Living Reconciled
Living Reconciled, hosted by Mission Mississippi, is a podcast dedicated to exploring reconciliation and the Gospel that enables us to live it out. Mission Mississippi has been leading the way in racial reconciliation in Mississippi for 31 years. Our model is to bring people together to build relationships across racial lines so they can work together to better their communities. Our mission is to encourage and demonstrate grace in the Body of Christ across racial lines so that communities throughout Mississippi can see practical evidence of the gospel message.
Living Reconciled
EP. 72: Justice, Image Bearing, and Amos Chapter 5
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What does God really think of our worship when it lacks justice? In this powerful episode, we unpack the convicting words of Amos 5 with hosts Brian Crawford, Neddie Winters, and Austin Hoyle. Together, we explore how worship disconnected from justice becomes noise to God’s ears—and how true worship calls us to embody justice in every area of life. From Jesus’s rebuke of the Pharisees to modern-day performative faith, this conversation challenges us to move beyond rituals and live out a gospel that reconciles us to both God and neighbor.
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Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Mississippi College, Anderson United Methodist Church, Grace Temple Church, Mississippi State University, Real Christian Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters.
This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated to giving our communities practical evidence of the gospel message by helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured for us by living with grace across racial lines. Hey, thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Living Reconciled. I'm your host, brian Crawford, and I am with my very good friends Nettie Winters, austin Hoyle. Gentlemen, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm good today.
Speaker 1:Great, great, great no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Great, great, great, excellent, excellent, excellent. Before we get started, I want to give a quick shout out to our friends Mississippi College, anderson United Methodist Church, grace Temple Church, mississippi State, real Christian Foundation, nissan, st Dominic's Atmos Energy, regents Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, christian Life Church. Ms Doris Powell, mr Robert Ward, ms Ann Winters, thank you so much for everything that you do and supporting the Living Reconciled podcast and Mission Mississippi. It's because of the things that you do, your generosity, that we're able to do what we do and if you would like to join this illustrious group in supporting the work of Living Reconciled and Mission Mississippi and that will give you an opportunity to join in this work with your financial contributions and gifts.
Speaker 1:In particular, as it is seen in Amos, chapter five, dr Martin Luther King Jr. Years ago, on several occasions he mentioned one of the passages or one of the scriptures in Amos that has become very popular Amos, chapter five, verse 24. One such occasion in which Dr King referenced this passage was in his letter written from a Birmingham jail. He said, quote no, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. There have been occasions in which that particular phrase has been used throughout history and placed on shirts, coffee cups, portraits in houses. But I would like to look more deeply behind that phrase and look at what's underneath that phrase in the book of Amos, the minor prophet, Amos was a man who had a very, very hard message for Israel. Amos was a man who had a very, very hard message for Israel, and I want to see how that message lands on the contemporary church and how that message lands on our particular mission of encouraging believers in the work of reconciliation.
Speaker 2:And so, if you don't, mind Austin and Nettie and our wonderful listeners. I'll take a moment and I'll read that passage Just before you dive in so deep and read the passage. Brother, you know, nitty, always have questions right or a story or something, and so why is it that you have a question and a story today? I'm going to try to limit it to a question. Maybe I'll be above, I'm not sure. Listen, you know we get cups and t-shirts. I remember having you know what was it. Do what Jesus would do, yeah, wwjd.
Speaker 1:What would Jesus do?
Speaker 2:And this phrase of letting justice roll down. You know, I remember the WWDJ or whatever the acronym is. It was a fad.
Speaker 2:And I think the teacups and t-shirts that let justice roll down like a migrant, I think it become a fad and I think it become popular. Because in that speech, king, we didn't get the essence. I don't think we get the essence of what he was saying. He was saying all that you're doing to pass equal rights, to give us a seat at the table, the whole deal. He says no, we're not satisfied because you know, all what you're doing is tokenism, and this tokenism is really an insult to us as a people and and and a sham before God. And so he uses that phrase. But then we don't pick up on all that he said before he got to the phrase. We pick up on just what the cups out mean, just what the let justice roll down, and so we wear these t-shirts, but having no intentions, in my opinion, of actually doing it. I remember when we had the wristbands and everything that, what would Jesus do? Nobody did what Jesus would do. They just wrote a paraphernalia. Is that what we do with Let Justice?
