When the Social Fabric Rips

Scripture: Micah 7: 1-7

Sermon: When the Social Fabric Rips

Topics: truth, lies, lament, covenant, kingdom

Preached: March 20, 2022

Rev. Mike Abma

Preamble: Today we are visited by the prophet Micah.

There are so many things to like about Micah.

He is a prophet of social justice. He rebukes the powerful for taking advantage of the weak, and then he promises the weak that God will gather them like a shepherd gathering his sheep.

Micah is also a prophet of social peace. He admonishes the leaders of the land who are corrupt and violent, and promises a time when swords will be made into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks.

And when people complained that they did not know what God wanted, Micah said it was clear what God wanted from us.

God wants us to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with him.

In many ways, Micah is magnificent.

But even Micah was overwhelmed by how bad things had gotten.

So, at the end of Micah, in the last chapter, chapter 7, he offers this lament.

Micah 7: 1-7

Woe is me! For I have become like one who,

   after the summer fruit has been gathered,

   after the vintage has been gleaned,

finds no cluster to eat;

   there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger.<sup>[1]

2</sup> The faithful have disappeared from the land,

   and there is no one left who is upright;

they all lie in wait for blood,

   and they hunt each other with nets.

³ Their hands are skilled to do evil;

   the official and the judge ask for a bribe,

and the powerful dictate what they desire;

   thus they pervert justice.

⁴ The best of them is like a brier,

   the most upright of them a thorn hedge.

The day of their sentinels, of their punishment, has come;

   now their confusion is at hand.

⁵ Put no trust in a friend,

   have no confidence in a loved one;

guard the doors of your mouth

   from her who lies in your embrace;

⁶ for the son treats the father with contempt,

   the daughter rises up against her mother,

the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

   your enemies are members of your own household.

⁷ But as for me, I will look to the Lord,

   I will wait for the God of my salvation;

   my God will hear me.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION BROOKS’ LAMENT

In January of this year, the New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote an article entitled “America is Coming Apart at the Seams.”^[2] In this article, Brooks observed some disturbing trends. He notes that in 2020-2021 vehicle traffic was way down because of the pandemic. But shockingly traffic deaths were way up.

Why was that?

It was because people were driving much more recklessly.

Brooks went on to note how this recklessness is evident in a number of other disturbing trends.

* the number of unruly passengers on airplanes is way up.

* the number of unruly patients in hospitals is way up.

* the number of unruly students in schools is way up.

* the number of unruly customers in restaurants is way up.

What is going on, Brooks laments?

Why is friction rising?

Why is patience falling?

Why is care for each other declining,

and hostility toward each other increasing?

Brooks laments, “Why is society falling apart at the seams?”

MICAH’S LAMENT

What David Brooks did a few months ago, the prophet Micah did several millennia ago. In the passage we just read, the prophet Micah also laments how his society was coming apart at the seams:

* friends did not trust friends.

* spouses did not confide in spouses.

* sons did not listen to fathers.

* daughters argued with mothers.

No one trusted anyone anymore.

Everyone was doing their own thing.

Everyone was going their own way.

Everyone was only trusting in their own personal decisions.

No one seemed to care about anyone else.

The social fabric was ripping and was tearing apart.

A theme throughout the prophet Micah is that corruption was rampant.

Corruption was rampant because truth had become scarce.

Everyone was lying.

Everyone was either telling people what they what they wanted to hear,

or what they wanted other people to believe.

It was these lies that were causing this erosion of trust.

It was these lies that was ripping society apart.

The thing about lies is that they isolate people from one another.

As Neal Plantinga once noted,

in a land where truth seems rare,

it is not that people believe in nothing.

The opposite is true.

In a land where truth seems rare, and lies seem rampant,

people begin to believe in almost anything.

People will begin to believe whatever they want to believe.

People will find the reasons and the resources to believe it.^[3]

PUTIN’S BLIND SELF-INTEREST

Since the David Brooks article in January, a new challenge has entered our global landscape. Russia has invaded Ukraine.

This war is not only being waged with tanks and missiles.

This war is also being waged by words, and stories, and ideas.

The isolated and reclusive leaders of Russia

say this war is a matter of their security.

They say re-absorbing Ukraine into Russia is a matter of destiny.

They say using military violence is a matter of necessity.

It seems to be the world of Micah all over again –

the powerful twisting the truth.

The powerful perverting justice.

The powerful causing chaos and confusion.

This present war in Ukraine is a tragic example of

people becoming isolated from each other.

People no longer trusting one another or listening to one another.

People being motivated and driven by self-interest.

People starting to believe their own lies,

Then wanting everyone else to believe their lies.

Then after starting to believe anything,

they start to do anything – including starting a war.^[4]

MICAH’S PRAYER

For the prophet Micah, war is never the answer.

Micah does not call for a war of weapons,

or for a war of words.

War is not the answer, for Micah.

Turning to the Lord is the answer.

Micah’s lament ends with these words:

As for me, I will look to the Lord.

I will wait for the God of my salvation:

My God will hear me.

The way to begin healing the torn fabric of our society and of our world

is not by force,

not by decree,

and not by insisting on our own way.

The way to begin healing the torn fabric

is by looking to the Lord.

JESUS – THE TRUTH

In this Lenten season, when we look to the Lord, we look upon Jesus.

