Week of Sabbath I, Day Seven, Morning Devotion

Prayer for hope and healing:

Lord,
Make me an instrument of your will this day. Help me to look to you for guidance, and to lean on you when my patience is thin, or my anger is quick. Grant me the peace which is found in you.
Amen

Reading: Micah 6:6-8: What does the Lord require of you?

‘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 tens of 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 youbut to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Meditation:

Virtually every religious system asks folks to “make an offering” of some kind. Usually the offering is designated to God, or to various gods (in polytheistic systems). Buddhists, who don’t worship a particular god or gods, leave food offerings for dead relatives. Native Americans make offerings to the Ancestors, for rain, sun, protection.

Jews offered several kinds of offerings. The Torah goes to great length to describe the proper offerings for different occasions and festivals, and the proper preparation of all of those offerings.

In Christian churches (and many others today), “offering” usually refers to a monetary gift, most often given to a particular congregation.

All of these offerings are important ways to show our devotion (and pay our pastors—don’t let me downplay the importance of that). But the prophet Micah reminds us that no offering is as importance as the call to justice, kindness, and humility before God. Those gifts make the lives of all people better, so they are closest to the heart of God.

--Which of the three is hardest for you? Why?

Prayer of Joy:

Creator God,
You have made this day precious, and my whole life holy. I give you thanks for all of the blessings of the day, and all of the people I will meet. I will walk humbly with you this day, following your call to justice and kindness, and offering the world the blessing of my loving presence.
Amen