappears.

Jesus spoke about acting justly or doing justice frequently with perhaps no greater record than is found in the Gospel of Matthew.  In the sermon on the mount, an address to his disciples and followers, Jesus said, “14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).  Jesus was saying that those who act justly are light, a bright light, that shines where there is no light.  But the light does not shine for its own sake.  It shines and gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, Jesus said shine for others through your good deeds for the benefit of everyone in the house, not for your own sake but so that everyone will praise God.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus explained justice must be founded in submission to God.  Jesus said, blessed are those poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are pure in heart, who are peacemakers for they will be called children of God, inheritors of the earth, and the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3-9).  This is the beginning point of justice.  Justice starts with an uncorrupted life.  It is a justice that is uncorrupted by the status of others or the desire to obtain favor for the way we behave.  It is a justice that reflects the outward working of the Holy Spirit that is within.  It is not loud.  It is not proud.  It does, however, let God shine in all things.  I believe that is the simple message of Micah’s first point of acting justly.  We are to imitate God, imitate Christ, Follow the Holy Spirit, not just for needs that are obvious but by being uncorrupted and continuously acting justly with everyone in the house in everything we do, no matter the urgency or need for justice. This week, let’s take in the Holy Spirit of God and act justly in all that we say and do.  Amen and Amen.

          I have met and spoken with thousands of people in my life.  Those I have met ranged from senior executives in government and industry to laborers in a cemetery.  In all those thousands of interactions, I never met one person, not one, who wanted there to be pain in their life.  Not one of them who was in pain ever said, “Gee, I hope this pain gets more intense and last longer!”  Not one. In fact, everyone I have ever met has expressed the opposite.  They all hoped to stay well and heal quickly from any painful experience whether that pain came from a physical injury, loss of a loved one, a divorce, abuse, or illness. No one ever had to teach them that not being in pain is better than being in pain.  Whenever our children and grandchildren hurt themselves playing, whether it was bump or scratch, they did and still do two things.  The first thing they do is cry out to let you know they are in pain.  The second thing they do is to seek out the company of an adult, Mom, Dad, Papa, or Nonnie. These two actions are related.  We learn to cry out and we learn to seek out because we know that the company of another person will make the pain more bearable and that our healing, our restoration, will occur faster in the company and with caring support from another person.

          I remember a few years ago, a couple came to our home.  They had cried out in pain and sought out the company of others after their son was murdered. They needed and wanted to heal. Obviously, my wife and I could not change their circumstances.  Their son had died at the hand of another.  They came to our home on several occasions.  Sometimes just to talk but most often to eat dinner with us.  I can say with confidence that their demeanor and spirit when it was time for the couple to go home, was always a bit lighter, less despondent, than when they arrived.  The improvement in the couple was not because of anything my wife, or I said to them.  Instead, the improvement, the healing, came about because of fellowship, what Greek’s called koinonia.  In this context, the couple cried out and sought out the comfort available to them from others.  In doing so, they were beginning the healing process through koinonia.

          What then is koinonia?  Often the Greek word koinonia is translated into English as “fellowship.” In the Baptist tradition, as soon as we hear the word “fellowship” our minds turn to yummy casseroles at a fellowship meal.  While fellowship or koinonia includes eating together, koinonia goes far beyond casseroles. 

One of the most fascinating examples of koinonia is found in the Book of Acts or the Acts of the Apostles. That book is essentially the second volume of two volume set: Luke and Acts.  In the Book of Acts, Luke was describing the early Christian community in and around Jerusalem.  It was a fearsome time for the early church.  Afterall, Jesus had been crucified and his followers could expect the same treatment.  The Apostles, Peter and John, had been arrested.  A Pharisee named Saul was inciting people to persecute the followers of Jesus.  Saul’s behavior led to the death a man named Stephen, guilty only of following Jesus.  We would expect these followers of Jesus to be experiencing strong emotions such as anxiousness, anger, frustration, and hopelessness.  But Luke described something completely different.

Luke wrote, “42 They [Jesus’ followers] devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship [koinonia], to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-47 NIV).

The followers of Jesus had good reason to be fearful of gathering and being known as Christians and yet that fear was overpowered by a behavior known as koinonia, fellowship.  We need to let that sink in for a moment.  Fellowship, deep fellowship, within the Christian community drove out anxiousness, anger, frustration, and hopelessness.  This type of fellowship provided comfort and healing.

          Our reading today from the Book of Acts is rich in koinonia.  Let’s explore what happened and why this account gives us hope.

