Looking into the lectionary - A prayer for the 4th of July 🎇

July 14, 2024 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost  Amos 7:7-15 It’s easy to feel powerless in the wake of the world’s overwhelming, and complicated problems. Really, what can we do about climate change? Wars and genocide? Systemic oppression? Global poverty and disease? Recently at a high school youth conference, I spoke about power — what it is, who has it, and how can it be used to create positive change. Power is not just held by world leaders and the wealthiest 1%. We all have access to a kind of power that resides within us, especially those of us who draw strength from our faith. God empowers us from within. God empowers us to say “yes” to doing what is just and right, even when doing so is difficult or dangerous. This Sunday’s lectionary text from the book of Amos introduces us to a minor prophet, called by God to confront the powers of Israel. Verses 14 and 15 of chapter 7 give us the only biographical information we have about Amos. He was not a professional prophet. He did not inherit the role from his family. He did not go to prophet school. As the text tells us, Amos is a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees. He spends his days with cattle and making sure the sycamore’s small figs ripen by piercing the husks with a sharp stick, a painstaking, tedious job. Yet, this is who God calls to confront Israel with their sins. Amos is a book full of judgment against Israel, Israel’s king, and those willing to be misled to maintain their comfortable lives. God sends Amos straight to the seat of Israel’s power – to the king’s sanctuary at Bethel – to speak condemning words of truth. Why would the powerful listen to a herdsman who pokes fruit with sticks? Why would anyone take seriously what Amos has to say? Well, as Michael Jinkins writes in his Feasting on the Word commentary, “A true word in the mouth of an honest person, whether credentialed or not, can bring down any power on earth.” And bring them down Amos does. The priest Amaziah reports, “The land is not able to bear all [Amos’] words.” The religious and political elites of Israel feel threatened, and Amaziah asks Amos to preach elsewhere. If a herdsman can effectively harness the power God gives him, so can we, and so can our youth. As I was speaking at the high school conference, I noted one young woman sitting in the front row, taking copious notes.  ... Read the rest of the commentary on the website. Order of worship for July 14, 2024, by Teri McDowell Ott. Prayer for Independence Day by Jill Duffield God is faithful (July 14, 2024) by Letarshia C. Robinson Horizons — Let justice roll down by Rosalind Banbury Want the worship resources for July 7, 2024? You can find them here. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT... POL-01 approved with amendment “Non-discrimination” removed from second proposed amendment. — Blake Brinegar Ordination Committee takes actions in response to the needs of a changing church Recommendations include extending a task force studying ordination and referring an overture on commissioned pastors. — Emily Enders Odom The Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis appointed campus minister at Columbia Theological Seminary CTS has appointed the Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis – fresh off the culmination of her term as Co-Moderator of the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – as Campus Minister, effective August 1. — CTS How congregations can save on energy bills and care for the earth Ronald Newman, the Treasury Department’s senior advisor on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, comes to Louisville. — Mike Ferguson Plan to reduce, reconfigure PC(USA) Special Offerings OK’d by committee The Financial Resources Committee sent the recommendation to the full assembly for consideration next week. — John Bolt ‘The protest is a ritual’: How faith found a place in Palestine solidarity encampments Over the past nine months, student-led Palestine solidarity encampments popped up at universities across the country. For many students, multi-religious programming at the encampments became unexpected sites for religious connection. — Chloë-Arizona Fodor The connectional needs of the church Teri McDowell Ott interviews Acting Stated Clerk Bronwen Boswell as she wraps up her time in the position.