Sunday, February 1, 2026, Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
“What God Wants”
Scriptures: Psalm 15; Micah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12
Service Order: Divine Service III with Holy Communion
Hymns: “Today Your Mercy Calls Us” #915’ “Oh, That the Lord Would Guide My Ways” #707; “May We Thy Precepts, Lord, Fulfill” #698
Dear Friends in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.
“And what does the Lord require of you?” prophet Micah asks. That’s an excellent question, isn’t it? Ever wonder that for yourself? For everything we try to do to please God and make ourselves acceptable to Him, what is He really looking for? What does He want from us? O Lord, tell me what You want, and I’ll do it -- so long as it isn’t too hard, doesn’t interrupt my life too much, and doesn’t cost me too much in the way of time, or inconvenience, or money.
In our Old Testament reading from the prophet Micah, the Lord says He has a case to make against His people Israel, and a charge to bring against them. And His charge amounts to, “People, I really haven’t asked you for all that much.” “What have I done to you?” God asks. “How have I burdened you?” In fact, God had been very generous with them. He’d blessed them, guided them, and cared for them, in spite of their sin, and forgiven them time and time again – because He loved them. “I brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery,” God reminds them. I gave you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead you. I saved you from Balak and all the other nasty kings who wanted to destroy you. And I was with you on your journey through the wilderness for all those years, in “pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.” And I brought you to your Promised Land, just like I said I would. All so you’d know who your God is, and that I’m kind and loving and good.
And what have I asked for in return, for all my love and goodness to you? Not so very much! It wasn’t your burnt offerings, calves, and rams I was after. I didn’t ask you for your children, or for human sacrifices, or for any of those things the pagan world around you does to try to satisfy their gods. “He has showed you, O man, 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.” What God wants is your heart. He wants your love, your loyalty, and your devotion. And He wants the change in your heart on the inside to show through in what you do on the outside, so the world around you can see the change in you and come to praise God, too. “Let your light shine before men,” Jesus said, “that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
What does God want from us? He wants us to act justly. That is, to care about what’s right, and speak up about it when something is clearly wrong, especially when it comes to the Word and the will of God. Read your way through God’s Word, and you’ll see that if there’s any one thing than really ticks God off, it’s when those who are strong or rich or powerful take advantage of those who are smaller and weaker than they are. God hates a bully, in other words. When we see an injustice, it should just burn us as well, enough to stand up and try to do something about it.
And God wants us to love mercy, and to be merciful to others. The measuring line, of course, for how merciful we should be, is “How merciful has God been to us?” If mercy doesn’t come from us, and someone can’t find mercy here in God’s Church, I really don’t know what we’re doing here or what other purpose we might have. “Love one another as I have loved you,” Jesus said; I think that’s clear enough, when it comes to what God wants.
And what more does the Lord require of us? “To walk humbly with your God,” our Scripture in Micah says. St. Paul says in Ephesians 4: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” And he says in 1 Timothy 4: “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone-- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
Christianity, despite the idea some people have, isn’t meant to be a pushy religion. We’re not about pushing ourselves forward or making this thing all about us.
(If we are, we’re doing it wrong). “Walking humbly with God” means living that peaceful and quiet life Paul talks about, as much as it’s possible to do it -- but always, always pointing to God as the source of all our blessings and giving Him public thanks for them. It can be as simple as not being shy about bowing your head and saying a prayer when you sit down to eat in a restaurant. I really appreciate it when our profession athletes make it a point to thank and praise God first in their post-game interviews. “Walking humbly with God” means walking with God, no matter what the day brings you or what circumstances you find yourself in. God gets all the glory; I’m just blessed to tell people about Him and bring my Lord Jesus into the conversation whenever the chance comes along. Jesus says, “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
St. Paul, in our reading from 1 Corinthians 1, says what God wants from us is to trust in His saving power in every situation, even if the people around us think we’re fools for doing it: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” God isn’t asking us to be wise – not in the way the world thinks of wisdom, anyway. He isn’t looking for high IQ’s or Mensa membership to belong to His kingdom. (Good thing!) You don’t need to be a wise man or a scholar or a philosopher in order to be saved. (Although if you do have the capacity for scholarship and higher education, you should certainly use that gift to serve God’s Church; the Church needs eggheads, too!)
“For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him,” says Paul, “God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” Being “humble before God” comes in again here. No matter how intelligent someone is, or how much they might know, or how high they manage to rise among the powerful people or the “influencers” of this world, everyone, no matter who they are, has to accept the simple “God so loved the world” Gospel and bend their knees to Jesus, in order to be saved.
