Promises of Hope
Let Justice Flow, Let Grace Begin
Reading: Amos 1:1–2; 5:14–15, 21–24 Preacher: Rev Kevin Kim
The prophet Amos calls us to see the world as God sees it — to confront injustice, to love what is good, and to let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. His words remind us that true worship is not found only in song or ceremony, but in lives shaped by mercy, fairness, and compassion.
This Sunday, as we celebrate the baptism of Janet Boey, we witness a visible sign of God’s renewing grace. Janet’s baptism proclaims that God is still at work — washing, restoring, and sending us out to live justly and love deeply. May this joyful moment renew in all of us a longing for justice that flows from hearts transformed by grace.
Sermon Text
Let Justice Flow, Let Grace Begin
- The Roar and the Splash
This morning, we hear two very different sounds — a roar and a splash.
A roar that comes from the prophet Amos… and a splash that comes from the waters of baptism.
At first, those sounds might not seem like they belong together.
A roar sounds fierce, wild, unsettling.
A splash sounds gentle, joyful, cleansing.
But both — both are the voice of God.
Both wake us up.
Both remind us that God is alive and calling us — not to stay as we are, but to become who we were made to be.
Today, we celebrate with Janet, who comes to be baptised into the faith and family of Jesus Christ.
And in doing so, Janet’s baptism reminds all of us of that same invitation — to live out our baptism every single day.
To hear God’s call… and to follow where the waters flow.
- The Prophet Who Saw the Word
The book of Amos begins in an unexpected way.
Amos was not a priest, not a scholar, not a politician. He was a shepherd — an ordinary man — when God called him to see extraordinary things.
The text says, “Amos saw the words.”
Not “heard,” not “spoke” — saw.
That’s interesting, isn’t it? Because God’s truth isn’t just something to hear with our ears — it’s something to see with our lives.
Something to notice — in the faces of others, in the cries of the poor, in the injustices we would rather ignore.
Amos looked at the world around him and saw a society that was busy, wealthy, religious — but broken.
He saw people going to worship, singing songs, giving offerings… but ignoring their neighbours’ suffering.
He saw beautiful temples, but behind them, unfair courts.
He saw people praising God with their lips, but not with their lives.
And in the face of that, Amos hears — or rather, sees — something wild:
“The Lord roars from Zion.”
God, like a lion, calling out.
- When God Roars
Now, that’s not a comfortable image.
A roaring lion is not the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” we often prefer.
But Amos says, “The Lord roars.”
It’s the roar of a God who will not stay silent when the weak are crushed.
It’s the cry of a God who says, “Enough! Enough pretending that worship without justice is enough. Enough singing while the poor starve. Enough comfort built on someone else’s pain.”
God roars — not to destroy — but to wake us up.
To wake us from indifference and self-centeredness, from forgetting that faith is not private comfort but public transformation.
It’s like an alarm clock from heaven.
And let’s be honest — no one likes an alarm clock. But without it, we’d sleep right through God’s call.
- The Roar That Leads to Change
In the middle of the book, Amos gives us a clue about what this roar is for.
He says: “Seek good and not evil, that you may live. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; perhaps the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious.”
There’s that beautiful word — seek.
It’s an action word. Don’t just think about it. Don’t just talk about it.
Seek it. Go after it. Make it your pursuit. “Seek good… love good… hate evil.” And not just in theory, but in practice — in “the gate,” Amos says — meaning, in public life, in our relationships, in how we treat others.
Justice, Amos says, isn’t just about laws or fairness — it’s about the affections of the heart. It’s about what we love and what we hate.
Do we love what God loves? Do we hate what breaks God’s heart?
That’s what faith looks like in motion — not just words or rituals, but a reorientation of our desires.
- When Worship Becomes Noise
But then comes the part of Amos that still takes my breath away.
It’s fierce, and it’s painful to hear.
“I hate, I despise your festivals,” says the Lord.
“Take away from me the noise of your songs… I will not listen to the melody of your harps.”
That’s God speaking. God who once said, “Sing to me a new song.” Now saying, “Stop. I don’t want to hear it.”
