Study in Justice

Amos 5:21-24

21     “I hate, I despise your feasts,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22     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.

23     Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

24     But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

 

These verses among some other have been consuming my thoughts, prayers and devotions lately.  I can’t help but ask myself the question, “What are we doing on Sunday mornings?”  Are we worshiping?  Or are we just offering empty sacrifices?  Are we just singing words together because that’s what we do?

The Lord makes a pretty strong statement here.    Matter of fact, there are only a couple of times in the Old testament that he talks about hating something.  The Psalms of David talk about hating a lot, but the Lord only expresses hate a couple of times, and oddly enough, each time it is an aspect of His people that He hates.  So here we are, “I hate, I despise.”  Boy that must be something pretty bad to hate and despise it.  Our ears perk up.  Here it comes; God is going to tear down some evildoers.  He’s going to point out his despising of those against Him.  Ready for it?  “I hate, I despise….. your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.”  Wow, He doesn’t like our offerings, and he can’t stand the noise of our songs.  That’s pretty harsh.  I mean, come on, we’re singing these songs for You Lord.  We’re sacrificing some stuff for You.  And you hate it.  Why?

I’ll get to that in a second, but this is what consumes my thoughts.  God doesn’t change.  He never has and He never will.  As Christians, we sometimes get this idea of the Old Testament God and the New Testament God.  No difference at all.  Throughout the entirety of the Bible, He has loved His people, He has worked to redeem them, and He has given His Son for them.  Because of Jesus, we have fellowship with Him, and we have forgiveness because of it, but I would ask this, is it still possible that when we show up on Sunday morning and we sing some songs, and we give some money, and we listen to a message that God still hates and despises that?  Is it possible that He’s still shaking His head in frustration because His people still don’t get it?  Is it possible that what we’re doing on Sunday mornings is terribly empty?  We’re just singing cute songs with good lyrics.  Our hearts may even be connecting, and worshiping through the Spirit because of our Savior Jesus Christ.  But Romans 12:1 tells us, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  Amos says it this way, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”  Here it is, this is what God wants for worship.  He wants us all week.  He wants all of us.  He wants us to be interested in bringing about justice and righteousness.  Then He’ll listen to us.  Then He hears our worship and says, that is sweet.

See, we have a disconnect.  We sing one thing and we do or act out something different.  In our closing song, we sing, “How beautiful the feet that carry this Gospel of peace to the fields of injustice and the valleys of need.  To be a voice of hope and healing, to answer the cries of the hungry and helpless with the mercy of Christ.”  We sing that, we don’t live it.  I don’t live it.  I’m not sure I know how to live it yet.  I do know this though; we can no longer be content.  We must have a holy discontent with our walk.  I am an excuse guy.  I’ve got lots of reasons why I don’t do things.  I’ve got lots of excuses for the troubles in my life.

So, discouraged, we shut down, we hit the guilt bunker.  We may even say, boy, that’s right, we need to work on that, but look at what Paul said in Romans, “by the mercies of God.”  It all comes back to where are we leaning?  We live in a “me” culture.  If I can steal a turn of phrase from Leonard Sweet, “We have the iphone, the itouch, the ipod, we can’t even spell wii without two i’s.”  We get this idea that we save ourselves.  Right?  We say, I accepted Christ….  I prayed a prayer….  It’s like we get this idea that we recognized our sinfulness and we repented, and we came to Christ, and then He saved us.  Where did we get the conviction of sin in the first place?  What drew us to Christ?  God draws us.  Christ saves us, we don’t do anything.  Who is going to keep us steadfast in the faith?  Well, I’m certainly not.  It is only by God’s mercy and grace I am going to hold to the Faith that saved me.  Who’s going to do justice in the world?  I’m not!  Christ is.  Christ alone.  So if we want to see fruit, where had we better be trusting?  Christ.  Christ alone.  Now I don’t expect to really get this until I’m before Him in heaven, but I sure better be proactively running the race.  Christ will give me strength.  Matter of fact, I’m firmly convinced that Christ brings us through the race, with or without us.  How often is he dragging me?  I wouldn’t even say that I’m fighting against Him.  We’re all too often just dead weight.  Figure out what He wants you to do and do it!  What is he telling you, well we’ve got His word to give us some guidance, we’ve got His Holy Spirit to help us in the right direction, but only if we’re not quenching Him!

 

What does His Word say about worship?  It says things like, let justice and mercy rain.   It says things like, “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’  Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and cloth you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’  And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

 

 

There is worship.  Right there.  Do we want to serve our Lord?  Do we want to love Him?  It’s easy to sing a song, but are we showing Him love?  He tells us right here how to show Him love.  He hasn’t changed since Amos at all.  He still wants to see justice and mercy raining down.  So here we are.  It’s a tough spot.  What in the world do we do?  Let me use the Love and Logic answer, something.  Whether that means buying a water filter so that someone might have water do drink, or visiting a nursing home and spending time with the lonely there.  Volunteer with the food pantry.  I know they can use the help.  Becca is organizing a supper for the homeless in a couple of weeks.  Call her and ask her to help.  Let us be more than empty words and hollow promises.  Let us wrestle with this.  Let us not be content.