Nov 04

What Changes our Society?

Seek good and not evil,
    that you may live,
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
    just as you have said.
Amos 5:14

One of the greatest distinctions between the Bible and other religious texts is that the Bible calls the followers of God to seek life.  Deuteronomy 30:15-20 encapsulates this idea for us to build upon.  “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity…”  This passage is a dramatic covenantal choice: obedience leads to life and blessing, disobedience to death and curse. Verse 19 urges, “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.”

Amos reaffirms this principle and expands it.  Whereas Deuteronomy could be seen as calling just to personal piety, Amos 5 takes it into the public sphere.  Amos 5:14 is not a vague moralism but a public summons.  It challenges Israel’s elite to abandon exploitative systems and pursue justice in concrete ways. The prophet’s call is not about personal virtue alone—it’s about structural transformation.

Too often the church is satisfied with our personal piety, even pious views about what should happen in society.  We retreat to our rituals and the security of our traditions thinking that this alone will bring God’s favor to us.

Amos proclaims that ritual and conformity alone is not the reason God promises life.  It is an ordered society with the principles of God’s law as the societal norm.  When we have that then—” But let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Pastor Greg

Oct 30

Have You Ever Seen a Prophet in this Bad of a Shape?

I Kings 19:1-18

Many commentators and preachers are amazed when they see the great Prophet Elijah in the condition he is in here in this chapter.  He had just vanquished the worshipers of Baal, ended a 3-year drought, and started a revival in the nation of Israel.  But he is discouraged, even to the place that he wishes he would just die.  What catches the attention of so many as we study this part of the Bible, is that it happens to us also.  This is where we see human vulnerability in its most honest times. 

Where have you felt like Elijah—alone, exhausted, ready to give up?  It happens to each of us.  It is part of our human experience.  What surprises me is the way God deals with Elijah.  He is not condemned or judged for feeling this way.  He is not chastised for not keeping his faith strong.  God cares for the prophet, be giving him rest, refreshment, and restoration.  Elijah finds himself away from the threats and dangers, and alone with God.  In his depression, God gives him a revelation of who God is.  Not a wildfire, not a raging wind, not even an earthquake, but a sound of shear silence, or a “still, small voice.” 

When we come to the end of ourselves, we want God to do something miraculous, earthshaking so that our problems disappear.  Though that is rarely how God works.  God works through his presence in the quiet places, his voice in the silence, and his assurance that he is with us.  Maybe when we come to the end of ourselves it is for us to just be quiet and listen for the assurances of God. 

When you are tempted to say, “Woe is me!”  Rest, refresh, and let God restore you with the encouragement you need to finish the tasks that God has for you.

Pastor Greg

Oct 22

“The Weight of Knowing”

Reflections on 1 Samuel 3 and Hebrews 10

As we reflect on last week’s scripture, (1 Samuel 3) we are invited into a hard truth: “grace is not a loophole. It is a gift—and gifts can be refused.”

Thinking back to our Sunday School days, this story is told as a little boy running back and forth to Eli.  We think that it is a great for kids, but I am not a kid.  But UCC Theologian Dr. Walter Brueggemann sees 1 Samuel 3 not just as a call story, but as a theological pivot: the moment when God’s word reenters a community that had grown numb to it. He writes that “the word of the Lord was rare” not because God was silent, but because the leadership had grown deaf—Eli’s failure to restrain his sons was symptomatic of a broader spiritual malaise.

Tragically, Eli’s sons knew the rituals but not the reverence. Just as the people addressed in Hebrews10:26-31, knew the gospel but not its gravity. In both stories, the failure wasn’t ignorance—it was willful neglect. And the consequences were not just personal—they were communal.

The Word of the Lord is not a take it or leave it option.  The vengeance of God is a real thing.  We like the quote in Romans 12:19, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”  Here it is talking about our compassion in the face of injustice.  But in Hebrews 10:30, it is talking about how God will judge his people.  For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Eli and his sons experienced the justice of God for their abuse of their spiritual office and responsibilities.  But the application is not just for them, it is also for us, if we ignore the Word of the Lord and the responsibilities that the call of grace has upon us.

Let us reflect on this warning, may we ask not just what we believe, but how we live it. May we listen like Samuel, speak truth like prophets, and lead with integrity like Christ.

“Where have I been silent when God was speaking?”

Pastor Greg

Oct 09

You Don’t Apply to be a Prophet

1 Sam 3:1-14

In the opening of 1 Samuel, God is doing a new thing.  Until this time the people of Israel were led by judges.  Men and Women that could discern God’s will in a specific situation that usually provided deliverance from the enemies.  The judges spoke condemnation to the enemies of Israel.  Samuel is called the last Judge because Saul becomes King, but Samuel has a new position in Israel.  He is a prophet, one who speaks the word or message from God.

The prophet speaks to the people, rebukes the people, comforts the people, and even tells the people the plan of God for now and the future.  In our text this week, Samuel is a young person that receives his first message from God.  It is a hard message because it is judgment on the house of Eli the High Priest.  But the message of God is often a hard message. 

God does not ask us to sign-up to be a prophet, and God really doesn’t give us a choice in it.  We are all called to the prophetic ministry.  The call to justice, the plight of the poor, the abuse of children and the weak are prophetic calls.  As well as the message of comfort and hope.  The prophet ministry does not mean the we are mean to those we disagree with, but as Samuel, we have to be faithful to the message God gives us. 

Isaiah gives us the culmination of the prophetic message (Isaiah 40:1-2):

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.

The things that make for peace is the ultimate call of the prophet.  Are we instruments of God’s peace.  Matthew 5:9; “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

Pastor Greg

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