Kingdom Building

July 15, 2019

Scripture Reading: Amos 8:1-12

This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. He said, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ Then the Lord said to me,
‘The end has come upon my people Israel;
   I will never again pass them by.
The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,’
says the Lord God;
‘the dead bodies shall be many,
   cast out in every place. Be silent!’
Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
   and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, ‘When will the new moon be over
   so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
   so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
   and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver
   and the needy for a pair of sandals,
   and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’ –Amos 8:1-6

I find it difficult to read the prophets of the Hebrew Bible these days because reviewing them makes me wonder if we ever learn from history. Greed and lust for power was the undoing of Israel even while prophets like Amos predicted well the consequences of the Israelites behavior.  We have the insight of the finished picture, exile and later the return to their ruined temple and lands, and still we do not take heed of our similar behavior.

We can blame our difficulties on elected officials and there is plenty of blame to go around whether bluster or inertia. The simple truth is we elected them, and they are a mirror image of our greed and desire for power. Of course, many of us do not see the problem in the inequities that grow in our land. Our stock investments are growing well, like summer fruit.  We chose not to see the people working at more them one job to survive on inadequate wages, who may be able to afford rent or medicine but not both. We tsk, tsk about drug companies charging exorbitant prices for medicine like insulin but that is about as far as it goes unless it is us or one of our loved ones who will die without a drug that is basically the same today as it was a hundred years ago. Amos reports that the Israelites of his day were so impatient to make more money they wished for the sabbath to end so they could get back to the important thing in their lives–making money. While our stock market is closed over the weekend in a world economy, we can find some place to wheel and deal at any time or day of the week.

I guess my difficulty in reading the prophets results from feeling so helpless to do anything about what is wrong in our world. Truth is I am helpless, but I love a God who is not. A God who has a proven record dealing with evil, a God who can empower me and you to deal with evil when we are ready to follow God’s lead.

Prayer: Lord, forgive me when greed and lust for power or other forms of idolatry overcome me. Strengthen me to live your love and do your justice on this great planet you created. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.