Roll Down, Justice!

I hate, I reject your festivals;
    I don’t enjoy your joyous assemblies.
If you bring me your entirely burned offerings and gifts of food—
        I won’t be pleased;
    I won’t even look at your offerings of well-fed animals.
Take away the noise of your songs;
        I won’t listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters,
        and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
— Amos 5: 21-24 (CEB)

The season of Lent begins with a call to repent, which means to “turn around.” This year, we will turn from our apathy, turn from simply “going through the motions” of our life and worship. Instead we will pray to be active instruments of peace, agents of change in the world. We begin the journey toward renewing our baptismal identity as the hands and feed of Christ by “re-cognizing” — tuning our minds and hearts toward the world and its peoples.