Seek out the Mountain

Pastor Pride and church family, I bring you greetings from my pastor and brother, Dr. Don Darius Butler and our Concord Fellowship church family.

Very briefly, I want to thank our God for this opportunity. Pastor and cousin, thank you for this opportunity to come home To share and for not thinking it robbery to approach this sacred desk. Dr. Forrest Harris, President Emeritus of American Baptist and the Kelly Endowment chair at Vanderbilt Divinity School would say that there is no shortage of people called to the desk but there is a shortage of those who take seriously the solemnity of answering the call to stand behind the desk. Pulpit, family and friends.

wife-boys

parents

Pastor, Concord does not know me for being wordy. I’m not one for small talk but it seams like yesterday that I was standing at that door.......I remember the location on Wilson Dam road, the saints of blessed memory who now rest in Jesus, the baptismal, Mother Tilly who didnt let a Sunday go by with calling me her little preacher boy. I remember cutting the grass over yonder and here and then In my youth the joy of waiting for Deacon Burt to bring me a $25 check following service. I remember sitting with anticipation for the word of God that was being delivered from this pulpit. I remember sitting 4th pew back with a gentle tap in my foot when the word or sung praises would get good to me and my soul would get happy. Family, It is good to be home.

Micah 4:1-5

The Mountain of the LORD 4 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, 2  and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 3  He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; 4  but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. 5  For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.

Can we use this sermonic tag - Seek out the Mountain

May we pray. Gracious and powerful God. Thank you for this preaching moment. You gave me a word of life and Hope. You met me in my preparation. Now show yourself strong and might in my voice. Consecrate me and use me so that we would see You. If I don’t say it right, God superintend the space from my lips to your children’s ears so that they hear it right.

The Bishop College professor and longtime pastor Manuel L. Scott, Sr. once noted that “It is interesting that many of the things that would send you to hell won’t send you to the city jail. He stated that you shouldn’t be delighted that no policeman has ever handcuffed you. And Scott suggests that you shouldn’t look around at anybody else; but that you should go self-searching and see if any of those things that could send you to hell are the very things that have the ability to imprison you right here on earth....for it is “That kind of jailer that is moving through our world today.” What ever you want to quit and can’t, that is your jailer. He says “whatever is not good for you - but its’s so good to you that you can’t let it alone - that is your jailer. Whatever reduces your freedom, restricts your operations, limits your performance, whatever keeps you from doing your best - that is your jailer! Whatever is greater than your will and stronger than your deepest desire - that is your jailer! That, child of God, whatever it may be has you handcuffed and hooked.

Dr. Scott goes on to say that you better do something about your jailer. Because sooner or later your jailer will lead you his victim, you child of God, to judgement. So many times we have a tendency to only focus on the final judgment but life has a way of judging us here, when a man or woman must stand face to face with his or her sins and sits down to a banquet of consequences, of foolish choices, and incoherent decision. Be careful that your remaining topsoil days are not an accumulation of judgement days.

And this is where we find ourselves in the story today. Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah have answered the call to the day’s hypocrisy of justice, that is self inflicted injustice. Israel has traded her emancipation for more handcuffs. She finds herself split into a nothern and southern kingdom divided. The municipality of the north (Israel) finds its capital in Samaria. The southern municipality (judah) finds her capital to be Jerusalem. God’s people in a promised land, split. Micah spends the 1st 3 chapters presenting God’s land mark case’s indictments. He is preaching and writing letters to all who will hear. He remembers the stories of the Exodus. How - Side by side, their ancestors exited Egypt free men and women becoming refugees in wilderness lands. God gave them a SNAP card whose benefits never ran empty, sustenance (manna) was predicatble and consistent. And when they began to forget who brought them out of where they came from, God told Moses to give them an invitation to His presence at Mr. Sinai. There they would experience His voice. But now, Jacobs descendants have split. What was once a sense of shared resources, shared heritage, shared lineage {BUT GET THIS} no longer reflects their once shared liberation of their covenant God. Somehow, folks who were at the the station of life to “just have enoughs” have found their way to creating a society of “haves” and “have nots”. They have legalized the respossession of material wealths so that value is now dictated by status and prestige rather than than God’s covenant to deliver the nourishment of equity and equality. And watch this, and now what represents the “manna of their day” is being hoarded, man has became the estimator of value. And because the balancing point of equality was moved, those who had more want to keep more. Those who needed more are now disadvantaged from achieving more. Whenever this cycle is born oppression is created. Whenever equity and equality are no longer pillars of social relationship, systems of oppression give way to injustices. You only need to the flip the TV to MSNBC or CNN or your preferred news outlet to see that the same thing the Israelites were dealing with and being cuffed by is still alive today. The chasm between the haves and the have nots is still deep.

