Famous Amos
“I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:21-24 ESV)
If you spend some time in the old testament there are more than a few sections like this one that don’t exactly leave you with the warm and fuzzies. As much I think it would be cool to have been an old testament prophet the truth is no one likes bad news and they like the bringer of that news even less. This section of scripture gets used a lot these days by churches looking to justify the way they do what they do. Some use it to bash other churches or simple to explain why they keep things humble and down key. Problem, this isn’t for the church (building) of modern times but rather the temple that Paul spoke of, you in community with others. You, alone, are not the temple. You, in community with other believers though, that’s the temple where Christ takes up his thrown and as much as we may be bothered by others services or style that is of the least importance. What matters is the worship and sacrifice we, as a community, bring the lord. If we act one way in a building on Sunday and than turn ad act completely different with those same people outside of church the rest of the week we fall into the place Amos describes and that is not the place we should ever want to be in.
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
This is the call of our lives. It’s more than lip service, it’s his service. Christ has never asked anything of us he didn’t model first. Christ didn’t spend hours talking about how great he was. He could have, instead he let justice flow from his hands and mouth. Love is justice. Pride is a show. Sadly, we have more shows than Justice.
Josh
