| Next week we will enter into a new section of Brueggemann's book. Today I would like to end with a simple word from God through the prophet Amos - a lesson for this coming Sunday. Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria! Alas for those who life on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music; "who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away. The voice of God through a prophet. A voice that wants to engage a people who want life as they have it and want it. It is an old text. It is a voice we like to hear - but we also like to silence it. That is part of the dialogue. This Word will not go away - it will pull us into conversation with the depths of our lives and it will not let us rest. When we rest and pull away, we do not hear its call to new life. Too often in our comfortable worlds we find many ways to silence this voice and turn the conversation to other matters. And yet, God speaks and will not stop. The call for God's people to see the grand divide we create between one another is a call that must continue and it is a call that will be shaped by how we create the great divides within the contexts of our own lives. In words like these from the mouth of Amos, I hear conviction and I hear a plea. One is that I am too often in this comfortable group. And yet, the word from God has to do with how we are in this group. Those in Amos' day did not remain in the conversation. They turned their backs. I find that this same voice of God is pleading with us to turn around and face the truth that is being spoken. It is not easy to hear it. It is even more difficult to hear it and have it be the power for new life - in me and also in the world around me. Connection: When you hear this kind of voice - how do you deal with it - what goes on in your heart - your gut? It is good to know how it hits us. O God, who was and is and is to be, speak to us that we may hear the way of life that is now on the table ready for all your people to share for the welfare of all. Amen. |
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