          We come to Chapter 20 of the Book of Acts.  Paul was in the city of Ephesus, and he was preparing to leave the people of the church after spending about two years with them.  Paul would never return to Ephesus.  Luke wrote, “7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread” (Acts 20:7).  The first day of the week in Paul’s day was the day after the Jewish Sabbath.  In their context, and our context, the first day of the week is what we would call Sunday.  Sunday was to the early church the day of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.  They did not celebrate Easter as we do because they celebrated the first day of every week as a resurrection day.  And on the first day of the week, the church at Ephesus gathered to break bread.  To break bread meant to share a meal and to take time to remember Jesus through the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup, what we would call a celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

The scene then began with koinonia, fellowship with three purposes.  First, it was to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  Scripture tells us that by Jesus’ wounds we are healed and by his brokenness we are made whole.  There is in fellowship, in joining together to remember the power of being in fellowship with Christ, a wonderful sense of being very close to God.  Second, it was a time fellowship, koinonia, to continue to build bonds between believers.  Much like an athlete works out to improve her capabilities to compete, spending time together is a muscle building exercise for the body of Christ. We become stronger and more able to help one another in good times and in crisis when we share fellowship with one another.  Third, it was a time of fellowship, koinonia, to grieve together.  Paul had been with the church for two years and now `was leaving to go to Jerusalem.  Everyone recognized that going to Jerusalem was not just a dangerous journey for Paul, it was also a dangerous destination.  Paul had made himself a target for Jewish persecution by proclaiming Jesus as God’s Messiah.  And so, this gathering in Ephesus on the eve of Paul’s departure was rich in building a spiritual understanding of being in fellowship with God and in exercising the bonds of fellowship between believers.

Luke continued “7b Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight” (Acts 20:7b). Can you imagine showing up for worship service at 6:00 pm and I kept talking until midnight!  That seems a bit much.

Now amid celebrating God’s word, Luke observed, “There were many lamps in the upstairs room where they we were meeting.  [No doubt those lamps were generating some added heat.]  9 Seated in a window [probably trying to get some air] was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on.  [You can almost see this young man, perhaps a teenager, tired from working that day, warm from the lamps, trying to listen to Paul, and all the while drifting off to sleep.]  When he [Eutychus] was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘He’s alive!’” This is quite a remarkable account.

Let me make three quick points.  Through Paul, the young man experienced, and the congregation witnessed the power of God like few others.  God, using Paul as an instrument, resuscitated and brought Eutychus back to mortal life.  That is just an awesome moment from the history of the church.  Paul was used in the presence of the body of Christ to heal one of its young men.  What a joyful moment that must have been.  Second, this passage teaches us that we need to be mindful of our youth that worship services keep them engaged or at least keep them away from open windows!  Third, the warning from this account offered by the great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon still applies, “Remember, if you go to sleep during the sermon and die, there are no apostles here to restore you!"  So, stay awake.

This passage was an amazing moment but interestingly the raising of Eutychus is never spoken of again.  Instead, Luke concluded this short passage the way it began, “11 Then Paul went upstairs again and broke bread and ate.”  Think about this scene.  Paul was giving his farewell sermon.  A young man fell out of a third-floor window to his death.  Paul interrupted the service to rush down to the street with all the members of the church.  Paul threw himself on the young man who was dead and restored his life.  The group of worshippers were exhilarated and overjoyed. But when they reassembled, they did so not to celebrate but instead to celebrate the miracle but to break bread of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and with each other.

What then do we take away from this scene?  I think we must see that fellowship, koinonia, is an essential part of our having a healthy life.  Whenever someone asks to meet with me for pastoral counseling, I am always listening for how well the person is connected to the Christian community.

I had a phone call from a person who was angry, upset, frustrated, and exhausted.  For about 40 minutes, this person went on virtually non-stop recounting story after story of difficult interactions with doctors’ offices, merchants, and online support services all of which led to dissatisfaction because the people this person dealt with were cold, uncaring, and heartless.  This person said they were so angry they felt they were done. When I had a chance to respond, I said, “You have told me about your interactions with the world which is as you experienced cold, uncaring, and heartless.  What you have not told me about is your interaction with the Christian community who are called to be humble, gentle, patient, and loving toward one another.  Tell me about your interactions with fellow Christians.”  The person said there have been none.  This person was like a small child with a hurt.  They were just crying out in pain but was not seeking out to find genuine comfort in the company of others.  I stressed to this person that they are not likely to heal until such time as they engage in mutual fellowship with other Christians.  God has given us the gift of koinonia, fellowship, for us to be healed and remain well.

We then need to examine ourselves.  Are we being disciples of Christ by offering fellowship to others and by participating in fellowship with one another?  Until Jesus comes again, we all will experience moments of hurt and aloneness that was intended by God to soothed by the living body of Christ.  Look for the opportunities to be healed and the opportunities to heal others in and through fellowship.  Amen and Amen.

