Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Good Morning!

My email was down this morning, but I was able to do the blog -- if some morning you don't have an email, you might want to check the web at www.leapclass.blogspot.com and see if I was able to post here.

The new unit for this week is Unit 8 , Reaching Out to the Poor

Focus Scripture for the Week: Leviticus 19:10

You shall not strip you vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.

Today's scripture: Amos 8:4-10

-- today's scripture from Amos is a taste of what the entire book is about -- it is a message to those whose faith life is shallow and superficial, and in particular to those who take advantage of the poor as a way of enriching themselves. Those to whom Amos was writing professed to have a relationship with God, but their actions showed that to be a lie.

-- the scripture today covers both of these points -- essentially Amos is writing about those who celebrate certain religious holidays, but in their hearts they are wishing that the holiday would end as soon as possible so that they can get back to business. And in their case, "back to business" is about cheating, shorting and price gouging their customers, particularly the poor.

-- the concepts behind Amos's message gets to what the heart our class mission -- that we become Christians of substance -- not Christians who simply go through the motions on Sunday mornings - but Christians who are actively engaged in living a Christian life every day, expressing it through all of our activities and relationships. Amos's target audience simply went through the motions of worship, and as soon as they returned to their everyday lives, they worked and lived as though they had no faith, no guiding principles at all.

-- those who have that superficial faith demonstrate it in a lot of ways -- Amos chose to focus particularly on their mistreatment of the poor. And that is the other thing we can take from this lesson -- Amos's words should broaden our sense of what we can do for the poor -- Amos is not condemning his audience for not giving to the poor as an expression of their faith -- he is condemning them for their treatment of the poor as an expression of their worklife.

-- the question then for today is what can we do, as part of our work life, to treat the poor better, or how can we stop practices that take advantage of the poor?

Today's prayer request: Nelson Ferreiro, a family friend of Megan Douglas

Nelson was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, and had surgery to remove the tumor. However, they could not remove all of it, and he was given 2 - 6 months to live. We need to pray for him and his family

Today's class member prayer: Brigitte Severance

Have a great week.

Jay