The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany January 31-February 1, 2026
“The Lord’s Argument; The Lord’s Plea” Micah 6:1-8
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Have you ever been dumped? By another person. You thought they were the one for you. Your heart sped up when they came within one hundred yards of you. You giggled and smiled and blushed when you were together.
But then you got dumped. Dropped. Forgotten. Told to take a hike. You just didn’t fit into their plans. Now maybe this happened in the fourth grade. I’m still scarred from Mary Baer telling me to bug off. But maybe it was something more serious – after dating for a while, or it was after years of marriage, someone sent you packing. It hurts.
In this book of Micah we read that the people of God, Israel, God’s chosen, decided to dump God. They no longer wanted to be His selected people, His chosen possession. They called off the wedding, or exited the marriage, and they found someone or something else. They broke the heart of God. In Micah 6:3 God says, “My people, what have I done to you? How long have I burdened you?” God wanted to know what happened.
So, God reminds them of His faithfulness. He tells them again what He was willing to do to show His love. “I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.” (Micah 6:4) Don’t you remember? Don’t you remember the manna and quail and the water in the desert? I took you through the Red Sea on dry ground. Kindness after kindness, goodness after goodness. But they dumped Him. How it pains God to be shunned and refused.
Why did they abandon God? Why do so many people, at very stages of their life, abandon God? Why would you do it? Why would I do it? I know why. We have a problem with our heart.
Next week is the Super Bowl (and if you didn’t know it, our Broncos aren’t going to be there) and there is going to be a commercial paid for by State Farm Insurance mocking other insurance agencies for their lack of dedication and heart for their customers. In the commercial they create a fictious insurance company called “Halfway There Insurance”. The motto for the agency is “Lower Your Expectations.” The 2 spokesmen for this insurance group make you laugh about what they are not going to do for their customers. They don’t go the extra mile for their customers, no, they go just about halfway.
They don’t have the right heart. What does a person look like who has the wrong heart? Their passion, their drive, their determination are gone. We have a phrase for someone who is just getting by – we offer our correction and say, “Put your heart into it, boy!!” “Put your heart into it, girl!!” Jesus, when quoting Isaiah, said this about a group of Pharisees, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” (Matthew 15:8-9 – quoting Isaiah 29:13)
God’s argument against His people was that they had a wrong heart. People can have the wrong heart in regards to religion and in regards to God. We can go through the motions and say the right thing, maybe even do the right thing, but there is no heart in all of it. Just look at life, we can do such things at work, in relationships and in marriage – but our heart is not in it.
God said that their heart was distracted. The famous words from Micah 6 are:
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 oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. 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)
Notice the progression of their religious offering – all to make payment for the sin of their soul. Calves one year old. I guess offering such an animal would be the best they could offer. Or maybe, thousands of rams. Or, ten thousand rivers of oil. And then it gets even greater and more miserable. I’ll give my firstborn, my own child, to make up for my failings. And God didn’t want any of it.
Just plain ritual, going through the motions, even in areas of religion, are worthless if the heart is not right. In the Psalms we hear, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17) I read about a husband who had had an affair and was unfaithful to his wife. He tried to win her back by bringing her some flowers. How repugnant!! He minimized the pain that he brought. God doesn’t want your calves or your rams or your oil or your children. He wants you. “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
He is asking for our heart. He is asking for us. He desires us to be His. But I bet you that the only time you are going to give yourself to another and trust them and be amazingly close to them is if you know them – you know their heart. Before you can give yourself to your God you need to know His heart.
How God yearns for you and everyone to trust Him and follow Him. Before long we begin the season of Lent. Do you know what Lent tells us? We are beloved and treasured. God doesn’t treasure us because we always do the right things, He treasures us because His heart is filled with compassion and care and tenderness toward us. God has the right heart. Jesus wept over the hardness of the heart of the people in Jerusalem, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37)
Jesus had the right heart. He didn’t just go through the motions. Everything that I see in Him is what Micah is asking for, “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Peter writes about these things when he says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (I Peter 1:18-19)
When you say that you believe in Jesus what are you saying? How about this? You are saying that He had the right heart. He came with humility for all people, in every situation, for all those in need of cleansing one’s life from the horror of sin. He showed mercy to all. Everything He did He did right.
And the Bible, especially in these words from God spoken through Micah calls us to be real – not fake or phony – “To act justly and to love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” Another Old Testament prophet, Ezekiel, had these words from God to us, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
In this passage from Micah 6 God challenges His people. He calls for them, for us, never to lower our expectations of how we are to be with our God. Never live life, never live your faith, just going through the motions. Jesus gave us gifts in His humility, sacrifice and mercy. Our faith rests in Him. And now we act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. Amen!!
