Easy to memorize, hard to do
4th Sunday of Epiphany February 1, 2026
The texts for this sermon are Micah 6:1-8 and Matthew 5:1-12
The Israelites were doing good. They were going to church, paying their tithes, tracking with the Law of Moses. and they were pretty pleased with themselves for doing so. But then they got notice they were being sued. Ever had this experience? If not, imagine reading a letter on 20-pound rag-paper from an attorney informing you that you were being sued.
The prophet Micah is telling the Israelites they’re being called to court by God. God tells them to:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains
and let the hills hear your voice
Then God turns to the jury:
Listen, you mountains, to the indictment of the Lord
And you enduring foundations of the earth,
Because the Lord has a case against God’s people;
Even with Israel God will dispute.
And then, in the dead silence as they all look at one another, hearts pounding, mouths as dry as dust, wonder “What did we do?”
God answers their unspoken question with God’s own question:
My people, what have I done to you,
and how have I wearied you? Answer me.
Ever done something that displeased your parents and instead of anger or frustration you were met with sorrow? What you’d done hurt them sorely and it stopped you in your tracks. You can yell back at anger; you can offer appeasement for frustration, but hurt? That leaves you speechless does it not?
So I envision this courtroom becoming deathly quiet. God is not shouting at the Israelites. God is not throwing lightning or splitting the earth beneath their feet.
Instead, God asks
My people, what have I done to you?
And how have I wearied you?
Do we hear the pathos here? God is speaking heart-broken-ness and we’re stunned to silence.
God continues:
I brought you up from the land of Egypt
I ransomed you from the house of slavery
Remember about Balak, king of Moab, who wanted to curse you?
And what Ba’laam answered him?
And Shittim, do you remember that? A Moab woman in Shittim protected your spies whom I, in turn, protected when I led you out of Gilgal across the Jordon on ground into the Promised Land?
Do you remember, people? Do you remember how I’ve freed you, fed you, protected you, led you? How I gave you a home of milk and honey? What have I done to you and how have I wearied you?
And then from somewhere in the crowd and out of the silence someone speaks up and asks
With what shall I come to the Lord
And bow myself before the God on High?
Does God want more sacrifices?
Would a thousand rams be what is demanded?
Would rivers of oil be enough?
Does God want my first-born?!
Is that what is required for my atonement?
What sounds, at first, like contrition becomes sarcasm. They’ve been offering their sacrifices, they’ve been heeding the Law to the letter so they think and God is asking for more? The speaker is shouting, “What more do you want from us?”
What God wants is for them to recognize they have become a self-focused people, they have mistaken correctness for faithfulness, the letter of the law for the spirit of the law, proforma with genuine worship, just show up, make sure you’ve got a spotless lamb, and all is well.
So yes given all that God has given them because of God’s steadfast love for them, they respond not with love and humility but self-satisfaction and pride, and injustice as well.
We now hear the prophet’s voice:
God has told you, o people, o mortals, what is good;
and what the Lord requires of you:
to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with God.
It’s so significant that of all the examples God could have given them of what God had done for them God chooses the accounts of Ba’laam and Shittim.
Ba’laam is an account of God protecting them when they were refugees, if you will: newcomers into territory occupied by others who wanted to kill them. Shittim is an account of God blessing and protecting Rahab—again a person considered ‘other’ when God was preparing to lead them into the promised land.
These memories should have reminded them that God is a God of blessing, and they were to be a people who were to bless in return. And what does this blessing look like? How does it get expressed? By doing justice, by behaving with loving kindness, and by being humble.
DO JUSTICE: not just speak in its favor; not just wish for it; not just bemoan its absence. Rather, do things that call forth and promote fairness and equality and empowerment for the weak, the poor, the wronged.
LOVE KINDNESS: not goodness out of duty but rather goodness that springs from joy and delight without resentment; to seek the welfare of the other, whoever the other happens to be.
WALK HUMBLY: not in arrogance or pretentiousness but with reverence, reverence to God, reverence for others.
Do Justice: is about ethics
Love Kindness: is about mercy
Walk Humbly: is about a way of life, walked in service of God, remembering who
We are in the scheme of things—the order of creation
And all of this was so counter to the culture in which Israel lived at the time. It was so counter to the culture in which we live. A culture rife with injustice; a culture calibrated by judgment, not mercy; a culture ravenous for power.
But we know that’s not how God wants us to live, is it? And while we, in our individual lives, may align as well as we can with justice, mercy, and humility, it’s not always easy, and we, like the Israelites, can slide down that same slippery slope. And also, my friends, churches of all ilks and faith communities, by any name, can actually mimic and accept the culture in which they reside. They fail to raise a unified and insistent voice for justice, mercy, and humility. So Jesus comes along and affirms the message of Micah and of Psalm 15 by countering the value system, the Israelite culture of his day (and ours). It is the poor, those who mourn, the meek, those who seek what is righteous, and those who show mercy who will be a blessing and, themselves, be blessed.
Jesus outlines the paradox of the God-infused life. The people and community of such:
who are poor in spirit realizing that their soul, their wellbeing depends entirely on God, will be blessed by relying on the power of God’s realm, not themselves or the powers at be;
who mourn, lamenting how far removed the world is from God. They will be bles-sed with hope and the assurance that the present state of affairs will not always be so;
who are meek in that they renounce worldly power and manipulations. They will be blessed because they rely on the undeniable power of God;
who hunger for righteousness and actively do the will of God will be satisfied even as they await the coming of God’s Kingdom;
who offer concrete mercy even when their compassion and generosity are criticized, or misunderstood, are gifted with mercy;
who are pure in heart, wholly devoted to God with no divided loyalties. They will be blessed by perceiving the yet unseen victory of God.
who are peacemakers who actively undertake acts of reconciliation in the fullest sense of the word and thus belong to the true people of God—entering into their inheritance.
These are not descriptions of seven different kinds of people, but rather, a description of the characteristics of God’s faithful: individual and corporate.
Therefore, Rejoice!
For when we are persecuted for living these qualities “out loud” in both attitude and deed, and thus out of step with the value system of our culture, we are like the prophets of Israel. The blessings conferred on us for being these counter-culture-God’s-Realm kind of people enable us to be God’s agents for blessing others, for blessing our world.
Is this big? Yes. Is it daunting? Yes. Is it worth aspiring to? Yes! most certainly!!
Being this kind of person. Being together in this as a faithful community and in company with other faithful communities counters the chaos and anxiety and leads people to the blessedness of God.
Linda Quanstrom, Pastor
Cornelius UMC
Cornelius OR