worship and justice

Amos spoke of the evil in the surrounding nations and in Israel.

Then in the section we heard this morning, he tells the people of Israel that God has seen that they are:

-      dishonest witnesses

-      abusing the poor

-      cheating

-      taking bribes

-      building expensive homes

I wonder what Amos might say about our current times:

        Environmental degradation

        Violence

        Homelessness

Millions of asylum seekers around the world

“An unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 22.5 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.” [June 2017] [i]

        Inequality,

Sexual violence  

        And I am sure you could name more.

The final sentence of our reading this morning:

Let justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry. (CEV)

Or you may be more familiar with

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (NRSVA) [Amos 5:24]

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (NRSVA) [Amos 5:24]

What are some of the obstacles to justice and righteousness.

-      Greed

-      Self-interest or self-importance

There may be others, but anything else I thought of fitted into one of those areas, greed and self-interest.

Justice and righteousness are gifts, not burdens. They are “primarily gifts from God which Israel can allow to flourish, can support, or can obstruct, indeed (Amos 5:7; 6:12) can overthrow.” ^[ii]

I wonder who are our modern day prophets?

Who are the people who speak against greed and corruption?

Who are the people who speak for the widows and orphans?

Who are the people who speak for the homeless and hungry?

Is it the churches, the people of God???

Some are.

Organisations like Love Makes a Way …a movement of Christians seeking an end to Australia’s inhumane asylum seeker policies through prayer and nonviolent love in action.[iii]

And Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia, Act for Peace helps communities affected by poverty and conflict in more than 130 countries. “Our Vision: A peaceful world where all people share a safe, just and dignified life. “[iv]

But many of our prophets are not Christians.

………

The last section we heard read this morning, reminded me of another Scripture passage:

“What if I could speak all languages of humans and of angels?

If I did not love others,

    I would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

1 Corinthians 13: 1 

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

We can sing praise, we can pray, we can spend hours at the church each week; but what does it all mean if the way we live is not transformed?

Amos says:

I, the Lord, hate and despise

your religious celebrations

    and your times of worship.

I won’t accept your offerings

or animal sacrifices—

    not even your very best.

No more of your noisy songs!

I won’t listen

    when you play your harps.

But let justice and fairness

flow like a river

    that never runs dry.

Amos was telling the people of Israel that worship and sacrifices and songs, no matter how good, are not acceptable if our lives do not reflect the life God has given us. that doesn’t mean we should stop worshipping, just that worship on its own is not enough.

Amos saw people going to the temple, making their sacrifices and offerings and singing songs. 
“In their minds they had done this so God would be pleased with them.

But God was not pleased with them.”[v]

 “Where there is poverty, injustice or anything else that is not in keeping with God’s vision, God does not want you to “go to church” and then ignore the plight of the world. Rather, God’s desire is that we put worship in the right perspective – part of a life lived well.”[vi]

There are so many situations in the world that need changing, and each one of us can not address all of them. But that doesn’t mean we can turn a blind eye to injustice when we see it.

-      We cannot pretend domestic or family violence does not happen

-      We cannot go on using more and more of the earth’s resources without thinking about our long term impact

-      We cannot ignore the health and educational disadvantage of indigenous and rural communities

-      We cannot close our ears and hearts to people seeking asylum

-      We cannot look the other way when people are not paid a living wage, when commerce threatens our families, when dollar is considered the saviour of the world.

God wants more than worship. Also in chapter 5, Amos says:

‘If you really want to live,
you must stop doing wrong
    and start doing right.’
and
‘Choose good instead of evil!
    See that justice is done.’

Worship is important, but not the end of the story.

 “We have been united with Christ in baptism. Our lives are lived in union with him. We aren’t joined to Jesus just so we can attend church on Sunday. We are joined to Christ so that we can continue his work in all that we do.”[vii]

You may have heard this before:

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours;

no hands but yours;

no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world.

Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good.

Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.”[viii]

Are you open to the transforming power of God?

Where are joining in the work of justice and fairness?

---

[i] http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/figures-at-a-glance.html

[ii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3467

[iii] http://lovemakesaway.info/who-we-are/

[iv] https://www.actforpeace.org.au/Learn/Why-we-are-here

[v] http://zionelginil.org/it-starts-not-ends-with-worship/

[vi] http://zionelginil.org/it-starts-not-ends-with-worship/

[vii] http://zionelginil.org/it-starts-not-ends-with-worship/

[viii] https://www.catholicity.com/prayer/prayer-of-saint-teresa-of-avila.html

Enhancing Life: Salt, Light and Worship

The sermon on the mount continues, after telling people who had been considered “less-than” that they are blessed and children of God, Jesus follows up with saying:

you are like salt

you are like light

These days salt has a bit of a bad reputation, too much salt and it can raise your blood pressure.