          When I was a child, we spent most of our summer vacations at my parents’ camp. For most of my childhood, that camp did not have electricity, so there was no television to watch.  Instead, we spent time doing things together and we played a lot of card games.  One of the card games was Concentration.  Perhaps you remember playing that game as well.  For those not acquainted with the game or who have forgotten how it was played, a deck of cards, or part of a deck of cards, was placed face down on a table in a series of columns and rows.  On a player’s turn, they would turn over two cards hoping the cards would match.  If the two cards matched, you got to go again and turn over two more cards seeking a matched pair.  If the cards did not match, the two cards were turned over and placed face down. In the television program called Concentration, as cards were matched and removed from the board, a picture was revealed forming a word riddle to be solved.  The key to either version of the game is remembering what was revealed and staying focused, concentrating on the objective of learning all of the cards as they were revealed.  In some ways, understanding the game of Concentration will help us in our understanding our walk as disciples of Jesus Christ and exemplified by the work Paul did in a place called Ephesus.

          The Apostle Paul had traveled throughout Greece and made his way to the city of Ephesus.  Ephesus was a coastal city in what is now modern-day Turkey.  There was a mixture of people in the city.  There were Jews and non-Jews.  The Jewish population of Ephesus was large enough to sustain at least one synagogue.

          When Paul arrived in Ephesus, Paul immediately set out for that synagogue to share the good news that Jesus had come as God’s long-awaited Messiah.  We read earlier today that Luke reported, “8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God” (Acts 19:8).  What was Paul’s point in his three months of preaching, reasoning, and apparently even arguing with those in attendance at the synagogue?

          We learn about what Paul taught from Paul’s letter back to the church sent years later while Paul was in custody in a Roman jail.  Paul wrote, “4 For he [God] chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he [God] predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he [God] has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he [God] lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he [God] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (Ephesians 1:4-10).  What was Paul’s point?

• God chose us to be holy and blameless (v. 4)
• God predestined us for adoption as His children (v. 5)
• Jesus redeemed us with His blood by forgiving us all our sins (v. 7)
• God made known to us the mystery of His will (v.9)
• God will bring unity to us all things in heaven and one earth with Christ (v. 10).

          The first thing we notice about Paul’s presentation in the synagogue at Ephesus is that everything about the good news of the gospel is an act of God not an act of humanity.  God chose us.  God predestined us.  Jesus redeemed us.  God was made known to us.  God will bring unity to us.  The development of the plan for us was and is God’s and God’s alone.  The fulfillment of the God’s plan was God’s and God’s alone. Now here is a rubbing point for many people.  The idea of God taking it upon himself to develop and complete a plan for our benefit, without our input, without asking us what we think, runs counter to human thinking and particularly our modern human thinking.  People want to co-create plans that involve them believing that is necessary for them to be involved to ensure their particular interests are addressed in the way they want them addressed.  We want things our way.  This is why so many people reject the salvation plan.  They do so because it is not the plan they would have created.  Why are we humans so insistent on having things our way?

          I want you to consider this.  The other day, I was reading a book by the 4th century theologian, Augustine, called Confessions.  Augustine wrote this book to God.  And Augustine’s style is to capture his thoughts as though he was speaking to God. Augustine said this, “Men [Humanity] corrupt or pervert the nature which you [God] ordained for them…They [Humans] make use of permissible things, but out of all good measure…They burn in lust for things that are not permitted...When held to blame [to account for their own conduct] they rave against You in mind and speech…They are glad to break the bonds of human society, and they come together in gangs or sects [factions and parties], according to something that pleases or offends them…And that is what men do when they forsake You…They love a mere part, which they mistake for a whole unity” (Confessions, III.8). These are some very profound words.

          Augustine helps us to understand that humanity cannot restore or redeem itself.  Humanity cannot create or co-create a plan of redemption because humanity is corrupt, greedy, lustful, angry toward God, and humanity is happy to break itself into identity groups based upon what pleases that group or offends that group.  Do you have the picture in mind that Augustine was sharing from the 4th century?  I don’t think it is hard to imagine what Augustine was describing because Augustine is essentially describing the life in the 21st century that we live in with its corruption, greed, lustfulness, anger toward God, and it is willingness to break itself along identity political lines.  Paul was saying in the 1st century, Augustine echoed it in the 4th century, and we should say in the 21st century that we are not able to restore or redeem ourselves.  Redemption can only come from God.  Therefore, any religious teaching that speaks of self-improvement, of sainthood or holiness through work must be completely rejected as a mere human philosophy destined to fail from the start.

