Monday, January 24, 2011

Micah 6:1-8

"We'd stay open in a zombie apocalypse"

That's what our waiter told us at Waffle House when we asked him if they had been open in a recent snowstorm.   (In Tennessee, staying open in a snowstorm,infrequent as they are, is our local version of riding out a hurricane) We kept trying to picture a zombie apocalypse, and just couldn't stop giggling.   Still can't. Wondering if our waiter had had a moment of comic inspiration, or was simply alluding to some kind of cult talk I wasn't aware of, I did what everyone does who feels out of the loop: I googled it. Got this at Wikipedia:

A zombie apocalypse is a particular hypothetical scenario of apocalyptic theory that customarily has a science fiction/horror rationale.  In a zombie apocalypse, a widespread rise of  zombies hostile to human life engages in a general assault on civilization.

We get another picture of an "assault on civilizaton" in the Coen brothers nihilistic farce “No Country for Old Men” where Tommy Lee Jones, playing the tired sherrif, laments to an old colleague that he is outmatched by the present evil, in the person of a pathological killer.  His friend replies, “You can't stop what's coming.”  Jones (aka the sherrif) tells him that the country started falling apart when “we stopped hearing 'yes mam' and 'no mam'.”

Which is the case the Lord makes against Judah in Micah.  We stopped hearing “yes mam” and “no mam” - or, going with the text, “ to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”  This was once known, but has been forgotten.  Without it, the world may well become as bleak as a Coen brothers desertscape.  As absurd as a zombie acocalypse in which our sad world is assaulted by the walking dead.  God is making a case against it, testifying to the mountains and hills who are apparently more alive than the common two-legged inhabitants who enjoy big brains and opposable thumbs.  As the psalmist puts it: “when you send forth your spirit, the earth is created, and you renew the face of the ground.” (104:50 NRSV)   Like the waiter at Waffle House said, “We'd stay open in a zombie apocalypse.”

Why not?

© 2011 Andy Gay