Amos 1:1-2; 5:14-24
Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD. Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light. It will
be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered
his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Will
not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light, pitch-dark, without a ray of
brightness? “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your
assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I
will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have
no regard for them. Away with the noise
of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice
roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
I have preached
before on Amos when we did our prophets series, but it has come up again in our
narrative lectionary, and Amos is one of the prophets that I appreciate the
most, so we are going to look anew at some of these passages from Amos. I threw in a couple extra verses that show more
of Amos than we usually hear. These are
again hard passages, but I didn’t want to simply avoid them because they are
difficult. They show an angry God even
more strongly than the original few verses for today. They show a God who is promising to punish
Israel, or the people of Israel for their behavior. Hard words.
But these are words that call us to pay attention.
Today’s passage in Amos is saying
that God is angry, VERY angry with unjust behavior. In specific, God is angry with the elite of
Israel living in comfort and luxury, while the poor are suffering. It doesn’t matter to God that these elite go
to church, that they offer sacrifices to God, that they PRAISE GOD. Again, it doesn’t matter that they
praise God, serve God, or go to church.
I think this really gets to the heart of what Amos is about. God is
saying, through Amos, that going to church, belief, even faith, is NOT what wins
points with God. What God cares about,
consistently and fully, is your caring for and taking care of God’s people, in
particular the poor and suffering people.
God is angry at the people who are hanging out with other rich people in
lofty solemn church services and not caring for the poor. God is angry at the offerings of wealth
lifted up to God. God wants those things
given to God’s people, to the poor, to the disenfranchised, the outcast, the
marginalized. God is also pointing out
that these religious, worshiping people are not superior to those around
them. They have become
self-satisfied. They believe they
worship the right God, perhaps the ONLY TRUE God and they believe that because
of it, they have nothing to fear.
There are many
Christians who take on superior attitudes of self-importance. WE are the saved, WE are the ones who KNOW
THE TRUTH. WE ARE THE ONES who are God’s
true children. We don’t have to do
anything or care about anyone outside of these walls because we are the chosen
people of God. But this passage convicts
us. It confronts this attitude. To quote Amos, “Are your kingdoms, (your
beliefs, your rituals) really better than those around you? .....I abhor the
pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds, and I will deliver up these people and
all that is theirs.” God says this to
US!!! To Christians, yes. And to all who sit in pride and luxury while
others are poor and suffering.
This is the clear,
repetitive, redundant message of Amos.
It is the clear, repetitive, redundant message of all the prophets.
But then the
question comes up, as it did a few weeks ago when I preached on discernment, does
God really punish people? And I want to
start by asking all of you. Did God
really cause the Israelites to be attacked, the elite to be sent into exile,
the temple to be demolished? Did God do
this? What do you think? The question is not an easy one. If you say, “no, God doesn’t do that” then
you have to own that you are saying this despite all the Biblical prophets who
say otherwise. You are arguing against a
large, huge chunk of the Bible. If you
say, “yes, God does do this” then you may have to rethink your image of
God. Is a God who destroys people, any
people, all good? And what about a God
who wipes out whole countries of people, including many who are innocent, who
themselves are poor, or are children, or are marginalized. According to the prophets and much of the
Bible, this is what God does. Is this
the God you worship?
Ultimately, you
will have to answer this for yourselves.
I can’t tell you what to believe, what is the “right” thing to
think. But you are my church
family. And I will tell you how I answer
that question for myself. As always, I
am more than happy to continue this conversation with you after church or at
another time as well.
I believe that
these passages are descriptive of a reality.
That reality is that we reap what we sow. I’m not saying the world is fair. Too many times criminal people continue to
get richer while the hard working honest but poorer folk suffer. But I still believe that we reap what we sow
as a people, as a humanity, sometimes in grossly exaggerated, horrible, violent
ways. I think about kids who are
bullied, picked on, harmed by bigger, meaner kids at school. Sometimes those victims get angry enough that
they pick up a weapon themselves and we have tragedies like at Columbine. Did the victims of that violence deserve to
be killed? No, of course not. But they were part, perhaps of meanness,
perhaps of not standing up to meanness, they were part of the spark that
ignited something that eventually became distorted and evil. I think about kids who were abused as
children who grow up and abuse others in turn.
Again, not a good thing, but what was reaped was sown as the violence
continued.
