Arrogance

I have been reading the Old Testament prophet Amos and the commentary on Amos by 19th century German Bible Scholars Johann Friedrich Karl Keil (1807-1888) and Franz Delitzsch (1813-1890). One of the prevailing themes of Amos, who prophesies before the Assyrian dominance of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) of God's people, is spiritual pride or spiritual arrogance. Keil and Delitzsch repeatedly identify this theme, which also cannot be missed if one reads Amos even casually. Spiritual arrogance is a problem the chosen people had. Being chosen, they forgot to be humble and grateful before God.


American Bible scholar Elizabeth Achtemeier also identifies this prominent theme in Amos in her volum in the New International Bible Commentary (1996, Vol. 17). She writes of Amos 6:1-7, "Amos continues to attack those aspects of Israel's life in which it rests [in] its [self] confidence. ... He treats one of the standard themes found in the prophetic writings concerning the day of the Lord, namely, the inability of fame and wealth to save in the day of Yahweh's wrath and sovereignty" (p.212-213). Most Americans enjoy tremendous wealth (when compared to the rest of the world). As I read Amos and the commentaries and try to understand how the prophet speaks in our idea, I begin to wonder about spiritual arrogance.


I first read Amos 6 in the English Standard Version and in the Good News Bible (the Today's English Version). I found the TEV to be helpful in getting to the heart of what Amos is saying. Here is Amos 6 in the TEV.

1 How terrible it will be for you that have such an easy life in Zion and for you that feel safe in Samaria - you great leaders of this great nation Israel, you to whom the people go for help! 2 Go and look at the city of Calneh. Then go on to the great city of Hamath and on down to the Philistine city of Gath. Were they any better than the kingdoms of Judah and Israel? Was their territory larger than yours? 3 You refuse to admit that a day of disaster is coming, but what you do only brings that day closer. 4 How terrible it will be for you that stretch out on your luxurious couches, feasting on veal and lamb! 5 You like to compose songs, as David did, and play them on harps. 6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest perfumes, but you do not mourn over the ruin of Israel. 7 So you will be the first to go into exile. Your feasts and banquets will come to an end. 8 The Sovereign Lord Almighty has given this solemn warning: "I hate the pride of the people of Israel; I despise their luxurious mansions. I will give their capital city and everything in it to the enemy." 9 If there are ten men left in a family, they will die. 10 The dead man's relative, the one in charge of the funeral, will take the body out of the house. The relative will call to whoever is still left in the house, "Is anyone else there with you?" The person will answer, "No!" Then the relative will say, "Be quiet! We must be careful not even to mention the Lord's name." 11 When the Lord gives the command, houses large and small will be smashed to pieces. 12 Do horses gallop on rocks? Does anyone plow the sea with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison, and right into wrong. 13 You brag about capturing the town of Lodebar. You boast, "We were strong enough to take Karnaim." 14 The Lord God Almighty himself says, "People of Israel, I am going to send a foreign army to occupy your country. It will oppress you from Hamath Pass in the north to the Brook of the Arabah in the south."


In my honest talk with God, I first want to know, how can I avoid being among those who trust in my own wisdom, my own resources, and my own strength? I like being self-sufficient. I like being the one others turn to for help. I don't want to have to ask for help. I don't want to depend on God. How do I live in appropriate humility and gratitude before God?

A second question I bring to the Lord. How do I recognize damaging, spiritual arrogance in the church and in people all around me? I don't want to judge people, but I do want to be able to recognize what's going on. I want to be able to see and to speak the truth the prophets witnessed and testified to.

Third, when confronted with damning spiritual arrogance, what do I do? What is the appropriate response when I see someone in the church who acts like he knows it all? There are many in Christendom who behave as if they are the possessors of all the "right" answers and all truth. They speak their theology as if they stand on the hill of righteousness and to disagree with them is to be in error and heresy. How do I avoid becoming that person? How do I relate to that person?

Particularly chilling is Amos 6:10. Ten in a home have fallen dead before God's wrath and the last one left shouts out for silence. Don't even speak God's name. The pathetic fool had been glorying in his own opulence until the anger of God rained down on him. Now, he's left hiding in the house with decaying corpses around him. From whom does he hide? God. He thought he was in the right and that his prosperity was a sign that he was in God's favor. Now, he lives in dread and stays in the shadows. Fear is his companion, paranoia , his best friend. And in his lowest moment, he cannot even call on God for help. He has ignored God, forgotten God, and now all his woes are from God.

What can Christians learn from Amos? How can the prophet help us live today? I don't have all the answers, but I think it starts with us cultivating humility and gratitude. Neither can be generated by one's own will. To stay humble, a believer has to constantly praise God and see the beauty and the value in other people. Further, he or she must never see himself or herself as being above anyone else. To cultivate gratitude, the believer has to make prayers of thanksgiving a regular practice, even in difficult times. Thanksgiving prayers must be our defense against greed, jealousy, and the temptation to covet our neighbors things. Will humility and thanksgiving provide a sure safeguard against destructive arrogance? I think it's a good place to start.

Amos, on God

God invites. “Seek me and live” (Amos 5:4); “seek the Lord and live” (5:6); “seek good and not evil, that you may live” (5:14). God is an inviting God. God also gives choices. Those who heard Amos report God’s words had a choice. They could seek God and God’s ways or they could live their own way. God invites and God allows people to respond.

God punishes. God sends into exile (Amos 5:5), punishes with fire (v.6), destroys (end of v.7), and brings darkness with judgment (Amos 5:8, 18). God invites and God punishes.

God creates. God made the stars (Amos 5:8; Job 9:9; 38:1), and rules the waters of the sea (Amos 5:8). God knows (Amos 5:12). God creates all and God knows all.

God invites, God punishes, God creates, and God knows.

God comes. Amos reports in 5:16-17, "In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, 'Alas! Alas!' They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation, ¹⁷and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,’ says the LORD” (English Standard Version).

God invites, God punishes, God creates, God knows, and God comes.

God hates.

Say what?? We evangelical Christians can run with everything up this point. We believe that God invites. "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). We know Jesus said that and that in Christ we see God’s ultimate invitation. We know there is a coming judgment for sinners, but we assume we’re in the clear. Since we’re in Christ sin doesn’t stick! “God creates.” Of course! What Christian would argue with that? It’s the same with God knows. One of the classical virtues of God is God’s omniscience. God knows everything. And, God comes? We’re counting on that one. Yes, we evangelicals are right with Amos right up to this last assertion.

