Daily Scripture

Amos 5:21-24

21 I hate, I reject your festivals;
I don’t enjoy your joyous assemblies.
22 If you bring me your entirely burned offerings and gifts of food—
I won’t be pleased;
I won’t even look at your offerings of well-fed animals.
23 Take away the noise of your songs;
I won’t listen to the melody of your harps.
24 But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Reflection Questions

Amos was probably the first Hebrew “writing prophet.” On God’s behalf, he urged those who exploited others to stop trusting in showy religious ceremonies, to “let justice roll down like waters.” Pastor Ginger Gaines-Cirelli put his idea vividly: “God doesn’t say, love me with your mind alone, thinking Goddish thoughts….God doesn’t say only love me with your praisy warm feelings surrounded by nothing and no one that challenges you to stretch yourself ....the call is to love with everything we’ve got, with SOUL, with our deepest wholeness and essence and humanity…that which connects us to our neighbor.” *

• How can you be alert for opportunities in everyday activities like your work, leisure activities, shopping and other pursuits to make choices that bring about righteousness and justice? What risks or costs might you face to make those choices? To what extent are you willing to act consistently for justice and righteousness?
• Amos itemized God’s charges against Israel: “They have sold the innocent for silver, and those in need for a pair of sandals. They crush the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way.” (Amos 2:6-7). If Amos wrote today, rather than in 700 B.C., what issues do you think he might list for our culture? How can you be an active change agent whose words and actions move our society toward God’s ideal of justice and righteousness?

* From Pastor Cirelli’s Oct. 25 sermon at Foundry United Methodist Church, Washington, D.C. Full sermon available at https://www.foundryumc.org/.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, from Kansas and Missouri to Honduras, Malawi and beyond, there are hungry children and desperate people facing injustice. They are all your people—help me to care about them as much as you do. Amen.