Amos 7:7-15

We live in a day of what Alasdair MacIntyre calls, "emotivism." It is that morality is found only as the subjective desires, or values, of individuals or groups. No one can rationally criticise my "values" or my "perspective" or my "desires" or my "emotions" or my "beliefs". Most of life, except that found in the organizations that employ, pay, and govern us, therefore, exist in this arational realm. Liberals, in our society, wish to protect this "emotivism" -- by appealing to the law of the nation-state. Conservatives often call this a "moral relativism"; of course, their only response is to submit to the authority of the nation-state, to manipulate "law" to force compliance -- ironically, without recognizing that the cause of this emotivism is itself the power of the state to dictate law. What is interesting is that the Amos passage, the plumb line is about the king as the "law".

Amos here uses the vision of a plumb line -- a construction device to keep walls straight so that they might sustain the structural integrity of the building. What does the use of this plumb line suggest? Why is refusing the moral/theological judgments of the king treason according to Amaziah? What is Amos saying about the legitimacy of Jeroboam? What is the result for Israel? Why does Amos deny the office of a prophet? What is his mission?

Again, with whom do we identify in this passage? What happens if you shift characters to be Amaziah? What is his concern? Jeroboam? WIth Israel?

Ephesians 1:1-14

Note to whom the letter is written. One of the differences in reading the OT and the NT is that the NT is more directive in identifying our place in the text. The "us" here is us, as long as we are the "saints who are faithful in Christ Jesus" (it is interesting that "Christ here functions as a title of an office in its word order, "Messiah Jesus" or "King Jesus". Yet the blessing goes to tell us that this Jesus is not merely Jewish king, but the One in whom God the Father chose us before the foundation of the world.

According to the blessing, what is the end or purpose for which God elected us before our creation? What do we have "in the Beloved"? Where has God made known to us the mystery, the secret of God's will? If "all things" are to be "gathered up in Christ," what is the purpose of our purpose? Why should we live to praise Christ's glory, and why must this take place in hope? The seal of the Spirit at the end of the passage most likely refers to the anointing of oil after baptism. Why would baptism be "a pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people"? Into whom is one baptize? Who does this related to our purpose and to the purpose of Christ?

Mark 6: 7-13

The sending of the twelve here has Jesus sending them out as his representatives, doing the exact same things that Jesus has been doing up to this point. Why does he send them out in poverty, without surplus goods? How are they to react to rejection? Why? What do the disciples exactly? What is the relationship between their calling for repentance and their anointing and healing? What is the mission of the disciples?

I was working out yesterday, and overheard a woman talking about what she really hoped for in life -- to visit Venice, to ride on a gondola. These passages give us the biggest vision of our lives, their origin and their end, from whence we came and for what reason we are. What do they say about our lives here "in the middle". How do we engage people who lives in a world that has taught them what really matters is "what they want, to want it deeply, no matter what it is"? How do we engage in this mission as one's called in Christ before the foundations of the world to be sent out into the world to re-present him?

Have a wonderful evening. I hope to be blogging quite regularly now that I'm back and almost caught up!