God hates. We can’t stomach that, can we?

"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:21-24, the prophet speaking God’s words).

One of my favorite Bible-reading activities is to take a passage and imagine it is the only Bible we have. Obviously, this is an exercise. Amos 5 is not the only Bible we have. We have Amos 1-4, and 6-8. We have the other 38 books of the Old Testament and the 27 of the New.

However, for purposes of prayer, it is worthwhile to reflect on Amos 5 as if it were all we had. In prayer, I want to ask for God’s help so that I willingly accept his invitation. I want to learn from any punishments God might impose on me so I don’t repeat my mistakes. I want to rejoice on God’s creation and praise God from the depths of my being. I must open my heart to God and be completely honest before God. After all, God knows anyway. What secrets am I keeping? I want Jesus to make me ready when God comes.

Finally, I want to love what God loves, and hate what God hates. I hear a lot Christians, especially fundamentalists, conservatives, inerrantists, Bible literalists, and the like angrily, self-righteously proclaim how God “hates sin.” Then I actually read the Bible (Amos 5, Matthew 25, Luke 6). I read and realize that God hates hypocrisy in worship, and hypocrisy in worship comes when our praise songs are beautiful, but we treat the needy among us with contempt, neglect, and cruelty. God hates that. God loves it when “Justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” So, with God’s help, justice and righteousness are what I must work for, especially with regard to disadvantaged people.

Seek God and Live

Amos 5 is a prophecy full of righteous anger, and yet, embedded in tragic reality ("fallen is virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land), and in the piercing accusation from God ("you who turn justice into bitterness"), and in the ominous truth ("there will be wailing in all the vineyards for I will pass through your midst") is a divine invitation. I don't particularly like words like "fallen," "bitterness," and "wailing." I especially don't like thinking on these thoughts knowing I am going to bed soon. Why would the Lord passing through be a cause for anguish?

It makes me think of Jesus' parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46). The goats were sent off to eternal punishment because they neglected the hungry, the thirsty, and the stranger in need (v.44, 46). In Amos 5, those who end up wailing in horror and sorrow when faced with the Lord's presence are the ones who despised the truth and trampled the poor (Amos 5:10, 11). Amos 5 and Matthew 25 are good companion passages, but not just because both speak God's justice against those who trod down on the weak and needy, the oppressed and the powerless.

In both places, there is also a sign of hope for those who seek God's help and find their redemption in God's grace. In Amos 5, right in the middle of the accusing rant, God says, "Seek the Lord and live" (verse 6). And then again in verses 14-15. "Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord almighty will be with you. ... Hate evil, love good. Maintain justice in the courts." God is angry, but God will not turn away the repentant sinner.

Even is one has been an agent of evil, a dispenser of pain, God will receive that one when he comes on his knees, begging forgiveness. This is not entirely played out in Amos 5, but the seeds of redemption are planted in the rough soil of wrath. God always, always makes room for the recalcitrant who would turn from evil and turn to the ways of God.

I hope that as you read this, you'll realize that your story is not yet written. Some of it is but a lot is still to come and it can always turn on grace. Amos doesn't speak of grace, but what he says would only be possible with a God of grace. Amos is the truth-teller and some times, many times, the truth is really hard to hear. I pride myself in being someone who deals with the whole truth and doesn't hide behind nuance or pretense, but I am frequently surprised by situations in which I have been hiding behind something. When it comes out, it hits me right between the eyes and I realize I have to come clean.

That's the ticket - come clean! The only way one can truly seek God is to come clean about who he (the seeker) really is. God raises up prophets like Amos when his people play the part of holiness but live in evil. Evil isn't some caricatured demon like Freddy or Jason or some other horror movie monster. Evil is when people are cruel to one another in real world ways. Evil is seen in Christians who neglect the vulnerable, needy, difficult people around them. Evil is the church huddling up and keeping out the "undesirables."

To seek God, we have to be honest about where we have ignored God and lived by our own standards whether it be theological arrogance, a sense of moral superiority, or something else. Whenever Christians get into the "us and them" mindset, we forget that at the communion table everyone is equal - a sinner in desperate need of grace. I heard recently about a Sunday school teacher that has no time and no love for homosexual teens and teens that get pregnant. She feels they have no place in the church. She is who Amos is talking about when quotes God as saying "I know how many are your offenses and how great are your sins" (5:12). Is premarital sex that leads to pregnancy a sin? Sure, but the greater sin is the Christian who ought to know better refusing to love the broken sinner who comes to church in need of grace. That SS teacher needs to come clean, admit her prejudices and bigotry, and repent. We all need to do that.

The good news is we can, and God will love us. We can seek God and live. We can have another chance at shedding the clothing of this world and instead clothing ourselves with Christ and living as his disciples here.

God Surprised?

One of the themes in Amos is God's anger at God's people. Israel (the Northern Kingdom of 10 tribes) had relied on alliances with foreign, pagan powers for national security instead of trusting in God. These alliances included syncretism, the blending of religions. God found this to be intolerable.

Equally distasteful to God was the hypocrisy. The wealthy minority demonstrated proper form in their pious religious rituals, but at the same time, they neglected the needs of the most vulnerable people in society and even perpetuated the suffering of the poor. And so, in creative wording and vivid metaphor, Amos speaks God's wrath to Israel.

But, it seems the Israelites do not react the way God thought they would. Amos 4:6-13 presents a progression of responses from God. If we ascribe to the notion that God knows all before it happens, it wouldn't seem God ever responded to anything. Is something really a response if I know ahead of time it's going to happen?

It is not analogous to say I know ahead of time that if my son has a great day at school, he will get a nickel in his jar and ice cream at dinner. I know that's what I would do. But, maybe I forget. Or maybe, he forgets to tell me. I know that is my plan. To say God knows all, means God knows what is going to happen including what God will do. This is not what God would do, but what God absolutely will do. No other scenario is possible.

So, if God knows the whole drama before it plays out, then God isn't responding to things. God knew ahead of time Israel would rebel and abandon the covenant. God knew in advance how God would react. Yet, the wording of Amos 4 doesn't read with that certainty.