I believe this
happens at the larger levels as well. In
countries where the poor are pushed down and deeply oppressed, eventually there
are bloody revolts and revolutions where the oppressed stand up to their
oppressors and overturn things. While
the war happens, things are again, much worse for everyone. There is death, there is mayhem. Things are bad. But the fires didn’t and don’t start without
sparks. So too between countries. When a country decides to be a bully with a
self-satisfied superior attitude, eventually other countries get tired of it,
ban together and there are wars. When
people of different faith traditions choose to be self-satisfied and smug about
their religion being the “only” way, they may convert a few, but I know they
generally turn off and even make enemies of many more people than they
convert.
On the positive
side, too, humanity reaps what it sows. A
few years ago as I was waiting at a stop sign, I saw a man in a car up ahead of
me roll down his window, try to say something to the car next to him, finally
jump out of his own car, going behind and closing the trunk of the car next to
him, whose trunk had flown open while we were all driving. It was a small act of caring for him to shut
his neighbor’s trunk. But I found myself
smiling at the small act, cheered by it, even moved by it. That act of caring touched more than the
people in the car next to him, for it touched many of us who watched it as
well. It reminded me of other times when
people have stopped for no reason except to be neighborly, have offered a hand
to help, have by their caring touched many lives in a positive way.
I’m reminded of a
Chinese Proverb:
Where there is
light in the soul, there is beauty in the person.
Where there is
beauty in the person there is harmony in the home.
Where there is
harmony in the home there is honor in the nation.
Where there is
honor in the nation there is peace in the world.
Our faith tells us
that we are all connected. And
everything we do matters, affects the world.
Our faith tells us that in serving others we serve ourselves, not the
other way around. And I believe that
plays out in our psyche as well as on a tangible level. When we focus all our efforts on caring for
ourselves, or even on caring just for those “like” us - who don’t really need
the love or the resources, we may have millions, but it is empty. The thrills wear thin after awhile and the
silence that is left is devoid of meaning or love. In contrast, when we reach
out with love and care, we may not have millions of dollars in our pockets, but
we have hearts full of meaning, purpose and love. How could we be richer than that? We are all connected. When your life is just, so is mine. When yours is not, mine is empty and uneasy
as well. I believe the prophets
described this reality. They described a
world in which the evils of humanity hurt and harm, and the good in humanity
also can spread with grace and love.
That still doesn’t
answer the question, though, of where God is in this. Or rather, where I believe God is in
this. I believe that God is angry at
injustice. I believe God is disappointed
in injustice. God has given us the gifts
we need to care for one another, and I believe it saddens, hurts and enrages
God to see us serving ourselves rather than others. I believe that we see the effects of that
injustice when we look at Jesus on the cross, crucified because people were
threatened by his call to love neighbor as self, threatened by the truth that
we are connected and that we are therefore called to love each other in the
same way we love ourselves and to give up what we have to actively follow
Christ. I believe the cross shows us
where God is in the face of that injustice.
God suffers with the suffering.
God cries with the abandoned. God
calls out for truth and justice with the oppressed.
But I also don’t
believe that God stays there. God raises
new life out of that death. God brings
hope and justice out of the unjust situations.
Even for the Israelites. Just a
short time after the book of Amos was written, the Israelites were almost
entirely wiped out. But out of that
empty place, God, love, justice was the force that raised them again, returned
them again, began their people again in Israel.
God resurrects. God brings life
out of death.
Do I believe that
God punishes people? No. Even if you take a more literal approach to
scripture, we have the story of Noah in which God makes a strong promise never
to destroy people again. But still, I
believe punishment or emptiness comes, not from God, but it comes, none the
less, to those who serve themselves rather than seeking to love, seeking to
care. Fortunately, even in those times
God’s promise of new life and new beginnings is there for all of us, every day,
in every way. Let us try in all that we
do to seek out that life, for others, for ourselves, for all creation.
I want to end by
reading you the very last part of the book of Amos.
Amos: Chapter 9:
11-15
“In
that day I will restore David’s fallen tent.
I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it
used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations
that bear my name,” declares the LORD,
who will do these things.
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the reaper will be overtaken
by the plowman
and
the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains
and flow from all the hills. I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they
will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and
drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant
Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given
them,”
says
the LORD your God.
AMEN.
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