A MESSAGE FROM REV. KAREN KINNEY: ALIGNING OUR HEARTS WITH GOD’S DESIRES
Grace and peace to you,
It looks like we might be able to gather in person 
this Sunday, have our Annual Meeting, and enjoy the Boy Scout’s Fundraising Pasta Lunch! The storm seems to be headed away from us. What a wonderful gift – even though the cold remains (temperatures around the building spaces are not consistently warm so we recommend you dress appropriately!).
This Sunday we explore Psalm 15 and Micah 6:1-8, the latter of which contains the famous verse:
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?
Both passages of Scripture describe not just the kind of worship God desires from us, but also the positions of our hearts God would like us to have. In the other verses in Micah, God lays out the offenses of the people. While there is widespread adherence to ritual and sacrifice, the hearts of the people have turned against all that God requires of us. The religious leaders, the wealthy, the powerful perform rituals but still oppress the people. There is still violence against the people.
Micah 6:12 indicts the leaders and the false prophets: your wealthy are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, with tongues of deceit in their mouths. Reading the whole Book of Micah will help us understand just what has gone wrong in the relationship with God.
Performative worship is a sin in Micah’s eyes if hearts aren’t aligned with God’s desire for justice, kindness/mercy and a humble walk with God. Worship that doesn’t lead one to do justice, to love kindness and to take that humble walk could be seen as performative. We do the rituals, say the right words and in the case of the Jewish religious leadership make the right sacrifices, so why isn’t God satisfied? Because it isn’t causing a change of heart positions from doing injustice, hating kindness and walking arrogantly to the opposite, as stated in Micah 6:8.
So, how do we worship? What is important about our worship rituals that transform our hearts? Is what we do performative or is it something deeper? Some good questions to ponder as we approach this Sunday in a world that feels very unsafe and disconnected. Can doing what God requires of us guide us along a path of transformation? Let’s explore this Sunday.
On another note, we are pleased to welcome the Boy Scouts from Troop 302 with us this Sunday as we celebrate Scout Sunday. Scouts will be ushering and reading Scripture.
Blessings,
Pastor Karen