Speaker 1:Roll Down. I think you're on to something, Nettie.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I think to a degree we have I mean, especially in modern day, you know, especially when we don't understand things in its biblical and Christian context and we just read it from kind of more secular perspectives or even just more socialist philosophies and, yeah, I think that we have, to a degree, taken that particular verse out of context, because it's really talking about worship, worship and neighborliness, and it's talking specifically to God's people, to God's people. So I think that sloganism that you're talking about has really found its way into the church in such a way that we decontextualize what that passage is really talking about.
Speaker 1:Absolutely 100%.
Speaker 2:That's your intro man Into reading it.
Speaker 1:Verse 18 says Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light, as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him. It is not the day of the Lord. Darkness and not light and gloom, with no brightness in it.
Speaker 1:I hate, I despise your feast and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. And the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs. To the melody of your harps I will not listen, but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the 40 years in the wilderness? O house of Israel, you shall take up Sychoth, your king, your star god, your images that you made for yourselves, and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord. Whose name is the God of hosts, nettie Austin. Why on earth would God hate our feast and our assemblies?
Speaker 3:Because it doesn't actually form us in his likeness, it's just meant for other purposes. I think God is getting at that, or Amos is getting at that in this particular passage.
Speaker 1:Talk to me a little bit more about formation, okay.
Speaker 3:I mean looking at what the whole purpose of the law was, especially if you read throughout Leviticus. I'm not going to get into the details of any of that, but the whole purpose, especially out in the wilderness of God's people, was to form them to be people who would be worthy of receiving the promised land, or receiving entrance into the promised land and kind of divorce ourselves. As understanding this as the very formation of God's people, then we essentially are taking the direction that God has given us. We're using it to sing songs for our own purposes, over and against the reason why God has us doing that, and that is so that the people of Israel would be the ones who would bring forth God's rule and God's redemption onto this earth. So I think that we can't read this particular passage without understanding that the people of Israel were called to be set apart from all other people on the earth as those who would bring God's redemption for the purposes of all the nations. Is that you have lost that particular reason why you do everything so you can't have justice and mercy if you're not doing so with the mindset that you are set apart from the rest of the world and that because you're set apart from the rest of the world. You're called, then, to be the instruments of justice and mercy for the rest of the world, and these songs, these rituals, are not just for you and for your attainment, but for all.
Speaker 3:I mean, we get into this when we read passages like I don't know Jeremiah 7, 5 through 7,. It says If you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless or the widow, then I will let uh, you dwell in this place. You know, do not oppress the sojourner. So you can be singing songs, you can be going through all of these rituals, you can be having a just, amazing, awesome worship, that you know, all the cords are being struck perfectly. But if you're not embodying the very reason why we're given these rituals in the first place, which is to form us into being more in the likeness of God it's sanctification, to being more in the likeness of God, it's sanctification Then it's just. Then why are we even doing this? You're just, it's just like any other religion on earth. It's just like any other people group. It's just like any other music or practice that people have.
Speaker 1:It's for themselves instead of for the world. Daddy, why on earth does God hate and despise the feasts? Austin has given us great insight. What about you?
Speaker 2:I was hoping he'd leave me something to say. You know, as I look at this, I think about what God is upset about is that they come in to offer their or we, I should say, offer our religious as Amos put it here religious festivals and sacrifices, while simultaneously exploiting or exploiting the poor people, the marginalized people, perverting justice, doing all this crazy stuff and everyday activity, and then show up on Sunday and do an awesome job of performing a great production of music in three attributes, but nowhere near our hearts, nowhere near a true worship. So in terms of understanding that, so I think when we look at this, understanding this passage, we got to look at that what is the true heart of worship? And the true heart of worship is in me and how I do things. I look at it from family, not only the church, but from family to friends, to the community, to the whole deal. You know what are we emphasizing when we are dealing with one another as families. You know, honesty, integrity. Those kinds of things are not taking place.
