Shepherds and Solidarity

Sorry for missing last week, enjoy this one.

Here is some liturgy based on some other parts of Amos

Call to Worship (Amos 5 CEB)

Leader: Seek good and not evil, that you may live;

People: and so the LORD, the God of heavenly forces, will be with you just as you have said.

Leader: Hate evil, love good, and establish justice at the city gate.

People: Perhaps the LORD God of heavenly forces will be gracious to what is left of Joseph. Amen.

Prayer of Confession (Unison) (Amos 2, 5, 6, 9)

The LORD proclaims, for three crimes of the United States, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment. Because they have rejected the instructions of the LORD and have not kept God’s statutes, but have been led astray by the same lies after which their ancestors walked. Because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals- they who trample the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way. They hate the one who reproves at the gate, and abhor the one who speaks truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor, and take from them levies of grain; you have built houses of hewn stone, but will not live in them. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins- you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy at the gate. Woe to those who are at ease in Columbia, and for those who are secure in Washington. Woe to those who lie in comfort while their people starve. Let justice roll down like rivers, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amen.

*Assurance of Pardon (Amos 9:13-15)

Leader: The time is surely coming, says the LORD, when the one who plows shall catch up with the one who reaps and the treader of grapes with the one who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them, says the LORD your God.

People: Thanks be to God!