Why? Because their songs no longer matched their lives. Their worship was beautiful — but empty.
They praised God on the Sabbath and exploited others the rest of the week.
And I wonder — if God were to speak to the church today, would He say the same? Would He say, “Enough with the singing if it doesn’t change how you live”?
Would He say, “Enough with the worship that never leaves the building”?
It’s a confronting question — but Amos doesn’t leave us there. After the roar comes the invitation.
“Let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
- The Waters That Wash and Flow
Now, that’s where the roar turns into a splash. God’s voice becomes a river.
Justice rolling down like waters — that’s God’s dream for his people.
A stream that never stops flowing, cleansing, renewing, restoring.
And here today, we get to see that image made visible — as Janet is baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Water — flowing over her, marking her as God’s beloved, joining her to Christ’s body.
Amos would love this moment.
Because baptism is justice in motion.
It’s God saying, “You are mine.”
And it’s also God saying, “Now live as mine — in the world.”
- Baptism: The Lion and the Lamb Together
In baptism, we meet both the lion and the lamb. The lion roars — exposing what is false, calling us to repentance.
And the lamb — Jesus — washes us clean, offering mercy and grace.
Together, the roar and the splash form the rhythm of a faithful life:
repentance and renewal. justice and mercy. truth and love.
When Janet is baptised today, the water will touch her head — but it speaks to all of us.
It calls each one of us back to our own baptism — whether it happened years ago or we barely remember it.
That same water once touched your head. And God said to you: “You are mine. You are beloved. You are forgiven. You are sent.”
But baptism was never meant to end at the font. It’s meant to flow — into how we live, how we work, how we treat people, how we give, how we forgive.
- Living Out Our Baptism
So let me ask you — where is your baptism flowing today? Because baptism isn’t a memory — it’s a movement.
It’s not just something that happened — it’s something that happens again and again every time we choose love over hate, service over selfishness, forgiveness over bitterness.
Every time you choose truth in a world that rewards lies — your baptism flows.
Every time you give mercy instead of judgment — your baptism flows.
Every time you speak up for justice — your baptism flows.
That’s what it means to let justice roll down like waters. That’s what it means to live as a baptised people.
- The “Perhaps” of God
Amos has this humble, haunting line — “Perhaps the Lord will be gracious.”
Not “surely,” but “perhaps.”
It’s as if Amos is saying: our job is to do what’s right — not because it guarantees a result, but because it’s the right thing to do.
We act justly not to earn God’s favour, but because we already belong to him.
The “perhaps” keeps us humble. It reminds us that grace is always grace — never entitlement.
And it keeps us open to God’s mystery — that even when we fail, mercy can still surprise us.
- Hope for Us All
The book of Amos doesn’t end with despair. It ends with hope — a hope that justice and mercy will meet, that brokenness can be restored.
Even the roar of the lion is not the final sound. The final sound is the river — the stream that never stops flowing.
That’s God’s vision for the world — for Turramurra, for our families, for us here in this church.
And it starts — as it always has — with one life at a time.
With Janet’s today. And with yours.
- The Baptised Community
As we witness Janet’s baptism, yes, we’ll smile and celebrate — but let’s also let this moment remind us of our own baptism, our shared calling to live out God’s love every day.
Remember that we are a baptised people — people called to live differently, to love deeply, to seek good and not evil, to let justice roll down like waters, to keep our worship and our life connected.
Because if our songs don’t change our hearts, and our hearts don’t change the world — then we’ve missed the point. But if the waters of baptism flow beyond this place — into our homes, our workplaces, our city — then the roar of God becomes the rhythm of life.
- Closing: From Roar to River
So today — may we hear the roar and feel the splash. May we see in Janet’s baptism a mirror of our own. May we remember that God’s voice calls us to wake up, and God’s water calls us to begin again.
May justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like a never-ending stream.
May your life — our life — be part of that stream, flowing with God’s mercy, so that the world might one day hear not just the roar of judgment, but the song of redemption. Amen.