Virtual Bible Study: Amos 8

Welcome to this week's Virtual Bible Study! Let's get started!

First Step: Read the Text. (This doesn't take too long). This Week’s Reading is Amos 8. You can read it here.

Second Step: Lesson/Focus Text

“‘Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land...’” The Lord has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: ‘I will never forget anything they have done.’” Amos 8:4,7

“Not Just A Christmas Thing”

Its only 4 short months away. The “most wonderful time of the year.” A time when dreams come true, when purses and wallets open in generosity and hospitality. A time when the good things in life are celebrated and the poor and needy are taken care of. A time when we make sure that everyone has a meal to eat and company to share. That’s right...the Christmas season will soon be upon us! Only 4 more months to go!

It’s amazing what happens at Christmas. Amid the crowded malls and the hustle and bustle of the various stores, there is a spirit of the season and an openness to generosity and compassion. Outside those very stores where presents are bought for loved ones, men and women, some dressed plainly, others in bright red and white outfits, ring bells of hope for the poor. Children, my children included, clammer for change to deposit in their pans of hope. Boxes are gathered at various churches, “Christmas Boxes”, that include everything from simple toiletries to a small toy to play with. Boxes to be delivered to the poor in other countries during the Christmas season. Meals are prepared at homeless shelters throughout the world as volunteers line up to provide a good warm meal to those who live outdoors.

But after December, that season dies out. The bells disappear from the stores after Christmas. The generosity diminishes. And the poor become a nuisance. “Why can’t they just get a job...” or “Where’s their family to take care of them.”

What happens to us between Christmas and, say, August? Why do we focus on the poor at one month and not the other? Their needs remain the same. The family who can’t afford to heat their homes in December also can’t afford to cool their homes in June and July. The homeless on the street might be a little more comfortable one month over the other, but their problems remain too. They are still hungry for their next meal. They still need someone to talk to, someone to treat them kindly and like the people they are. Someone to reach out to them in love. Why are we so quick to help them one month and ignore them the next?

That same question is on Amos’ mind today as he writes thus:

Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”– skimping the measure, boosting the price, and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The Lord has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.”

The New Moon Amos describes here is nothing short of Christmas. A time to take care of the poor and the needy, the alien and the widow. A time for justice. Only Israel, like us, has this time be the only time the poor are remembered. Every other time it’s “business as usual” as we avoid, ignore, and otherwise ostracize those on the margins of society. Every other time we think first to ourselves and then to our neighbors, supporting those measures that help us while caring and thinking little of the welfare of others.

My friends! This should not be so! We may not oppress the poor as bluntly as Amos describes, but our actions still have consequences and our attitudes still affect others. How we view the poor and needy at our roadsides reflects how we view God. How often we visit the elderly in our nursing homes affects how we live. How we tend to the stressed and weary among us speaks to how we tend to God.

If they are just a nuisance, than so is God!

Bono, the lead singer for U-2, said it best. He said: “Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who God is or if God exists--most will agree that God has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.” I think he’s right. Everything I read in Scripture tells me that God doesn’t reside in “temples made with hands” nor does he reside in the heavens or mystically connected to Nature, no God lives with the poor, the widow, the outcast, the wanderer. “What you do to the least of these you do it to me,” Jesus says in Matthew 25. He doesn't say: "Go far away from everyone you know and that's where you'll find me at!"

This thought isn’t anything new either! Even in the Old Testament, God is seen paying close attention to what we do for the hungry and the needy. “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted THEN your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.”(Isaiah 58:9b-10). God lives with the poor and cares for the poor and spends all his time with those who feed and clothe and nurture the poor. They are promised true blessings! They are called children of God!

And we too can join their ranks. Whenever we take time our of our busy schedule, when we resist “going your own ways, serving your own interest, or pursuing your own affairs” as Isaiah puts it and care for those in need, we do so with Christ by our side. Christ who cares for the poor. Christ who wants to see justice done. Christ who is ready to cast down the powerful nations from their thrones to raise up the weak and the lowly. Christ who is already there with them, tending to their needs while we sit in our comfortable homes. So... are you ready to find Christ? Really?? Amen.

Third Step: Questions to Ponder...

1. If there was a fire and you had 60 seconds to grab what is dearest to you, what would you grab? What if that is how God feels about the poor and needy, the hungry and deserted, the orphan and the widow? What does it mean if they are God’s precious possession?

2. Think about the poor in your own community. How might you extend yourself in love and compassion toward them, not just at Christmas but throughout the year?

3. Describe a time where you felt God was with you. What was going on in your life at the time? What were you doing? What were others doing for you?

Fourth Step: Email(if you like) your responses. You can just reply to this email or email it to craznluv@msn.com.

Fifth Step: Close with prayer...

Compassionate God, you make your home in the poor through the birth of your Son who comes to us an impoverished man. Grant us your grace that we might set aside our own agendas to minister to your people, wherever they may be, through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

See you Next Week!