Amos 5:21-24
This is the third Sunday in a series about the expectation that Living Waters will flow from the hearts of those who believe in Christ. I’ve offered this series as a way to connect our exploration of God’s word with that of children and youth from across our Presbytery – which includes Presbyterian followers of Jesus from all over southern Louisiana – who will be at Camp Agape at the Feliciana Retreat and Conference Center next week. I will be offering spiritual direction, and thanks to the generosity of this congregation from previous and current offerings, I’ll be joined by one of my children and two other grandchildren of the church. Over the last two weeks, we have talked about these living waters as an indicator of the providence of God. Jesus called out to invite belief in God’s providence on the last day of the Festival of Booths, which was a harvest festival and a reminder of the way God heard the Israelites in the wilderness and commanded Moses to strike a barren rock – offering water for their thirst. At this moment, Jesus was striking the rocks of hardened hearts and offering the water of faith, forgiveness, and restoration.
Last week we followed up on the experience of God’s providence through the forgiveness of Christ by recognizing the way that we are named and claimed as God’s people in the covenant of Baptism. Of course, we are not named and claimed for our benefit alone. We are named and claimed so that we can be prosperous like the trees we talked about a few weeks ago in Psalm 1:3. We bear fruit to encourage and sustain life for others!
“What about me?” you might say. Well, according to the Prophet Amos, if there is poverty and you are not poor, then you either need to call out against those that create the conditions for poverty to exist, or you will be seen in the eyes of God as being complacent and even complicit in their plight. Now, before we get all uptight about that, let’s back up and talk a little about prophecy.
Prophecy is kind of like the misunderstood stepchild of the Bible. So often in the past, the meaning of the word prophecy has been confused with something more like fortune-telling. Partially that is because the words of the Prophets do seem to foretell certain events. That is, of course, debatable in fields of academia – as all things are – because historical data about these events tell us that some of the writings of the Prophets (particularly the third section of Isaiah) were written after the events they describe.
That doesn’t make their words any less true, but it changes the notion of prophet as fortune teller to the idea of prophet as truth teller. The prophet is the one who describes how we got into the unimaginable mess that we got into and also warns us lest we do it again.
As for Amos, we don’t really know if he spoke before or after the events he describes, but we do know that this chapter starts off as a Lament – a cry of anguish over the behavior of God’s people for their treatment of the poor ones among them – and it includes some important information about the role of Prophecy.
Three times in chapter 24, Amos says, “Thus says the Lord…” The prophet is the one who speaks for God. That can be a pretty dangerous thing to claim, in fact, many a war has been fought and many a crime against humanity committed by those that believe they speak for God. If you doubt that, we need look no further than the use of manifest destiny to cover up genocide as our nation began its western expansion.
What do we do, then, as we live into the legacy of the past and seek a brighter future together through God’s grace and mercy? Well, according to Amos, the key is found in the collaboration of justice and righteousness. “Let justice roll down like water” like water, he said. Biblical justice is not a babbling brook. It is a Niagara Falls level explosion of millions of gallons of water! It cannot be held back. We can only marvel at its power.
Justice – from a Biblical perspective – is not about retribution. It is about breaking through the barriers that keep us from seeing humanity in one another in order to create space for life. The purpose of justice is not payback – it is to create space for right living. Now, if justice is like a waterfall, then righteousness is like a river. Amos said that righteousness will be an “ever-flowing stream.” Streams team with life, and they always move toward the sea. Righteousness – right living with God and others – creates and sustains life and always moves us toward the complete embrace of God.
So, you see, the role of the prophet is to speak for God about the “Why not?” and the “What yet?” The voice of the prophet calls out to say, “This is why we can’t have nice things,” and also to say, “Here is what the Lord will do if you trust more in the status quo that benefits you than in God’s command to care for the earth and all that is in it.”
So that’s Amos, a simple farmer and not a priest – because the priests have always had a vested interest in the status quo... just as those in power always do, whether they seize power or have it given to them. So it is, even today, while we come to church in hopes of sorting out the events of our lives and be comforted by the knowledge of God’s love for us, while outside these walls and inside our hearts the struggle for power and control never ceases.
