Echoes of God

  

Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.  But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.  Amos 5

This is a favorite passage of many who like to talk about justice.  Yet, what Amos is more than a bump sticker for our cars.  Amos says that what is happening in worship has gone so awry that the singing, preaching, and playing the harp can no longer be redeemed.  When our spirituality does not support our lives, something is not right.  When what we say and sing on Sunday has no impact on Monday something is not right.  When our worship surfs over the surface of our lives without challenging us to change both what we are doing inside and outside of the church, then in the famous line of I Love Lucy, 'We have some 'splaing to do.'  

One of the favorite quotes I picked up along the way was, "We want justice for everyone else and mercy for ourselves."  Justice is great when we are talking about CEOs who raid pension funds or companies that pollute the environment or that neighbor who borrowed tools two years ago and now claims they are 'his'.  But what about us?  The clothes we wear.  The cars we drive all over.  The pension funds that are invested in places we don't even realize...or want to realize.  Then, please God have mercy on us.

And what about our worship?  When we coast through the prayer of confession.  When we zone out during the scripture reading.  When we contemplate our shopping list during the prayer.  I love the ending of Amos...but I need to realize that when the justice rolls down it is going to wash over me in ways that will forever change my life.  All of us will need to be transformed, not just the people who disagree with us.

N.T. Wright's book, Simply Christian, he names justice as one of the echoes of God.  The other echoes include the thirst for spirituality, relationships, and beauty.  These interconnected echoes support and sustain each other; they need one another.  Spirituality that is not concerned with the suffering of this world can soon become escapism.  Justice that is not connected to worship and true relationships might slowly whither because progress moves slower than a sloth sometimes.  And in the end, there are moments we need to understand the truth when God says to Job, "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" (Job 38:4)  There is beauty all around us and sometimes it becomes a blur because of our frenzied pace.  

I have invited you to think about ways of giving thanks.  And now, can we begin to see beauty around us, between us with others, within us in a prayerful life, and in our actions of sharing God's compassion with the least and lost among us.  If we can, I trust there will be a trace of God's grace.

Blessings ~