Once again, as with all of the
prophets, Amos declares that God is angry, VERY angry with unjust
behavior. In specific, God is very angry
with the elite of Israel living in comfort and luxury, while the poor are
suffering. It doesn’t matter to God that
the elite are going to worship, are offering sacrifices to God, even that they
praise God. What matters to God,
according to Amos, is again how they treat the poor and suffering people. God is furious at the rich who are hanging
out with other rich people in lofty worship services but not caring for the
poor. God is angry at the offerings of
wealth lifted up to God because God wants those things given to God’s
people. God is upset with the
self-important attitude of the people.
Amos says, “Are your kingdoms really better than those around you?” And again, Amos declares that God’s response
will be punishment – and the total destruction of Israel. He anticipates an event that actually
happened – the elite of Israel were either killed or exiled to Assyria. This invasion almost completely wiped out
Israel as a people. And Amos understands
this coming invasion to be a punishment by God because of the lack of caring of
the Israelites for their poor and marginalized.
God calls us, too, to pay attention
to the poor and oppressed. God also
calls us to read the signs, like Amos, of what is to come, to pay attention to
where God is calling us and what God is calling us to do. When things feel wrong, when we are in pain,
these are gifts to us, for they tell us something is wrong, that something
needs our attention. When our bodies
hurt, we know that we must listen to our bodies to find out what is wrong. As horrible as it is, pain is a gift, for it
alerts us to what needs attention, what we are called to do.
In Monty Python’s “Quest for the
Holy Grail”, there is a scene that, if you are at all familiar with Monty
Python, you probably know well. It is
the scene with the Black Night. King
Arthur has just come across the Black Knight who is blocking his path across a
bridge. The Knight tells King Arthur
that he will not be allowed to pass.
King Arthur draws his sword in what appears to be a serious encounter to
the death. It starts out very intense,
it appears to be a battle of matched wits, when suddenly King Arthur chops off
the Black Knight’s arm. King Arthur
announces, “You have fought bravely, sir Knight, now please let me pass.” But the Black Knight says, “What? Nothing happened here. I’m not injured.” King Arthur is astonished and says,
“What? I’ve just chopped off your
arm!” But the Black Knight denies
it. “No, you haven’t. It’s just a scratch. I’ve had worse. Fight, you coward.” He insists that they keep on. So again they begin to fight. King Arthur chops off his other arm. He then bows down to give thanks to God for
the victory of the battle, only to be kicked in the back by the Black
Knight. King Arthur stands up and says,
“I honor and appreciate your courage, but you have lost. Now let me pass.” But the Black Knight insists, “no, there is
nothing wrong with me, this is just a flesh wound.” And tries to kick him again. King Arthur tries to convince the Black
Knight that he is done, but the Black Knight just insists that King Arthur is
being cowardly. So, as you might
imagine, the next thing King Arthur attacks is one of the Black Knight’s
legs. When King Arthur again insists
that the Knight has fought bravely but must now allow him to pass, the Black
Knight calls him chicken and hops around on his one remaining leg, trying to
butt King Arthur with his head. Finally,
King Arthur takes out his other leg. At
this point the Black Knight says, “Well, I guess it’s a draw then” but as King Arthur
crosses the bridge, the Knight calls out to him that he is running away and
being a coward and a chicken. A silly
story, perhaps. But part of the humor in
it is, as always with humor, the truth in it.
Sometimes we don’t want to see the signs that something is wrong. Sometimes it feels easier to ignore the pain
rather than address it.
And while it would be easier for me to just focus on how we
do this as individuals, all of the prophets are, again, extremely
political. I would rather not preach a
political sermon, but Amos doesn’t allow for that. God’s words through Amos confront the nation
of Israel. And so we too, need to look at the bigger
picture, the wider lens, especially when we listen for God’s message as given
to us through the prophets. While it is
important to see in what way we ignore the pain and the signs as individuals,
it is more relevant to our study of the prophets to look at what pain and signs
we ignore as citizens of a country. For
example, when countries are attacked, in whatever way and for whatever reason,
it is easier for its citizens to blame the attacking country rather than
self-reflect on what they might have done to enrage or upset the attacker. It is hard for citizens of a country to acknowledge
what the pain says about what is wrong with their own country. But this is what Amos is challenging and what
he is declaring to be very, very serious. The results of this are not to be taken
lightly. The self-righteous stand that
we are right and others are wrong does not help our standing in the world, does
not help our relationships with others, and does not help ourselves. God does not call us to be proud or arrogant,
personally or collectively. Every Sunday
we confess our sins, but this is incomplete if we remain in denial about what
those sins are. People around the world believe
it is patriotic to praise their countries to the point of blindness. But it is not patriotic for people to be
blind about how their countries impact the world in negative ways. It is dishonest, it is arrogant, it is
deceitful. Loving one’s children means
correcting their behavior so they can be the best they can be. Loving one’s country means being willing to
work for its betterment. Israel was the
chosen people, and God still called them to the task of looking at their behavior
as a people, as a nation. If God’s
chosen country can be called to this task, the rest of the world needs to also
be willing to be patriotic enough to care about their countries honestly, to
work to make them the best they can be, we are called to be patriotic enough to
challenge and confront injustice.
There is a real difference between
the Israelites that Amos was challenging and us today. Amos was confronting the Israelites who were
in charge. They were the people with
both money and power. While we in the
United States, even the poorest of us, in comparison to the rest of the world,
have the money and resources, you and I, we don’t have the power. We can vote, and we can choose how we spend
our money, we can write letters. But we
don’t run the government, we are not part of the 18 families who have 90% of
the worlds power and resources. A study by Princeton University shows that public policy has absolutely zero effect on the decisions our government makes. (see Unbreaking America). And I
will also admit that it takes a great deal of time and self-education to know how to live lives that don't contribute to injustice: who to buy from who is not using child labor or exploiting poor people, who to
vote for who cares about the poorest of the poor. It takes a great deal of love and commitment
to choose not to be a part of the injustice in this world. But God, through Amos, calls us to do just
that.
I know this is not easy. Sometimes it is very hard to look at the
things that cause us pain and see what the signs are telling us. It feels easier to deny our part, our pain, to
deny an injury at the international level, at the national level, at the
community level, and even at the personal level. I get this.
The first time I had skin cancer, I knew there was a problem with a spot
on my face but I keep delaying going to the doctor because I didn’t really want
to know, didn’t really want to deal with it.
I delayed it, putting myself at risk.
So I get it. But just as that was
a potentially life-threatening bad decision on my part to not seek out the
cause of my skin issue, our choices to not look at pain are dangerous.
Amos doesn’t offer a great deal of
hope. He is clear about the destruction
that he believes is inevitable, as in fact it was, for the people of
Israel. But there is always good
news. That is why we are here, for the
Good News. And in this case, the Good
News is that God is a God of the resurrection.
Even as we make our way towards the cross during this Lenten season, even
as we are called to pay attention to the hurts, pains, and signs of our times,
even as we are called to repent, to change, to strive to be better at serving
God and each other, in the midst of all of this we can remember that Jesus
walks this path with us and that there will be resurrection on the other
side. That is the promise. That is the hope.
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