God gave me a vision. I saw the Lord holding a plumb line against a wall to see whether it was straight. As I looked, the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

I answered, “A plumb line.”

Then the LORD said:

“I am using this plumb line
to show how crooked my people Israel have become.
I will not turn a blind eye again.
The private shrines of Isaac’s descendant will be flattened.
Israel’s so-called sacred sites will be scorched earth.
I will declare war on the royal family of Jeroboam.”

Amos was getting into hot water over his preaching. Amaziah, the priest at the shrine in Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, the King of Israel, saying, “Amos is sowing the seeds of rebellion right in the heart of Israel. All his talk of doom and gloom will paralyse the nation. Have you heard what he is saying about you?

‘Jereboam will be killed,
and the people of Israel
will be marched off into exile in a far off land.’”

Amaziah also tried to send Amos away himself, saying, “Hey preacher-man, get out of town! Buzz off back to Judah where you came from and ply your trade there. Harangue them with your prophesies, but don’t open your mouth here in Bethel again. This is the royal chapel – the King’s worship place – and we don’t need your kind around here.”

But Amos answered back, “I am no professional preacher; nor was I raised to be a preacher. I was happy making my living droving cattle and cutting timber. But the LORD called me in from the bush and said, ‘Go and preach to my people Israel.’

“Now hear what the LORD has to say to you:

‘You are giving orders against preaching to Israel;
censoring the message meant for Isaac’s descendants.

This is how the LORD says you’ll pay when the land is invaded:
Your wife will be forced into prostitution in the city.
Your children will be slaughtered.
Your family land will be subdivided and sold.
You yourself will die in a filthy refugee camp,
and Israel will be marched across the border into exile.’”

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Take action, God!
Pass sentence on all those who judge and rule the earth.

Call them to account for their unjust decisions;
expose their links to corruption and crime.

Order them to hand down justice to the deprived and abused,
and to protect the rights of those seeking refuge.

Command them to represent the needy and the vulnerable,
and to side with them against those who exploit them.

These judges and rulers don’t understand or care, God;
they’ve got their heads in the sand
while the world falls apart around them.

You, God, elevated them to office,
and delegated your authority to them;
but they have betrayed your trust
and will die disgraced.

Take action, God!
Come and judge the earth!
Reassert your control over all your nations!

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Dear Christians in Colossae — you who are united in faithfully following Christ. This letter comes to you from me, Paul, and from Timothy. I was chosen by God to be a special ambassador of Christ Jesus, and Timothy is one of my partners in this work. We greet you as God’s own children and wish you all the best — God’s love and peace.

We pray for you often, and whenever we do we find ourselves expressing our deep gratitude to God, the loving Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we are so thrilled about all the good things we have been hearing about you. We have heard reports of your trust in Christ Jesus. We have heard of your active love for all God’s people. We recognise these things as evidence that you really have cottoned on to the nature of the wonderful future God has promised you. You first caught wind of this promised future when the great news about God’s love reached you and you recognised it as the truth. The moment you heard it, it dawned on you just how outrageously generous God is, and ever since then the truth has been taking root within you and growing out through every area of your life, bearing a rich harvest of good fruits, just as it has been all over the world. It was our good mate Epaphras who first taught you these things. We love him greatly and are proud to work for Christ alongside him. He has represented us faithfully in his work for Christ among you, and it was him who brought us such enthusiastic reports about the love being generated from your life in the Spirit.

From the moment we heard them, these reports have been inspiring us to pray for you all the time. We are praying that you will be given a full picture of what God wants, and that you will grow wise and perceptive — aware of what the Spirit is doing. Then you will get to know God better and better, and it will be reflected in you lives — giving credit to Christ — as you bear fruit in compassionate action for the benefit of others. We are also praying that your strength will be built up as you draw on God’s awesome resources, and that you will have the mental and emotional toughness to survive anything; not just to survive, in fact, but to keep on celebrating the good things you have received from God. You have much to be thankful for because, like a proud father, God has left a generous inheritance to the children of the light, and you’ve been written in for a share of it. We became children of the light when God broke the grip of the darkness that had overwhelmed us and placed us instead in the loving hands of Christ. All that we have ever done wrong has been forgiven and we have been put back where we belong, in the realm of God’s beloved Son.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

One of the legal experts asked Jesus a question to test his knowledge of the religious law. “Teacher,” he asked, “what do I need to do to inherit life without limit from God?”

Jesus replied with a question of his own: “What answer does the religious law give? What do you see written there?”

The legal expert answered, “You must love the Lord your God with everything you are, with all your heart and soul and mind and strength; and love your neighbour as attentively as you love yourself.”

“Spot on!” said Jesus. “Do as it says and you will live.”

But the legal expert needed to push the issue in order to justify his question, so he asked, “But who would you define as a neighbour?”