          Paul shared God’s plan, God’s plan, with those in the synagogue of Ephesus and argued that, “11 In him [God] we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:11-14).  Paul reiterated that the redemption plan was and is God’s and God’s alone.  The human part of the plan is to be humble enough to:

• Place your hope in Christ (v. 12)
• Believe in the message of truth, the gospel (v. 13)
• Accept the Holy Spirit into your life as a deposit guaranteeing your eternal redemption (v. 14)

Augustine described that the way back to God is by humble piety, a submission and acceptance of God’s plan through Jesus Christ.  Any sense of restoration with God and unity within the human society requires that we first humbly placing our hope in Christ.  Second, that we humbly believe in the truth of the gospel.  And third that we humbly accept the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  Any other approach towards redemption and unity is and will remain an illusion, something that is not real.  This was Paul’s message.

          But as we know then as we know today not everyone can allow themselves to be humble enough to accept God’s plan.  Luke reported that “9 But some of them [who heard Paul’s message] became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them” (Acts 19:9a). We have seen this pattern as we have explored Paul’s evangelistic outreach in different cities.  Paul preached Christ crucified, some Jews and God-fear Greeks believe and were baptized.  But some refused to believe, and they became belligerent toward the evangelists and those who have given their life to Christ.  Those opposed to God’s plan did not argue against what the evangelists said using the strength of scriptures.  Instead, they created false allegations and attacked first the character of the evangelists and when that was not working, those opposed then attacked the physical safety of the evangelists.  As we have said in prior weeks, they did this to Jesus, Stephen, Paul, and they continue to do it today.  Here in Ephesus, Paul’s character was attacked and so Paul left them.  The attack on Paul’s personal safety came a bit later. 

          Now in between the attack on Paul’s character and the attack on Paul’s body, Paul had more work to do.  Luke wrote that after Paul left the synagogue, “He [Paul] took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 20:9b-10).  What do we make of what Luke has revealed to us in these few words?  I think there are three things for us to consider.

          First, Paul established a gathering of disciples separate from the synagogue.  This gathering of disciples we would call a church.  The church of Ephesus was born.  The church became a standalone living organism that existed in full view of the public but only had one purpose, to make disciples.  The church was not formed to champion social justice initiatives, or to provide a daycare, or soup kitchen, or any other noble purpose.  The church was the place where discipleship occurred.  How do we know this was the case?

          We look to our second point.  Luke said, “He [Paul] took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus” (Acts 19:9b).  We see here that Paul arranged to use a lecture hall, a building created for teaching, apparently owned by a man known as Tyrannus, which translates to “Tyrant.”  Likely, each day after Tyrannus completed the lectures for his paying students, Tyrannus opened the building for use by Paul for his daily discussions with the disciples of the Way, meaning Christians.  We still see this today where newly formed churches will rent space in a public school to hold worship services.  In Ephesus, Paul used the lecture hall to provide for discussions about what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Think about that for a moment.  Everyday, perhaps after supper, or with supper, for two years, Paul and the disciples gathered to talk about God, God’s plan, and their part in the kingdom of God.  Everyday. What was Paul after in holding daily discussions?  Paul shared with us in his letter to the church at Ephesus two reasons for these daily discussions.

          First, Paul said, “3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).  The church of Ephesus was a new creation made up of people with differing backgrounds and differing religious practices who were now united in Christ.  In and through their acceptance of Christ, these differing people had been brought together, had been united.  Unity was a new thing to them.  Remember what Augustine said that absent Christ “People are glad to break the bonds of human society, and they come together in gangs or sects, according to something pleases or offends them.”  These disciples of the Way had previously broken the bonds of human society and lived as though each group was offensive to the other.  Now, in Christ, they were to live in unity that had been created by their individual acceptance of Christ.  Daily discussions were the way the people had to “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”  When we think about ourselves can we honestly say we make every effort to keep the unity with everyone who is a disciple of Christ?  I don’t think we do.  We Christians are still inclined to partition ourselves into different groups or to even avoid other Christians who make us uncomfortable, taking the stance of Augustine says is “They love a mere part [the part we occupy], which they mistake for a whole unity.”  We need to make sure that we are not loving only a part of the Christian community but all of our brothers and sisters.

          Secondly, Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, reminded the members of the church that, “21 When you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 3:21-24).  The daily meetings of the church were used to build disciples by teaching them two things.  First, the truth about Jesus Christ.  Secondly, how the truth and faith in Christ frees them from the sinful and ungodly ways of the past.

