2023 Sun Nov 12

In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963), King applied Amos to his situation, quoting from Amos 5:24. Amos gave his message to the Israelites in 750 BCE.  Amos warns the people of Israel that the Lord is displeased with their behavior. People are overly concerned with earthly possessions, bodily desires and there is a shallow adherence to their religious values. Amos tells the people that God will soon judge them for their sins.

"But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God."

He also quoted Amos in the "I Have a Dream" speech, 5 months after the above letter – Dr. King declared, “we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’”

Here is a musical adaptation of the words from Amos

Amos inspired Dr. King’s entire ministry.  

In 1952 or 1953, while studying for his doctorate in divinity, Martin Luther King wrote these notes: 

"5:21:24 — This passage might be called the key passage of the entire book. It reveals the deep ethical nature of God. God is a God that demands justice rather than sacrifice; righteousness rather than ritual. The most elaborate worship is but an insult to God when offered by those who have no mind to conform to his ethical demands. Certainly this is one of the most noble idea[s] ever uttered by the human mind.
 

"One may raise the question as to whether Amos was against all ritual and sacrifice, i.e. worship. I think not. It seems to me that Amos’ concern is the ever-present tendency to make ritual and sacrifice a substitute for ethical living. Unless a man’s heart is right, Amos seems to be saying, the external forms of worship mean nothing. God is a God that demands justice and sacrifice can never be a substitute for it. Who can disagree with such a notion?
 

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I.Theme –   Prepare for Christ – The Second coming – Be Prepared !

 "Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins"

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Amos 5:18-24
Psalm – Wisdom of Solomon 6:17-20
Epistle –1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Gospel – Matthew 25:1-13 

Amos warns that justice and righteousness, not empty ritual and thoughless offerings are how to prepare. Amos’s words speak warning to the people who desire the day of the Lord, the day of judgment. God warns those who desire the day of judgment, thinking God is on their side, because God will execute justice and it will be darkness, not light, for those who seek it. This passage is a warning to those who are so religious they put being religious above doing the teachings of their religions. God says “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies” (vs. 21). God does not desire our best religious persona, our best religious face to the public–rather, God desires justice and righteousness (vs. 24). God desires for us to do what our faith teaches us–to lift up the poor and help the oppressed. Do we serve our religion, or do we serve our God? Do we serve a particular religious culture or religious politics, or do we serve God? Do we serve a particular religious image, or do we serve the God who created all of us?

Psalm 70 is a cry for help, a cry for deliverance, a reminder that God desires justice, mercy and righteousness, not religiousness. It is a reminder that we choose to serve God, and that we need to be wary of assuming we are on God’s side. But the plea is for God to remember God’s part of the covenant, too.

The Wisdom readings emphasize we desire wisdom for living now toward our future meeting with Christ and to discover better ways to be prepared. Wisdom encourages us to actively seek wisdom and its rewards

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 also looks ahead to the “day of the Lord,” this time of the reign of Christ coming to fulfillment on earth. When he wrote it, the contemporary Christians, including Paul, expected Jesus to come again in glory quite soon, certainly within their own lifetimes. These paragraphs address a troublesome point: will the few Christians who die in this short period somehow miss out on the benefits of Jesus’ return. Paul says no (although he doesn’t say it simply), because what God has wrought in the death and resurrection of Jesus is powerful enough to save even those already "fallen asleep."

Paul speaks of the faithful who have died rising with Christ, and those who are left being taken up to be with Christ, meeting in the air. It is a beautiful image, and we are reminded in Paul’s day of the belief that heaven was in the sky, the earth was flat and the land of the dead was below (Sheol or Hades). The language loses no beauty even with our greater understanding of the cosmos–something beautiful will happen when Christ comes into our lives in a new way.

Matthew 25:1-13 is the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids. This begins a three-parable series in the Gospel of Matthew, the last three parables Jesus tells before he is betrayed. These parables look to the coming reign of God–it has already begun, but it has yet to be fulfilled.

Jesus tells a story about a party of ten bridesmaids or torchbearers for a procession,chosen to participate in a wedding. Each of the ten virgins is carrying a lamp or torch as they await the coming of the bridegroom, which they expect at some time during the night. Five of the virgins are wise and have brought oil for their lamps. Five are foolish and have only brought their lamps.  

At midnight, all the virgins hear the call to come out to meet the bridegroom. Realising their lamps have gone out, the foolish virgins ask the wise ones for oil, but they refuse, saying that there will certainly not be enough for them to share. While the foolish virgins are away trying to get more oil, the bridegroom arrives. The wise virgins then accompany him to the celebration. The others arrive too late and are excluded.

Each of the wise bridesmaids has made her preparation; she is prepared spiritually but preparedness cannot be transferred to others, so their refusal to give oil to the foolish bridesmaids may be intended to show that each one of us is expected to make our own preparation – by living a godly, ethical life. Two surprising events, the door being shut (v. 10) and the failing to recognize the foolish bridesmaids (v. 12), are probably another way of saying that the unprepared will be refused entry to the Kingdom – just as the wicked servant will be punished. We are to be prepared at all times for the end of the age, the Second Coming of Christ

“The Second Coming of Christ is the medicine our condition especially needs” – C. S. Lewis.z

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Matthew concludes this Lectionary Year A with the weighty subject of judgment from 3 stories from Chapter 25:

Matthew 25:1-13 – Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids (Nov. 12) Matthew 25:14-30 – Parable of the Talents  (Nov. 19) Matthew 25:31-46 – The Sheep and Goats  (Nov. 26)

The three parables in Matthew 25 examine the procedure, preparation, and intention required to enter the Kingdom of God.  Here is a Youtube video that covers these three stories.  There are some similiarities:

First, in each parable the judgment occurs at the consummation of this age. While the timing of that event is unknown, each follower is to be ready for and anticipate the coming kingdom.

Second, the judgment will render decisions that are eternal in nature,reflecting the status of each human being with regard to his or her eternal relationship to the kingdom. Phrases such as “the darkness outside,” the  “fiery furnace,” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth” describe eternal separation from the kingdom. They are not simply expressions of grief over a Christian life that did not count for much in the kingdom, for they are figures and phrases representing an eternal exclusion from the presence of God.

With this in view, it has been suggested that salvation in these parables is viewed as a “whole,” not simply as a point of entry. The “sons of the kingdom” and the “sons of the evil one” (Matt 13:38) are on opposite sides of the soteriological divide. Those who are rejected are permanently excluded.

Third, the basis for this eternal judgment is the individual’s works. In some cases the emphasis is on faithfulness to a job assigned: perhaps in a picture of preparation for an event, or a picture of the fruit of the believer. But however it was pictured, works were the key to the judgment.

However, Works are not separated from the faith one exercises for entrance to the kingdom for works are evidence of that faith. A true change of heart will be reflected in a person’s life. A lack of that change is apparently enough to prevent entrance into the kingdom. Works are never ultimately separated from the faith of the individual, for it was also shown that works are not in themselves enough to impress the Son of Man positively in His role as judge.