Theme 'Speaking out' Amos 7:7-15 - Rev Christine Fox

11/7/2021

Welcome – we come as we are to recognize the presence of God, who is always with us, not just this hour but all our days and nights. Our God is full of compassion – God sees where people and all creation are hurting and God does something about it. God speaks out, God doesn’t ignore the pain and hurt of creation – but how does God do that?

God speaks out, God acts, through those who are open to God’s prompting – anyone who feels a passion for some cause or other is experiencing the passion of God – the Bible records the words of God spoken through those who have been called prophets – we will hear some of those words from Amos today. God continued to speak through prophets like John the Baptist, Jesus was called a prophet – and even today anyone who speaks or acts out of the compassion that is stirred in their hearts is playing their part in communicating the will and love of God to God’s creation. I can’t ask you if you’d like to be a prophet for in a way it’s not your choice – every one of you will know times when something unjust or destructive makes you so angry or makes you so sad or becomes so important to you that you feel something must be done! But what I can do is to encourage you to ‘speak’ it out! So today we will think more about how we can let that passion turn into compassion as we work with God for the good of all; God is all-powerful and can accomplish this – but God is also all-inclusive and so every person can be a part of that accomplishing!

Phoebe Parkin Methodist Youth President interviewing Jamie – one of the Green agents of change

Phoebe Parkin youth president interviewing Jamie – one of the Green agents of change – a Methodist young people’s group
Some of you will have been moved by the ‘passion put into action’ shown by Jamie in that video and other young people speaking out about climate change – but some will be thoroughly irritated by them – we know Greta Thunberg has received hate mail for speaking out. One test of a true prophet is that the words they speak do materialise but another is that those in power often find them annoying! The book of Amos in the Old Testament of the Bible tells of a shepherd called Amos who spoke out in a time when the Israelites had become self-satisfying, worship had become just ritual and injustice was being ignored.

Reading - Amos 7:7-15