Holy Week with the prophets

Some short reflections  from the prophets for Holy Week

Palm Sunday

Amos 5: ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;

   I will not listen to the melody of your harps. 
²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,

   and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream 

It is not as if God's people do not know that justice is the preferred way.

Amos 9: ¹⁴I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

   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.  

God will restore, and restore properly. Not without pain, but through the very gift of his holy Son

Holy Monday

Obadiah 1: ²I will surely make you least among the nations;

   you shall be utterly despised. 
³Your proud heart has deceived you,
   you that live in the clefts of the rock, ">
   whose dwelling is in the heights.
You say in your heart,
   ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ 
⁴Though you soar aloft like the eagle,
   though your nest is set among the stars,
   from there I will bring you down,

says the Lord.  

How easily we misplace our trust.

Jonah 2: ⁷As my life was ebbing away,

   I remembered the Lord;
and my prayer came to you,
   into your holy temple. 
⁸Those who worship vain idols
   forsake their true loyalty. 
⁹But I with the voice of thanksgiving
   will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.

   Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’ 

I make a mistake when I think I am the source of justice and holiness.

Holy Tuesday

Micah 1: ³For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place,

   and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 
⁴Then the mountains will melt under him
   and the valleys will burst open,
like wax near the fire,
   like waters poured down a steep place. 
⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob

   and for the sins of the house of Israel.  

The Lord's will to deal with my sin is unremitting and determined. He will forgive me. He will have me, even if I am slow and unwilling to respond. 

Holy Wednesday

Micah 4

In days to come
   the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
   and shall be raised up above the hills.
Peoples shall stream to it, 
²   and many nations shall come and say:
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
   to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
   and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

   and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  

In hope, not desperation; in faith not in decline. I come to the Lord because he draws me to himself.

Maundy Thursday

Habbakuk 3

His glory covered the heavens,
   and the earth was full of his praise. 
⁴The brightness was like the sun;
   rays came forth from his hand,

   where his power lay hidden.  

There is no way to overlook the glory of the Lord

Good Friday

Zephaniah 2

¹¹The Lord will be terrible against them;
   he will shrivel all the gods of the earth,
and to him shall bow down,
   each in its place,

   all the coasts and islands of the nations.  

Everything that would wrongly demand our attention and our worship will be destroyed before Jesus, that we his sisters and brothers may live with the freedom and dignity that God destined us to share.

Holy Saturday-Easter Eve

Zephaniah 3

¹⁵The Lord has taken away the judgements against you,
   he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;

   you shall fear disaster no more. .  

The Lord completes all that he sets out to complete