          This brings me back to the beginning of our conversation that I started with the game of Concentration.  Suppose you were playing the game of Concentration with three other people.  And let’s suppose you got to go first.  You turned over two cards, and they do not match. Then let’s suppose you turned the cards face down again and said, “I need to do something.”  Perhaps it is to place a phone call, check your email, see what is trending on X, whatever the reason, you need to do something.  And so you say to the three other players, “I am going to step out of the room, please continue to play,” and you leave the room. The other players continue to play, each turning over at least two new cards.  The other players call you for your next turn and you return to the room. You only know the two cards that you turned over.  The other players could know as many as eight cards.  You turn over two cards and let’s say they do not match.  You again leave play to take care of something and play continues without you.  When it is your turn again, you return for your turn.  You know four cards and the other players could know as many as 16 cards. It should be clear that you do not know very much about the game being played because you keep leaving the game to do other things. 

          This is the same situation we find ourselves in when we come just every so often to worship service.  Hebrews 10:25 teaches us, “25 Do not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.”  We make the situation worse for ourselves when we do not participant in Bible studies.  2 Timothy 3:16-17 teaches us, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."  When we don’t read the Bible, we are allowing ourselves to drift further from the truth.  Joshua 1:8 teaches us, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

          If we want to be disciples of Jesus Christ, then we need to do those things that disciples do.  We do it not out of guilt but out of joy for the peace and the assurance discipleship brings to our lives.  God chose you, he predestined you, Jesus redeemed you, God made himself known to you, and God will bring unity to your life.  God has done all these things for you.  In return, God asks that you place your hope in Christ, believe in the message of truth, accept the Holy Spirit to lead your life, and then to commit yourself and knowingly become a disciple, an imitator, of his Son, your Savior, Jesus Christ.  In this, we can have unity and a life in abundance now and forever with God.  Amen and Amen.

Near the end of my career in the federal government, I was asked to lead a significant part of an investigation into a man who had heard voices.  The man had become very disturbed by the voices.  He had become so disturbed by them that he went on a shooting rampage killing 12 innocent people as he sought to silence the voices.  The man also died in his struggle with the voices.  My job was to assemble a team and investigate this man.  We were asked to find out what was known about him.  Why did he become violent?  Could we have prevented the loss of life?  I spent many weeks away from home digging into this man’s past and analyzing this man actions.  He had become deadly dangerous because he had heard voices.

By contrast, Christians actively seek to hear a voice that would bring peace and a quieted spirit, not a dangerous spirit, over us.  How can differing voices produce such a startlingly different response?  In one case the voices lead to the death of 12 innocent people and in the other, a voice brings peace and tranquility.  In the end, the answer is quite simple.  It is only the voice of God that can bring peace and a spirit of calmness.  All other voices bring destruction, sadness, and misery.

We saw in today’s Scripture passage the impact of hearing God’s voice in two ways.  Luke started off by giving us insight on the first way. Luke told us that Paul arrived in the city of Corinth.  Paul was later joined by Silas and Timothy.  Luke wrote, “Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching [the Word of God], testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah” (Acts 18:5b). Paul was using his voice to speak the word of God to the people.  Paul was sharing with the people what is called in Latin, ipsissima vox, “the very voice” of God.  To preach mean to speak the voice of God.  To take God’s Word which has been given to the preacher in the form of the Scriptures and to give audio voice to those words.  When you share something from the Bible with someone you are also exercising ipsissima vox, because you are sharing the very voice of God.

What does the Bible say about itself, about the Word of God, the voice of God.  We would read from the Old Testament:

• “Your word [your voice] is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:15).  These words were part of our opening hymn this morning.
• “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
• “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8).

These were Scripture passages that Paul would have understood when he proclaimed the word of God, that God’s Word, the voice of God, endures and brings life.  Therefore, Paul would have used care to ensure that what he said as coming from God was, in fact, of God and not some other voice.  Paul would later write to the church at Corinth these words, “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:1b-5).  Paul was making clear that faith must not be based upon some human appeal from an eloquent speaker or on some flashy words used by the speaker.  Faith must be found upon each person hearing the very voice of God.

          Paul points here are so important because too often in our modern day, too often preachers use the pulpit to be flashy, or they are charming, or they are good joke tellers keeping the congregation well entertained.  Others, we will call them speakers, use variations of the Scriptures to share a message with their congregation as though the members of the congregation were customers coming to hear what they the customer paid to hear.  When we speak in a flashy manner or in manner to please the listener, then we are no longer speaking ipsissima vox, the very voice of God.  Instead, we have become one of the other ungodly voices of the human world.

