Pastor Steve's Recent Weekly Letter
Pastor Steve's Weekly Letter for Thursday, January 14, 2021
Preaching Scripture can be, at times, a dangerous calling. Girolamo Savonarola found this out the hard way. In 1496, he preached a series of sermons on the book of Amos in Florence, Italy. These sermons were rather hard-hitting as he exposed the political and religious sins of Florence—much like the prophet Amos did in Israel. Unfortunately, these sermons resulted in Savonarola’s imprisonment, and he was executed in 1498. So, it is with a bit of fear and trepidation that I announce a sermon series on Amos.
Seriously, I’m excited to preach through Amos! It is a book that will make us uncomfortable at times, but we desperately need its message. The title of the sermon series is God’s Heart for Justice. One of the key statements in the book is found in 5:24: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.” That’s the heart of the message proclaimed by Amos.
Let’s take a closer look at those terms. Righteousness refers to a lifestyle of right relationships—that is, treating each other right because we are right with God. Justice refers to the actions we take to correct injustice or to give people their rights. To look at it another way, when we give people justice, we are pursuing righteousness. Tim Keller says that when these two words are tied together, as they are over three dozen times in the Old Testament, the English expression that best conveys their meaning is “social justice.” That expression has become a bit of cliché in our culture, yet it captures what God calls his people to do when it comes to the way they treat others.
One of our problems, in my opinion, is the temptation to disconnect social justice from the gospel. Our reason for practicing justice and righteousness is that God has provided justice and righteousness for us as an expression of his love. Psalm 33:5 recognizes this when it says, “The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.” The gospel is the good news that Jesus, our King, died for our sins and was raised to life on the third day. His death and resurrection secure our salvation and provide hope for the future. There will come a day when Jesus will bring about justice by punishing those who refuse to turn from their evil ways and by restoring life to all that God intended it to be. And the book of Amos ends on this note of hope as it describes how God will restore the very people of Israel who faced judgment for failing to pursue justice and righteousness (see Amos 9:11-15).
Let’s pray that God will use the book of Amos to reveal our blind spots to injustice in our world and in the church. God has called us to “seek good, not evil” and to “hate evil, love good” (Amos 5:14-15). I encourage you to take some time to read through the nine chapters of this book. Pray that God will prepare our hearts to receive it and learn from it. I will begin our series on Amos this Sunday, January 17, by preaching Amos 1:1-2:3. The title of the sermon is “God’s Response to the Cruel and Inhuman Treatment of Human Beings.”
Last weekend, four of our grandkids spent the afternoon at our house. Miles (5) asked me if he could play with one of my “little guitars” (it’s actually a ukulele). A little while later, when I walked through the house, Miles was in the living room playing the ukulele, and below him was a plastic container. He said, “I’m trying to earn money.” I was so impressed with his creativity that I put a dollar bill in the container. Before I knew it, Blake (10) found the other ukulele, and Kolby (8) found a toy saxophone. Soon, all three were playing their instruments in our living room with plastic containers beneath them. Blake even made a sign stating that he would take money or candy. Their sister Halle (3) soon joined in the fun by asking me for money to put in their containers. Before long, I went through all the dollar bills I could find in my wallet and in Priscilla’s purse. Then I started with quarters, dimes, and nickels. By the end of the afternoon, each boy had “earned” $3.00. Their parents may or may not have rolled their eyes when they found out what I did. But it’s what grandparents do. I’m sure some kind of life lessons were learned. Thanks as always for reading. Grace and peace to all of you!