“I hate all your show and pretense – the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.”
- Amos 5:21-24
[Edit: Seems the NakedPastor had the same moment I did, just a little earlier :-) ]
Hmmmmm….I guess I see that differently.
perfect. nailed it. right on. thanks.
Yeah…
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Rachel, how do you see it?
P3 – thank you. And welcome!
Katherine, is that a good “yeah”?
Rainer, it does.
For a little background, the chapter is God talking to Israel, who are being extremely socially unjust, ignoring and treading on the poor and other stuff like that. That’s why God is so grumpy with them.
Isn’t it amazing how something meant for a specific people at a specific time thousands of years ago can hold so much meaning today?
I just posted that passage in a comment over at nakedpastor recently! Holy mother of dogs. (See the entry with the t-shirt quoting verse 21.)
Mark, it is. *stares wistfully out the window*
Shelly, really?!! *heads off to look* Wow, you did! And Nakedpastor did! I am so woefully behind in my Google Reader. Adding an edit now.
Heather~
Good in that I think it needed to be said…. 
Hmm… Good as in I agree with the assessment. Not good as in the assessment is sadly accurate.
*stares out the window with Heather*
:sigh:
What a show.
My husband’s article about our visit there has landed on quite a few sites. It’s so interesting to see how many more people do NOT go for this these days as compared to the Toronto revival and the Brownsville movement. I’m sure there wasn’t 100% agreement on those but it seems that this one has gotten the most eye rolling reaction. Am I wrong on that?
Heather,
Where and what is this?
Michelle, I’m not sure. Perhaps last time most of the eye-rolling was done underground. And probably none of us had blogs
Oh, BTW, this post isn’t about Florida specifically. Just to clarify.
Jimmy, it’s a picture of a large church, accompanied by a few verses from Joel. Draw from it what you will. I’m being cryptic.
I am with you…I was on staff at a mega-church in the Houston Texas area until May last year. I had grown really tired of the ‘God in a box’ type thinking.
It is very funny…they do all of this marketing about a place to belong and the biggest problem they have…getting people to stay. No relationship building opportunities.
Not to mention the tiresome formulaic ’steps to a happier life’ sermons.
Ok…I will get off of my soap box now.
Peace!
Don’t worry, Jimmy, I’m sure my soap box is rather larger and more well-used than yours! You hardly ever rant
Those sermons. Ah the memories. I haven’t heard one of those in a couple of years now.
How about this from H. Richard Niebuhr:
“Christendom has often achieved apparent success by ignoring the precepts of its founder. The church, as an organization interested in self-preservation and in the gain of power, has sometimes found the counsel of the Cross quite as inexpedient as have national and economic groups. In dealing with such major social evils as war, slavery, and social inequality, it has discovered convenient ambiguities in the letter of the Gospels which enabled it to violate their spirit and to ally itself with the prestige and power those evils had gained in their corporate organization. In adopting itself to the conditions of a civilization which its founder had bidden it to permeate with the spirit of divine love, it found that it was easier to give to Caesar the things belonging to Caesar if the examination of what might belong to God were not too closely pressed.”
“At the end, if not at the beginning, of every effort to incorporate Christianity there is…a compromise, and the Christian cannot escape the necessity of seeking the last source of righteousness outside himself and the world in the divine aggression, in a justification that is by faith.”
“I hate all your judgmentalism and cynicism – the hypocrisy of your self-righteous blog and caustic articles. Away with your finger-pointing posts! I will not listen to the diatribes that come from your keyboard. Instead, I want to see you get over your hurts and start speaking well of your brothers and sisters in Christ.”
I can’t say which blog i’m refering to.
Draw from it what you will.
I’m being cryptic!
Thinks to self: “Oh i am so very, very clever (insert evil laugh here)”
I won’t reply to this one. Please read my other replies.
Usher: Hey Deak, check out that gathering
Deacon: And????
Usher: It’s a MEGA McChurch!