Worship And Meditation: What Relationship Can I Nurture?

This time of worship and meditation includes a reflection on Amos 5 inviting us to a greater awareness for justice and a greater response to the needs of the vulnerable. And sometimes, the "vulnerable" happen to be those closest to us, or even our Selves. As we learn to have compassion for others, we must also learn to have it for ourselves. What relationships can we restore today to help us be our best and brightest selves?

Transcript

Welcome to First United Methodist Church of Dallas.

I am so grateful you are worshiping with us in this way.

In this format of worship we're inviting you to engage more deeply in your prayer life and also in what the Bible has to bring about in our daily lives for the world around us and for yourself.

And as we go through this worship service today I hope and pray that you're inspired by not only the words that are shared but most especially what's arriving and arising in you.

How does the biblical text engage where your heart and mind really are?

How does the prayer enliven and strengthen your own faith?

How does reciting even the Lord's Prayer remind you of the deep impact of love and grace that God has for you in your life?

As we walk through this worship service I hope and pray that together we may find once again the inspiration we need to go into our week showing and sharing God's love in all that we do.

Welcome to worship.

And as we gather for worship this day let's arrive fully here in a space that you have created for yourself.

Maybe you have a candle that has been lighted,

Maybe it is a space,

Maybe your comfy chair in your house,

Maybe you're walking or standing or simply sitting and listening.

Whatever it might be let's arrive fully here.

Let me guide us in an arriving meditation,

A meditation to set the stage to set an intention for our worship together.

So as you're comfortable and as it's accessible to you I invite you to close your eyes and if you're uncomfortable with that rest your gaze away from the screen some somewhere where you're not distracted either by my movement or voice find that breath your constant companion.

And if for whatever reason your breath is not a good anchor for you in this arriving meditation maybe there's a sound that is occurring around you or maybe it's placing your hand on your heart.

Whatever the anchor might be breath or these other ways of being find it now as we center ourselves.

I invite you to move from the top of your head down through your body recognizing any tension that might be there,

Relaxing it,

Welcoming the tension maybe even speaking softly in your mind to the tension.

Relax,

Relax.

You're safe,

You're safe.

Discovering our bodily presence is helpful to recognize that we are a fully embodied disciple of Jesus Christ.

The heart of Christianity is about embodiment and so allowing ourselves to be,

Allowing ourselves to rest,

Allowing ourselves to relax and focus inward is an experience of the Christian spirituality.

I invite you now to take three deep breaths.

And now let us call on God's Holy Spirit to be with us as we pray together.

God of all seasons,

God of all time,

God of all words we come.

We come as we are out of time,

Out of sorts,

Out of reason yet seeking time to be,

Reasons to be and most of all to be calm in your presence.

Ready to listen and know and follow.

Holy God you gave us guidance in all of history.

Your guidance has been there muddled and devalued by words like command and order.

When what you seek of us is desire and love and compassion and hope.

Forgive us when our lives are full of commandments and rules and bereft of compassion and love.

Forgive us when the world becomes more and more encroaching on our hearts and minds.

Show us,

O God,

Gently,

Humbly,

Lightly,

Softly how to follow,

How to be guided and teach us acceptance of your love,

Your forgiveness and your compassion.

We pray these things uniting our hearts,

Minds and voices together as we pray together the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray.

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

Let me offer here some biblical context before we get into the prophet Amos.

Amos is one of the 12 minor prophets but has a significant even major commentary on the world.

Now we tend to think of Amos as a northern prophet because his prophecy is directed primarily toward the northern kingdom which is Israel.

But Amos was from Tekoa a few miles south of Jerusalem in the southern kingdom of Judah.

And in the chapter that follows what we're about to read Amos addresses both of these those who are at ease in Zion which is the capital of the southern kingdom and those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria which is the capital of the northern kingdom.

Thus Amos is prophesying in a metaphorical way in a in an in-between even liminal space.