Speaker 2:According to Amos, we're exploiting folks and taking advantage of folks, and certainly when he gets down to the verse to talk about righteousness and justice, let it overflow. I don't know, you know, when I read that word justice, I looked it up and you know what he's referring to here is fair and equitable treatment of all people, especially the marginalized and the poor, the oppressed and those. It involved not only legal fairness, but also actively correcting injustices, man, do you? You know it's, it's, it's from a modern day perspective I think we are so engaged in well, I'm not like that.
Speaker 2:I'm not doing it, I would never do that, et cetera, et cetera. But you said silently by I remember you, you brought up father the King. I remember when the civil rights movement, all those things going on and this you know, the silence of the majority as we have today, the silence of the majority of allowing things that are unrighteous, unjust, oppressed, and all those things to take place. But because we're not individually involved or engaged in it, we think it's, I guess, some kind of way we're separating ourselves from it. But in essence, god says you show up here talking about how much you love me and saying these one-off a song, but look how you've done unto the least of these or to one another, even in the household and in the family. I got a lot more I can say about it, but I think I'll stop there. And also let me just say this when he talks about
Speaker 2:let justice and righteousness flow down. He also is talking about Amos is talking about here. Is that right relationships, living the way that reflects God's character and love and honesty, and all of those things I'm talking. Do we do that? Do we love each other? John 13, 34 and 35 just got into my mind immediately. Do we love one another as he has loved us, as he commands us to love one another? So that's the gist of what I think when I look at the totality of this passage of Scripture, amos 18 through 27. I think about really understanding what true worship is, which take place before you get to the house of worship, if you want to put it that way. It takes place in our everyday lives and then in the family and the church and community and all of that. And so Amos is God is like he's got he's calling. But Amos is God is like he's got, he's calling scathing, reciting here over every area, every aspect of their lives. Then you show up here he said I hate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm looking at you know, as I read Amosie are describing a people that are in a position of plenty. Verse one in chapter four hear this word you cows of Bashan. And it's this picture of these very full and hefty beings that are on a mountain of plenty. Bashan means fruitful and so, literally, it's this place of plenty that they're grazing and getting more than they need. And so he says here this word you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountains of Samaria, who oppress the poor, crush the needy and say to your husbands bring that, we may drink. And so here is a people that are in plenty, filled with all that they need, grazing in fruitful places for more. And yet they're still saying give, give me, give me, give me. And they're willing to oppress those that lack, they're willing to crush those that need in order to have more and more and more. And yet, even in the midst of all of that, they still are making room for their holy days, they're still making room for their great feasts and festivals, they're still practicing and rehearsing so that they can perform their incredible and elegant songs and offer up their offerings.
Speaker 1:And God is saying in chapter five enough, enough, enough If you have no regard for those people that you look at eye to eye on an ongoing basis, the people that you see on a day to day basis, those that are in need, that are right in front of you. You have no regard and no concern for them, then when you look up, it is disingenuous. If you look out and feel nothing, then when you look up, it's disingenuous. And so, over and over again, what we see Austin to your point even from the Old Testament drawing out what God is trying to do in the formation of his people, in the law, all the way through the New Testament with the arrival of Christ, and what Christ is trying to do in the establishing of his church, is he's trying to get a people to see that our vertical worship must be informed, see that our vertical worship must be informed, shaped and at times even flow out of our horizontal regard and our horizontal concern. When we look up, it must come from a place of us looking out into the lives of people around us and saying Lord, these are your image bearers. How am I engaged with them, how am I loving them, how am I attending to their needs? One more thing for me and then I'll jump back to you guys.
Speaker 1:But of course, in Matthew chapter five you see this alignment as well, with this ideal of vertical regard, vertical worship being being shaped and formed by horizontal regard. And you see it in Matthew chapter five, in, oh my goodness, I believe somewhere around 23, maybe, but the offering is there. The gentleman is in the place of worship, in the house of worship, he's bringing his offering to the altar and Jesus says hey, if you are there and you remember that your brother has ought with you, right, if you, if you remember that there is a disconnect horizontally, he says leave your offering there, even though, even though this offering is an act of worship, leave it there and go and be reconciled. Go and repair the breach that, that that that has been experienced in relationship. Go and repair that.
