Contemplative Bible Reading

Amos 6:12 (New Living Translation)

12 Can horses gallop over boulders?
Can oxen be used to plow them?
But that’s how foolish you are when you turn justice into poison
and the sweet fruit of righteousness into bitterness.

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Amos. And the topic, once again, is justice and righteousness. This topic appears so often in these writings that a person as dense as me can see how important it is to God.

God’s message begins with rhetorical and ridiculous questions: horses galloping over boulders? Oxen plowing boulders? Ridiculous. Foolish.

And that is how foolish it is when people turn justice into poison and righteousness into bitterness.

No one wants poison; no one wants bitterness. God certainly doesn’t want these either. Yet, the people were exchanging the best and most desired for the least and most despised. How could they do that? How was it that they didn’t recognize the error of their ways and change? Such is the condition of mankind. We are an odd lot. God, however, sent His Son to save us from such poison and bitterness. How can I turn away from this selfless gift from God? Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Amos 5:23-24 (New Living Translation)

23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
an endless river of righteous living.

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Amos. Once again, God wants justice and righteousness. God likes hymns of praise as long as they are more than check-the-box NOISE.

I have attended some church gatherings where the singing was pretty bad. I have attended some church gatherings where the singing was great—on time, in tune, great on the ears.

What did God think of these gatherings and their singing? I don’t know. I’m not God. I can’t go beyond what I hear and know what is felt in the hearts of those gathered and singing. Did those folks have justice and righteousness in their hearts? I cannot know.

A lifetime ago, I sat in a church building each Sunday and Wednesday. Sitting right behind me was a lady named Ann Robertson. Miss Ann couldn’t “sing a lick” if you judge by any musical standard. Yet, she sang and sang and sang. I believe she had justice and righteousness in her heart and she showed it in her life. Thank you Miss Ann.

God, please help me in my unbelief. Please help me to be more like Miss Ann and less like a striving musician.

Luke 2:8-14 (King James Version)

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

So said the character Linus van Pelt in the 1965 Peanuts TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas. These words are know as the Annunciation to the shepherds.

I believe this is the most-heard sermon ever delivered as hundreds of millions of persons have heard it over the last almost sixty years. Those executives at CBS maybe realized what they were doing; maybe not.

Much of the world observes Christmas this week. No debates here on the actual birth date of Jesus of Nazareth—the Son of God.

Have a good week. Love people. Repeat next and every week thereafter.

Hosea 7:11-12 (New Living Translation)

11 The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves,
first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.
12 But as they fly about,
I will throw my net over them
and bring them down like a bird from the sky.
I will punish them for all the evil they do.

This isn’t very complimentary. Calling a group of people, “silly, witless doves.”

In hindsight, it is sort of an insult to doves to liken them to what God’s people were doing. I give credit to doves to behave better than how the people behaved.

Still, here it is in black and white. Gosh. Those people. Imagine how witless and silly they were. Sort of like me. God, please help me in my unbelief.

Galatians 3:22 (New Living Translation)

22 But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia. We are all prisoners of sin.

Picture that. Imagine that. There is a prison. I am not only in a cell, but I am chained to the wall. This place is filthy. The odor is … well I can’t describe it. This is the worse place on earth. It is evil through and through. And I am here because I am a sinner.

Okay, if I stop sinning, someone will let me out of this prison. Come on you so-and-so, let me out. Oops I just sinned again by calling the man with the keys an old so-and-so. Hmm. Let’s see, how can I justify my release without blaming someone else or denigrating someone else or … oh wait, I’ll blame ice cream or some thing instead of some person. Yes. Nope. That won’t work either. I am still sinning as I try to justify my release.

There is no release, is there? Yes, there is. The release comes by believing that this Jesus from Nazareth is the Christ or Messiah. The Son of God was sent here to bring me out of prison.

Believe. Act like I believe. Simple. Can I do it? Yes, with the help of God to me, a poor sinner.

Hosea 6:6 (New Living Translation)

6 I want you to show love,
not offer sacrifices.
I want you to know me
more than I want burnt offerings.

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Hosea. The people are “going through the motions” or “checking off the boxes” or some cliche that means, “Hey God, look, we brought some livestock to the Temple and killed them.”

I guess in today’s world, I could say something like, “Hey God, look, I gave money this Sunday. Someone will spend it for some good purpose.”

Sacrifices and burnt offerings were a good things back in the day. Giving money to charity and church is a good thing today. Are those acts what God wants? In part, “Yes.” In whole, “No, not enough.”