In verse 6, God recites a series of harsh punishments God has meted out to the people. "I gave you absolutely nothing to eat." Then at the end of the verse, God seems surprised. "Yet you did not return to Me" (HCSB).

So, God ramps up the divine discipline. "I withheld the rain; ... I sent rain on one city, but not on another." And again, the chagrined response, "Yet you did not return to Me" (end of v. 8. HCSB). Five times God tells of drastic ways He has punished the people. Find times, a frustrated God repeats, "Yet you did not return to Me."

Finally in verse 12 God says, "Therefore, Israel, that is what I will do to you." And God proceeds to inform the recalcitrant Israelites that there will be no more discipline from a distance. God is moving in. "Israel, prepare to meet your God" (end, v.12). That's a bit peculiar. Hasn't Israel already known God?

This whole monologue from the Lord sounds dramatic. It is like God is caught in a cause and effect situation and it does not seem that God is free to step out of it. God is reacting to Israel with the same anger a parent has when a child is completely disrespectful and disobedient. As a parent of young children, I can relate. But, I am not supposed to be able to relate to God. God is supposed to be above such pettiness.

What I see here is a personal, relational God, one who takes the relationship very seriously. I admit it is completely possible I am seeing implications in the text that are not there. Perhaps Amos 4:6-13 says nothing to indicate that God is surprised or caught off guard by Israel's sinfulness. Perhaps the belief that God knows the future as if it already happened is in tact with a reading of Amos.

I would take issue with the notion that sovereignty = foreknowledge. I believe God is absolutely sovereign over the universe and especially over the ways of humans beings and the history of earth. I don't think God is ever out of control or that there are events that are beyond God's control. I don't think anything happens that God cannot handle.

But I also think God gives human beings free-will. That's what it means for us to be made in the image of God. The people of Israel could have chosen to be faithful to the covenant. They would have needed God's help to live as a faithful people, but they could have chosen to ask for that help and I believe God would have given it. All along the way, Israel had choices. As I read Amos, I see God confounded by their choices.

Does that mean God did not know their choices before they made them? I am not ready to go there. But, the question is intriguing.

"So the Lord God formed out of the ground each wild animal and each bird of the sky and brought each to the man, to see what he would call it" (Genesis 2:19, HCSB). Did God not know a turtle was a turtle? Did God have to wait and see what Adam would call it before God knew it was a turtle? God waited to see what the man would call each animal. Mmmm. God was frustrated each time Israel did not respond to God's discipline.

What does it mean about God, about time, about the future, about foreknowledge?

Ignoring God

The Ancient Israelites, the people of God, ignored their God and it led to drastic consequences. They continued ignoring God in spite of the drastic consequences. How bad did it get?

God imposed starvation ("cleanness of teeth ... lack of bread," Amos 4:6); and drought ("I also withheld the rain," v.7). Dramatic crop failures came from God (Amos 4:9); so too did suffering from disease, war, and domination at the hands of invading armies. God takes credit for all the pain (Amos 4:10-11). Even though it was awful, the wrath of God did not have its desired affect. Five times an exasperated God says, "Yet you did not return to me" (v.6, 8, 9, 10, 11). God brought about all this drama and to no avail.

I love the way Eugene Peterson renders these verses in The Message. A longing God says to Israel, "You never got hungry for me." "You never got thirsty for me; you ignored me." Three more times, he words it "you continued to ignore me." I am not always thrilled with that paraphrased version of scripture, but I think it really preaches in this case. When the people of God "hunger and thirst for God" and pay attention to God, life is good, very good.

When we hunger and thirst for other things, those things become idols, occupying the space God is supposed to have. We summarily ignore God, and life falls apart at that point.

It makes me think about the city of New Orleans. America built a large city below sea level with a lake on one side and the Mississippi Rive on the other. This city was built right next to the Gulf of Mexico - hurricane central. The poorest people of the city live in the low-lying, most vulnerable areas. And the city is known for partying (excessive drinking and women revealing their breasts so that they can build a collection of cheap beads).

So, the mother of all hurricanes hammers New Orleans, and some people shake a fist toward Heaven and blame God. Never mind that this hurricane wouldn't crack the top 10 of natural disasters for loss of life in the last decade. We'll blame God and make New Orleans the cause celeb in the United States.

Salvation comes because of great humanitarian efforts? Of course not! Salvation comes when the football time wins the Super Bowl. It was destiny (forget the superior game planning and the gutsy play-calling). And what does that Super Bowl win bring about - more partying (Mardis Gras style with beads and boobs and booze).

I am encouraging my congregation to seek Jesus during Lent, 2010. Of course, seek Jesus all the time, duh! But, the preaching emphasis for this season will be the relationship we have (as a church and as individuals) with God. Hunger for God. Thirst for God. At the end of Amos 4, God says,

¹²"Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!"

¹³For behold,^AC)">(AC) he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
and^AD)">(AD) declares to man what is his thought,
^AE)">(AE) who makes the morning darkness,
and^AF)">(AF) treads on the heights of the earth—
^AG)">(AG) the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!

Does it sound ominous? It does to me. I'd rather have the experience of Mary in the garden. In her hazy confusion, she met the resurrected Lord and he called her by name. I want to see the risen Jesus and hear him say, "Rob." And I will say, "Master." And, I'll fall at his feet. Yeah, I want to want that. That's the way to meet God. So, I will seek that in Lent, 2010. I encourage you to join me in the quest.

Fat Cows

Honestly God, "fat cows"? Was that you, or is that Amos' paraphrase? Did you say it with more dignity, more aplomb?

I am asking these questions of God because I read of God's displeasure expressed in Amos 3:13-4:3.
^"15I will tear down the winter house as well as the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end, says the Lord.

4Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on Mount Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, “Bring something to drink!”"

The wealthy women of Samaria lived large, so Amos called them "Fat Cows." It reminds me of the unfortunate response from the queen in France shortly before the French Revolution. She was told the starving people where riotous because they had no bread. Her brilliant response? "Let them eat cake." Why didn't some court attendant pull the clueless monarch aside and say, "Um, excuse me your blindness, er, I mean, your highness. But they don't have bread. They certainly can't afford cake."

Or earlier in history, to the rich women in Samaria demanding "drink" from their husbands. "Excuse me ladies, but while you are loafing, consuming all the resources of the nation, the people in your country are starving and your opulent, extravagant life styles are contributing. And GOD SEES!!"