I’m reminded here of some of the comments that the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson III had to say at our Presbytery meeting last Tuesday. I noted earlier that he is the Stated Clerk of the PC(USA), which means that he is the administrative head of our denominational offices in Louisville, but he is not the head of the Church. Only Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. Dr. Nelson provides encouragement for our varied ministries together, and he may occasionally offer a statement in solidarity with positions that we share and wrestle with, but ultimately his power is only advisory, and subject to review according to scripture.
Dr. Nelson joined us for our meeting at the request of our Presbytery’s Committee on Racial Reconciliation, of which I am a member. I’m hopeful that we will be able to offer his complete sermon and commentary soon, but for now, I’ll just say that he encouraged us to remember that though our faith should comfort and encourage us, it will also compel and convict us.
Amongst many stories to illustrate this point he mentioned courting his wife. He said that when he first met her he thought she was so beautiful that he was almost too scared to even talk with her – intimidatingly beautiful is what I would call that feeling. Then he said that there came a point after they began dating when she looked him in the eye and said, “Are you being serious with me?”
That’s when he knew that she wasn’t just playing around. She wanted a serious commitment, and there was a great risk on the line for both of them. He told that story as a way to say that faith is like that. Faith in God asks us if we are serious about what we believe or if we are just in it for ourselves.
Next, he connected that with the injustices of racism – not just the acts of racists, but the presence of racial biases and inequalities that we face – and he gave the most wonderful permission to us that I want to share with you. Fighting injustice does not require you to march in protest. It may, but that may not be the level of risk that you are able to make. It may be that you are called to be a conversation partner with someone whose views are different than yours. It may be that you are called to be a part of some effort to alleviate suffering. It may be that you are called to wrestle in prayer, asking God why things are the way they are until “Thy will be done” becomes a summons for loving your neighbor as much as you love yourself.
I don’t know how that will work out for you, but it can’t happen for any of us until we see those places of resistance that keep us from seeing the humanity in one another. I have to tell you, I used to lament the fact that our congregation is not more active in breaking those barriers, but I had a conversation with a few of you the other day that changed my mind. You see, it is good and right that we, as a church, have checks and balances that keep any of us from claiming to speak for God.
At the same time, it is good and right that members of this church are doing God’s work in partnership with others because of their faith. We may not have sanctioned these actions through our various committees, but I know members and friends of this church who have been so inspired by our fellowship that they have held events to care for furloughed workers, started community food pantries and taken on rehab projects on the home of a disenfranchised widow.
Would I love it if these were projects that came through the proper committees and were championed by the whole church? Absolutely. Does it need to happen that way for it to have been the work of members and friends of this congregation? Nope, not a bit.
At the end of the day, the good news is that God is present where there is injustice, and God calls to us to see it so that we might be moved by it. We may not be in a position to do more than stand in awe like we might stand before a waterfall, but there is life in the river that calls to us.
One last word of encouragement from Dr. Nelson for those times when we feel overwhelmed by the cries of injustice; whether from poverty, racism, or any of the other attempts to maintain the status quo without the status of care. He said that Jesus went to places of greatest resistance and greatest need.
He said, “This is the imperative that Jesus knew: you can never imagine what God can do unless you take the risk of failure.” Lest we thought the risk of Jesus was too low, he followed that by saying, “Have you heard about the cross? He went to the cross, but he got up!”
Now, because he got up, so can we. Because he got up, we cannot deny the humanity in the other person before us. We don’t have to fight every battle, but we can’t deny the cause of anyone – regardless of resources, creed, color, or personal orientation – to be valued in the eyes of someone who was created equally in the image of God. Seeing their humanity is the first step in realizing our own, and maybe...just maybe, it is the place we may look upon the face of God as well.
It’s just that simple, and sometimes it’s just that hard, yet always it is to God’s glory when justice rolls down and righteousness runs like an ever-flowing stream. Amen.
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