READING FOR DECEMBER 26, 2025: AMOS 5, REVELATION 18, PSALM 131                          AMOS 5 The prophet begins this chapter with what he calls a “song of mourning” for Israel. Do we have any such songs in our United Methodist Hymnal? In looking through it, nothing is comparable. Imagine one of our services with the following words for an opening hymn or call to worship: “We have fallen and will not rise again.”  This writer is not requesting such a choice for this Sunday, but this song accurately portrayed Israel’s situation. It is a song that accurate- ly portrays our situation if we reject Jesus. Here is song of mourning that was often sung by some of us years ago that describes King Agripa’s rejection of the Gospel in Acts 26:28. 

Source: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #275                                                                                                                God foresees a drastic reduction in the population of Israel. Yet even now He pleads with them not to reject Him so that they might live. Imagine the totally sufficient almighty God pleading with a people, who time after time rejected Him before, to seek Him now. This is still God’s plea today: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20).  Verses 5-7, though, clarify that choosing God’s way also means rejecting the false ways represented by Gigal, Bethel, and Beersheba. When we come to Jesus, we also must renounce our sinful ways. We don’t just add Jesus and keep living our sinful life: “Therefore, ridding yourselves of all filthiness and all that remains of wicked- ness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).

Starting in verse eight the prophet reminds us again that this God isn’t a local deity or merely one choice among several equally legitimate cultural expressions. He’s the creator and sus- tainer of all reality. We don’t trifle with Him. Amos also states that Israel, his listeners, don’t accept rebukes any better than we do in 2025. His specific rebuke is one we should consider seriously ourselves: Have we really treated the poor respectfully or are we in any way deriv- ing wealth off unjust treatment of the poor? In a global economy such as ours, this can be dif- ficult to ascertain and indeed may take some research. This could include low prices made pos- sible by unfair labor practices. This could be investments we have made in companies who mistreat their workers or even pollute the environment in ways that impact the poor more significantly. Amos says it’s a big deal. Despite Israel’s sacrifices and religious festivals, the future will not be a good for them: “Therefore I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus” (vs. 27).  

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Revelation 18: We are still recovering from Christmas!  Today’s reading is not too much of a

READING GUIDE FOR DECEMBER 26, 2025 CONTINUED: REVELATION 18, PSALM 131  seasonal Christmas message. This chapter shows the final destruction of the city of Babylon. 

The chapter goes into great detail of her sins, her luxuries and the final judgement that comes to her.  Let’s take a few moments and reflect on this command that is spoken from heaven to God’s people: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes” (18:4-5) 

What does it mean to “come out of her?” Does this mean that we should have nothing to do with the world around us? Some take it so far as to say that we should not celebrate Christmas because it has become too “worldly.”  In 1621, Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony criticized people who took the day off instead of working. The Puritans discouraged Christmas celebrations in New England and frowned upon them. As followers of Jesus, we are called to live in the world but not to be of the world. Our allegiance is first and foremost to the King whose birth we celebrate today. That means our celebration of Christmas should look a little different from the way the world celebrates. Our focus is not on accumulating all the luxuries we can. Perhaps these verses from James and John can help us: 

• You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  (James 4:4)
• Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17)                             

We must “come out of her,” so we do not share in her sins. Don’t get bogged down in the trad- itions of men (Mark 7:8). Understand the reason Jesus came to earth; trust Him as our Lord and Savior; and don’t lose sight of Jesus’s earth-saving mission due to our materialist culture.

PSALM 131 This Psalm magnifies humility, which sounds like a paradox. Yet, humility is throughout the Bible. It is essential for believers, especially those in leadership. It’s a reason God chose and used Moses: “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any person who was on the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3). Paul com- manded the church to possess and practice it: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humili- ty consider one another as more important than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3). The lack of humility is a pathway to idolatry, then and now: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the incor- ruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind” (Rom 1:22-23). This is the great sin of the post-Christian west, especially the USA: making ourselves (i.e., men and women) the ultimate measure of truth in- stead of God as revealed in His word.  While it’s good to be curious about philosophical and scientific issues of our time, the Bible says due to human limitations there are certain matters we cannot know fully now but for which we need to trust God in faith, hope and love, like a child resting upon her/his mother: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12-13). Feeling inadequate? Good, look to God.