Read between the lines. Look beyond what is said to the underlying feelings. Therapists do that. Once in a while--perhaps--husbands and parents do too. Friday's readings are filled with more denouncing and judgment of sin. But I think we can look beneath the surface to the mercy and grace which calls the sinners to repentance (Amos), or the concern that believers not be led astray (Jude), or to the king's openness to all and his desire to share his joy with a banquet-room full of guests. (Comments are repeated here from an E-mail sent December 4, 2003, for December 5, 2003.)

Amos 5:1-17

5 Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

2 Fallen, no more to rise,

is maiden Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with no one to raise her up.

3 For thus says the Lord God:

The city that marched out a thousand

shall have a hundred left,

and that which marched out a hundred

shall have ten left.

4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

Seek me and live;

5 but do not seek Bethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

or cross over to Beer-sheba;

for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,

and Bethel shall come to nothing.

6 Seek the Lord and live,

or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire,

and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.

7 Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood,

and bring righteousness to the ground!

8 The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,

and turns deep darkness into the morning,

and darkens the day into night,

who calls for the waters of the sea,

and pours them out on the surface of the earth,

the Lord is his name,

9 who makes destruction flash out against the strong,

so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

10 They hate the one who reproves in the gate,

and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.

11 Therefore because you trample on the poor

and take from them levies of grain,

you have built houses of hewn stone,

but you shall not live in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,

but you shall not drink their wine.

12 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 in the gate.

13 Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time;

for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good and not evil,

that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,

just as you have said.

15 Hate evil and love good,

and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:

In all the squares there shall be wailing;

and in all the streets they shall say, "Alas! alas!"

They shall call the farmers to mourning,

and those skilled in lamentation, to wailing;

17 in all the vineyards there shall be wailing,

for I will pass through the midst of you,

says the Lord. (Amos 5:1-17, NRSV)

Amos alternates from judgment to calls to repentance. Judgments include the ironic "funeral song" for "maiden Israel" (Amos 5:2), "turning justice into wormwood" (v. 7), being deprive of unjust acquisitions (v. 11) and wailing and mourning in the places which should be sources of blessing and wealth, that is, the city square, the farms and the vineyards (vv. 15-17). But God says, "Seek me and live" (v. 4), "Seek the LORD and Live" (v. 6), "Seek good and not evil...Hate evil and love good,/and establish justice in the gate [i.e. court of justice];/it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,/will be gracious to the remnant of Israel" (vv. 14-15). (Comments are repeated here from an E-mail sent December 4, 2003, for December 5, 2003.)

Jude 1-16

1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, who are beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ:

2 May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.

Reason for Writing the Letter

3 Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4 For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Denouncing False Teachers

5 Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, that the Lord, who once for all saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day. 7 Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

8 Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of slander against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10 But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct. 11 Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam's error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah's rebellion. 12 These are blemishes on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.

14 It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "See, the Lord is coming with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 16 These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage. (Jude 1-16, NRSV)

Jude warns Christians against false teachers, "certain intruders," who "pervert the grace of God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (v. 4). He denounces the false teachers "by citing a series of OT examples of God's judgment on the wicked” R. J. Bauckham, HarperCollins Study Bible): unbelievers among those who left Egypt with Moses (v. 5), fallen angels (v. 6), Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 7), and Cain, Balaam and Korah (v. 11). These people are "blemishes on your love-feasts," "waterless clouds" and "wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame" (vv. 11-12). They are "grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage" (v. 16). (Comments are repeated here from an E-mail sent December 4, 2003, for December 5, 2003.)

Matthew 22:1-14 (cf. Lk. 14:15-24)

Parable of the Wedding Feast

22:1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.' 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:1-14, NRSV)

In Jesus' Parable, those first invited to the King's wedding banquet for his son "made light of it" (Mt. 22:5), some even seizing and killing the messengers (v. 6). When others, "street people," were invited in their place, "the wedding hall was filled with guests" (v. 10). But one "guest," "not wearing a wedding robe," was expelled (vv. 11-14). "A wedding robe would not be expected of someone summoned off the streets...it probably symbolizes a new way of life (see Rom. 13:14; Gal 3:27-28; Col. 3:11-12)" (D.C. Duling, HarperCollins Study Bible). "The final words of the parable [v. 14] serve as a warning against self-righteous arrogance among God's new people" (Duling). (Comments are repeated here from an E-mail sent December 4, 2003, for December 5, 2003.)

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

rworden@houston.rr.com