First United Methodist Church

Day 23: Monday, March 27, 2017
Rev. Sela Finau

Micah 6:6-8 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) “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? 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?” 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?

One of my favorite memorized passages comes from the prophet, Micah, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” It speaks to me on so many levels. Serving God and God’s people can be difficult and sometimes discouraging. Life often present many challenges more times than we know what to do with it. Yet, this passage reminds me that we can never do enough for God through sacrifices, burnt offering, calves, rams, rivers of oil, and human sacrifices. These things are not required of us. What God requires is for us to simply do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. As God is just, we as God’s people are also called to be just and fair. As God is merciful and offers kindness, we as God’s people are also called to be merciful and show kindness. As God is humble, we as God’s people are also called to humble ourselves as we walk with God.

Holy God, thank you for your words as spoken through your prophet Micah. May we continue to grow in your likeness, to do justice, to offer kindness, and to walk humbly with you as our God. Amen

 

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Almighty ever living God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and to give more than we desire or deserve, pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those things for which our prayer dares not ask. Amen

 

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Devotional: Let’s have some real talk, “Who is my neighbor?” While the question may be a rhetorical one, some of us really want to know who our neighbors are. Are we talking about those people who live on our street? Are we talking about people who live in our neighborhood? Are we talking about people in our community? Are we talking about people in our city?

 

Growing up in the islands, I thought of neighbors as those people who lived across the street or next door and maybe the people in our surrounding areas. As neighbors, we knew that we could count on each other if we ran out of small things to needing something more serious, like being there in tough times and beyond.

 

Today, defining “neighbor” has become an individual thing and not quite so easy to define at times. Through technology, we have changed our definition of “neighbor.” We can now consider someone who lives in another state or another country our neighbors. When a natural disaster occurs or we see hungry children and families around the globe, we realize that we are part of a much bigger neighborhood. We are indeed a global family with global neighbors. Thankfully we have a global God as well.

 

During this season of Lent, expand your definition of “neighbor.” Is God calling you to be a neighbor to someone in your own community, in another state, or across the world? Maybe it’s all of the above.