Is all worship pleasing to God?
Is good theology in our songs the only prerequisite for “good worship”?
Check this out:
Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:21-24)
Amos was a bi-vocational prophet, who also took care of sheep and fig trees. He wasn’t the kind of prophet that so much predicts the future, but the kind that sees how religious people behave and speaks the truth to them whether or not they want to hear it. More than once, his audience scolded him and told him to go home. He refused to go home until he had entirely unburdened himself with the words God gave to him to pass on.
Like most of the Hebrew prophets, his twin beefs had to do with their idolatry and injustice. He majored on the latter. It was their treatment of the poor and vulnerable that irked him (and God) most. He railed against the powerful who preyed on the vulnerable. He couldn’t stand by and watch the privileged treat the poor as nonpersons and cheap labor. He advocated for the weaker members of the community who had no chance of wellbeing or advancement. Sound at all familiar?
Here are a few other of his other provocative pronouncements:
- They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Amos 2:7
- There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground. Amos 5:7
- There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth. Amos 5:10
- There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. Amos 5:12
- Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Amos 5:15
Amos and others like him pointed their boney prophet pointer fingers at fellow worshippers’ self-indulgence. Their worship was more of a stench than a pleasing aroma.
Evidently, God cares more about how we treat those on lower rungs of the social ladder than how beautifully we sing in church, how high we raise our hands, or clap for the worship team. Worship (so-called) can act as a drug that dulls our conscience to overlook our sin of injustice.
700 years later Jesus was bothered by the greed and injustice of his countrymen as he flipped over tables and dumped cash all over the space where they were supposed to be praying and worshipping. Injustice invalidates otherwise worthy worship.
“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
It’s up to us to remove all barriers that stand in the way, blocking the flow of justice from rolling downhill to reach those who need it most.
“You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” (Matthew 23:23)
So, worship or do justice? Do justice. Then worship (Just Worship).
barney wiget 