Hide and Seek

Day 5: September 19, 2013

Amos 5:14-15

As a child, I played Hide and Seek with my grandmother and sister. I preferred being the one hiding. Seeking required more effort.

Seeking good requires extra effort, too. Yet, Amos tells us we must do it so we may live. Seeking good not only allows us to live but others, too. Amos would say this is one game of Hide and Seek that is worth the extra effort.

Gracious God, For a world where all children can play Hide and Seek, we pray. For a world where children can seek good and not live in fear, we pray. Help us establish justice in your gate, so all may live. Amen. 

Rev. Susannah DeBenedetto

United Church of Christ Minister

serving St. Giles Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

Raleigh, NC

www.saintgiles.org/

Seek Good

Amos 5:14-15

Amos warns the wealthy that what they have gained by “trampling on the poor” will be lost.  He tries to redirect the people to “seek good, not evil,” “hate evil, love good.”

When society places its priorities on the accumulation of wealth by whatever means, evil has already taken a front seat. 

Employers closing facilities for cheaper, often exploited labor, leave communities bereft of jobs and public school funding. Seeking good?   Allowing children to attend school in crumbling buildings with out-of-date texts, no basic supplies and over-wrought teachers speaks more to trampling on the poor than loving good.

Who will be the Amos of today to cry out for the children?

Prayer

Lord help us to find our courage to speak for justice “at the gate,” - in the places where the most vulnerable gather. May we seek good and live. Amen.

Rev. Maggie Sebastian

VA Medical Center

Portland, Oregon