Jeus is the one who said,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Jesus is the one who stood before the powers of the world and said,

“I came, I was born, to testify to the truth.”

What is this truth? as Pilate so famously asked.

In Jesus, we see the truth.

In Jesus we see the truth about God, about ourselves, and about our lives.

In Jesus we see the truth about God – the truth that God loved us so much and was

so determined to mend the rift between him and us, that he sent his own Son to reconcile us to Himself. Jesus is all about mending the rift between God

and us.

In Jesus, we see the truth about ourselves – that on our own we are lost in our lies.

We are able to be set free from

our penchant to lie,

our corrosive cynicism,

and our inherent self-interest

only when the Spirit of Jesus enters into us, fills us, and begins to make us

new.

In Jesus, we see the truth about our life – that our life is about love others and

forgive others, and reconciling with others,

even as God loves us, forgives us, and reconciled with us.

These are the truths that bind us together.

These are the truths that help us discern light from darkness.

TRANSACTIONAL vs COVENANTAL

In the light of the truth of Jesus, how can we begin mending society?

Let me go back to the prophet Micah for a moment.

Earlier in Micah, the prophet laments that all relationships had become transactional.

This is how Micah describes it in 3:11:

rulers only ruled for profit,

priests only served for gain,

and prophets only prophesied for money.

In other words, all relationships had been boiled down to transactions.

All relationships had been boiled down to

“What do I get out of this?”

“What do I gain from this?”

In a totally transactional world, if people do not feel they are gaining enough, they do what they can, either deviously or forcefully, to gain more.

We, God’s people, are not called to be transactional people.

We are called to be a covenantal people.

We are a covenantal people because we follow a covenantal God.

Just as God loves us, forgives us, sticks with us, and generously gives to us,

so we strive to love others, forgive others, stick with others, and generously

give to others.

Where transactions put an emphasis on what we get,

covenants put an emphasis on what we can give.

Covenants are based on a gracious exchange of gifts.

Just imagine with me, for a moment, what a covenantal society might look:

A teacher gifts her students with her learning,

and her students gift their teacher with their attention.

A nurse gifts her patients with her attentive care,

and her patients gifts their nurses with their heart-felt gratitude.

A soldier gifts his country with his service

and his country gifts him with their support.

Parents gift their children with their loving nurture,

and children gift their parents with their honor and respect.

Isn’t there something very refreshing about this type of covenantal gifting.^[5]

Covenantal gifting is an antidote to a toxic environment of suspicion.

Covenantal gifting helps create a landscape of trust and care.

COVENANTAL GIFTS IN ACTION

Recently I read of a high school in the Canadian city Winnipeg, Manitoba that seemed to resonate with some of this covenantal gifting. An Educational Aid in the High School was in distress. She was Ukrainian and living in Canada, but her father was still in Kyiv, Ukraine. The distress was because, once Russia invaded Ukraine, her aging father desperately wanted to get out of the city and wanted to get out of the country but could not figure out how. Roads were blocked. Bridges were blown. Public transport was interrupted. It was all confusing and paralyzing.

The Educational Aid shared her distress and heartbreak with some of her fellow teachers. The teachers said they would pray for her father’s safety. But one of the teachers, a geography teacher, said, “Let’s see what we can do.” This geography teacher told the 12^th grade geography class about the situation. This is western Canada. Western Canada has many Ukrainians in it. Some of the students in this class were Ukrainian and even knew the Ukrainian language – how to speak it, how to read it. These students began scouring social media sites for any on-the-ground information. The other students in the class began pouring over Google maps, and satellite images and whatever other online sources they could find. Over the several days, the students had mapped out a route, detouring around the dangerous places to avoid, and giving guidance for the best way to travel. All this was communicated to the father in Ukraine. The whole class, in fact the whole school, cheered when they heard that Mr. Gary Milani, the dad, finally had arrived safely in Krakow Poland.^[6]

Gifting people with the trust of sharing your heartache.

Then gifting another person with your determined compassion.

CONCLUSION

There is much to lament in our society and in our world.

The fabric is frayed. Relationships have been ripped apart.

We lament. And we should lament.

But we should not only lament.

We also need to labor.

We should pray, but then we also need to get to work.

We need to listen for God’s call to pursue his kingdom.

We need to listen for Jesus’ voice,

calling us to follow him in his truth and in his grace;

calling us to follow him in lives of justice and of kindness;

calling us to follow him in lives of humility and generosity.

We may have a lot to lament.

But we have even more to labor for,

to work for,

to strive for.

For when we seek first and strive first

for God’s kingdom,

for God’s truth,

for God’s kindness,

f or God’s humility,

then everything will begin to mend once again.

AMEN

1. Jesus seems to allude to this passage in failing to find figs to eat in Matthew 21: 18- and Mark 11: 12-13. ↑

2. David Brooks, “America is Falling Apart at the Seams,” in NYT, January 13, 2022. ↑

3. See Neal Plantinga’s 2000 Convocation Address to Calvin College, On Truthfulness. ↑

4. There are many sources for Putin’s lies, but Bruce Berglund’s recent lecture for the Calvin University History Department, Understanding Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine https://youtu.be/cjELXYOA_Dk ↑

5. For more on this, again see David Brooks, “How Covenants Make Us” NYT, April 5, 2016. ↑

6. CBC News, “With the help of Social Media and Satellite Imagery, Winnipeg High School students help man flee Ukraine” March 10, 2022. ↑