Sunday 17 July

Amos 5:1-27

This is where Amos starts to sound like an Irish rock star except with slightly superior lyrics.  “Let justice roll!” he shouts out.  “Let righteousness be like a never failing stream!”.  “Seek good... hate evil”.  “I cannot stand your assemblies”  We have seen all throughout the Torah (the first 5 books of the bible) a demand for Israel to live well in community but here that demand has fermented into a truly toxic brew.  God hates exploitation.  And he can’t see it in isolation from the rest of life.  If we trample on the poor, if we seek to suppress the truth to keep ourselves ahead, if we take bribes or deprive others of a fair chance in life then our whole being is sullied.  If we are not living right with our brothers then we best put down our guitars and switch off our projectors.  This is not a call to ‘make poverty history’, no matter how virtuous that aim.  It is a call rather to refuse to do anything that will press down others.  Amos is not telling his listeners to sell all they have and give the money to the poor - although I think I have heard that somewhere before - but rather he is telling them that they cannot advance themselves at the expense of others.  Where do we invest our money?  Does the interest rate dictate our choice or do we check the use to which our money will be put?  What stuff do we buy?  Do we care how the production chain was treated, or is it the best price that wins?  Are these valid questions?  Is it possible to oppress the poor by proxy?  If we are benefitting from another person’s (or company’s) unjust actions does that mean we are trampling the poor with someone else’s feet?  We can’t just let these questions slide.  We must decide, then we must act.  God has made that much clear, and he is the one who made Pleiades and Orion.

Romans 4:1-15

Paul showed yesterday - to immense relief - that God is in the redemption business.  Now he shows what causes Him to act.  How is redemption gained?  And how can we make it available to others?  Paul is conscious of his Jewish audience so he frames his argument in a way that will appeal to them but I think we can pretty much sum it up like this: accept you are screwed, accept only God can help you, do what He says.  There are no exceptions to this rule.  It doesn’t matter what you have done with your willy.  All that matters is that you are willing to cast yourself upon the mercies of God.  All that matters is that you believe you need to be redeemed.  A concern I have about the church today is that redemption is no longer a felt need.  Our language is more about our brokenness and our wounds, rather than our sin and our wickedness.  That can make us feel like we are victims who deserve sympathy from God, not perpetrators who deserve destruction by God.  That can make us feel that what we really need is for our current being to be fixed, not taken away and replaced with a clean, pure and good one.    That can make us feel like our ultimate need is healing, not redemption.  If we go that way it would be a complete tragedy.  If we go that way we are bailing out on our inheritance from Abraham.  We are wandering away from the path marked out by Paul.  Having righteousness credited to us, being reckoned to have kept our covenant with God is the most precious, precious gift that anyone could ever give to us.  Let’s not marginalise it.  Let’s not lose sight of the immense grace that God has shown us.

Psalm 86:1-10

“All the nations you have made will come and worship before you”.  Preach it brother.