The journey of faith is complicated and a long journey. People accept bits and pieces at times, and remain open to further growth. We sometimes expect too much of people and forget that their life stories and their struggles may make it too much to accept a lot of the gospel. Is the person whose spouse left him or her condemned forever to a single life? Or some types of criminal people never to be forgiven and welcomed back in the church?

The reason the apostles would walk away is that people would not listen to them, not that they would not do what they said. We hope for an openness to the gospel from people, as we hope for an openness to everyone’s life story when we try to share the word of Jesus.

This is true for parents and teachers; we open the word of God and the truth of Jesus to younger people, and hope that now or later they will be followers of Jesus. It does not happen immediately.

The prophet Amos seems to come from an ordinary job to be a prophet; from the ordinary ways we try to follow Christ and live out the gospel we can share the best of our faith with another generation.