That's one thing I take away from Amos - God sees. God always sees when there are a few people soaked in riches and a lot of people wallowing in hunger and scarcity. God sees me - my life. In my honest talk with God, I have to honestly acknowledge where I have lived wastefully. I have to confess when I have demonstrated indifference where God would want me to express compassion. I don't want to be a fat cow demanding drink and living in summer and winter houses (Amos 3:15).

If you read Amos and try to localize his piercing prophesy so that you would say he only speaks to ancient Israel and ancient Samaria, hear the words of 19th century Bible scholars Johann Frederick Karl Keil and Franz Delitzsch. These scholars refute any attempt to dismiss Amos as a prophet for back then but with nothing to say today. Keil and Delitzsch write "The sin of these women consisted in the tyrannical oppression of the poor, whilst they asked their lords, i.e., their husbands, to procure them the means of debauchery." God's judgment speaks to wealthy people today.

Amos said they would end up dragged into slavery by hooks in their noses (4:2).

Really, God, did Amos need such graphic imagery?

Perhaps the real question is do I realize how disgusted God when people of privilege ignore people on the margins?

I hear enthusiastic Christians talk of the urgency of evangelism. They want to "get people saved," get them into Heaven. I don't deny it. With Heaven and Hell at stake, Christians need to share Christ with people. However, we also need to understand what it means to say Heaven and Hell are at stake. Read Matthew 25:31-46 or Luke 16:19-31. In those passages Jesus condemns to Hell anyone who has neglected to help the needy. Would that include me?

Or read Amos. The language is colorful and the reader might feel like Amos is calling him a "Fat Cow." But it is better to hear that, awaken, and take spiritual stock. It is better to change one's life and live compassionately today. That is better than to continue to live in blissful ignorance and then discover on the "Day of the Lord," that God was really angry, judgmentally angry, that we didn't notice those around us and help and love them.

A lesson for the Good Samaritan

We've had a couple of snowy days, much more severe winter weather than we are used to, even in January. It was enough that we had to cancel church. So I took my boys sledding and we were walking home. We walked past a home where a woman appeared to be trying to shovel thick, icy snow with a plastic dustpan.

We pass this house every day when we walk my 7-year-old to the school bus stop. They are our neighbors and I decided to play the hero. I sent my boys inside and I grabbed our snow-shovel and marched over to save the day.

The woman was very grateful. Her driveway is longer and wider than ours, is at a sharp angle and spends most of the day in the shade. The way the snow fell over the weekend, it was ice first, then wet snow on top of that, and finer, icier snow on top of that. It's a real bugaboo to shovel. Add in the angle of the driveway and the fact that none was melted, and I began to wonder if this type of thing was included in Hercules' labors.

I also noticed something. This Chinese woman, about my age, in her professional, high-heeled shoes was making good progress. And she didn't quit when Super-Pastor and his snow shovel showed up. She worked right alongside me and at just as quick a pace. Now, I will say that she had more than just that dust pant. She had a sort of chopping shovel, flat, and only about 3 inches wide. It's not good for moving mounds of dirt, but very effective at breaking ice. With persistence that a beaver would admire and speed that I couldn't seem to match, she chopped the ice, scooped it with the dust pan, and motored on.

So, I started in to working alongside, and I'd be hunched over the shovel, arms and hands aching. And, I'd feel pretty good about how much I had accomplished. Then, I'd look up and see that she had gotten just about as much done. The folks who wrote When Helping Hurts would be so pleased. They say you're not supposed to do 'for' people, but rather to do 'with' people.

As we worked, I learned that she and her husband are in application process for a Green Card. They are scientists and he is out of the state right now. I thought she was in the same field as one of our church members, so I asked if she knew the woman. I said our church member's name, and the woman, my shoveling partner, said, "Oh Yes, she's very famous." It was the second time I had heard this about my church member. When I see her on Sundays, she's just a quiet worshiper seeking a word from God. It's funny how in one context a person can be a big shot and in another completely anonymous and unassuming.

I don't know if the woman I was working with is a Christian. In our labors and brief conversation, I never sensed that opening where I felt it would be appropriate to begin a conversation about faith.

When we were done, she produced a bottle of wine. I tried to explain that I really don't drink very often and rarely wine. She insisted. I tried to explain that we don't keep wine in the house. She insisted. I decided that this gesture was very important to her, to show her gratitude. So I gratefully accepted. I wanted to honor her pride.

At home, at dinner with the family, my hands ached so much, it was difficult to grip a fork. I almost couldn't open the Texas Pete to pour in my soup. (I've really become a huge fan of the Texas Peter in recent years). The pain caused me to wonder what that woman must be feeling. Somehow, I think her body and her mind are used to extremely hard work and to getting the job done. And I thought, this lesson is good for all would-be-missionaries. Whether one is going overseas, on a day-mission project right in town, or helping a neighbor on one's one street, the missionary goes to serve and be served. In the name of Jesus, we give and receive love. I gave a woman some help she really did need. She gave me her story (a bit of it). She gave me a great lesson in diligent work. And she gave me a bottle of wine.

In the future as I see her in the neighborhood, I will know we share something. I wonder if the kingdom of God is like that - people coming alongside each other, working together, and realizing they share something.

Angry Amos and God's Wrath

I wrote the following as my newsletter column for our church newsletter which comes out every two weeks.

In 2010, one of the ways we are attempting to live out God’s call on us to be givers of love and compassion is to explore the scriptures to see if we can get a sense of how much God values justice and mercy. Throughout the Bible it is clear that the people of God are people of justice, people of love, people of grace, and people who care for one another and for all people. The book of Amos, found in the Old Testament, provides one of the most powerful and provocative pictures of Godly justice.

The prophet Amos gives us a picture of God’s anger throughout his book, and the first two chapters show the breadth of God’s judgment. Keil and Delitzsch in their commentary describe in vivid detail the sins of Damascus (1:3). “The threshing of the Gileadites with iron threshing-machines … took place … when the conquerors acted so cruelly towards the Gileadites, that they even crushed the prisoners to pieces with iron threshing-machines, according to a barbarous war-custom that is met with elsewhere.” At Gaza (one of the five capitals of the Philistines) the transgression was not as gruesome, but cruel nonetheless. They forced those they conquered into exile.