Amos knows the challenges facing the people of each kingdom and the great hope Amos has in God to transform north and south toward a greater vision that God has for their wholeness.

Now it's going to be very difficult for us to hear a positive message here because it is heavy into the prophecy.

But let's listen carefully at least to Amos's urgency about sinfulness and a connection we need to make with God and for God.

A reading from Amos chapter 5.

Seek the Lord and live and he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire and it will devour Bethel with no one to quench it.

Ah you that turn justice to wormwood and bring righteousness to the ground.

The one who made the pliassades and Orion and turn deep darkness into morning and darkens the day into night who calls for the waters of the sea who pours them out on the surface of the earth.

The Lord is his name who makes destruction flash out against the strong so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

They hate the one who reproves in the gate and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.

Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levees of grain you shall build houses of hewn stone but you shall not live in them.

You have planted pleasant vineyards but you shall not drink their wine.

For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins.

You who afflict the righteous who take a bribe and push aside the needy at the gate.

Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time for it is an evil time.

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

Hate evil,

Love good and establish justice in the gate.

It may be that the Lord the God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

And now I invite you to join me in a passage meditation.

I'll be reading this first part of verse 15 and as I repeat it listen for words and phrases that arrive for you that are of interest to you or if a feeling or thought arises.

Stay with that for a moment it may be God speaking through this passage.

Hear now this first part of verse 15.

Hate evil and love good establish justice in the gate.

Hate evil and love good establish justice in the gate.

Hate evil,

Love good establish justice in the gate.

Hate evil and love good establish justice in the gate.

Amos is highlighting here in this text Israel's two greatest sins.

Worship without concern for justice and ministry without recognizing the needs of the vulnerable.

These two sins were occurring over and over in Amos' own context.

You see what was happening here was in the city of Tyre there was an absence of loyalty.

They were violating a significant treaty and there was also an absence of pity.

In the city of Edom they were pursuing with the sword and striving in anger of wrath with all of the people around them.

So God is speaking through Amos now.

This is why when we lack loyalty the next step is polarization and polarization gets to separation and when we lack pity the next step is anger and anger begets violence.

Through Amos God wants us to engage more fully in the world.

To somehow find a balance with these two.

To reach into our hearts and minds about loyalty and find a fealty to our neighbors.

This is what Jesus was up to as well.

Let me tell the story of Jesus.

A man while Jesus was on a journey runs up to Jesus and says,

Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him,

You know the commandments.

You shouldn't murder or commit adultery or steal or bear false witness or defraud anybody and you should honor your father and mother.

And the man said to him,

Teacher teacher yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I've kept all these things since I was younger.

And Jesus looking at him loving him said,

You lack one thing.

Go and sell what you own give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven then come and follow me.

When the man heard this he was shocked ran away grieving.

The Bible says because he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around back at his disciples and said children how hard is it to enter the kingdom of God?

You see it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

The disciples are shocked just like the man was but stayed put and they said to one another then who can be saved?

Jesus looked at them and said for mortals it is impossible but for God for God all things are possible.

Just like Amos,

Jesus is inviting the faithful to a greater awareness for justice and inspiring the faithful to a greater response to the needs of the vulnerable.

And it's not easy.

Innately we are in need of attaching to one who can care for us.

A parent,

A guardian,

A protector,

A provider.

From our infancy to adulthood throughout our development separations occur along the way.

We learn to walk and talk and open the fridge and dress ourselves and engage with community on our own eventually separating at least physically from our parental figure.

And all of this is a natural process and it's different for every person for a diversity of reasons.

And sadly,

Truthfully,

Our culture has created a downcast narrative around persons who are still in need of assistance into their adult lives.

And we carry these cultural biases with us and often these biases turn to judgment.

Saying to ourselves or others can't these people take care of themselves?

When I was their age I'd already achieved so much.

Why are they stuck where they are?

These biases shape our interactions with others and if we're not careful we totally cleave ourselves from relationships with others because they don't look like us or sound like us or have the same resources as we do.

