Tuesday 19 July

Amos 8:1-9:15

The southern showman finishes as he started- with a flourish and with a twist.  The big message of Amos is undeniably the Lord’s uncompromising stance on justice.  The Sovereign LORD loves the needy; he won’t tolerate them being sold for a fashionable piece of footwear.  We have to take an interest in the lot of others.  We have to see beyond ourselves to a world full of people loved by God.  It’s just not right to sell the sweepings with the wheat.  If we claim to love God, or rather, if God has put his claim on us then we can’t see justice as an optional extra.  We have to pursue it.  This isn’t a trendy App that we could choose to download to our phone if we want to.  Justice is the phone battery, or the screen, or the sim card.  If we ain’t got justice in our faith then to the scrap heap we will go.  That seems to be this prophet’s final word at any rate.  But as I said, there is a twist.  This sublime performer had to finish with a twist.  “Days of abundance are coming” he says.  There is a coming hope.  For some, for a remnant, there will be restoration and repair.  Sure, God yearns for justice and he will ensure it comes to pass but he couldn’t end things on a scrap heap.  He is too fixated with redemption to finish things there.  He’s got too much new wine not to have it flow from all the hills.  Amos has really scalded the people.  He has properly tanned their hides but even here, even among this sinful kingdom, we find that mercy triumphs over judgement.  The new age of Jesus is prophetically foretold.

Romans 5:12-21

Eh?  Say that again me old mucca.  I sort of lost you at ‘therefore’.  It seems like Paul never actually finishes the first sentence in this passage.  He gets so carried away with the glorious comparison of Jesus and Adam that he slightly loses his original train of thought.  So, while you’ve got to admire the apostle’s enthusiasm it does make it slightly tricky to work out exactly what he was on about.  Basically I think he is saying something like “You know how bad the world is, yeah?  It’s really really bad isn’t it?  You know all this death stuff that happens to everyone?  It really sucks.  Adam was a right spanner for getting us all into this mess.  But, as bad as all this stuff is that Adam gave us, well, what Jesus has done totally, totally makes up for it.  What Jesus has done blasts all this death stuff out of the park.  It’s not just that we can no longer die; we can also now live a richer fuller version of life for ever and ever.  That is what Jesus has done.  That is how amazing he is.”  For any one of us, this passage has got to make us think.  Even the small amount of it we do get is so epic that it changes all we know about the world.  I find many of the concepts so grand that my brain tries to shrink them down into smaller, blander ideas.  But I mustn't let it.  Do I believe that Jesus has really overcome death?  Do I really believe God's provision is the answer to all woes?  If I did I don't think I'd be living quite like this.  I think I'd be doing more worship.  I think I'd be telling more people about this grace.  I think I'd be more utterly overwhelmed by the unspeakable privilege in which I stand.

Proverbs 17:15-24

“A brother is born for adversity”.