Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

God has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
-Micah 6:6-8

Each New Year we consider how we want the next year to be… How do we want to act differently?  Which habits do we want to change?  What exercise plan should we adopt?  Many of these changes will be for the better.  Sadly, we often only keep up those “New Years Resolutions” for about a week or two and then slip back into our old bad habits.  Thankfully we don’t have to make giant changes for God.  When the people of Israel asked what type of huge sacrifices would be acceptable to God, God’s response was pretty simple… act justly, love mercy, and walk with me.

This winter, we will explore specific ways we can work for justice in the world, love others with mercy, and walk humbly with God.  Big shifts start with small steps.  I hope you join us in worship as we walk with God on this journey.

O God our eternal Father, we praise thee for gifts of mind with which thou hast endowed us. We are able to rise out of the half-realities of the sense world to a world of ideal beauty and eternal truth. Forgive us for loving others half-heartedly.  Teach us, we pray Thee, how to use this great gift of reason and imagination so that it shall not be a curse but a blessing. Grant us visions that shall lift us from worldliness and sin into the light of thine own holy presence. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Thank you to Bob Merriman for filling the pulpit this Sunday.  Pastor Hanna and her mother, Kriss, are cheering on Hanna and Jamey’s daughter, Vivienne, at her gymnastics competition in Honolulu.