Micah, this south Judah, Zionist is found putting his oratorical skills on display. Scripture does not indicate his ancestry as Hosea and Isaiah find in historical privilege but there is something about this brother because his legacy is forever tied to the source of the message that he has been entrusted to deliver. Micah’s name is translated from antiquity as “Who is like God?”, a rhetorical question. Perhaps the title of this sermon should move from the demonstrative phrase, “SEEK OUT THE MOUNTAIN” the interrogative phrase “Seek out the mountain?” I feel like Dr. LK Curry would make that distinction. Micah is such a short book but it begs one to ask the question. Pastor, do you know what I like about this brother Micah? It is that scripture does not indicate that Micah had to wrestle with the call that God gave him like Moses nor did it indicate that he ran from his call like Jonah. Neither of those stories would be Micah’s legacy. But when you read the book of Micah, it is obvious that he is skilled like a district attorney but it also clear that this is his first case. He knows what oracles God has instructed him to pronounce but it is clear that Chapters 1-3 are sprinkled with elements of his own humanity. He calls out personal idolatry, oppression, and injustice................ He calls the people, the leaders, and religious remnant.......................... He paints the picture of God melting the mountains and splitting open the valleys...............… He puts her prostitution of her social moral compass right there on front street................None can escape because God has played the witness and He fed up..............

And in the text the picture is dark. And then before any consequences of the judgement are enacted. God tells Micah, take down these words...........

Micah 4:1-5

Well, child of God———-What can be found at the mountain?

Thesis - Hope will prevail and you will make it to the glory of God;

Antithesis - Oppression and injustices are abounding.

Relevant Question - How can one exhibit hope in troubling times as these?

Synthesis - Lets look at the text for we must do to abide in times such as these.

(1) One must seek God’s presence by turning away from our idols

V.1 says that Micah 4:1 “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it,”

-That is one must bring himself to God to believe and by belief. Notice that Micah did not give the Israelites conditions for coming to the mountain, like Moses communicated at Mt. Sinai. There was no ceremonial representations performed before the coming. I know in the black church we have a healthy response to placing the title of “Idol” on things, physical representations of affection but let’s dig a little deeper. Idols are anything that handcuff you into into making un-Christ-like decisions and indicate an allegiance to anything other than GOD. There is nothing wrong with getting ahead but at what point does it contribute to cycles of hierarchy, prestige, and status. Micah is saying that we must return to the mountain which was a symbol of God’s presence. Because it was on the Mt. Zion that God established His temple. It was a physical representation of where the infantile believer could find God and know that He is real. He is saying that in that day Mt. Zion would be elevated as the “true Presence of the true God” and that people would flow to it. This caught my attention because the transliteral implication here Pastor is that the flowing is really like drawing. This is where I got excited because Muscle Shoals City Schools taught me real good. I mean I’m thankful for my teachers and their passion to convey things like to me like geology. And it was there that I learned that rivers flow away from mountains or alongside mountains but not to or thru mountains. And when water flows alongside mountains, erosion and weakening is going to occur. But what Micah is saying and it is what I am theologizing about my God is that the power of the mountain is not diminished by the flowing. So what does that do comfort the believer? It means you can bring your disbelief, and all of your “pressions” with you to the mountain to get some exchange for you troubles. Yes you can find peace and healing at the mountain. You can some much needed relief from your grief at the mountain. But Micah doesn’t stop there. He recognized that the exchange that occurred at the mountain would cause a change in the individual. The deeper theological implication for how mountain is used here in chapter 4 is that the mountain is used as a representation of the temple of Mt. Zion, God’s dwelling place., the tabernacle, a literal house for God.

Not only does one need to seek God’s presence but

(2) One must heed God’s voice (law)

-That is one must seek God’s voice, his law, to navigate the vices, pitfalls, and injustices and whatever “pressions” one must encounter.......oppressions and depressions. What Micah is saying is that once you know God is real, it ought to change your outlook on some things. There is something about seeking and hearing God’s voice that tends to straighten out your behavior and your direction. And this is the mainstay of the daily walk with God’s imprint on your life. When the laws of God are written on your life, battles that you once readied yourself to fight you no longer realize that you need to fight, for you know that God will step in and fight on your behalf. You just need to be obedient to His voice. You can trade your weapons in for the peace of tending utensils of God’s garden. Yes, Pastor, God will send you out for planting and harvesting. Harvesting is easier when it follows prayer and obedience because it is necessary to cultivate the tenor and oracle of God with confidence and haste. Mt. Olive this is the segway for my 3rd and final point

(3) One must accept God’s call by prayer and walk in His name.

