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The Sermon for Septuagesima, Sunday, February 1st, 2026
The Lessons: Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 37:1-11; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12
The Text: Micah 6:1-8
INTRODUCTION
Today is Septuagesima Sunday, a name for a Sunday which sounds odd today, because “Septuagesima” is really a Latin word meaning “seventieth,” or the Sunday beginning the 70-day period before Easter. Similarly, “Sexagesima” means “sixtieth” and “Quinquagesima” “fiftieth” before Easter. Concerning these “Gesima” Sundays, Bishop Royal Grote once wrote about their historical background. These Sundays arose because of the threat to Rome caused by the invasion of Northern Italy by the Germanic hordes known as the Lombards in AD 568. The holy city of Rome being under threat, Pope John the Third, responding to this threat, appointed the three Sundays before Lent as days of special prayer for the Lord’s merciful deliverance of his people from their enemy. On Septuagesima Sunday, the Christians of Rome came together at the Church of St. Laurence, and the Collect appointed in our Prayer Book for Septuagesima was first read:
O Lord, we beseech thee favorably to hear the prayers of thy people; that we who are justly punished for our offenses may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness. For the glory of thy Name, through Christ our Savior who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
Bishop Grote concluded that the early Church understood an important principle. Their most effective defense rested in the Lord, not in the might of man. Their best way to receive happiness and blessedness here on earth was through the grace of God, not by the vanity of human effort. This is the focus of the “Gesima” Sundays, of which we sorely need to be reminded today. I would add that this reminds us of Isaiah 30:15 (KJV): “For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength….”
GOD’S CASE AGAINST ISRAEL
Ancient Israel in the latter part of the eighth century and early seventh century B.C. had not understood this message of God’s grace and how God’s people need to trust in God and obey him. The prophet Micah, who was a contemporary of Isaiah in Judah, and Amos and Hosea in Israel, the northern kingdom, states God’s case against Israel in the passage of which our First Lesson today consists. He uses the language of a courtroom, calling Israel to plead her case before the mountains, hills, and foundations of the earth. God is calling the mountains, hills, and foundations of the earth as witnesses to Israel’s crimes. Although implied, the truth is clear from the two questions that God puts to Israel. They have grown weary of worshiping God and are now living life as they want to live it, ignoring God’s commands and his call to holiness. God confronts them with these questions and the call to plead their case before him:
O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.
(Micah 6:3, KJV)
God tells Israel to testify and produce evidence of what he has done against them and how he has wearied them. Of course, they cannot produce such evidence. In fact, God now testifies what he has done for Israel in bringing them up out of Egypt, delivering them from slavery, sending Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead them through the wilderness to the promised land and causing Balaam to bless Israel multiple times instead of curse them as King Balak of Moab wanted him to do. He led them safely across the Jordan River from Shittim to Gilgal (Joshua 3). The historical evidence demonstrated God’s care for his people in bringing them to the promised land and causing them to settle there. All this should lead them to recognize and know the righteousness of the Lord (Micah 6:5c).
THE FUTILITY OF RELIGIOUS SACRIFICE WITHOUT REPENTANCE
The defendant in this case now speaks, not denying the charge of abandoning God, but asking how she may be reconciled to God. She offers sacrifices to be reconciled, even “thousands of rams,” “ten thousand rivers of oil,” or even the human sacrifice of her first-born (Micah 6:7). Such words are ironical, revealing a total misunderstanding of God’s requirements for atonement and reconciliation. In the absence of true repentance, of turning away from all sin and injustice, and turning towards God with amendment of life, all the religious rituals and sacrifices were useless.
APPLICATION AND CONCLUSION
If we think this passage is irrelevant because we are Christians and not dependent on a sacrificial system as the ancient Jews were, we are mistaken. Anything we do out of religiosity as a substitute for real repentance is futile. God here states that he has three requirements of people:
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
(Micah 6:8, KJV)
God requires us to do what is right and just, treating other people justly, to love mercy, that is, to show loving-kindness to all whom we encounter in our lives, and to live humbly in a relationship with God. No external religious acts can substitute for doing these three things in our daily lives. Doing these three things may not sound like much, wrote one commentator, but it is more than enough for one lifetime.[1]
RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
The Hebrew word which our English word “mercy” translates in Micah 6:8 can also be translated as “kindness.” Here is an account of how random acts of kindness multiplied.
According to the Associated Press, Chuck Wall, a human relations instructor at Bakersfield College in California was watching the news one day when a cliché from a broadcaster stuck in his mind: “Another random act of senseless violence.”
Wall got an idea. He gave an unusual assignment to his students. They were to do something out of the ordinary to help someone and then write an essay about it. Then Wall dreamed up a bumper sticker that said, “Today, I will commit one act of senseless KINDNESS…Will You?” The students sold the bumper stickers, which a bank and union paid to have printed, for one dollar each, and the profits went to a County Braille center.
For his random act of kindness one student paid his mother’s utility bills.
Another student bought thirty blankets from the Salvation Army and took them to homeless people gathered under a bridge.
The idea took hold. The bumper sticker was slapped on all 113 patrol cars. It was trumpeted from pulpits, and in schools and professional associations.
After seeing the success of the idea, Chuck Wall commented, “I had no idea it would erupt like it has. I had no idea our community was in such need of something positive.”
In this negative and dark world, we each can do acts of kindness to bring some light.[2]
Together with these acts of kindness, we must focus on doing what is right and treating others fairly and justly. These two habits will assist us in walking humbly with God.
[1] p.47, Peter C. Craigie: Twelve Prophets, Volume 2. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, The Daily Bible Study Series, 1985.
[2] p.283, Craig Brian Larson and Leadership Journal: 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers, and Writers. Grand Rapids, Michigan: BakerBooks, 2002, Trade edition, 2007, Second Printing, 2008.