Amy and Worship & Justice

Advent Reflections on Justice: Worship and Justice

I hate, I reject your festivals. I don't enjoy your joyous assemblies. (Amos 5:21)

The Prophet Amos goes on giving voice to God who later says, Take away the noise of your songs; I won't listen to the melody of your harps. (5:23)

Er....Merry Christmas?! The celebration, the joyous assembly, in honor of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ - does God just want us to cancel that?!

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (5:24)

Our God is a God of justice, power, righteousness. That is who God is, and to worship God is to worship that God - that God who concerns God's very self with the abuses and misuses of power and injustice in the world in all its forms. To worship that God faithfully is to reflect that justice, power, and righteousness, to shine that out into a world which so yearns for it. 

Too many times, the prophets throughout Scripture, including Jesus, say over and over again, those who gather for worship are worshipping themselves, centering their selfish interests and not God, and when that happens, the prophets name it, as Amos does.

Faithful worship is not an expression of who we are in our brokenness, our pettiness, our preferences, made up of assemblies of people who look and act and think just like us; faithful worship is an expression of who God is. Therefore, faithful worship looks more and more just, more and more righteous, and more and more reflects God and God's ways, God's vision for God's people, and for creation.