God threatened fire upon the walled city of Tyre because the rulers of Tyre were involved in slave trading (1:9). Edom was condemned specifically because of Edom did not show pity during armed conflict. These condemnations, straight from the mouth of God’s prophet, reveal God’s merciful character as well as God’s disdain for people who don’t reflect that character. When people lord power over one another, God does not like it.

Nor does God approve of excessive evil and violence. The Ammonites “ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead” (1:13). An awful thing described as the “climax of cruelties inflicted upon the Israelites” during the war with Ammon (Keil & Delitzsch). For this, God declares that the capital of the Ammonites would be burned and their king sent into exile (v.14-15). Just as Edom and Ammon would each suffer God’s wrath for their cruelty against God’s people Israel, Moab would be burned by fire sent from God for her evils against Edom (2:2). God has no hatred for Edom or any of the places condemned in Amos 1-2. The extreme measures of punishment described by the prophet do not reveal a rage-filled God; the writings of Amos show the response of a holy God to heinous sins.

Even the chosen people fall under judgment. “Because they have rejected my law … I will send fire upon Judah” (Amos 2:4-5). Judah was the southern kingdom of God’s chosen people the location of 2 of the 12 tribes. The other 10 tribes lived in the northern kingdom, Israel. And the harshest words of wrath are reserved for Israel. This is important to remember because what God says to Israel is equally severe in terms of punishment, but compare the sins.

The Gileadites crushed their prisoners to pieces. The Ammonites ripped open pregnant women. The Philistines and Phoenicians (Gaza and Tyre) sold defeated enemies into slavery. Compared to the graphic nature of those sins, Judah doesn’t seem so bad. All they did was neglect God’s law. But, it is just as sinful to God. Israel’s transgression also seems insensitive but not criminal to the degree of the sins of the other nations mentioned.

“For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. ⁷ They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. ⁸ They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines” (Amos 2:6-8).

In God’s eyes exploitation of the poor and the denial of justice to oppressed people warrants the hardest of divine discipline. In fact, because Israel and Judah were to be God’s light to the rest of the world and because they were blessed to descendants of Abraham, to receive the Law of Moses, and to be led by men like David and Solomon. They should have known how to act and how to treat people. Instead the hands of the Israelites were as dirtied with injustice as their neighbors.

As we think about how God wants us to live justly and treat each other and the peoples around us the values revealed in Amos 1-2 are a great help. When we hurt people, or participate in exploitative systems, we are as guilty of sin as if we committed violent crime. So, are we, as Americans, consuming an incredibly disproportionate amount of resources, knowing there are people in the world starving, participants in an exploitative system?

Rob Tennant

Child Sponsorship, World Vision, and A Compassionate Heart

One of the best moments of the New Year happened for me in a Bible study today when one of the members came in showing a picture of a child he adopted (sponsored) through World Vision. Essentially, he will send a monthly check of around $30-$40 to support a young Ugandan boy and his family. The money will ensure that the child is clothed, fed, educated, and receiving needed vaccines and appropriate health care. In addition to sending the check, the man can pray for his adopted child and write to the child.

The guy who is doing this is a committed Bible reader. Often he and I come to different conclusions after reading the same text. We sometimes engage in quite lively debates when our Tuesday group gets together. And, this man, my friend, is a regular reader of this blog, so I am certainly not talking behind his back. The fact is he is a bit of a provocateur. (I should add I use that term playfully and not in the confrontational sense.)

The reason I describe my learning of his decision to sponsor a child as one of the best of 2010 is I get to see his compassionate side. We have our entire church studying the compassionate life in small groups and in Sunday morning sermons. I am searching deep within myself and deep within the hearts of our members for the compassion Jesus had, especially with regard to disadvantaged people. We have had people who went on mission trips in 2009 share testimony. And in small group discussions we are trying to tackle the hows and whys of living compassionately and advocating for justice for all people.

My occasionally contrary and always thoughtful friend is taking every step of this seriously. After he and I had a spirited exchange (that carried over into several forms of media) regarding the Poverty and Justice Bible and the Green Bible, he went out and bought both. He's been critical of each, but not in an uninformed way. His criticism is valid because he shelled out the money for these study Bibles. And, now, he's revealed his own compassion by taking heart for a young Ugandan boy.

I am not arrogant enough to think for one minute my friend sponsored this child because of our church-wide emphasis. I believe he is trying to respond to the Holy Spirit's promptings. Perhaps this was his plan all along for 2010. Perhaps God would have led him to this regardless of what's happening at church. No, I don't think he's acting because of the direction we have set. But I am thrilled by what he's done because my big goal for this entire emphasis is to see more and more of our people live compassionately.

When you sponsor a child, you're helping and empowering. The comment was made, "Well, it's not like adoption," and that's true. But systemically, it might be more helpful. When one adopts a child, that child is taken out of his country. My little boy H__ has a great life now, but it is an American life, not an Ethiopian blood. My friend's sponsorship of his Ugandan child will help that child grow in body, mind, and spirit. Furthermore, that child is still in Uganda. He will grow up as an educated man with talents that can help transform his country. And he will grow up knowing (through the teaching of World Vision missionaries and his own church) that part of his provision all his life came from a loving Christian in America, one he never met.

So, I think sponsorship is a great act of compassion and one that has the potential to lead to transformation - both in the child and in the man sending the checks. I hope his action and willingness to share it with our group is a catalyst that provokes many others in our group and throughout the church to make similar decisions to do acts of justice and be moved by compassion in 2010.

And I encourage you, reader of this blog, to have your own honest talk with God about the ways you can live the compassionate life in 2010.

First Sermon of the Year - 2010

Sunday, January 3, 2010

You come to church where you hear a video about work being done somewhere else – a country you’ve only barely heard of on a continent you’ve never visited. You are wholly unaware of that country, what it is like to live there, what language they speak, what food they eat, what the whether is like, what daily life is like. But, you come to church and the pastor and elders and other church leaders – people you typically trust - implore you to dig deep and give your money because the people in this country you don’t know are materially poor and/or they don’t know anything about Christianity. So, you’re supposed to give your money to meet their needs and help them meet Jesus.

