I hate, I despise your festivals,
[Amos 5:18-24 nrsvue]
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like water
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
We’ve just come through one of the most expensive and contentious election campaigns that I can recall in my lifetime.
Now the work of healing and reconciliation begins.
Let me put major emphasis on that word “work.“
The slings and arrows that the candidates tossed back and forth over the last few months (and even longer), the falsehoods they flung, the hurtful accusations they hurled at each other are not soon forgotten, if ever.
Most politicians of our society are not known to let go of a grudge very easily.
Throughout the election cycle, the words of the prophet Amos resounded loudly within me.
Though there was some mention of economic issues in many of the campaign speeches, the one glaring omission was Amos’ specific call for justice.
But let justice roll down like water
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
+ + +
Let me digress for a moment, because I love to tell anyone that will listen that I first heard those words from the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King in my teenage years, in that famous speech during the march on Washington in 1963, when I wasn’t all that biblically literate.
For several years afterwards I associated those words with Dr. King, so much so, that it came as somewhat of shock, when I began to read the bible more seriously as an adult, and discovered that the original author was the prophet Amos.
So, from that point on I rationalized that, though Amos may have been the first to utter those words, it was The Rev. Dr. King who gave them life.
+ + +
Amos is not a happy book to read.
It doesn’t contain the encouraging, soaring and hope-inspiring prophecies of, for example, the prophet Isaiah. On the contrary, Amos speaks of almost unending gloom and doom.
The key to understanding the prophecy of Amos has to do with our understanding of the word justice.
We tend to think of justice in legal terms, “catching the bad guys.”
But justice in the Bible has less to do with the conviction of the guilty and more to do with the care of the innocent.
In fact, the Hebrew word for justice (מִשְׁפָּט mishpat) means that the neediest in society are cared for.
Justice is most often paired with righteousness (צְדָקָה tzedakah), which is best defined as personal integrity.
Simply stated, the internal state of our heart and character (righteousness) drives our active demonstration of love and fairness toward a neighbor (justice).
Justice begins and ends with the very character of God.
And because God is a God of justice, that justice requires a special concern for the powerless—those who lack the capacity to protect their own well-being.
In the Old Testament social concept, these powerless are often described as “the widow, the orphan, and the stranger.”
My favorite Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann, calls this group “the triad of vulnerability.” I would also include the poor in that category.
Because the Lord had elected Israel as God’s own people, the Lord demanded that the people reflect God’s character—that is, Israel must be a people of justice.
But the lives of the Israelites in Amos’ time didn’t line up with their worship practices.
In Amos’ time, Israel was enjoying great political and economic power. It was a time when the economy was booming and worship attendance was up.
The people felt that if they performed the right sacrifices, it didn’t matter how they lived.
The culture of Amos’ time was – to characterize the prophet’s assessment – morally, religiously, and politically corrupt.
It’s almost too easy to hold up the events that are taking place in our own country and say that in comparison to Israel in Amos’ time not much has changed.
As the words of the prophet Amos challenged the people of Israel, Amos challenges us, to get away from selfishness to ponder not just how we are doing but how everyone is doing.
Problems like poverty, hunger, homelessness, and disease are not some far off situation—they are in our midst.
We have, by our action and our inaction, built a world in which the deck is stacked against the poor, the hungry, those without adequate housing or health care, and the immigrant.
To serve God with our heart, soul, and mind, means that we are called to bring everything we’ve got – our voice, our actions, as well as our financial resources – to live out God’s greatest commandment.
Tuesday’s election results gave me hope that just maybe, the words of Amos resonated with many of those who cast their ballots at the polls.
In his book, Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks puts it this way:
A nation is strong when it cares for its weak, it becomes rich when it cares for its poor, it becomes invulnerable when it cares about the vulnerable.
[Morality, p. 20]
As a society, that is our task.
As the church, that is our work, that is our mission, that is our worship!
Our worship practices are useless if we are not inspired to act and advocate on behalf of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, and the immigrant in our midst.
Each time we gather to worship, we gather to proclaim the nature and the character of God.
We connect our hope for a future in Christ because our worship practices also have a relationship with justice, and our ministry with the vulnerable.
We are reminded that as the church, we are those who are now called and sent to be involved in Christ’s mission of renewing the world, of bringing hatred and injustice to an end, and of establishing God’s reign of justice, love, and peace.
So as God spoke through Amos and all the prophets, and Jesus, commanding that Israelite society be a community of justice and righteousness, God speaks to us today.
And God is delighted when our response is one that bears witness to God’s justice and righteousness by carrying on Christ’s work of reconciliation in this nation and in the world.
And we pray:
O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 824)
