Join us for Mother Jen Keifer's sermon: Minor Prophets 7, Amos: Establishing Justice
The Books of the Minor Prophets are simply shorter books.
But the beauty of the Minor Prophet books is that because they are shorter, they tend to get right to the point and "name" the issues at hand.
In this insightful sermon, looking at the words of the prophet Amos, calling on Israel to:
"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.
Hate evil and 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."
Jen connects this passage with Christ who both taught justice and lived justly. What did Jesus say and do regarding justice?
Christ spoke often about justice, especially reminding us to love and care for the poor and the marginalized. We do the work of justice through the work of our love for God and our neighbors.
"the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has appointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor..." Early in Jesus' ministry he proclaims his ministry to the poor, the sick, the oppressed, and the captives. The lost, the least, and the last.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Greek word, dikaiosýni is used multiple times. Some english translators use the word "righteousness" as the translation but the word is more encompassing and actually means, "justice, fairness, equity,"
Understanding this, we can see the words from Christ in the sermon on the mount:
-"blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice/fairness/equity, for they will be filled"
-"blessed are those who are persecuted for fairness/justice/equity, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"
-"for I tell you, unless your justice/fairness/equity exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.."
The Kingdom that Jesus brings is the Kingdom of Justice/Fairness/Equity.
This ever flowing river through the scriptures of the theme of Justice, Equity, Fairness, (dikaiosýni) continues through Paul's ministry as he prays for us in Philippians, "And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of dikaiosýni (justice, fairness, equity) that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God."
Sunday Mornings
Join us Sunday Mornings at 930 am on Boston's North Shore in Hamilton, MA. We meet Outdoors this season, on the lawn near the Retreat House on the beautiful and scenic campus of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary 21 Billy Graham Way, South Hamilton, MA 01982.
In case of rain, or heat/humidity we go indoors to the Kaiser Chapel.
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May the peace of God be with you today.
