justice and repentance

Good evening sisters and brothers,
Amos is a real favorite of mine because he is scorching in his preaching against the injustice he saw in his home country. In 8th century (700-800 BC) the southern kingdom of Judah was doing well economically. The religious and political elite felt favored by God, so they figured they were doing things right. Amos tells them that they are wrong. A society's righteousness is not defined by how wealthy or successful it is, but by how it treats the poorest and most vulnerable. Israel's law (which instructs, but doesn't bind Christians) holds up values of protection and care for the poor and rejects profiting on other people's vulnerability. Amos calls Judah to account for how they treat the poor in powerful language. For Judah then and for us now, this is a call to repentance. I pray that each of us individually and our nation as a whole would hear God's call to repent and invitation to justice.

God bless,
Sam

Amos 2:4-13

⁴Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but they have been led astray by the same lies after which their ancestors walked. ⁵So I will send a fire on Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem. ⁶Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— ⁷they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; ⁸they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink wine bought with fines they imposed.

⁹Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of cedars, and who was as strong as oaks; I destroyed his fruit above, and his roots beneath. ¹⁰Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. ¹¹And I raised up some of your children to be prophets and some of your youths to be nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel? says the Lord. ¹²But you made the nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, “You shall not prophesy.” ¹³So, I will press you down in your place, just as a cart presses down when it is full of sheaves.

praying for a leader

Good afternoon friends,
Today's reading continues the Psalm praying for the king. Again we see the importance of care for the poor and oppressed. We also see an emphasis on prosperity for the whole society. I pray we show more of these characteristics in our society.

God bless,
Sam

Psalm 72:10-19
¹⁰May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute,
may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.
¹¹May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service.
¹²For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper.
¹³He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
¹⁴From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
and precious is their blood in his sight.
¹⁵Long may he live! May gold of Sheba be given to him.
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all day long.
¹⁶May there be abundance of grain in the land;
may it wave on the tops of the mountains;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
like the grass of the field.
¹⁷May his name endure forever,
his fame continue as long as the sun.
May all nations be blessed in him;
may they pronounce him happy.
¹⁸Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
¹⁹Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.

kingdom and society

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Here we see Paul trying to fit Christian faith with the prevailing social order. The thing to remember when reading passages like this is that Paul and most leaders of the early church believed that Christ's return and the end of history would come in their lifetime or very soon afterwards. With that viewpoint they had no interest in changing the social order to be more like God's kingdom because God's kingdom was soon going to replace the existing social order anyway. Their priority was reaching as many people as possible with the gospel in the short time that was left. With that goal in mind Paul felt that the less Christianity was seen as opposed to social values, the more likely people would be to hear the message. If Christian slaves were disobedient it would be easy for people to write off Christianity as simply revolutionary talk.

Our framework is different. While we still should live in expectation of God's kingdom, since we don't know when it will come, we also live with the knowledge that it could still be many years until the kingdom is fulfilled. With this knowledge transforming the society of which we are a part so that it is more just and more godly becomes a reasonable, if challenging, goal. So let us strive to make our lives and our areas of influence a better reflection of God's love.

God bless,
Sam

1 Timothy 6:1-5
Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed. 2Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful to them on the ground that they are members of the church; rather they must serve them all the more, since those who benefit by their service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these duties.

3Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness, 4is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, 5and wrangling among those who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.