Matthew’s community knew that salt was used not only to strengthen flavour and preserve food but in ancient times was rubbed on newborn children, used to seal covenants, sprinkled on sacrifices, and understood as a metaphor for wisdom. Salt is used for lots of things today from soaking stains to polishing silver.

None of these uses for salt are for the salt. Salt helps with cleaning and gives food a different flavour and preserves food. In all these cases salt is there for the benefit of the item being cleaned or flavoured or preserved.

In what way are you like salt?
Do you help preserve someone’s life? Remind them, in practical ways, of God’s love when life is a struggle.
do you make life taste better for people? – a kind word, a listening ear[i]

There are lots of kinds of light – candles, torches, electric lights, spotlights …..

One thing light lets us do, is see what is around us when it is dark. The sun is a light, without the sun it is dark, just like at night. Though with the moon reflecting the sun, some nights are not all that dark.

At worship on Friday evening, we talked about light, and made lighthouses.

Lighthouses help boats and ships with navigation, particularly at night. The light is often a warning of danger.

Here is a lighthouse. [one made by Friday family church]

What happens when I cover it up with this bowl?
Why have a light, and then cover it?
Are we ashamed of being light?
one thing I notice with this lighthouse, is that the cover is clear so the light shines out, for the light to shine I need to be out of the way.

Here is a torch. [shine torch into congregation]

Another kind of light. A torch is portable, a lighthouse is not J
we can use a torch to see the spider webs behind cupboards;
or check the path when we are out camping.

Generally, we don’t look directly into the light, if it is a bright light, it will hurt our eyes. But light allows us to see what is there, right in front of our eyes.

You are light, not so people will look at you and go – AAAHH isn’t that lovely. You are light so that the places of oppression can be seen and noticed.

Jesus said you are like salt, you are like light. ‘You’ is plural, in case you are wondering. You, disciples, are like salt and light.

Not you can be, should be, will be sometime in the future; you are!
you are like salt!
you are like light!

Salt and Light Blessing

In a world that is always asking us

to become something,
someone,
some success story,

..........

~ written by Roddy Hamilton, and posted on Mucky Paws. http://www.nkchurch.org.uk/index.php/mucky-paws

Turning to Isaiah: this passage was written about the time when some of the people who had been deported to Babylon are coming back home to Israel. But there is no longer a King, or a Temple. This was a time of uncertainty and anxiety.[ii]

A time of questioning, how do we worship?

We read of the people complaining to God because they fast, they practice the rituals of the tradition, but God does not respond to their prayers.  Here is part of the Isaiah reading from an Australian Paraphrase:

“Do you want to know why your religious behaviour turns me off?
    Do you want to know why I ignore your fasting and bowing?
I’ll tell you why. You put on a great performance of it all,
    but then you go straight back to feathering your own nest
        and ripping off your workers in the process.

….

“Do you really think this is what I like to see:
    a day of pious misery?
    black clothes, long faces and crocodile tears?
    giving up chocolate and ice-cream?
Do you think that’s worship?
    Do you think that pleases me?
        Give me a break!

“Do you want to know what I’d really like to see?
    Dismantle the structures of injustice;
    take your feet off the throats of the poor;
    stop jailing the victims of unfair laws;
    and quit plundering nature’s resources.

“Do you want to know what else I’d like to see?
    Open your tables to the hungry;
    open your hearts and your homes to the refugees;
    open your wardrobes to those without clothes;
    and don’t go hiding every time you see someone in need.
    …

Do that and our relationship will be healed in an instant![iii]

Worship is about our relationship with God and each other, it isn’t for us to feel better, though often being in worship will have that effect. We worship to be encouraged in our relationship with God,
to be nurtured and sustained,
as we go about being agents of God’s love:
feeding the hungry
providing shelter for the homeless
not turning a blind eye to oppression and injustice.

Jesus said: You are like salt, you are like light.

I wonder how our worship enhances the lives of others.

 ................

in case it is helpful, here is the paragraph I cut:

Then Jesus goes on to teach about the law: “Don’t suppose that I came to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I did not come to do away with them, but to give them their full meaning.”

If you look at the rest of the Sermon on the Mount you will read some examples of Jesus appearing to strengthen the law.
Do not murder becomes do not call your brother a good for nothing;
do not commit adultery becomes do not lust after a woman in your heart;
but….
an eye for an eye becomes don’t take revenge and
love your friends, hate your enemies becomes love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

We are told that Jesus is the fulfilment of the law. I wonder how we might understand that. I mean look at the law on adultery – Jesus says do not even lust after a woman, yet in the Gospel of John, we read the story of a woman is caught in the act of adultery, Jesus does not give the traditional sentence, but allows her to go free.

I encourage you to ponder what might be meant by Jesus came to fulfil the law.  

[i] http://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/year-fifth-sunday-after-epiphany-fifth.html

[ii] Tyler Mayfield, Working Preacher

[iii] Isaiah 58: 1-8 selected verses http://laughingbird.net/NextSundayIndexes/A15.html