2022 Aug 28 - National Youth Sunday - Sermon
Micah 6: 6-8: 6 With what shall I 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? 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.
Luke 14: 1; 7-14: Jesus at a Pharisee’s House: 1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honoured in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
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Good morning everyone, welcome to today’s National Youth Sunday service. Today’s theme is “Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God”. Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable to you, O Christ, our Strength and our Redeemer, amen. Regarding the first scripture reading, the prophet Micah was a man from the countryside sent to the cities of Judea to bring the word of the Lord. He lived about 700 years before Christ was born. In today’s reading, Micah pictured a court of law, with Israel on trial before the Lord. In the presence of unshakable witnesses (the mountains and the hills and the strong foundations of the earth), the court comes to order.
In chapter 6 verse 6, Israel called out to God from the witness stand, and said with bitterness and resentment: “Just what do you want from me?” Then, we can almost hear Israel shouting at God from the witness stand. “You ask too much, God. Nothing will satisfy you. If we brought thousands of rams or rivers of oil or even our own firstborn it would not be enough to please you. You are unreasonable.” Dr. Bruce Waltke, an American Reformed evangelical professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, analysed this verse, saying of the defendant Israel, “Blinded to God’s goodness and character, he reasons within his own depraved frame of reference. He need not change; God must change.… His willingness to raise the price does not reflect his generosity but veils a complaint that God demands too much.”
In prophet Micah’s imagined courtroom, God stopped the shouting of the angry defendant from the witness box. God essentially said, “You act as if what I require of you is some mystery. In fact, it is no mystery at all. I have shown you clearly what is good and what I require of you.” The Lord answered the contentious witness in open court, “What I require of you isn’t complicated. Simply do three things: First, do justly; act in a just, fair way towards others. Treat them as you would want to be treated. Secondly, love mercy; don’t just show mercy, but love to show it. Give others the same measure of mercy you want to receive from me. Finally, walk humbly with your God; remember who I am - your God. If you keep that in mind, you will walk humbly before me.”
With this in mind, we must also understand that justice is treating others according to what they deserve from God, and God has always tempered justice with mercy. Speaking of which, mercy is the fulfillment of human needs, so there cannot be justice unless human needs are satisfied. This is where love comes in - it is the deepest human emotion and experience. Its fullest expression is compassion; to suffer with others. This was demonstrated by God in Jesus.
Regarding humility, Charles Spurgeon, an English Particular Baptist preacher said, “True humility is thinking rightly of thyself, not meanly. When you have found out what you really are, you will be humble, for you are nothing to boast of. To be humble will make you safe. To be humble will make you happy. To be humble will make music in your heart when you go to bed. To be humble here will make you wake up in the likeness of your Master by-and-by.”
Spurgeon pointed out the difference between being humble and being mean. Tearing down yourself and tearing down others is not humility; that’s just being mean, and by hurting yourself and others in this way, you are being less merciful to yourself than God is to you. God doesn’t want you to hate yourself or hate others because God is love - emotional, expressive, powerful love that is demonstrated by the costly grace of Jesus Christ, who gave his life on the Cross for our sins.
In the second scripture reading we learn that even though Jesus had some of his greatest disputes with the Pharisees, he still associated with them - not to be one of them, but to love them and show them a godly example. In Luke 14:1 Jesus was under constant observation. People wanted to know what he would do in different situations, and they formed their opinions about Jesus (and his God) based on what they saw.
At the home of the Pharisee, Jesus noticed how people strategically placed themselves so as to be in the best places; that is, the places of most honour. In Jesus’ day, the seating arrangement at a dinner showed a definite order of prestige or honour. The most honoured person sat in a particular seat, the next most honoured person in another place, and so on down the line. A wedding party was the most important social occasion in Jewish life at that time. The seating arrangement at the table indicated one’s standing in the community.
While Jesus told this parable about seating arrangements, he reminded them of the shame that often comes with self-exaltation; in this case, it was a guest taking the most prestigious seat for himself, but then losing that seat when the host gave his seat to a more distinguished guest. On the other hand, when we allow others (especially God) to promote and lift us up, then we don’t have the same danger of being exposed as someone who exalted himself.
When we seek to honour ourselves, we will always be humbled - if not on earth, then for all of eternity. The promise of exaltation for the humble and humiliation for the proud is one ultimately fulfilled in eternity. Jesus was the perfect one to teach on this subject, because he fulfilled it perfectly: Instead of using his equality with God to his advantage, Jesus humbled himself by being born as a human, obeying his Father’s will and ultimately giving up his life on the Cross in order to save us all. Three days later, God exalted him. Now Jesus lives forever and has invited us to his Kingdom. God was in Jesus and Jesus was God - reconciling the world; bringing the world back to himself. Thus, Jesus and his life is our example.
At the end of the reading, Jesus reminds us that there is something wonderful in giving a gift that can never be repaid. This helps to explain some of the pleasure of God in giving the gift of salvation and blessing to his people. In turn, we will never be the loser when we give without receiving, for God really, really loves us and walks with us all the time.
Now, I’d like to talk about our upcoming Independence Day celebration and how it relates to our message today. Trinidad and Tobago gained independence from Britain on 31 August 1962. This Wednesday, the 31st August 2022, marks the 60th anniversary of our independence from Britain, our Diamond Jubilee.
I would like to read an excerpt from Dr. Eric Williams’ speech to the nation over the radio on 31 August 1962. He was the first Prime Minister of T&T:
“What use will you make of your independence? What will you transmit to your children five years from today? Other countries ceased to exist in that period. Some, in much less time, have become totally disorganised, a prey to anarchy and civil war.
The first responsibility that devolves upon you is the protection and promotion of your democracy. Democracy means more, much more, than the right to vote and one vote for every man and every woman of the prescribed age. Democracy means recognition of the rights of others.
Democracy means equality of opportunity for all in education, in the public service, and in private employment-I repeat, and in private employment. Democracy means the protection of the weak against the strong. Democracy means the obligation of the minority to recognise the right of the majority. Democracy means responsibility of the Government to its citizens, the protection of the citizens from the exercise of arbitrary power and the violation of human freedoms and individual rights. Democracy means freedom of worship for all and the subordination of the right of any race to the overriding right of the human race. Democracy means freedom of expression, assembly and organisation.”
In summary, democracy in its truest sense, its purest product, stands for the three things discussed in today’s theme: Justice, mercy and love. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, teach us how to act justly and love mercy. We know that you are walking beside us in the person of Christ, who is God with us. Remind us that we are not a people searching for God, but rather we have a Saviour who is searching for us, until we all arrive at his Kingdom and our journey is done. Amen.