Amos prophesied during a time of prosperity and of
religiosity in Israel. One would have
thought the nation was enjoying the blessing of God and that they were a people
deeply attached to their God and the worship of that God. They were at ease economically and they held
feasts and offered many sacrifices. That
religiosity was more superstition and witchcraft than true religion. It was based on the belief that if I do all
the things God said to do He is obligated to bless me. If I do those things then I can be at ease,
without a care in the world for the future.
Their trust, however, is not in the Lord but in their wealth and their
sacrifices. There is a strand of this
deeply embedded in the church, that if we do all the right things God will keep
us from suffering and harm and it must always be identified and rooted
out. If His way of salvation was the way
of suffering and the cross, we must be prepared for the same. Jesus called us all to take up our cross.
Everyone had to have known what happened to Zechariah. He had gone into the holy place to do his job
and met an angel there who foretold the birth of a son. Zechariah's doubts overcame even an encounter
with an angel and the punishment was to be mute. The story had to have gone viral so it would
be with great anticipation that the child was born. Now, he is brought to the temple for
circumcision, when the child was given a name and the shocker is that he isn't
named, according to tradition, after his father but instead is given the name
John, meaning Yahweh is gracious. Only
when Zechariah concurs with the name his wife has spoken is his tongue loosed
to speak, yet another sign that gets the attention of the people. As he speaks, his speech is further praise
and prophecy.
Paul writes to a community in Thessalonica that it under
intense persecution for its faith. They
are suffering for the kingdom. Paul's
reassurance to them is to point towards their vindication in the coming of
Jesus, when their enemies will be repaid for all they have done to the
church. His language makes me a bit
uncomfortable while he is, at the same time, writing these things to comfort
the church. We know so little of actual
persecution and suffering for Christ that we can hardly relate to the desire to
see justice and the Lord's vengeance in that day. The people who have treated me badly
typically are, or at least claim to be, Christians and the thought of them
being destroyed in judgment causes me to reconsider my attitude towards
them. Paul writes to a community
experiencing real persecution from outside and they need to be reminded that in
the end, all things are judged do don't lose heart and keep fighting the fight. We may need to remember how good we actually
have it today.
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