          Now what happened when Paul spoke the very voice of God to the people in Corinth? Well, many Jews and God-fearing Greeks were moved to faith in God through Jesus Christ.  God’s gospel message of salvation through the completed work of Jesus upon the cross was received and accepted.  The cornerstone of our faith must be Jesus.  Although I was part of a church from childhood, I do not think I understood faith or could distinguish between the voice of God and any other voice until my later 20’s.  I was faithful, for a time, to following religious practices and going through the motions of church, but that was not the same as faith.

          Faith is the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to change your life because you believe that what has been given to you in and through the voice of God. Paul experienced this same lack of understanding and adherence to religious practices while in Corinth. Luke wrote that many Jews “opposed Paul and became abusive” toward him.  Some people were not able to accept God’s voice given through Scripture because they had accepted the rituals and rites of religion.  And so, Luke said those people opposed Paul and were abusive to Paul. How did Paul respond?  Luke wrote that Paul, “Shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles’” (Acts 18:6b).  Paul changed nothing of what he said, nor did Paul keep on sharing the gospel with those who were opposed to it.  Paul simply made it clear that he had done what Jesus asked, “preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23a).  Paul shaking his clothes was simply a method of saying the conversation was over and none of the accusations hurled at him stuck. I think there are two messages there for us.  First, we are to preach Christ.  We don’t need to be inventive or wonder if we are preaching the right thing.  Preach Christ.  Second, the responsibility to accept the message rests with those hearing it, not us as we share the word of God.  We can wish someone would accept the message all we want but the responsibility and the consequence of accepting or not accepting the word of God remains solely that of the listener.  When someone openly opposes the word of God, then we are free to walk away.  The Apostle John recorded a similar experience of Jesus in the opening verses to his gospel.  John wrote, “10 He [Jesus] was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He [Jesus] came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (Johnn 1:10-13).  And so, here in Corinth, Paul preached the ipsissima vox, the voice of God to all who would receive the word of God and they were saved, made children of God by God’s will.  We can, therefore, experience peace and calmness when we receive the voice of God. 

The second way we can experience such peace is, again in the Latin, ipsissima verba, or the very word, the actual words of God.  To hear for yourself the very word of God being spoken to you is rarely experienced, but it does happen.

          Hearing the actual words of God happened to Adam and Eve in the garden.

• 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”  11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”  12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”  13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  Adam and Eve heard the actual words of God.

Hearing the actual words of God happened to Moses on the mountain top.

• 4 When the Lord saw that he [Moses] had gone over to look [at the burning bush], God called to him [Moses] from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”  And Moses said, “Here I am.”  5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. Moses heard the actual word of God.

There are, of course, many other examples in the Old Testament of people hearing the actual words of God.  But here in Corinth, Paul heard the actual words of God.  Luke wrote, “9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God” (Acts 18:9-11). Paul heard God speak to him to encourage him in God’s own words so as to let Paul know that despite the opposition, Paul should continue to preach the word of God.  And so, Paul stayed in Corinth for another year and a half bringing the voice of God to the people.

          Paul would later write to the church at Corinth about the message he shared with them.  “18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…  22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:1, 22-25).  Paul spoke what he knew was true about the voice of God and lives were eternally changed.

          What about us, we who are so far removed from Corinth?  What can we say about hearing the actual words of God and knowing it apart, separate, from all the other voices and noise pounding into our ears daily?  I think there are three things that we can think about. 

First, we should never discount the possibility of God speaking words directly to us. There is ample evidence in the Bible that God did this and there is ample testimony in the present day that God still does speak directly to us.  I have previously shared my personal experience of hearing the actual words of God.

Second, we have compiled for us a magnificent historical account of the ipsissima vox, the voice of God contained in the pages of the Bible.  The more we read it, the more we study from it, and the more we hear the voice of God spoken to us through sermons, then the more we have absorbed and come to recognize the voice of God.  I was saddened the other day when I read that Pope Francis wants Roman Catholic priests to offer shorter homilies, shorter sermons, suggesting that sermons in the Roman Catholic church last no longer than 8 minutes.  The Pope said homilies are boring and the people don’t know what the priests are talking about anyway making the people prone to falling asleep.  We need to hear the word of God proclaimed to us from the pages of Scripture.  This is the lesson from Paul when he said to the church at Thessalonica, “13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).  Hearing the voice of God is possible by reading the Bible.  When we do that, we will come to know God’s voice over all others and be able to stay the path of righteousness.

Third, and finally, we are blessed to have example after example of ipsissima verba, the actual words of God found throughout the Gospels and at a few points in the letters of the New Testament.  We have Jesus’ words, the living Word, God with us, speaking.  If you have time to do nothing else, then read Jesus’ words.  Many Bibles make it easy by putting Jesus’ words, the actual words of God, in red print. Read over and over the great passages of the actual words of God such as the Sermon on the Mount.  It took longer than 8 minutes for Jesus, God with us, to speak those words.  Those words are not boring.  Those words are life changing and faith affirming.

