This brings me to this Sunday and the appointed Old Testament reading (Amos 7:7-15). It a prophetic word being delivered by Amos to the northern kingdom where people were being oppressed and neglected. Amos describes God's judgment with the imagery of a plumb line. The text reads:
"This is what the LORD God showed me; the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line."
Then the Lord said,
"See I am setting a plumb line in the midst of a my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword." Amos 7:7-9
God was using Amos to be a prophetic voice, and he was only a shepherd. Yes, God can use any one of us to be a prophetic voice to help in working with injustice or become a defender of the poor. Might not God be laying a cause on your heart to which you could do battle in order to bring God's kind of life to those who are downtrodden?
I invite you to reflect on the role of prophetic voices today and what you might seek to do. May God's blessing be upon your worship this Sunday.
Pastor Marty