First Friends Meeting
Micah 4:1-5
‘The Mountain of the Lord’
Doug Gwyn

Last Sunday, in Room Four, we began a four-part series discussing a video lecture by John Spong. Spong is a bishop in the Episcopal Church and the author of several books about the current state of the Church. One of his central ideas is that most of the Church is stuck in backward-looking and superstitious ways of believing. He suggests that Christians need to find more modern, scientific, psychologically aware, and socially progressive ways of believing and acting in the world. As he puts it in the title of one book, “the Church must progress or die.” He knows how to sell books.

In the part of the lecture we listened to last Sunday, Spong made his case against both right-wing fundamentalism and the moderate mainstream of the Church today. He sees both as deeply flawed and bound to fail in the long run. Fundamentalists are too fearful of the world and the mainstream Church are too comfortable with the world as it is. Spong believes that fundamentalist Christianity will implode and mainstream Christianity will fade quietly away. He says both are avoiding ‘reality’. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to hear last Sunday what ‘reality’ is. I look forward to finding out.

I must admit, I’m always a bit suspicious whenever anyone speaks too confidently about progress – especially when a white, highly educated male speaks of progress. Of course, that description fits me too, so beware. But one of the important changes we have experienced over the past 50 years is a healthy suspicion of progress. The advent of the atomic bomb first began to shake our confidence that scientific discovery and technological advancement have placed us on an escalator of progress, ever onward and upward. Around that same time, Gandhi’s work for the independence of India jolted the perspective of the white, industrial nations. Gandhi made us recognize what counted for progress in Britain came at the expense of India’s development. India had its own destiny to pursue, not as a colony of the British Empire. Last week, I reflected on the prophetic witness of Martin Luther King. The civil rights movement in this country made us realize that American progress cannot ignore the rights and destiny of the African-American people. The women’s movement made us face the fact that our sense of progress has been based on the assumption that women should support whatever men think best. These movements have all made it more difficult to define progress. Progress for whom – and at whose expense? Now I’m sure Bishop Spong is on board with all these newer perspectives of today’s world. But there may be deeper questions for us to face about our idea of progress.

Two weeks ago, Bob and Hope Carter gave us a glimpse of what they see in Africa. The Church is exploding in Africa today, and it’s a pretty conservative Church. It’s easy for white liberals over here to say, well, OK, those Africans are new at this. After they’ve grown up a bit as a Church, they will see it our way. But again, is that simply progress from our perspective? Is there a hint of racism and cultural imperialism in our smug assurance in these views? Perhaps African Christians know some things we do not.

These reflections made me recall another of the great prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures, the vision of Micah that Joan has read for us. “The mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains…Peoples shall stream to it 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” (4:1-2). Now, for Micah, the mountain of the Lord’s house was Mount Zion, the hill in Jerusalem where Solomon’s temple stood On the face of it, at least, this is a very Zionist vision. Most religions of the ancient world had their temples built on hilltops, places where heaven and earth seem to meet. So the mountain of the Lord’s house rising above all others symbolizes that someday, everybody’s going to realize that our God is the real one. Everybody’s going to be coming our way. Now that’s progress! Whatever our religious faith, whatever our political views – that’s what we all want to believe.

Someday, the everybody will catch up with what I already know is true – with, well, reality.

And indeed, that may be what Micah believed. But he goes on to prophesy that “out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between many peoples…between strong nations far away.” So at first, Micah has everybody coming to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. But then it shifts to God going out to the nations, even strong nations far away. Well, the further it goes out from Jerusalem, how much does Micah expect that this is going to be a Jewish religion?

Well, we don’t know what Micah thought about that. But he goes on to describe so beautifully what it means when everyone starts learning directly from God, and when God begins to settle disputes between nations. Swords will be beaten into plowshares. War will be no more. But there’s no such peace without justice. War will end because everyone will have a means of livelihood. Micah states it poetically as everyone with their own vine and fig tree. So Micah is clear: there will be no spiritual revolution without a revolution in the way we live.

As Christians, we can hear Micah’ prophecy fulfilled, at least in part, by the coming of Christ. Jesus Christ, born of the line of David, has become the Savior of many peoples the world over. In a way, the peoples of the world have come to Jerusalem, the City of David, to be taught by God. We read Bibles that contain both Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. But at the same time, the God of Zion went out from Jerusalem to all the world. And in going out into the nations, Christianity was transformed to a Jewish renewal movement to another faith. Now, Christians have a long way to go in fulfilling Micah’s vision of a peaceful and just world. We have contributed to violence an exploitation as much as worked for peace and justice. Micah’s prophecy should remind us that the Church is still deeply flawed.

Perhaps we will struggle with our different visions for a long time to come. Some will hope and work for the spread of Christian faith around the world. Others will prefer to work for a more peaceful, just, and tolerant world. So some will work for missions and evangelism. And I think the world could use more people like Bob and Hope Carter. Not only do they use their medical training to heal the sick. They also preaching the gospel wholeheartedly, but in a way that respects people and their culture.

Meanwhile, others may prefer interfaith dialogue and a deeper appreciation of what we share in common in our different beliefs and practices. Nearly a year ago, some of us engaged in a Christian and Muslim dialogue for several weeks. Our two Muslim participants, Saoud and Rana, taught us many important things about Islam. But perhaps most importantly, they modeled a mutual respect despite some serious differences. We discovered that Saoud is Sunni Muslim, while Rana is Shi’ite. And while Saoud often presented Islam in more liberal and philosophical terms, Rana gently countered his explanations with a more conservative viewpoint. It was wonderful to watch how they struggled to be faithful witnesses alongside each other, while also listening respectfully to us.

That’s something I think many of us cherish here at First Friends as well. We know we have different starting points, different leanings, different directions. But we hang in there with each other. We keep listening to each other. Sometimes we may have to take a deep breath. And sometimes we have to speak with gentle courage when we feel our viewpoint has been misunderstood. We know that we really excel at worship, fellowship and refreshments. But we must still dare to speak our truth to one another.

I read a quote this week: “The Church is like a swimming pool – most of the splashing takes place at the shallow end.” I don’t think it necessarily means that some people are shallow and others are like the still waters that run deep. Perhaps whenever we engage in discussion, we are always at the shallow end of the pool. Because we only superficially understand each other’s words. We cannot fully plumb the depths that lie behind the words. So it’s good to spend some time together in the deep end, especially when the splashing gets to be too much. That’s a wonderful lead-in to Open Worship! I’m going to stop splashing around now. Let’s take this to the deep end and let the Lord teach us at a level that is below the thoughts of our heads, below even the feelings of our hearts.