You flip on the TV in the evening and happen across a story about rising unemployment and the working poor – it seems a segment of the population in our mostly wealthy country suffer are languishing in poverty. There truly are people in America who cannot afford any kind of health insurance, are undereducated or completely illiterate, live in unsanitary conditions that perpetuate poor health, lack opportunities for advancement or improvement, and sometimes don’t have enough food - yes, here in America. You’re a hard-working accomplished person and part of you thinks “in America, those people can work their way out. I’ve worked for what I have – they should too.” But, you’re an informed person too. You know there are situations in which no amount of hard work is going to help because the individual lacks opportunity. Furthermore, you’re a Christian, called to live in compassion. The compassionate side of you wants to help.

You drive to work on Monday morning, and at the traffic light, in the median, is a guy with a sign. “Homeless. Desperate. Anything will help.” And you drive past and come to another major intersection and there’s another guy with a sign. “Will work for food.” Now come on! It’s one thing to be locked in a community or a situation where there is no way out. But there has to be a better way for the hungry individual to fight his problems and work toward a better life than to stand at a corner and beg for the spare change of willing donors, people who work for their money.

Around the world, around our country, and right here in our community, less than a mile from this spot and from the homes in which we live, people are struggling to make it. Poverty is real. There are children who go to bed not knowing if they will eat tomorrow. There are families who have had their very humanity stripped away because they have absolutely no way of knowing whether things will ever improve. But the reality of the world and of those who suffer is not an intractable situation. It is not hopeless because we aren’t just an assembly of hardworking Americans. We are the church, the body of Christ, the gathering of his followers. We live in the tradition of the very first believers who received the Holy Spirit. And we too have received the Holy Spirit. So we know God’s word in the Bible is God’s word for us – to show us what God is all about; to encourage us; and, to drive us to put our complete trust in God and to live as Jesus and the first disciples lived.

You and I – we come to church and hear the Bible we trust read, in it the very words of Jesus. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” That good news was not a hope for relief from pain in some far off future, or hope for better things in the next life. Jesus began demonstrating the good news and began establishing His kingdom before he was crucified. When he said God “sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” he meant right now. That “right now” continues in the age of the church, which includes the age in which we live. So, the work Jesus started, the work of bringing good news to the poor, is work to be carried out in the church. This is to be the life of Jesus followers.

HillSong Church will dedicate 2010 to understanding Jesus’ message of good news and carrying that good news to the people of Chapel Hill-Carrboro (and surrounding towns), to the people of North Carolina, to the people of the United States, and to the people of the world. Haven’t we already been doing this? Yes, but it will be of a particular emphasis this year with the intention of moving our entire body to great missions involvement through prayer, participation, and giving throughout the future life of this church. Compassionate living and a concern for justice will under gird everything we do.

Will every single sermon of 2010 and every Bible study be about poverty alleviation? No! We will deal with a number of themes as our church has many people with varied spiritual concerns. The compassion life of Jesus will though always be in the background and frequently as it is every year in the foreground. To open the year we are asking all small groups to study the Sunday morning texts which all come from the Gospel of Luke. The sermons and small groups discussions will align to bring awareness to all of us; and the awareness, which I believe is a gift of the Holy Spirit, will prod us to action – to live compassionate lives. This is no bleeding heart, guilt-inspired campaign, no initiative intended to salve the conscience of the opulent middle class American; this a gathering of disciples attempting to respond to God’s word in faith and deed.

We want what break’s God’s heart to break ours. We want to value what God values. We want to go where He leads. We want to become who He is leading us to become. With that in mind we will move into 2010 with a closer look at what Jesus is doing in Luke 4. But first, a note about poverty.

Consider what you think of when you hear the word “poor” or some group of people described as “the poor.” Ask yourself, what comes to mind? Are “the poor” a group of people who are “out there” in some unknown, seldom visited somewhere? Are “the poor” a group of people described as “they,” or “those people?” I suggest that the poor are in here. Now, don’t hear and then gaze around the room to see if you can figure out whom I mean. Every person suffers from spiritual poverty because of sin. My sins may be related to lust or rage; hers maybe related to sloth or gluttony; his may be related to lack of faith; someone on the other side of the room may deal with prejudice; someone on the other side of the room may commit sins of omission – not doing what he knows God wants him to do. Or, sins of greed. In myriad ways, we sin and thus are afflicted with spiritual poverty.

Spiritual poverty leads to relational brokenness. A man may suffer in that he is oblivious toward his neighbor; or he may openly hostile toward his neighbor. But all men and all women are locked in relational brokenness because of sin.

There is nothing to be done – we cannot by our will power stop sinning, but praise the Lord! We don’t have to. We need to stop sinning, but that much true. But, we have help. Jesus came to “bring good news to the poor” and “to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” Jesus is our hope and in the body of Christ, empowering through the constant presence of the Spirit, responding to our prayers from Heaven, Jesus is helping us live in His kingdom.

Our journey to awareness and compassionate living includes our admission, almost like a participant in a twelve step group. Every one stands, says his or her name, and admits the truth. “Hi. I am Rob. I admit that due to sin, I am spiritually impoverished and thus relationally broken.” It’s true of the millionaire and the pauper. Conversely because of God’s grace the Spirit empowers both the materially rich and the materially poor. Our journey to awareness and compassionate living is one in which we give and receive help. The woman with a sixth grade education who works 60 hours a week doing laundry and still needs food stamps to get buy has much to offer to a tenured university professor even as she has much to receive from that professor. On the road to relational wholeness and spiritual riches both make contributions and both need gifts of grace. Our commitment to live compassionate lives in which we champion the needs of the neediest in society includes us seeking tangible blessing those will are helping will give. We are recipients because we are poor and we are helpers because we are Jesus’ disciples and compassionate living is clearly what he leads us to do.

With that understanding of shared poverty and the commitment that we will give our attention to compassionate living, again we set our hearts and minds on the Bible and what we see in Luke 4.

Luke tells us that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit when he returned to Galilee. We believe Jesus was God in human form, the incarnation, so that’s two members of the trinity at work, and actually all three when we consider that this comes on the heels of God blessing Jesus at his baptism. Clearly doing the work of God, Jesus goes home and goes to church – his home church. He returns to the region of his childhood, Nazareth, and to the synagogue of his parents. For Jesus, being “on mission” didn’t mean doing anything more than what he had done his entire life. It was how he did it. The same is true for us. As we consider ways we can pray, give to, and participate in ministries of compassion, remembering that God is at work in us leading us to relational wholeness and spiritual riches, we realize we begin by doing the very things we have always done but in a humble, love-inspired, compassionate way.

