Hope and Redemption:Hope In Chaos Micah 2: 12-13

At the beginning of August the church started studying the book of Acts together. As we began that particular study in chapter one, we set the scene together. The disciples were huddled in the crowded upper room, and Jesus kept appearing to them and then leaving, probably resulting in their own confusion as he spoke to them about things they did not yet understand. The average person on the street who heard bits and pieces of what they had experienced between Jesus’ death and what we refer to in the church as his ascension, probably felt disbelief. The Roman political leaders were mad enough to kill anyone claiming to be a disciple of Jesus as they seethed from their stone that had been rolled away from the grave. When we summed up this scene, the word we used was chaos.

But chaos was not unique to only that time in the upper room. Chaos reigned during the time of the Hebrew Scriptures, which we refer to as the Old Testament, as well. For the next two weeks we are going to be looking at the prophet Micah together. The prophet Micah is most commonly known for verse 8 in chapter 6 of his writings, which was the key verse for my particular seminary, And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. However, when we look at that verse in isolation we miss the context of the prophet’s writings in their entirety. 

The Jewish people had been through a lot. They had went through periods of growing closer to God, listening to the teaching of the prophets, and periods of rebellion, when they rejected the teaching of God and the words of warning issued through God’s prophets. They went through periods where they were proud to be the people of the covenant, the people of God, and periods when they wanted to be just like everyone else around them, demanding that they had a judge or a king to rule over them instead of looking to God. Their refusal to follow God alone ultimately led to the destruction of Jerusalem, their holy place of worship, and their lament.

The prophet Micah enters into this wondering and returning pattern of the people of Israel well before the great fall of Jerusalem, which is recounted by the prophet Jeremiah, when the people of Israel become captives to the Babylonians. Perhaps because the people hadn’t yet experienced a great destruction in their life time, they were prone to disbelieve this prophet standing before them speaking of the future destruction of Jerusalem and Samaria, calling for them to repent. Maybe his words about not only the pending destruction but also the restoration of Judea fell on deaf ears. And maybe his words telling them to turn away from idolatry and return to worshipping God alone was met with cold hearts. 

If I had to use a word to describe the time in which the prophet Micah was speaking it would be chaos. Idols were being bought by money that was earned through prostitution. The temple was being financed by dishonest business practices. The citizens didn’t have enough money to feed their families, let alone the orphans and the widows, and poverty was widespread, both in terms of money and in terms of spiritual relationship with God. Prophets weren’t prophesying because they had a message from God, but rather for money in their own pockets. It was total chaos. 

Just like the disciples during the time of Acts and the people of Israel during the time of the prophet Micah, we too understand chaos. Every day we seem to hear another story of heartache and destruction on the news. I have heard more sermons about just waiting it out until Jesus comes back or we fly away to heaven to count. We seem to be almost paralyzed with fear about what to do or where to go in this world of utter chaos. 

But here is the thing about the prophet Micah. While his prophesies were certainly addressed to a people in chaos, a people in desperate need, and spoke of everything they love and hold dear being destroyed his message does not end there. Instead, in the midst of all of this bedlam he had a message of hope. A message that we find in this morning’s scripture lesson. That Judah would be restored to a state beyond her wildest imaginations. She would shine farther and brighter than ever before. That God would gather together the people of Jacob and still call them a holy people, a remnant. That God would watch after them and care for them as sheep in a pasture. That God would break open a way out of what looks like no way and the Lord would again reign at their head. 

Some of you have heard me talk a bit about the semester I spent abroad during college in Australia. It was truly a formative time in my life and in my ministry. Part of that semester’s requirements was going on trips throughout the Australian countryside to learn how people in different parts of Australia live. One weekend we found ourselves in a rural area filled with farms with a task before us - to get the sheep in the pasture to come through the gate in order to be sheered. If I could sum up in one word what happened next it would be chaos. Australians and Americans joined forces to chase large bleating sheep into corners of their pen before one or more of us would capture them by jumping on them and wrestling them to the ground. Chaos. Then after the sheep would thrash around as they were led to be sheered. Even though they had to know that they would feel better without the extra heat of the wool building against their skin, they thrashed around and often ended up being cut by accident on the sheering block. Chaos. 

Brothers and sisters, the new Judea that the prophet Micah was speaking about wasn’t going to come easy. The people he was speaking to would have known how hard of a job God would have in taming the sheep. They would have known what it would have looked like for a sheep to be sheered and go through the gate. They knew it would be chaos. But out of the chaos would come hope. 

Church, we need a little more hope today. And I don’t mean the type of hope that simply claims we need to wait it out until we get to Heaven. That type of hope leaves out the message of a God who cares for us for so many who are yearning for such deep and abiding care. If the message that would have been presented to the people in Micah’s day was simply about destruction or how chaotic things were or that God was going to destroy them, hope would have been nonexistent. But that wasn’t the message being presented then and that isn’t the message that we have to claim now. 

Think about all that the people of Israel had been through prior to the words of the prophets. The exile. The slavery. The 40 years of wanderig. God didn’t end the story with those situations and God did not end the story with the destruction of Jerusalem or the destruction of the world. Instead the prophet boldly proclaimed that God was doing a new thing and the chaos of this world would not be the norm forever. That the King would pass before them and restore the people of God. 

All too often we get caught up in this pattern of only talking about hope in terms of the afterlife as Christians, forgetting that God is the God of this world too, despite the chaos that may seem to reign around us, and as a result of our God being above the chaos we have a hope in this world too.  A hope that the Kingdom of God will be known.  A hope that God is doing a new thing, even if we can’t perceive it with our human senses. And out of the chaos, hope will come. 

Do we believe that God can bring hope to small towns that are losing employment? Do we believe that God can bring hope into the midst of the violence we hear about day in and day out on the TV screen? Do we believe that God can bring hope to the broken hearted widow or the family being split up into foster care? Do we believe that God can bring hope to churches with declining attendance? Do we believe in the hope of God? 

The Jewish people had the belief that God would save them today - do we have that same hope today and are we proclaiming it? Because love and hope are inextricably linked. If we believe in trust in the loving heart of God we will have hope even in the midst of what others will perceive as hopelessness. And not just pie in the sky type hope, but the hope of a redeemer. Not just a utopian dream of hope that relies on the myth that this world will get better itself, but hope that God will conquer evil. Hope in a God that is putting this world right and will again call it “very good.” A hope that transcends. A hope that changes things. A hope that says that their is a future, even in the midst of the chaos, because our God is not done with us yet. Amen!