Speaker 1:Why would Jesus say such a thing? Because that is shaping the vertical, vertical, that horizontal regard. Horizontal relationships are shaping the vertical experience, the vertical worship that we have with God, and so you can't disconnect worship from right, relationship and right and malice towards your brothers that you see every day. The implication there is not possible that we have to have a commitment to horizontal relationships if we are to really have deep devotion vertically to our God in heaven. What else stands out to you as you guys are reading through this text and looking at chapter five? This idea of festival and feast and offering Austin. What else jumps out to you in this passage?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I like what you were talking about. You're bringing this back to Jesus, and Jesus definitely called out just the hollow religion, particularly in Matthew 23, 23,. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness, those you ought to have done without neglecting the others. So this is probably one of Jesus's sharpest rebukes, and he's giving it to the religion right, not to the pagans, not to the outcasts, but to the very ones who are the religious leaders of God's people, the people who knew Scripture the best, the people who would have known what Amos would have said, the people who should have been reading these prophecies. They lived in the temple, they were absolutely meticulous in their religious observances and they're tithing everything, even the herbs, even the mint, the dill, the cumin. They're tithing with little tweezers. They were measuring out every single bit of their obedience. And Jesus says even though you're so meticulous, even this, even though you are so caught up in this minutiae of the religion, you've forgotten the mission, the reason why this is all important in the first place. You've completely missed the point. You're obsessed with holiness, so much so that you ignore the heart of God. Jesus doesn't really tell them to stop tithing, he just says those you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You're doing only part and partial of what you should be doing. So it's not against the discipline, necessarily, but it's against the distortion of the weightiness of why the discipline matters in the first place. You know he's saying really the discipline, the activity of what you're doing matters because of the justice, because of the mercy, because of the faithfulness, because of the—and this is exactly what Amos is really saying just hundreds and hundreds of years before you can tithe, you can fast, you can quote the Bible, but if it doesn't lead to mercy it's really just kind of noise, it's just—it's piety without the faithfulness to neighbor and to God. So he's really within his time.
Speaker 3:Jesus is diagnosing this spiritual disease, this disease of religious performance, with absolutely no love behind it, with how much they're just measuring these small little things. So pretty much what the Pharisees have done is they've made it about control, purity, codes, appearance, all the while ignoring the real plight and the real problems that the poor are going through, that the sick are having. They're even shaming the sick to such a degree because they're so caught up in the minutia of the law, casting aside the sinner with no actionable plan for redemption for them, so they've missed the streams of justice. They've had it. They put all these rules in place and Jesus is just trying to open that up, right?
Speaker 3:So why are we so obsessed with the minutia of the herbs that you are tithing? Why have you missed out on all of these really weighty matters? So shouldn't your love, or shouldn't your worship, if it was genuine, be something that is leading to loving better? Yes, a flicker standing up for the voiceless? Yes, so Jesus isn't asking us to abandon the spiritual disciplines. In fact, I think that's a really important balance that Jesus is calling them to. He's not calling them to go from one end, to swing the pendulum so far to the next or the other side, that aligning ourselves with any ritual is wrong. That's definitely not what Jesus is saying. He's saying the rituals and the disciplines are actually significantly important, but he's saying, hey, you really need to align yourself with things that are just that much deeper, where our worship of God and our love for people are one and the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know, when I hear you describe, when I hear you kind of walk through that also, and I'm thinking several things that's running through my mind. One this idea that piety, that personal piety that is void of commitment to people, is truly performative and void of power, that if this piety isn't pushing us towards a deeper expression of mercy and love and justice for a neighbor, then it is powerless and performative. That's a hard thing to hear, but I believe that's exactly what Amos and what you're kind of describing. I believe that's what we're getting at Matthew 23, which you just walked us through. There's this idea that there's a personal piety but it is absent of regard for people. Thus it is a performative and powerless piety.