We need to load up our minds with both the voice of God and the actual words of God.  We need this to maintain ourselves in ways of God and live the life of goodness that God desires for us and knows is best for us.  We need to be able to follow his voice and his words and to be able to shun other voices coming at us because those voices are deadly dangerous.  Amen and Amen.

About 10 years ago, I was in a church board meeting.  It was time for me to give a brief report from my perspective on things that had happened since the last time the board had met. One of the things I said was that I had just finished a sermon series in which we had explored one of the books of the Bible and that I was now going to start a new series from another book of the Bible.  One member of the board said to me, “You know there are other books than the Bible from which you could speak.”  I was taken back a little bit by that statement.  My response to the suggestion of using other books than the Bible for the basis of the weekly sermon was, “I am aware there are other books.  But let’s agree to do this.  Once we have exhausted the Bible, we can move on to those other books.”  We are continuing to work our way through the Bible.  We have not yet exhausted it.

I have on occasion thought why did this person want to move away from the Bible and pursue other books?  I think the reason for desiring other books to become the focus of our conversation about faith was that doing so would make for a more pleasurable experience.  It would be more pleasurable to deal with books other than the Bible because we can always find a book that agrees with our way of thinking.  This is true because there are a vast number of individuals who are people pleasers.  A people pleaser is someone who needs to be well-liked.  And so, there are people who will write books, including those about faith, heaven, hell, God, and salvation that are written to please an audience. It is not important whether what is said is true, it only matters that the audience feels good after having read it.

The Bible on the other hand was not written to please anyone other than God.  The Bible is not concerned with people’s feelings.  The Bible is concerned with the truth.  Sometimes the Bible cannot only feel hard, but the truth revealed by the Bible can be hard.  In our modern era, some people want “trigger warnings” applied to the Bible to alert the readers that they might be offended by some of what the Bible has to say.  A recent poll in the United Kingdom, for example, showed that nearly 25% of those living in the UK between the age of 18 and 34 years old believe that unless the Bible is edited to remove offense language, then the Bible should be banned from public sale because the Bible contains “hate speech.”

Our New Testament reading today from the Book of Acts shows us that the idea that speaking from the Bible can be considered “hate speech” is not a new phenomenon.  We would find that Paul, having left the city of Philippi after having been unjustly beaten with iron rods for sharing the gospel, arrived in the city of Thessalonica. Luke wrote that “Paul went into the synagogue and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures [from the Bible], explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the death” (Acts 17:2b-3a).  What do we make of this scene? 

First, Paul went to the synagogue.  Paul wanted to talk with Jews who were already open to understand that Scripture was the inspired word of the one true God.  Also present in the synagogue were God-fearing Greeks, meaning people who were not Jews but nevertheless believed in the God of the Jews. Paul did not start sharing the message of salvation with those who disbelieved or were opposed to God. Paul’s message depended upon his audience having some prior knowledge and belief in the teachings and stories of that book. 

Second, Paul’s approach depended upon reasoning with people. This is a key point.  Paul sought to reason with people.  What does it mean to reason with someone?  To reason with someone is to have a measured discussion and a conversation about the facts concerning a specific topic.  I think this latter point is key for us to understand why so many people today reject the Bible.  It is not that people are completely ignorant of the Bible, because they are not.  The issue lies in that people no longer want to reason things through.  If they even think something they might read or hear will offend them, they want those trigger warnings posted so they don’t read or hear it at all.  If they later find something offensive or in their thinking the words are silly, they reject what is said rather than reason through it.

Let me give you a brief illustration.  The Ten Commandments are very much in the news with the state of Louisiana passing a law requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools of Louisiana.  Many applauded this move and just as many have angrily denounced this law.  One social commentator’s remark about the Ten Commandments caught my attention.  He believed that the Ten Commandments could not be from God or if they did come from God, then God is out of touch with his own people.  The commentator cited the commandment, “Thou shall not murder,” the sixth commandment and argued that such a commandment was not from God because the Hebrew people who received the Ten Commandments did not need to be told murder was bad and murder was something they should not do.  They did not need for God to tell them not to murder and if that commandment came from God, then God was most silly.  And because the Ten Commandments contained the statement, “Thou shall not murder,” the commentator said we should reject all Ten Commandments as silly.