Slowly,

If this thinking and feeling takes shape in us we lose a sense of awareness for justice and we no longer respond to the needs of the vulnerable.

Then finally,

Finding ourselves falling prey to the sins of absence of loyalty and absence of pity.

Amos has a response to those who fall prey to this downward spiral of sin.

Amos says,

For I know how great your sins are.

You sometimes take a bribe.

You push aside the needy at the gate where the poor beg for scraps.

So Amos says,

Seek good and not evil that you may live and so the Lord the God of hosts will be with you.

Just as you've said so many times before in the temple,

Hate,

Evil,

Love,

Good,

Establish justice at the gate where the poor and destitute remain and you may discover that it is God who is among the people at the gate restoring not only them but you to greater glory.

I've been thinking about how this lesson today can be relevant.

I've been thinking about how to summarize what we're learning from Amos here.

So I thought I'd share with you that I've developed a quarantine hobby.

I started a podcast with a child psychologist named Matthew Houson and a pediatrician and member of First Church,

Early Dennison and the podcast is called Parenting for the Present.

We've had a multiplicity of guests come through our podcast and share with us from their vantage point ways of nurturing children so that they may have greater autonomy,

Greater agency and affirmed through our proactive parenting.

So thinking about this teaching from Amos,

I wondered if a guest who came to talk with us about children's behavior,

Especially negative behavior,

Would be important.

You see,

Often as children when we make a mistake or stumble in our relationships with our parents or guardians or even in our friend groups,

We lose the message that our behavior doesn't make us who we are.

So our identity gets muddled into the mistakes and missteps of life and it feels like there's no redemption.

I thought of one of our guests who said this,

Parents need to remind their kids that behaviors are what we see.

Behaviors are not who we are.

No matter what you do,

You are the same lovable kid on the inside and I will always see the good inside of you.

Now this may restore our wholeness to rise to our best and brightest selves in every situation.

So I wonder what stories you've been telling yourself,

Stories that you have narrated through your own behavior.

What needs do you have to respond to this week in a more practical way?

So I wonder if this week that you could practice this.

Choose one relationship in your life that needs a kind of nurture.

Maybe you're a parent and need to simply remind your child that I will always see the good inside of you.

Or you may think about a relationship now long separated and you need to start a process of forgiving yourself for carrying whatever image of you that they had and say to yourself,

I'm good and I'm lovable just as I am.

No one's image or interpretation of my life holds water to the ways in which God unconditionally loves me.

I wonder if that's what Amos is getting at here.

Find your best self.

Rise to every occasion with grace.

No longer lack loyalty and lack pity.

Instead rise,

Rise as God calls you to.

Rise and seek the compassion and care and love of a God who promises to love you now and forevermore.

You can do nothing to earn God's love.

And once we realize this,

Maybe,

Just maybe,

Our lives become a more full and richer experience.

And maybe,

Just maybe,

The world becomes a fuller and richer place.

May it be so as we go from this place leaning into God's love.

Dear friends,

I invite you to hear this benediction.

A benediction I have taken from Romans chapter 12.

I got to thinking about this text.

It seems like this minor prophet of Amos seems to be dipping in and through the scriptures here and there.

Paul wrote his last letter,

We believe,

To the church at Rome.

And as he's writing this church,

He's reminded in the last several chapters a pastoral message.

A pastoral message of not only believing in Jesus Christ,

But what it means to become that belief.

To become and arise in that belief.

So this benediction,

In Paul's words,

But maybe hearkening back to Amos,

Is in Romans chapter 12,

Starting at verse 9.

Let love be genuine,

Hate what is evil,

Hold fast to what is good.

Love one another in mutual affection,

Outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not lag in zeal,

Be ardent in spirit,

Serve the Lord,

Rejoice in hope,

Be patient in suffering,

Persevere in prayer,

Contribute to the needs of the saints,

And extend hospitality to strangers.

Amos,

Jesus,

Paul,

All call us to hate evil,

Love good,

And establish justice at the gate.

Amen.