Speaker 1:Even when we think about passages or we think about stories and narratives in Scripture, for example Sodom and Gomorrah and when we think about Sodom and Gomorrah as it's articulated in Genesis, what we typically think about is the experience that Lot has with the men, and there's this kind of very sexual, exploitive and immoral kind of act that's trying to be committed and people are saying, okay, wait a second. That's where all the sin is in this passage. But then you look later on in Ezekiel, chapter 16, verse 49, and you hear this prophetic word from Ezekiel, where he says now, this was the sin of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned. They did not help the poor, they did not help the needy, they were haughty and did detestable things before me.
Speaker 1:And so oftentimes what we try to do is we try to relegate our piety purely in forms of sexuality and purely in forms of what do I do with my tongue in terms of what my speech, purely in forms of what do I do as it relates to substance abuse and things of that nature. But the reality is that piety extends beyond that. It's the arrogance that we walk in, or the refusal to check our arrogance. It's the refusal to check our overabundance and our lack of, or our unwillingness to be able to share when we've been bountifully blessed. It's our unwillingness to have concern and regard for those that lack. It's all of these things.
Speaker 1:All of these things play into what is a true heart of worship before God and how we reflect that worship, and so an aim is what God is showing us here is that there should be personal neighboring that is on display, that flows into worship, so that when we are offering these offerings, it's coming from a place of me loving neighbor and having regard for people. We are offering these offerings. It's coming from a place of me loving neighbor and having regard for people. And when I'm singing these songs, it's coming from a place of me loving neighbor and having regard for people and from that regard I'm bringing my worship to the Lord and also out of that worship I'm going back into the world, loving my neighbor right and so feeding it and it's energizing it when I go back out into the world. Nettie, me and Austin have been talking a lot so I don't feel comfortable man, jump in and share some thoughts we need to hear from our older, wiser friend Nettie Winters.
Speaker 2:You know, when I think about this passage in Amos, also, I think about the fourth chapter that you referred to. God has some real nice names that he referred to in terms of that, but I think the people here are eager to see God's judgment come, but not understanding that when he comes you're going to be the first in line. You know you're going to be the first one to shoot, verse 18. Yeah and so, really. And so God's saying you really don't understand what you're doing here. You know, brian, you talk about loving neighbors and community. To think, I guess in my mind I'm thinking. I remember one time I was walking across the camps at Alcorn and I said to the professor well, how you doing? He said let me tell you. And I'm trying to get to class. You know, I finally told him man, I'm just speaking.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to hear your life story and all your ills and stuff. I just had to cut this conversation so I could get to class and I'm thinking I will get you know a tardy or whatever the case might be, because what's going on with you and really have the intentionality of really listening to it. I'm telling you, even on Facebook, you know, people would declare up front alert, small alert, long text, right, long post, long post, you know. And then they'll post all of this stuff and they'll say, well, I know no one's going to read it. And they're right. You know, if you get more than 10 seconds, you can forget it. So when you really ask someone how you doing, are you willing to invest this time to hear and appreciate and really be with them and walk them through that process? What is your commitment to your children? He covers, as I said earlier, he covers the church, he covers the family, he covers friends, he covers society, he covers the community. He covers friends, he covers society, he covers the community, he covers neighbors I'm trying to you name it, it's covered here and he says you've done all this stuff that you've done across the week in our terms, and you show up here knowing that people got out against you because you've overcharged them, you've cheated them.
Speaker 2:I'm having to change my credit card because I bought something online and it created the folks. Not only did they not deliver what I bought and I purchased, they're spending more than seven or eight opportunities that they're trying to get more out of my account. So I had to close the account, change my credit card, do all that to keep them from continually sniping off. And that's for me. That is a picture of what God is saying to us. Here is that are you really loving your neighbor? Are you really teaching your kids to love God? Are you teaching them to be successful? You're teaching them to get a career, make more money. What are you teaching the kids in terms of that? How are you discipling your family? In other words, how is worship at home?
Speaker 2:I've gone into the cell block of jails and ministered to these young men. It would be nothing but want them to say you know, my dad is the reason I'm in jail and I said well, how so? Well, he was a deacon at the church, but he wasn't a deacon at home, and you know he's an activist in the community or wherever else and all these things, but none of it, made it home, and so my dad is the reason I'm here. And they're sitting there saying, well, how I will get out is I'm depending on my daddy. And I'm saying, like, what make you think that if your daddy calls you to be in here, that he's going to get you out? So so here God is saying you, showing up here, and what is the what the analogy about?
