Questions-Day 13 (2/25/13)

February 25

Gunsmoke? No, the Bible

Micah 6:6-8

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?

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 thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 

⁸ He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

In the summer of 1988, I accepted a position to work at Trinity United Methodist Church.  I was responsible for Christian Education, Youth Ministry and general ministerial support since there was no Associate Pastor and I was attending Duke Divinity School.  We enjoyed that summer, in part because we lived close to the church and a Krispy Kreme Donut shop.  More on the donut shop later.

Micah was 2 years old and one of few children in the church.  Due to the class schedule, our summer was really a four month summer and we were able to get acquainted with most of the congregation by attending their Sunday School classes and gatherings.  Trinity was adjacent to a historic district in Raleigh and the membership constituted most persons who had been at Trinity UMC for the last 40 years.  There were very few newer and younger families.

I remember so clearly one Sunday evening potluck and hymn singing in the small fellowship hall.  It was a wonderful time of fellowship as we sang hymns from the "old Cokesbury hymnal".  I knew many of the hymns and helped lead them.  During our time of fellowship we heard about the more vibrant years of the church when evening services were held every week, but they had to be earlier than most because everyone would go home to watch "Gunsmoke".

Shawn and I were fascinated by this and expressed our surprise that "Gunsmoke" was so popular.  To this one person replied, "Well, I thought you would have known that.  When we heard your son's name was Micah, we just figured you knew the old western shows.  Did you get your son Micah's name from the "Rifleman" . . . Micah Torrance, the Marshal of North Fork?"

We politely replied, "No", assuming that they were aware of the books of the Bible.  "Then where did you get his name from?" she asked.  "We got his name from the Bible, prophet Micah" we said as nicely as we could.

The prophet Micah was a prophet from 742-687 B.C., a time period which overlapped much of the ministry of Isaiah, including the period of the reign of King Hezekiah.  The prophet Micah saw the religious sickness among his people and after putting forth the rhetorical questions, listing all the kinds of sacrifices which people had been giving - burnt offerings, calves, thousands of rams, rivers of olive oil -. .Micah makes this statement, which has been an antagonist for faithfulness for generations

⁸ He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah says it is not a matter of adding up points and tallying up percentages of Sundays when you went to church or how often and what kind of sacrifices/gifts you offered to God.

Have you ever reflected on how significantly or insignificantly your beliefs are shaped by the Holy Scriptures? 

Why do you believe what you do about the issues of love, forgiveness, and justice?

What does God want from you?

©Dr. Burt Palmer, Sr. Pastor Polk Street UMC
aka “Sheepdog”
All Scripture references are from the New International Version.