I know that I’m in southern black church, Pastor. But we need to provide clarity about “the call” so that we can de-mystify this declaration because its the reason why so many ministries are being handicapped in this contemporary age. Once God writes His law on your life................you have been called. It really is up to you if you choose to accept it. For some, the call and devotion maybe Pastoral care and administration, for some it will include homiletics or preaching, for others it may be lay ministry, for others it may hospitality to welcome and house the immigrant or the alien, for some it may be administration. But whatever the call is................… to do it.......(1) you must pick it up by the power of prayer and then you must (2)............. walk in His name.

I know you have approached a season of mourning right here at the door of the advent season but I want you to know that God wants you to seek His presence, hear His voice, and walk in His name because no matter the season of discourse that the Master allows you to encounter, He has promised restoration in His name..........God does not have to evacuate you from the trouble to deliver you from the trouble. The Israelites experienced 700 yrs of waiting (that is, hard labor and exile living amongst peoples as immigrants unable to dictate the immediate control of their situation) for their promise and God is not asking you to wait the same time. He loves you so much that before any punishment came He gave you a promise to restore you and tipped His hand at glory........this isn’t one of those Christmas stories but Micah points us further to the whole reason why we are here over in Chapter 5.

Micah 5:2 “But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

How good is God to let us know that not only is He making a promise to us today. But that that promise is built on the Hope of the One to come. You keep worrying about marginalizing you because of the color of your skin but the God took the least and gave us the Most.

Can I tell you of another reference to a mountain in the Bible?

In Mark chapter 9. Jesus (our HOPE) takes Peter, James and John up a mountain. Now this is not new to the 3 disciples because Jesus was always seeking an opportunity to pray. But on this occasion, Jesus went up one way...........and came down different. He was...........transfigured (mystically transformed) right before them so that he became radiant with his clothes glowing brightly. Jesus is presented to his faithful disciples now as both God and man. What Micah prophesied of is made manifest in this story makin the scripture true.............You see in Micah’s day God lived in the tabernacle on the side of Mt. Zion. But now now in Mark the presence of God is visibly manifested in the humanity of Jesus the Christ......

What was once kept behind a door is now available to the believer. You missed your opportunity to shout. Let me say it again………What was once kept behind a door is now tangible.

All that I am trying to say is that the physical tabernacle at Mt. Zion had some limitations...........You could travel to it but Only the priests could get into the holy of holies and bid on behalf of your comeback, that is your restoration.........But Jesus in the Markan chapter 9 account became in that instance became the hope of your restoration because he became the tabernacle. And that where I need to take my seat because God has been good to me. He didn’t promise to fix all my problems for me but He promised that He would never leave me to my problems. And perhaps that is your witness and your story. That Jesus didn’t say that you would be troubled and cry sometimes but that He would be there to wipe your tears away. Yes, God.

And now church, we have landed the 747 on the runway.......and I’m almost finished.....Since God has been good to you......I need you to stand and grab the hand of the person to your left and to your right......gently squeeze it a few times and bow your head with me for a word of prayer.

Father and almighty God...the creator of all the heavens and the earth. We are so thankful that despite our sin, you wrapped yourself in flesh to see about us. Now God, I don’t know what my neighbor needs, but You do. I don’t know all of what my neighbor is going thru, but You do. Some worry about the man in the White House, in this contemporary age we are dealing with some level of classism, oppression, depression, and injustice just like the Israelites. Some are fresh from the cemetery and the truth is that we are all headed that way. But……….. we have a hope! And in way or how You choose to fix it, it will be well my soul. And God, mature us and love us into understanding that what cannot be fixed on this side, will be made whole and complete on the other side....God, because of the Hope that your Son embodies (because He yet lives) we will hasten to your presence, seek out Your voice, and when Your law has been written on our hearts we will accept our call by prayer and devotion to walk this way of life in your name. God it is our desire that we not leave your side while you are in the fight on our behalf. We pray all of these things to a just and everlasting God. . . . . . in the name of your Son. . . . . .Jesus, the Christ. Amen