Looking Forward to July 7, 2013 -- 7th After Pentecost, Proper 9C

(Although for those who are picky one of the Amos passages comes from Proper 10C and the others are thematically related but not in the Lectionary for this summer)

The Scripture Readings for this Sunday are:

• Amos 2:6-8; 5:21-24; 7:7-9; 8:4-7
• Psalm 82 (VU p.799)

The Sermon title is Evaluation Time ... 

Early Thoughts: Prophets (both modern and ancient) are clear.  There will be a call to accountability, there will be a time of reckoning.  And sometimes, like Amos, they really don't pull their punches.

What shall we do with these passages?  They are not always comfortable to read are they?

What shall we do with these passages so that we don't get lumped into the same category as Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson?  I mean really there is little philosophical difference between announcing the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem for their moral/ethical failings and decreeing that the Haitian earthquake or hurricane Katrina or the Boston marathon bombings are a result of the moral/ethical failings of the present.

What shall we do with the call to accountability?  I assume we still think such a call is worthwhile.   I assume we still think that there is a time when we need to take stock of how well we live up to the mark, how "plumb" we are.

I think that the first part of that process is to ask what the measuring standards will be.  Amos gives us some guidelines.  What is the important stuff?

Then we have to seriously ask ourselves how well we meet those standards.  How well have we kept track of what is truly important? 

And then we remind ourselves that we wait and work for the time when we let "justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream".
--Gord