The scholars, philosophers, and intelligentsia of the world have been trying for years to fix this world we live in and somehow make it a paradise; Leagues of Nations, United Nations, “boards of peace,” all promising to solve the riddle of humanity and make a better world -- when you and I learned what the answer is in Sunday school when we were four or five years old. Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” And He says in Mark 10: “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
“We preach Christ crucified,” Paul says; as unlikely, unscientific, and foolish sounding as that message may be to an unbelieving world. If you want to call me a fool for believing in Jesus Christ, I’m OK with that. One famous (or infamous) politician once said, “the Christian religion is only a crutch for the weak.” In that case, give me the crutch, because I’m not walking anywhere without Him. I’m not afraid to say I need Jesus. “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise,” Paul says, and “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong… so that no one may boast before Him.” Christ Jesus – crucified for us and raised again from the dead – is still our only hope for being saved. “Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’”
Dear Father in Heaven, what do You want from us? Precious Lord Jesus, what can we give back to You for everything You’ve done for us? That’s what those Beatitudes in Matthew 5 are all about. All Jesus’ “blessed are’s” are about how God isn’t looking for our money or our things or our stuff, or for our works or our wisdom; He’s after these hearts of ours first of all. (The material things come afterward, as the happy result or consequence of faith; giving to God is a natural outpouring once a heart has been captured by Christ. You’ll know you’re there if your giving is a “want to” and not a “have to”).
God wants people with spirits that our poor enough to recognize their sin, and to come in humility to God for forgiveness for it. God wants people who are genuinely mourning and heart-broken over what sin has done to the world and to the people around them, and who work to bring God’s comfort, by the love of Christ, whenever and wherever they can. God wants His children to be meek and humble, and to be to those quiet souls who work for God behind the scenes, not wanting or expecting any recognition for it.
God wants us to be people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness; that is, to see the will of God being done in this world; and also people who are hungry to hear God’s Word, and thirsty for His Sacraments. (Martin Luther wrote that if you had no desire for the Lord’s Supper, you should reach into your shirt to see if you still have a heartbeat). God wants hearts full of mercy, and hearts that are made pure in Christ, and for this world of His to live at last in His peace, and for the peace-making to begin with you and me.
So what does God want from us? Not a lot, right? Not in the way of material things, anyway. But I don’t want you to get the idea, and Jesus doesn’t either, that this life with God and walking with Jesus is going to be easy; Jesus never promised that. Being a fool for Jesus in this world, and speaking up for what’s right in the world, when people don’t want to hear it, will always come with a cost.
Jesus lays it out for us, there in Matthew’s Gospel. Persecution, in one form or another, is bound to come, if we’re truly being faithful. We’ve been blessed in this country so far to be free of what God’s people are suffering in other parts of the world. We best not be complacent about it, though. It doesn’t take long for mocking and insults to morph into worse kinds of evil. There are a lot of influential voices in our country right now blaming we Christians for all America’s troubles, and even saying we all ought to be in jail. (No surprise there; that’s been happening in the world since ancient Rome). Speaking up might bring us a bit of grief, but folks, but silence will be the death of us. They might come for me one day, for running my big mouth about Jesus; I’m OK with that, too.
Do you see what Jesus says here, though? Do you see what He says He wants from us, when trouble for His sake comes our way? He says, of all things, “Rejoice and be glad!” Rejoice and be glad when you’re persecuted, insulted, and laughed at, and even worse, for believing and trusting in Jesus and speaking His name out loud. That, Jesus says, is an honor and a blessing for us. Peter and John, after being flogged for refusing to be quiet about Jesus, “Left the Sanhedrin rejoicing, because they’d been considered worthy to suffer in Jesus’ name.” Someone has even said that if you’re not getting in any trouble for the sake of Jesus, you’re probably not doing nearly enough. If you’re taking flak, that only means you’re over the target. Suffering for Jesus connects us with all the prophets and martyrs who’ve suffered for Him all down through the years. Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed; but if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
Now, all of that got a little heavy, I have to admit. When it comes to what God is asking for from us, chances are He isn’t going to ask you to shed your blood for His sake. (The blood He shed for you was more than enough). He most likely isn’t going to ask you to leave your home, to go be a missionary to Borneo or South America or someplace like that (although if He should lay that on your heart, you should do it).
He isn’t going to call every man to leave everything and go to Seminary (although again, if He calls you, that isn’t something you should say no to).
What He wants is you, and your heart, right here where you live, right here where you are. Jesus drove a demon out of a man once, and the man wanted to go with Him and be one of His disciples, and Jesus told him instead, “Go home and tell your family how much God has done for you.” (As good a place as any to start!) That’s what God wants from us – to bloom where you’re planted and grow where you are. You don’t have to make yourself something you’re not, or pretend to be anyone else, or be anyone but you. What God has given you, in faith and in love, is good enough, and more than enough, to do good things and even great things for Him.
What does God require of us? Nothing that’s too hard for us, or beyond our capability, or out of our reach. Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God, and then watch what God does! In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Larry Sheppard, M.Div.
Trinity Lutheran Church, Packwaukee, WI
St. John’s Lutheran Church, Oxford, WI
pastorshepp@gmail.com