Living in the Spirit

Living in the Spirit

September 20, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Amos 6:1, 4-7
Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,
   and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
the notables of the first of the nations,
   to whom the house of Israel resorts!
Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,
   and lounge on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock,
   and calves from the stall;
who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,
   and like David improvise on instruments of music;
who drink wine from bowls,
   and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
   but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,
   and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

Well, one thing I am sure of, I am not at ease. I wake in the early morning stewing over how to fix what I see is broken in our world, while recognizing that what I see as broken many see as wholeness. Where and how did we get so divided? I recall a conversation a few years ago with a friend comparing our college years. While we both graduated in 1969, she was only vaguely aware that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated or that the Democrat convention of 1968 broke out into a riot over the Vietnam War. Her college experience was centered on sorority parties, football games, and planning her wedding after graduation while I was protesting war, racism, and poverty. She was a good student and a caring loving person with a worldview far removed from mine. She grew up in an upper-middle-class home with loving parents who were active in the church. She did love her neighbors, yet she rarely had the opportunity to move beyond her neighborhood’s boundaries. We do not have to fight over whether true history should be taught in our public schools, we are immune from its reality. Our culture drives our understanding, and as Amos says so potently the worldview of Israel was leading them toward exile.

How do we reinvent our worldview? How do we let go of things that were or are so precious to us? I, too, like parties, football games, and celebrating friends’ marriages. That is not the point. There is a whole diverse world out there of which we are a part, where bad things happen to good people we are called to love as our neighbors. By widening our worldview, and stretching our ability to welcome the stranger, we may surprisingly find our way out of exile and into God’s Beloved Community.

Prayer: Lord, open windows in our worldview to finding our way out of division and into your Beloved Community. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.