Darash? YOU BET!
Praise Appeal Sunday, November 9, 2014 (Micah 6:1-8 with Mark 12:28-34 in b.g)
Praise. This is a word not often heard in Lutheran circles. At least the word "praise" isn't used by Lutherans in the ways that it is usually employed in Pentecostal or Baptist circles. For some of us, praise may conjure up images of people with their hands held high in the air, swaying back and forth, singing repetitive but somewhat simple yet powerful tunes.
But what if praise is actually different than all of that? What if praise isn't at all about what we feel or even primarily about what we think? Instead, what if praise is about focusing on and responding to someone else – someone "larger" than ourselves? What if praise is about focusing on and responding to God in all the parts of our lives?
The prophet Micah, whose words we hear in the first lesson places us in the midst of a controversy. The controversy is between 8th century Israel and God. The people of Israel, as they often have been in their history, are caught between a rock and a hard place. Then they were caught between two world powers, Egypt and Assyria. They were also caught between trusting primarily in their own means, political acumen and military might or going with their gut, the direction of God underlined by the words of their prophets, a direction which called them to care for each other and obey God before and above all else. Since for some time now they have been primarily following their own devices, betting on the power they thought would "win" – while forgetting their own poor and most vulnerable -things weren't going well. And when things aren't going well, what do we humans do? We often look around to cast blame upon someone else, ANYONE ELSE but ourselves. In this particular instance the people are saying that God demands too much of them.
This may be difficult for us to identify with. These days our feeling and thoughts may be that God doesn't expect much of us. We may even feel or think that God is content with the left-overs of "our" time, "our" money, "our" prayers. Among our temptations, fueled by advertising, is for us to spend as much if not more of our time in wishing that we could holiday or win the lottery, than we do in listening for God, speaking to God or even inquiring of God what God may be calling us to do in the various circumstances of our lives.
Micah doesn't give up on the people of Israel, even though they are blaming God. I suspect that God isn't giving up on us – even though sometimes we try to relegate God to the sidelines of our lives. Speaking on God's behalf, Micah reminds the people of all that God has done and is doing for them. We do well to listen. After all God is God. God is doing similar things for and with us. The same witnesses Micah points to as witnessing God's controversy with Israel witness to our controversies with God. These witnesses stand the test of time. They are the hills and mountains – indeed all of creation.
Micah reminds the people that God has rescued them from slavery. Isn't this also true for us? But we have never been slaves to anyone! Really? What about our fears: the fear of illness, of death, of failure. Sometimes we even shy away from unconditional love – the incredible power of someone seeing and knowing us as we are and choosing to love us anyway.
God gifts the people of Israel with leaders who sometimes hear and obey God. God uses these leaders to guide the people through their fears to new life and eventually a new land. These leaders remind the people of their identity. They are God's people – cherished, being forgiven. Nothing/no one can change that. God is their God. And they are God's children. This is God's choice. Their identity is not dependent upon their intelligence or physical attributes. Their identity is because God chooses to love and work through them.
So, let me ask. Are we not also chosen to be God's daughters and sons? Through the water and the promises of God which wash over us at different times in our lives, even when we were so young that we couldn't form coherent thoughts or control our bowels, God chooses us. Intimately knowing us, the Creator works through the Spirit grafting us into this diverse collective body of Christ. It is Christ who reaches out to care for and about all whom he meets – regardless of their race, gender, religious background or marital status. Not only in his life, but also in his death and resurrection Jesus does this. Ray Stevens had it right when he wrote, "red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight, Jesus loves, the little children of the world."
This is amazing, wondrous, mind blowing – God loves us, brokenness, strengths, weaknesses and all.
After Micah has reminded the people of all this, he asks, "What does the Lord require of you?" Now we need to understand that require is not like obligation – you must do this in order for this to happen. That wouldn't be love. Rather the word translated require in English arises from the Hebrew word "darash". The word darash, says James C. Howell, a Hebrew translator, has undertones of affection, or the healthiest sort of dependency, as in "the child requires his/her mother's love", or "the flower requires rain and sunshine". There is also a mood of seeking in darash; lovers seek each other out, the shepherd seeks his lost sheep.
It is this sense that Micah asks – given all that God has done for Israel, "What does the Lord require, yearn for, long for, seek for in you and through you?. He answers (WAIT FOR IT!). The Lord requires of Israel to do justice, to love kindness and walk humbly with God. This is compact and yet HUGE. This is an incredible invitation and challenge! This can come about only because of God's love for all!
Do we know this? Justice in the first testament isn't so much about 'getting even' or 'being fair'. Instead, justice is about insuring that everyone has what they need. In calling us to do justice God is inviting us to share, as an integral part of our identity, to build a deeper, more interdependent kind of community. This will also involve learning to love kindness. We are all gifts.
Such dawning reality leads us to humility. I am not speaking of self deprecation – of how "bad" we sometimes are, of how clearly we frequently miss God's intention. Rather, humility is a realization that comes about in experiencing God's love for ourselves and all creation. We are gifted individually and together in order to employ 'our' gifts for the well being of many others.
This LIVING dear people is what praise is. Part of such praise may occasionally involve hands held high, perhaps even bodies swaying in time. For sure there will be times when we lift our voices, melodious tones somehow arising among us. Thanks be to God for all of that! But always, praise of God involves seeing, hearing and caring for others with open arms, minds being opened, wallets and credit cards that are not designed or limited primarily for us and those nearest to us.
Praise involves seeing beyond ourselves to God's love for us and for all others. Praise involves our saying thank you God with the many gifts God has deemed to entrust to us. Praise means living out of God's love in Jesus so that love is not just a word to us or others.
In all of this journey of life may we again experience whose we are, the very children of God. From that reality may we then live lives responding to God who deeply loves this crazy, broken, wonderful, hungry and abundant world so very much, dreaming that all may have enough, experiencing God's love themselves. Darash you see is not a four letter word. Darash springs out of the gifts of God. Alleluia. Amen.