Speaker 2:On the way to church, the family. On the way to church, the kids are all over, the seats won't stay in the seatbelt, it's chaotic in the car, and they drive onto the parking lot and the greeters approach them, everybody's happy and everything is wonderful, and let the windows up when they leave because they're arguing out the parking lot. Those kinds of things is what I see in modern day things that we think more of our convenience than we do our relationship. We think more of performance and presentations and productions over love. We think more of just ignoring things.
Speaker 2:In fact, I think God says through Amos he says how can you come up in here and tell me how much you love me and how much I mean to you and you are tolerating all of this injustices, all of this unrighteousness, all of this stuff that's going on? You know, I remember the George Floyd thing, right? Well, what happened? Everybody in America got a conscience. For what? Two weeks, the last two weeks. You can ask most people today about George Floyd and I don't even know if they'd even remember the incident or what surrounded that, the whole deal. So what God is saying through Amos is that that conscience we had for that two weeks or two months or a year, however long, we had the conscience about the injustices and the inequalities and you know, everybody's joining in. A lot of new organizations, new movements, activities and things jumped up. He said that should be a lifestyle.
Speaker 1:That's a conscience shaped and informed by true worship. Nettie.
Speaker 2:That should be a lifestyle.
Speaker 1:If worship is true, then that conscience should follow it.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And what happens is that when worship is again performative, when it's exclusively personal, to the detriment of the people around you, then it ends up moving in these kind of temporary ebbs and flows where there's regard for people for, like you said, two weeks, and then the rest of the year there's a disregard for people. Or there's a moment where it's like, oh, we're supposed to be doing something for people this week, there's a special event, so let's go out and try to do something, and then there's a kind of disregard. Oh, there's a season where we're supposed to be thinking about unity and reconciliation, so let's think about reconciliation, and then there's the rest of the life where we disregard it. But true worship should be shaping us into Austin Dr Hall's point in the very beginning, forming us in such a way where it begins to reshape our conscience, so that regard for people is ongoing and that regard for the least is ongoing, and that regard for racial healing, reconciliation, unity in the midst of our divisions. It should be something that's ongoing.
Speaker 1:And so for me, as we wrap up and try to put a bow on this, one of the things that I'm challenged by is how am I allowing worship to shape the way I love neighbor. When I think on God and I think on my regard in terms of my commitment to extend my life over to him, do I also include my commitment to the people around me as a part of that commitment to him, or do I try to disconnect the two? Do I say, hey, my commitment to God has nothing to do with the people around me? Because I believe that to be false, and I believe that's the whole point behind passages like the ones we find in Amos 5 and Matthew 23,. Is that your commitment to God is in fact a commitment to neighbor.
Speaker 3:If it is true, Exactly, yeah, yeah, and it kind of reminds me of what Paul was writing about in Romans 12 and 13, when he's talking about worship. He's not beginning with music. He doesn't even talk about sermons or candles or communion bread, which is usually all of the items that I always hear talking about any time I come to the worship committee here at my church. But no problem with that. It's just that's not where it begins. It begins with that mercy. It begins with the sacrifice. It begins with that capacity to be able for people to connect hearts, heart and heart, which is just so significantly important for us. Because I think what was this the 12.1 talks about? I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, which is your spiritual worship. Worship for Paul is embodied. It's not a feeling, it's a life offered. You don't just sing a song. I think Christ is calling us to become the song. You don't just attend worship, you live as worship. So when you're talking about these seasons where we remember reconciliation, the season of Lent, where we remember the sacrifice the Lord has made, so we sacrifice ourselves, we don't just do the action, we kind of become that, we embody that and I think that's in a large ways that Paul is saying when he's also subsequently in the next verse, talking about how we do not conform to this world but we'd be transformed by the renewal of our mind. It's not an abstract transformation, it's relational, it forms how we live with others, especially in our neighbors. And in the next chapter I think Romans 12, or the next, not the next chapter, it's later in that chapter actually but it's talking about contributing to the needs of the saints and to show hospitality. Worship in that embodied worship shows up in our generosity and our shared meals and opening doors and making spaces, renewing our minds, thinking differently, living differently. So all of these seasons you're talking about, brian, are meant for us to begin to embody those very spiritual disciplines in every aspect of our lives. And I think even Paul says that this doesn't just stop at our church family, it doesn't just stop with people that we understand to be kind of, our selected neighbors, because I think God is saying that all persons are neighbors, persons, our neighbors. In 1214, it says bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them and, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. That's jumping a verse or two, I can't remember which one, but it's really talking about how worship is teaching us not just to show, not just how to love our friends, how to even live with our enemies. I mean, there's sometimes relationships that are so hurt, so marred, so broken that even if your heart is completely in the correct place and you've conformed your will for God's, the other person may have some so much significant work that they need to have. But I would say, so long as you are being a peacemaker is you are being a bridge builder in that response and you have opened up every avenue uh, that even if those relationships have not been fully reconciled, that we still pray for for God to be able to work on that. You know, and I think that that's kind of the.