Jesus went home, to his synagogue, but he was a man and his hometown neighbors had no idea what he had become. He returns as a local boy made good. Already Luke writes, “A report about him spread through all the surrounding country.” Jesus had performed miracles, and the people who watched him grow up wondered if he wouldn’t show them some of his magic. The problem with miracles is they create impressions but rarely do they inspire transforming faith. The people heard Jesus was in the synagogue. They came hoping to witness a miracle. They got a sermon instead.

He was given the book of Isaiah and he chose a prophecy that many understood to be messianic. The assumption was when the messiah comes, we will see the release of the captives and the recovery of sight of the blind, and we the oppressed will go free.” Jesus’ statement that today the scripture has been fulfilled was tantamount to announcing the beginning of the Messianic age.

The synagogue crowd responded in three ways. First there was great admiration. “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son”’ (v.22)? They immediately became admirers. But Jesus did not want or need admirers. He had no interest in people telling him how great he was. Admiration is fleeting quickly. Before December 2009, Tiger Woods had countless admirers. However, because like me, Tiger Woods sins, he is, for all his millions, poor and his spiritual poverty has yielded relational brokenness. This brokenness is where live. It won’t be fixed unless we realize that Jesus doesn’t want our admiration. He wants more from us.

The admiration Luke describes vanished when the crowd realized they weren’t going to be seeing any miracles. They knew Jesus’ family. They knew he was as broken and poor and insignificant as any other Jew. They wanted the Messiah to come an elevate Israel above other nations, but Jesus aggressively retorts that he will do no tricks for them but instead share truth. Then, by referring to their Bible, the Old Testament, and instances in which the great prophets Elijah and Elisha blessed non-Jews, Jesus tells the gathered synagogue crowd that God’s reign is defined by compassion, not miracles, and is for all people, not just the Jews. His implication is that they do not understand what God is doing among them and they will not, unless they change their expectations.

Do we need to change our expectations of God? Of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ? Do we need to rethink the Christian life before we have any hope of actually hearing the Spirit speak and receiving the blessings God wants to heap on us? The synagogue crowd asked for a miracle, they got a sermon. They expressed amazement at the sermon; Jesus told them they didn’t understand. At that point the crowd turned ugly and forced Jesus to the edge of the cliff on the outskirts of town.

Why did they get mad enough to kill him by mob action? Jesus told them the Messianic age had begun but they would never get it or be part of it, and they thought it belonged to them. Even in their poverty, the rural Galileans believed God was theirs instead rejoicing that they were God’s. The first two reactions to Jesus that day was (1) amazement, and (2) rage-filled rejection. There was a third that Luke unfolds throughout the rest of the Gospel and throughout the book of Acts. We see it in the final reading of the passage, verse 30.

The mob had dragged him to cliff’s edge with malevolent intentions and Luke writes, “He passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” Jesus always went on his way which was God’s way. In his life, he was opposed or at least his progress was blocked by the temptations of Satan, misplaced Messianic hopes of the crowd in Nazareth, the familial pressures placed on him by his siblings and mothers, the misunderstanding, doubt, and fear of his own disciples, the religious and theological challenges of the religious experts, the Pharisees, the political opposition of the temple leadership, the Sadducees and chief priest, and the imperial pressure to conform applied by Rome. Jesus would not be cowed by this attempt on his life. He would not shrink from the terror of demons. He showed no fear of Herod despite the corrupt king’s unpredictable nature. The crucifixion fell into God’s time table that is the only timeline Jesus paid any attention to.

It’s a short verse but it is not an afterthought. In carrying out his mission of bringing good news to the poor, Jesus went on his way, God’s way. We read the Gospel, we pray, and then we have choices before. We can hear Jesus and be amazed. Oh he’s such a good moral teacher. Oh he’s such an important figure in history. Jesus does not want admirers and admiring him does get one any closer to his kingdom.

We can hear Jesus and become enraged because we are broken, spiritually starving because of sin. To yield to Him as Lord, we submit everything – our possessions, our dreams, our aspirations, our grudges, our attitudes, our relationships with others – everything to Him. And we don’t want to do that, so many consciously or unconsciously rebel against God and against the Gospel and try to throw the parts we don’t like off of some cliff. Jesus is not impeded by those who react to him in angry rage and his kingdom is not hindered by the sins of humanity. Jesus does not need admirers and is not intimidated by rage-filled haters.

A third way that we can respond to the Gospel is to see that Jesus is going on his way and we can follow. We give up control of our destiny. We surrender the need to have the final say-so in our own lives. We look to Jesus and we follow the way He is going. We become followers walking the Jesus way.

This means two things: first, we acknowledge that when he says he’s bringing good news to the poor, that means us. We are spiritually poor and relationally broken and on our knees through grateful tears we receive the grace of God and we know that it will come in His Spirit speaking to our hearts; it will come in the way we love on another and function as a community; and it will come when we receive all the grace the economically poor have to give to us.

Second, we acknowledge that just as we receive the good news, we are to share the good news. We have surrendered everything we have, so our time, our words, our hearts, our money, our talents, our energy are things we give to God to use in the bringing the good news of salvation and the rescue from poverty to the world around us.

The observant listener will note that I have not provided specific answers to the problems I introduced that the outset – the world mission offering called for at church; the alleviation of painful economic poverty that exists right here in our country; and, the proper response to the guy at the intersection with the sign begging for a hand-out. The truth is I don’t have all the answers because I am still spiritually poor. I am still in the process of receiving relationship healing. Throughout 2010, we will seek answers for the best ways for us as a church to be involved in compassionate ministry.

I know this. The starting point is to forget all preconceptions we have and to walk in the way of Jesus, following him. That’s the beginning of the good news. We are poor. Jesus has come for us. Why don’t we release all of the trappings of materialistic life, all the seductions of the world around us, all the temptations to be in control of our own lives? Why don’t we hand it all to Him? I invite you this morning. Come and walk the Jesus way, the beginning of the compassionate life, the beginning of the good news.