In addition to giving money this Sunday, God wants me to have compassion on that guy who wanders around the parking lot every Saturday morning in the cold while I’m drinking coffee in the coffee shop and typing little essays like this one. How do I show that compassion? Well, that is up to me, but God recognizes it and its absence.

In addition to giving money to God’s work, I need to know God. Whoa. That is a complicated yet simple one. I have to figure it out and do it. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Mark 1:19-20 (New Living Translation)

19 A little farther up the shore Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. 20 He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men.

There were times when it seemed that Jesus just didn’t know how to act. Jesus would break social norms and go off and do something folks just didn’t do.

This was one such occasion. In just a few words, Jesus caused James and John to leave their father and the family business with a bunch of hired men. What? That was disrespectful to the father and the family. Still, that is what happened.

How did Zebedee feel? His sons walked off with a wandering carpenter’s son. Where were the sons going? What would they do? Would they ever return? (No)

The questions go on and on. I sit here today and know that it all turned out great, sort of. No one at the time knew that it would. And what about all the sons that left all the fathers and families in the thousands of years since. What were they doing? What were they thinking?

I don’t like this—not one bit. Still, I know the result. I can’t reconcile the two. I guess that is part of faith. I guess I need more faith and more belief.

Ezekiel 33:30-31 (New Living Translation)

30 “Son of man, your people talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors. They say to each other, ‘Come on, let’s go hear the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying!’ 31 So my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you. They listen to your words, but they have no intention of doing what you say. Their mouths are full of lustful words, and their hearts seek only after money.

God is talking to the prophet Ezekiel about the behavior of many of the people. The people pretend that they desperately want to know what God has to say to them. The people pretend to be sincere, but they only seek money.

And guess what? They don’t pretend very well. Everyone knows that everyone is pretending. Everyone knows that no one will do what God tells them. It is a game.

God isn’t playing the game. God isn’t impressed with the pretending. And how stupid are the people to think that they are fooling God? Fools fooling around foolishly or something like that.

What is wrong with us? Why do we think we can fool God? Oh, we don’t do this today, do we? Yes, too often. I sincerely want to hear what God has to say. I will, however, only take that under consideration and balance it against my own brainpower and logic and all that. Fools fooling around foolishly or something like that. We are an odd lot.

God, please help me in my unbelief.

Mark 2:8 (New Living Translation)

8 Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts?

This is part of the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. “But some of the teachers of religious law” (verse 6) were questioning all of this. Whoa, wait a minute here. This Jesus fellow is about to do something that they cannot do and cannot explain. In fear and confusion, the teachers of the religious law were about to cause a ruckus (does anyone still say “ruckus”).

Jesus knew what they were thinking. Jesus knew what was in their hearts.

Stop a moment. Jesus knew these things. Jesus “saw right through them.”

Stop another moment. Despite what I think of myself on my sharpest days, I’ve never known what someone else was thinking. I’ve never known what was in another person’s heart. I have kind of, sort of, thought I did know these things, but that was just silly of me.

“But it’s obvious what they are thinking.” Nope, it’s not.

“But I’ve been through this before and I know what they are feeling.” Nope, again.

I’m not Jesus. I don’t know what people are thinking and feeling. And, by the way, I don’t need to know what others are thinking and feeling. All I need to know and do is love people and pray for them and pray for myself that I do these things in a manner worthy of Jesus Christ. That’s a big enough challenge for me.

Isaiah 1:8 (New Living Translation)

8 Beautiful Jerusalem stands abandoned
like a watchman’s shelter in a vineyard,
like a lean-to in a cucumber field after the harvest,
like a helpless city under siege.

God is talking to the people through the prophet Isaiah. This is bad news—this is very bad news. Because of generations of rebellion, the people will be punished. Did I mention this is bad news?

The large, modern, built-up city of Jerusalem will look like a “lean-to in a cucumber field.” I love that horrible description of what will become of a glorious city. I have been in cucumber fields; nothing special there as when I was in high school we could grow cucumbers in the heat and rain of Louisiana. Lots and lots of cucumbers.

I know what a lean-to is in a field of crops. Literally several pieces of wood and corrugated tin leaned onto one another in a sloppy manner so they stand and provide shade, except when there is a little wind or something that knocks them down only to be leaned on one another again.

A lean-to serves its purpose. Nothing special, just a quick way to do something halfway. It shows a lack of honor, purpose, or anything that is worthwhile. Just do something, anything. Who cares? No one.

That is what God is telling the people. The people don’t care. Fine. You don’t care? You will live in a place that screams, “We don’t care!”

Is that what we want? A “I don’t care” life in a “I don’t care” world? God has blessed us. Let’s care. Let’s honor and worship and obey God. I can do better than a lean-to in a cucumber field.