Kingdom Building

July 16, 2019

Scripture Reading: Amos 8:1-12

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
   and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?
On that day, says the Lord God,
   I will make the sun go down at noon,
   and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I will turn your feasts into mourning,
   and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on all loins,
   and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
   and the end of it like a bitter day.
The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
   when I will send a famine on the land;
not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,
   but of hearing the words of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea,
   and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
   but they shall not find it. –Amos 8:7-12

I think a famine on the land of hearing the words of the Lord may be upon us. Some of the hateful, harmful words I have heard recently particularly related to refugees are not of God. If we believe that God created the world and all that is within it including creating all humans in God’s image then if is hard for me to understand how we can tolerate using the separation of children from their families as an incentive to keep people away who are seeking asylum. People would not be leaving their homelands without reason.

If we no longer hear and apply the words of the Lord as our standard of living, what standard will we follow? Will we follow a despot who seems to know all the tricks to make us listen and follow that person’s ways of being primarily to that persons benefit? Where is the plumb line of God in a world where the words of the Lord are no longer relevant?

Prayer: Lord, do not take your words from us even as we run helter-skelter searching for you in all the wrong places. Help us to remove ourselves from the cacophony of noise that distract us and seek you first in the silence of your loving presence.  Put a new and right spirit within us 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.