Judgment and Repent

Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. ¹²For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate. Amos 5:11-12

How we spend our money matters to God and reveals our true values.  All we have is a gift from God and we called to good stewards of the resources at our disposal.  God's hope is that we would use our resources to be a blessing in the world.  Far too often however, we use our resources for our own purposes and neglect God's commands.  Each of us is called to repent and seek the transforming power of God's love.  The good news is that we are given a new chance and a new way through Christ.  But every now and then we need to hear from Amos and the prophets. 
Amos offers a startling indictment against the people of Israel.  They have forgotten the goodness and mercy of God and failed to care for the poor.  They have built beautiful homes, pleasant vineyards, and have an abundance of everything while they "trample" on the poor.  God's judgment comes in the form of the Assyrians who will conquer God's people and lead them away in exile.  Because they have neglected to love their neighbor and remember God's goodness and commands, they are no longer under the blessings of God.  Similarly, when we lead lives that are against God's vision for life we will struggle to find peace, happiness, and meaning in life.  It doesn't mean God is punishing those who oppose God's ways.  It means when we live life only for ourselves and neglect our neighbor we will reap what we sow.  We are the masters of our own destruction.  But it is not too late and despite the harshness of Amos' critique there is always hope in the voice of the prophets.  "Seek the Lord and live." (5:6)  Seek the Lord, seek out God's ways and you will be blessed and become a blessing for others.

Focus and Remember

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. ⁵You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:4-5

This passage is called the shema and it is a centerpiece in the Jewish faith.  It has traditionally been recited as a daily prayer and reminds the faithful of who God is, what God has done for the people, and how to respond.  The Lord has brought the people out of Egypt and into the land of Israel. (6:10-11)  The Lord has been faithful and fulfilled the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  What the Lord asks for is to be loved and not to forget.  The Lord asks of us to focus our lives on God and not forget the many blessings we have received from God.

It is all too easy to get distracted in life and forget the things that truly matter.  We can get caught up in our daily stress and grind and fail to give thanks.  We become consumed with the details and decisions, awash with anxiety and we forget to make God the center.  The shema is a clarion call to repent and return.  It is simple to understand but hard to live out.  Making God the center of our lives and not forgetting, is spiritually difficult but has the potential to transform our lives.  The ancient Israelites understood this.  The shema became the center of their prayer life and they were given instructions on how to pass the faith on to their children and future generations (6:6-9).  We need these same reminders today.  We need the shema as part of our daily spiritually discipline.  We need to focus and remember.

We Get Distracted

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Matthew 6:25

 

 At some level we truly do know that God is in charge.  We can acknowledge that God has created all things, given us all we have, and ultimately has and will be good to us in the future.  I think we get that--at least at a head level.  But we still worry. We still have trouble trusting.  We still find ourselves fixated on the small things in life and pay too little attention to the big things.  Jesus' words speak to the human condition of anxiety. We wonder about our health, our financial future, and our relationships.  The world around us is constantly changing and life is incredibly fragile.  So we worry and fret for ourselves and our loved ones and sometimes we get stuck in worry and mired in anxiety.  How can we move beyond this?

 

Jesus reminds his audience about the birds in the air and lilies in the field.  God has provided for their needs and they are free to live a life without worry.  "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (6:26) The birds do not store up food for tomorrow but trust that God will provide.  They have this trust because each day they find food.  The old adage that the best predictor of the future is the past seems apropos.  We can trust God to meet our needs because God has met our needs.  God has provided for us in the past and will provide for us in the future.  We may not be able to predict or control exactly what that looks like (there is a deep connection between a need to control and anxiety) but we will be ok.  We need to remember each day what God has done for us.  We need to give thanks for the many gifts of grace and love we have received.  By remembering and giving thanks we prod our worrying and anxious hearts to trust.



God is First

Then God spoke all these words: ²I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³you shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:1-3

 

Idolatry is a slippery thing.  We might think the first commandment is about worshipping foreign gods or statues, and it is.  But idolatry is also about the things that get in the way of our relationship with God.  When things other than God are first place in our lives they function as an idol.  It can be negative things like money or pride or power, but it can also be benign things like health and family and security.  The other gods in our lives beg us to trust them rather than God.  These other gods seek our attention and devotion and promise happiness, success, and security.  God called the Israelites to faithfulness and to remember all that God had done for them.  We need this reminder too.  We need to remember that God has given us all we have and will ever be.  We need to remember that God is God and nothing else is. God is calling us to a faithful life in which God comes first.  May we have the strength and wisdom to put God first and reject the siren song of the idols which call our name.

Focus on God

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.  Matthew 6:19-20

Like most people, I have a lot of stuff.  I don't think about how much stuff I have very often; it is there but goes unseen. But I have a closet full of clothes, a full dresser, jackets, shoes, computers, furniture, gadgets, and lots of junk.  And I consider myself non-materialistic! I have been storing up for myself treasures on earth for sure!

When Jesus tells his listeners and us to store up treasures in heaven he is telling us to get our priorities straight.  Historically, he was most likely talking to people who were mostly in poverty and had very few possessions.  To them his message seems to be: do not aspire to be like the rich who hoard money and possessions, but instead focus your attention on God--the thing that really matters.  On the other hand, when you have a life of abundance and comfort you may not notice all that you have.  It can however become the focus.  We are not content to have enough, we have an appetite for more and more. 

The spiritual answer to wealth and possessions is developing deep trust in God and discovering contentment.  We need to realize that all we have is a gift from God and we are entrusted with what we have to give God glory.  God will continue to provide for our needs so we do not need to store up for ourselves and hoard.  This is challenging and difficult in our culture, but it helps unlock a life of more peace and a deeper sense of God's work in our life.  I am going to clean out my closet...

Spirit and Truth

The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. " John 4:19-21

There are occasions at church when someone will come, during now worship times, to pray in the sanctuary.  It doesn't happen too much, but when it does it is someone who seems troubled and is seeking out a space to connect with God.  God is certainly present in the church and it is understandable why people seek out so called "sacred spaces" to connect with God.  But is it only in the sacred places that we can meet God?

When the woman at the well meets Jesus she discusses the sacred space of the mountaintop which had been important to her ancestors and the sacred space of the temple in Jerusalem for the Jewish people.  Jesus refutes this whole worldview be asserting that it is not a space which makes an occasion sacred but the presence of the spirit.  We can have a moment with God anywhere at anytime.  We do not need to be at church, or in nature, or at an appointed time.  Jesus teaches the woman that God seeks those who will worship in "spirit and truth" (4:24).  What is needed to worship God in spirit is an openness to God's presence in our life.  God is everywhere all the time.  When we become aware of God's presence in our life and have eyes to see and ears to hear, then any place or time can be sacred.  To experience the sacred with must slow down, open our hearts, and let God's presence be revealed.