Amos 5:18-27; Jude 17-25; Matthew 22:15-22
Today we’re at the Church of the Ascension in New York City, leading a quiet day on “Mary’s Yes and Ours.” Please pray for us to have a word to share, and for those gathered that they might hear God, whatever we say or don’t.
Amos reminds us that we don’t know what we’re saying “Yes” to most of the time. Those who “desire the day of the LORD”: what are they thinking? Likely they’re thinking that God will smite someone else and reward them. Sorry. We’re in this together. And because we are, injustice is more damaging than failure to worship properly. If my offerings come from what I profit off your labor, God is not happy. And when God ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.
The alternative to “justice roll[ing] down like waters, and righteousness like an everlasting stream” is social chaos: distrust, anger, violence, and the consequences of violence: inability to sustain agriculture, lack of education or health care, leading to fewer options other than violence. Sound familiar? Fifty years after Martin Luther King quoted this passage to call the United States to racial justice, we are more divided, more suspicious of more “others,” than ever.
So we don’t need to imagine a parental God’s anger; we can see what happens when God’s will is violated. However you understand God, whatever language or image you use, it’s clear when the healing of the world is happening and when it isn’t. God’s will for us is wholeness and healing. God’s will is justice and righteousness.
This week’s events remind us of the continuing spiral of violence and pain in the world. Any week’s events show us this. And God ain’t happy.
Where can you bring or participate in justice and righteousness today?
Make God happy today.
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