GLEANINGS from the Daily Office – Can’t Fake It!

GLEANINGS (from the Daily Office) – Can’t Fake It – Year Two, Advent 1, Wednesday, December 2, 2015, Amos 3:12-4:5

“Proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do.”

Taken at face value it seems the prophet Amos is exhorting the people to generous giving, something the people love to do. But as my son Dow would say, “That’s sarcasm, isn’t it!”

The prophet acknowledges that the people are worshiping. They are bringing sacrifices. They are bringing tithes even beyond what is required. But they are doing it in a perfunctory way. They are going through the motions all the while worshiping something else, bending the knee to something immediately greater.

Forget these outwards gestures of worship. God is inspecting what is in our homes, in our hearts. There is ill gotten gain and luxurious living that denies the poor in need.  His gaze penetrates stone walls. “From you no secrets can be hid.”

In this season in which we adorn our home with endless decorations, let us not forget that they will not mask our hearts. He knows. We can’t fake it.

–Frodo: “I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”–