Jesus replied with a story: “A man was travelling alone down the mountain road between Jerusalem and Jericho. He was mugged by a gang of thugs. They tore off all his clothes and possessions, bashed him senseless, and left him for dead. Some time later, a priest came down the road, but when he saw the man lying unconscious in the gutter, he crossed the road, pretended not to notice, and hurried on past. Another person from a religious order did exactly the same thing; took one look at him, crossed the road, and hurried past. The next traveller to come down the road was a man from a despised and distrusted minority group – the Samaritans. When he saw the half dead man lying in the gutter, he was deeply concerned and immediately stopped to help. He cleaned and disinfected his wounds, and bandaged him up to stop the bleeding. Then he gave him a lift to the next town. He checked him into the little bush hospital there and made sure he was okay. Before leaving he paid for the man’s bed and instructed them to care for him there until he was back up and about. He promised that on his return he would pick up the bill for any additional costs that might be incurred. Now, which of these three, in your estimation, was a neighbour to the man who was bashed on the road?

The legal expert, of course, replied, “The one who treated him with compassion.”

Jesus said to him, “Go and follow his example.”

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prior to the revision of the Lectionary in 1992, the 1st reading and the psalm that responded to it were chosen to link thematically with the gospel reading. After hearing the critique of those who said that the Hebrew Scriptures, from which the first reading is usually chosen, should be allowed to speak with their own voice rather than just add support to the gospel reading, the Lectionary was revised so that during Ordinary Time, the 1st reading runs in its own semi-continuous series, working through various books of the Hebrew Bible. The older themed series continues to be available as an alternative.

The weekly prayers offered here at LaughingBird Resources are based on the four readings above, and do not draw on the themed 1st reading and psalm.

If you turn your lives around and commit yourselves completely — heart and soul — to the LORD your God, and live by all the instructions written in The Book of God’s Law, then the LORD your God will make sure that everything you do prospers. Everything you touch will turn to gold: your children will be many; your livestock will be healthy and multiplying; and your crop-lands will be fertile and productive. The LORD enjoyed blessing the endeavours of your ancestors and will take just as much pleasure in blessing everything you do.

Surely what the LORD is telling you today is not beyond you or too tough for you. It is not as though it is a bunch of secrets kept in heaven and you can excuse yourselves on the grounds that it is out of reach and no one can explain to you how to live by it. Neither is it bound up in some foreign language and culture; so you can’t excuse yourselves on the grounds that it can only be understood and practised by those who can travel overseas to study it. No, God’s Word is right here in your midst. You know it by heart and can speak it fluently. All you have to do is live by it!

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

I gladly offer you everything I am, LORD .

I have put my trust in you, God;
please don’t let me down;
don’t give my enemies grounds to gloat.

Be there for those who hang in there for you, no matter what:
don’t leave them with egg on their faces.
Save that for the two-faced scabs who deserve it.

Let me in on your way of doing things, LORD;
teach me how to follow your tracks.

Steer me along your ways of truth, and teach me all about them.
Only you can save me from disaster, God,
so I’ll wait for you before setting out.

Your love and mercy have been as timeless and dependable as the rock;
please don’t change your mind about them now!

Don’t keep a record of everything I’ve done wrong in the past.
Let your unshakable love colour your view of me,
and keep your reputation for generosity intact!

You always do what is good and right, LORD,
and so you patiently retrain those who do wrong.

You pilot a safe course for those who are not too full of themselves;
you give lessons on your ways to the humble folk.

Every path you tread, LORD, is marked by solid love and loyalty
for the benefit of all who keep our end of the bargain with you.

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for you have come to us as a neighbour,
binding our wounds and carrying us to safety.

In the beginning, you created light from darkness
and the earth from chaos.
You sent prophets among your people
to hold up a plumbline
that we might see the error of our ways,
repent, and bring justice and freedom
for the dispossessed and the vulnerable.

You have sent us the Word of truth,
in your child, Jesus the Christ.
He was crucified, but you raised him to life
with the strength of your glorious power.
Now his words are bearing fruit among us,
filling us with all wisdom and understanding
and enabling us to love you with all our heart, soul and mind,
and to love our neighbour with the same love
that that you have shown us in Christ.

Therefore with .....

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

We thank you for coming to us as a neighbour,
binding our wounds and carrying us to safety,
so that we might love you with all our heart, soul and mind,
and love our neighbour as ourselves.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for you have come to us as a neighbour,
binding our wounds and carrying us to safety.

In the beginning, you created light from darkness
and the earth from chaos.
You sent prophets among your people
to hold up a plumbline
that we might see the error of our ways,
repent, and bring justice and freedom
for the dispossessed and the vulnerable.

You have sent us the Word of truth,
in your child, Jesus the Christ.
He was crucified, but you raised him to life
with the strength of your glorious power.
Now his words are bearing fruit among us,
filling us with all wisdom and understanding
and enabling us to love you with all our heart, soul and mind,
and to love our neighbour with the same love
that that you have shown us in Christ.

Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

God has rescued us from the power of darkness
and brought us safe into the Kingdom of Christ Jesus.
In him, and through him we have redemption
and the forgiveness of sins.

Sisters and Brothers,
  your sins are forgiven;
    be at peace.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Go now and live lives worthy of the Lord.
Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength
and bear fruit in every good work,
putting love and mercy into action for others
just as you would for yourselves.

And may God’s glorious power make you strong;
May Christ Jesus fill you with wisdom and understanding;
And may the Holy Spirit prepare you for the hope
that is laid up for you in heaven.

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
   In the name of Christ. Amen.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net