Old Testament | Amos 5:18-24 (with Nick Locke)

Opening Song:
Roll Like a River by Joshua Miller, Mark Alan Schoolmeesters, and Tina Colón Williams

Lyrics:
I thought by now things would be different
I thought by now things would be further along
It’s been too long we’re singing
Change is gonna come
We need a change right now

You’ve known oppression and injustice
You’ve know the heartache of unanswered prayer
You begged Your Father take this cup from me
This is our prayer right now
This is our prayer right now

Let Your kingdom come
Let Your will be done
Let Your justice roll like a river
Every king and crown
Let them be cast down
Till Your justice rolls like a river
Let Your justice roll like a river

You said our faith could move a mountain
You said that we could bind the powers of hell
You said Your Spirit causes darkness to flee
Spirit You’re moving now
Spirit You’re moving now

I see a change gon' come
I see Your justice roll like a river
I see Your kingdom come
I see Your justice roll like a river

Passage:
18 Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! What will the day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light.
19 It will be like a man who flees from a lion only to have a bear confront him. He goes home and rests his hand against the wall only to have a snake bite him.
20 Won’t the day of the LORD be darkness rather than light, even gloom without any brightness in it?
21 I hate, I despise, your feasts! I can’t stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
22 Even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.
(Amos 5:18-24 CSB17)

Musical Reflection:
“Breathe on Me, Breath of God,” tune by Robert Jackson

Reflection Notes:
TRENTHAM is a tune by Robert Jackson, an English composer during the nineteenth century. It fits perfectly with the text for “Breath On Me, Breath of God,” by Edwin Hatch; each phrase is allotted ample space for reflection.

Prayer:
O Lord, our Savior, who has warned us that you will require much of those to whom much is given; grant that we whose lot is cast in so goodly a heritage may strive together more abundantly by prayer, by almsgiving, by fasting, and by every other appointed means, to extend to others what we so richly enjoy; and as we have entered into the labors of other men, so to labor that in their turn other men may enter into ours, to the fulfillment of your holy will, and our own everlasting salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
-Augustine