The Minor Prophets: Amos

The Minor Prophets: Amos
Insights I take from reading through the minor prophets

A couple passages stuck out to me the most from Amos. The first is Amos 3:2 - "From among all the families on the earth, I have been intimate with you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins."

I'm reminded of Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" who prays to God, "I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't you choose someone else?" Sometimes having a great relationship with God yields the requirement to have great responsibility. Because I'm a Christian, because God has been "intimate with me" then God holds me up to a higher standard. I've been redeemed. Made new. Born again. I was created for good works, its expected that I do them. Faith without works is dead. If I claim to be a Christian but I don't live like it, it hurts not just myself, but God as well.

The word used for "intimate" in the hebrew is just what you think it means, a closeness, like a husband to a wife. It's more than a platonic relationship. It's a trust-relationship. It's a "I'm putting my life in your hands, and I'm trusting you to take care of it." when I and when we as Christians, stop being Christianly it is taking the life that God has put in our hands and minds and hearts and spitting on it. It's making His Spirit grieve. It's filling sorrow in His heart. It's whatever you want to call it, but at the end of the day, all we're doing is betraying God's trust in us. And He will say, "I was intimate with you alone. Because of this, you're going to have to pay for what you've done."

And sometimes I find that when i sin, it's not just me who pays the consequences. Sometimes my wife gets it. Sometimes my co-workers get it. Sometimes the store-clerk gets it or my neighbor. It's collateral damage. All because I forgot I was supposed to be one who looks like and acts like and truly is in an intimate relationship with God.

so there's the question? With God ... are you intimate?

I love the Church. I really do. I think it's through the means of Jesus Christ working through the Church that God is literally saving the world. I think the Church is a great place to build each other up in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ. I think the Church is awesome in a lot of ways. But man ... we got problems too. And this truth isn't better demonstrated than in Amos 5:21-24: "(God talking): I hate all your show and pretense--the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. i won't even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! i will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living."

Change out burnt/grain/peace offerings with "offertory" and harps with "piano/drums/guitar" and it sounds like God could be talking to my church!

Which He very well could. Maybe He does. more often than we think. Not listen to us. Maybe its like hearing "Lead Me" on the Christian radio station too often or "Fireflies" on the alternative radio station. We're just ... a little sick of hearing the same thing. The truth is, it doesn't seem like God cares about a full church with empty hearts.
With filled pews but empty missions,
with numerous classrooms but no food shelters,
with a great sound system but no service system,
with great promises but no accountability
with proclaiming truth but no listening ears
with duty but no love
Does God care for a church, that's confined to its walls?

I believe that Amos, hearing and knowing and proclaiming God's message would disagree. He would say that God instead, wants to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. what a beautiful image. Is that Rochelle? Is that here? Are we at First Pres, like a flood of righteous living? Do the waters of First Pres spill out into the streets and drown the crannies of injustice and abuse and racism and ignorance and selfishness and pride? Are we an unstoppable force of God's love in the world?

Our interim pastor, Munn Hinds was there at Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. There were huge debris in his community. a pandemonium of cars trying to leave. Homes decimated across the street. Water where life once was. Leaving, he had to make sure his doors were locked while driving and to stay put in the car no matter what, because hijacking became a new and harsh reality. The flood. was. unstoppable. there was nothing anyone could do. When it first came in fact, Munn said he just stared out in amazement at the whole thing. unfold.

Are we like that as Christians? Are we like an unstoppable flood of God's love and justice to our community? Can people just look at us and be amazed at our hearts being played out with our actions? Or are we in church. singing songs and giving to the offertory and putting on a show once a week and then leaving to go back to work. and clean. and watch tv. and sleep.

God wants more. He wants us to be a flood. Lets unleash something on Rochelle that it can't possibly stop or control: Christ in us.