This autumn, we are reflecting in worship on the same stories the youngest among us are discussing in Church School, going through the Bible from the beginning.
For the next few weeks, we’ll move through the Old Testament and hear stories about, “Promises of Hope.” Our Worship Series, Living the Word, reminds us that, “as the Israelites turn away from God and forget their calling to serve as a blessing to all nations, the prophets call them back to relationship with their creator. The prophets offer promises of hope to a people lost and dejected, reminding them that God will never abandon them and promises a future filled with hope. The people may have turned from God, but God will not turn away from them.”
This week we hear from the prophet Amos, as he offers a sharp rebuke from God for the systems of injustice that have emerged amongst the Israelites. “Don’t even bother trying to please me with worship, I’m so angry that I can’t even look at your offerings, and I’m covering my ears to the racket of your hymns,” God seems to say. But all is not lost – it never is, with God. There is a way forward, a way to relieve the harm that threatens human flourishing like a drought – and that is to let justice roll down like the waters after a storm, and let righteousness be as abundant and trustworthy as an ever-flowing stream. That is the worship that God desires. What would it look like for us if distribution day at the food pantry was our communion? If testimonies at town and school committee meetings were our sermons, if the joyful noise of family reunifications were our hymns?
Amos challenges us to always strive to carry our Sunday morning worship out into the week and let it serve as the foundation for, and celebration of, the true worship: loving and serving one another as God has loved us.
Join us this Sunday at 11am in the Sanctuary and online to pray, sing, learn, and prepare for the rest of the week’s worship together, so that our community can become a geyser of justice!
In faith,
Amy
Image credit: “Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters”, quilt by Kit Tossmann