Speaker 3:You know, this is the very heart of, I think, christian worship and it corresponds so perfectly with Amos in this regard, because where Amos is saying, crying out to people who are religiously active but they're kind of socially negligent, they sing, they offer sacrifices, they gather at festivals, but the poor are crushed, the widows are forgotten, the courts are rigged, the rich keep getting richer without the capacity for either innovation or helping out with the other persons that are in their midst. I don't want it Turn it off. If this worship doesn't become an embodied worship, then don't come to me with lifted hands while your neighbor is lying in the street. Don't light candles in the sanctuary while you're letting systems of greed and oppression go unchecked outside the doors. So in a lot of ways, the true nature of Christian worship is embodied in the passage of Amos 5, I think Amen.
Speaker 1:Amen. You know. Why does it matter? Why is it important that we walk in this embodied worship, as Austin mentioned? Why is it important? Well, quite simply because that's the Savior that we worship. And the Savior that we worship is not simply personally pious in His walk on earth, but he is constantly engaged with the people around him, doing all matters of good healing the sick, raising the dead, encouraging the brokenhearted, building up binding wounds. Our Savior demonstrates what it means to walk alongside him in his life on earth, before us, and so, as we consider UWJD, in the words of Nettie Winters, part of that consideration is not just what we're doing in terms of our personal, exclusive piety between us and God, but our piety between us and God is reflected in the way that we extend grace, mercy, love, kindness, compassion, patience to those around us.
Speaker 1:So, gentlemen, it was a great Bible study pod. I love doing Bible study pods with my friends. I mentioned a couple of days ago that it's always dangerous when you ask a charismatic and a Methodist and a Baptist to come into a church and do Bible study, but it's always fruitful when these, when, when this three characters get together and do Bible study, so I'm always grateful for it.
Speaker 2:By the way if you would like to In this crowd I was.
Speaker 3:I was a Baptist for the first twenty five years of my life.
Speaker 2:I've already been here for 15 years. Wasn't going to share who's who.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying that it's three characters. These three characters walk into a church and they have a Bible study. I wasn't going to tell the people who those characters are, but, nevertheless, if you would like to hear more of this podcast, you can always do so by subscribing to Living Reconciled. Go to any podcast app, search for Living Reconciled, and you can do that. Please feel free to not only subscribe, but please feel free to share, and also share any reviews, any feedback that you have for us. We are always looking forward to hearing from you so that we can grow as a podcast. And also, again, we would like to thank our sponsors. We would like to encourage you that, if you want to sponsor this podcast, please go to missionmississippiorg and click on the donate button, the invest button on the top right, and that will allow you access to sow into this work, not just the podcast, but all the work that Mission Mississippi is doing around the state and beyond. On behalf of Nettie Winters, austin Hoyle. This is Brian Crawford signing off, saying God bless.
Speaker 2:God bless.
Speaker 1:God bless. Thanks for joining Living Reconciled. If you would like more information on how you can be a part of the ongoing work of helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured, please visit us online at missionmississippiorg or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening, or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening.