AMEN

A Note to My Church to Begin 2010

“That all may go well with you …”

I began the HillSong Church elders meeting on January 5 with the following words – “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it is well with your soul.” Originally these words were written by an early Christian who called himself “the elder” and he wrote to a believer named Gaius (3^rd John 1:1-2). It’s a simple prayer and it was my heart’s desire for our church leadership. It is also my prayer for all who are a part of HillSong. In 2010, my prayer is that we would experience physical health and spiritual renewal; in other words, I pray that all would go well with us, by the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

We are an economically wealthy people. It would not seem that way to many members who struggle to make it from paycheck to paycheck. And, there are in America churches that have budgets 10x greater than ours. We look at the America around us and we don’t feel rich. But, as far as financial resources go, we are in the top 1% in the world. The Bible has much to say about money, about affluence and poverty. It behooves us to listen.

Simply put, for the prayer to be answered, for things to “go well” with us, for our lives to be blessed, and for us to experience Shalom (peace, wholeness, relational blessedness), we rich Christians needs to pay attention to Christians who are financially poor.

In the Sunday morning sermon last week (1-3-10), I asserted that we who have worldly means are also poor because of sin. We experience spiritual poverty which yields relational brokenness. The two great commands of Jesus are to love God and love people; we rebel against God and hurt people. For all to “go well” we need to move to a place where we trust God enough to surrender our hearts to God completely. We also need to move to a place of relational vulnerability that leaves us open to being hurt but at the same time makes us available for relationships God can use to transform us. This includes meaningful relationships with people in different economic situations.

Remember the prayer - “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you.” I don’t think all can go well with follower of Jesus Christ until he or she has realized his or her own spiritual poverty and has developed deep and lasting brotherhood with believers who live in material poverty.

Does this mean it is the church’s mission to through the power of the Spirit eradicate material poverty in the world? I don’t know that. I am not certain that moving out of spiritual poverty and relational brokenness and into the grace of God will lead to the eradication of all hunger and economical injustice in the world. I do know that when we follow Jesus we are filled with compassion for people.

Compassion means if I see someone in need of prayer, I pray with him. If I see someone truly hurting, I embrace him or her, and I communicate that I love because Jesus first loved me. Compassion means if I see someone hungry, I try to help bring food. Furthermore, to the extent of my ability and availability, I try to change the structures that left that individual hungry in the first place. In other words, beyond giving a man a fish, I try to teach him to fish and give him a fishing pole and a means to get to the water.

Compassion in the context of my own relational brokenness also means I realize that I have much to receive from the man I am teaching to fish. Even as the church helps economically suffering people, the church receives blessings of God from the poorest of the poor. Whatever your economic status and whatever mine is, we have much to give each other and much to gain from one another because we each receive the Holy Spirit according to God’s grace.

As we explore themes of compassion in 2010 and as we at HillSong Church pray that all may go well in our community and in our individual lives, I want to use the newsletter column to examine more closely specific scriptures. I will begin next week in the Old Testament. The prophet Amos deals with the people of God as they commit sins against the poorest of the poor. I will use this column to try to hear what God is saying to us through the words of Amos. I will also explore these themes on my blog - http://honesttalkwithgod.blogspot.com/. Please check it out.

A Parable for Christmas, Unexpected but Appropriate

Luke 10:25-37 (English Standard Version)

²⁵^A)">(A) And behold, a^B)">(B) lawyer stood up to^C)">(C) put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to^D)">(D) inherit eternal life?" ²⁶He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" ²⁷And he answered,^E)">(E) "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and^F)">(F) your neighbor as yourself." ²⁸And he said to him, "You have answered correctly;^G)">(G) do this, and you will live."

²⁹But he,^H)">(H) desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" ³⁰Jesus replied, "A man^I)">(I) was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹Now by chance a^J)">(J) priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. ³²So likewise^K)">(K) a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a^L)">(L) Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. ³⁴He went to him and^M)">(M) bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵And the next day he took out two^N)">(N) denarii^a]">[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' ³⁶Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" ³⁷He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

What's that? The Prodigal Son is not a Christmas parable? Take another look! The priest and the Levite both went to extremes to cross on the other side of the road so they wouldn't be too close to the man who had fallen under attack by roving bandits. Some readers of Luke have been highly critical of these religious men, but what if he was already dead. He would thus be a corpse and it was forbidden for priests and Levites to even come close to a corpse, let alone touch one. So while we may be tempted to lampoon them as hypocrites and maybe they put more emphasis on rule-keeping than compassion, they weren't technically in the wrong. It was not Jesus' point to criticize them so much as it was his point to show a new way - the way of compassion.

The Samaritan saw the wounded man and was moved by "compassion." And he came close - close enough to touch. Maybe he was touching a dead body. Even if the body was alive, he was bruised, bloodied, dirty. And there was risk. What if the bandits laid in wait and fell upon the Samaritan as well. All these concerns be darned, this man was moved by compassion and he came close.

The coming of Jesus is God "moved by compassion." God was so moved out His deep love for humanity - lost in sin as humans were (and still are) - that God departed from the glory of Heaven to take on fragile, dirty, fallen human skin. God came close - close enough to tough. Jesus is God, up close and personal.

I totally disassociate the commercial/secular holiday of Christmas and the faith celebration we observe to commemorate Jesus' birth. To me they are two separate things that happen at the same time. My wish is that people would hear the scriptures that tell of the angel coming to Mary and of Jesus' birth in the stable and the coming of Magi from Persia, and people would pause to consider the reality of God.

God is personal. In my thoughts and in my preaching lately, I keep coming back to this - a lot of people miss the fact that God wants a personal relationship with men and women, boys and girls. I don't care how secular Christmas is. I would like to see people get past the tradition and actually listen to God's word in the scriptures. And then as they hear God speaking to open their hearts to a true encounter with God.

It's not something that is fixed in time. O three years ago I had a real spiritual experience and I'll always remember it fondly and with wonder. That type of understanding stays in the "three years ago." A true meeting with God as I understanding is something that transforms the individual and from the epiphany going forward, that individual is never the same. How he sees people and how thinks about and relates to God is forever altered. How he views himself and his place in the world is never the same.

Throughout the year, my wish and my work is for people to meet God. At Christmas, if the holiday is a vehicle the Holy Spirit uses to help nonbelievers realize the significance of Jesus God-come-close (close enough to touch) then there is reason to praise and celebrate with holy joy.