Now some of what this commentator said was true.  The Hebrew people did know that murder was bad and to tell them it was bad was not revealing anything new to them. But.  There is always a but.  But the Ten Commandments also says, “Thou shall not steal,” that is number 8.  Most of the Hebrew people probably knew stealing was bad too.  But how many Hebrew people understood that to a Holy God murder and stealing are equal offenses?  The Ten Commandments also says, “Thou shall honor thy father and thy mother,” meaning to do otherwise, to not honor your parents, is an offense equal to murder. And the same would be true for making false statements about one’s neighbors, being envious of what your neighbors have, and using the Lord’s name in vain.  All these offenses, the Ten Commandments reveal, are equally offensive to a Holy God as is murder.  Suddenly, when we let Scripture speak and we reason it out, we are confronted by the hard truth about sin to our God and about the amazing grace that our holy God is extending to us.  But we cannot come to such realization if we simply reject as silly God’s word or offensive because we do not want it to say what it says.  Perhaps we should put a trigger warning on the cover of the Bible that says, “Reasoning Required.”  This is why it is so difficult to have a conversation with someone who has distain for God’s word.  They are not able or willing to reason.

And so, we see that Paul reasoned with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles in Thessalonica using the Scriptures “3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he [Paul] said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women” (Acts 17:3-4).  Thus, the church at Thessalonica was born but not without complications.

Luke shared with us that some Jews who rejected Paul’s message because they “Were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd” (Acts 17:5).  The accusation against the evangelists composed by jealous people and given to the mob to chant had nothing to do with the Scriptures.  Instead, the accusation was that the evangelists, Paul and Silas, said the people should defy Caesar because they said there is a new king Jesus. As we have discussed in prior weeks, this is a familiar pattern of response by unreasoning people.  They stir up people with false information to cause them to make an allegation against their supposed enemy and then when the chants begin they stand back demanding the matter be investigated.  They did this to Jesus, to Stephen, and they have done it to Paul on several occasions.  And it is still done today.  This time Paul and Silas escaped the false charges of the unreasoning and jealous people.

Paul would later write two letters back to that newly formed church.  In the first letter Paul said, “1 You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. 2 We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. 3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. 4 On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. 5 You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. 6 We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority” (1 Thessalonians 2:1-6).  There are two things which are important for us to understand from this passage. First, we have it most clearly that Christians are to share God’s word about salvation through Jesus Christ, but we are not do so in a manner to please people.  We should share the truth, but it is not for us to sugarcoat or change anything about God’s word.  We should reason with those who are willing to listen and to share with them what God has already said.  We are to let Scripture speak.  The second point sounds a lot like the first point.  Christians are to share God’s word about salvation through Jesus Christ. Sometimes, I think we get the idea that we are to share with others our own personal testimony in place of God’s word. There is a place for personal testimony about how God has changed our lives, but our testimony is not to replace sharing God’s word.  God’s word has power our own words never will.  So if someone came up to you right now and asked you to share God’s word of salvation with them, do you know what you would say or where in the Bible you would begin?  Might we say something as simple as this:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1).  And God created mankind in his own image; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).  But the man and woman came to sin, that is they disobeyed God, they sinned (Genesis 3).  Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2).  To remove the separation between us and God, God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to teach us the way, and the truth, and the pathway to life with God (John 14:7). And to all who will receive Jesus, Jesus gives the right to become reunited with God as his children (John 1:12-13). Therefore, by God’s grace we are saved through faith in Jesus.  Salvation, removing the separation from God now and forever, is a gift from God, not a result of our own work (Ephesians 2:8-9).  If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. The old has passed away. (2 Corinthians 5:18).  Therefore, as new creatures, saved by Christ, we seek to live our lives as Jesus did (Ephesians 5:1).  All we need to do is ask Jesus to come into our lives.  This is the message of salvation from the Bible.”  There are other ways of sharing the good news, but whatever we say must come from God’s word.  And then our lives, our testimony, should bear witness to what God has done when we believed and accept Christ.  We need to know how to let the Scriptures speak.

And we see this distinction between sharing God’s word and showing our personal testimony in Paul’s letter to the church at Thessalonica.  Paul wrote, “13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. 14 For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone” (1 Thessalonians 2:13-15).

The evangelist plan is to let scripture speak, that is to share the word of God with those who do not know what God has done for them.  That is the first part.  Then to acknowledge that the way those who have accepted salvation through Christ have changed, the personal testimony, is the second part.  I want to everyone to be encouraged and to understand the power we have at our fingertips, God’s word.  Sharing it is not about pleasing people and making them feel good about themselves.  We share it so that people have the truth and can come to understand that God has provided for them a way home to him.  And that way home does not come from a philosophy of life, a particular church, or denomination.  That way home comes through belief in Jesus Christ and grace the resurrected Jesus offers. Amen and Amen.