Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
Why do you want the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, not light,
as if someone fled from a lion
and was met by a bear
or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall
and was bitten by a snake.
Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light,
and gloom with no brightness in it?
I hate, I despise your festivals,
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.
Amos didn’t want to be a prophet. He wanted to be a farmer.
His rants were not, however, those of a disconnected country bumpkin.
It’s clear from what he wrote that he knew, with a high degree of geopolitical sophistication, EXACTLY what was happening in his country.
Maybe he understood the situation TOO well… and THAT’S what drove him out to the farm?
I mean, can you even begin to imagine how it would feel to be a smart, educated, well read individual whose been forced to helplessly watch the country that you love be taken over by opportunistic, hypocritical, halfwits who openly steal from the widow and the orphan to line their own pockets and who dress up their entire criminal enterprise with gold painted doo-dads, blasphemous God language and heretical rallies… and then… and THEN… have the nerve to say their wealth is proof of God’s approval?
I know… almost impossible to imagine. I know.
Whatever it was that drove Amos out into the country,
it was God who pulled him back and set him down,
right into downtown Bethel, the dark heart of both the political and religious life of Israel at that time.
It was there, right in the middle of it all, that God had Amos tell the obscenely wealthy ruling elites one word they were not used to hearing.
“No”!
You know, understanding Scripture is often difficult.
Thousands of years separate then from now.
Enormous differences in culture and language.
Understanding Scripture, is at times, very… VERY difficult.
This, however, is not one of those times.
What Amos faced and what we face today is only different in the way that West Side Story is different from Romeo and Juliet
or The Lion King is different than Hamlet.
Different names, different cultural and geographic settings, sure. But the overarching plot of the Book of Amos is EXACTLY the same overarching plot in which we live NOW!
Listen how few words need to change for this passage from Amos to hit us in our day and time, right between the eyes:
Are you really saying, “I look forward to the Lord’s return?”
I don't think you’re going to like THAT day at all!
Why are you looking forward to your own end?
That day will be darkness for you, not light.
That day will will feel like you’ve just outrun a lion
only to find you've run into the mouth of a tiger.
It will be like hiding behind a wall thinking you're safe,
only to be bitten the snake who lives there.
You!! The ones who scorn justice and righteousness,
the day of the Lord will be the darkest day of your life!
Darkness and gloom without even a pinprick of light.
I hate, I despise your Christian Nationalism,
and I take no delight in your rallies.
You offer me commandments posted in schools,
you offer me the trans community as scapegoats,
you offer me a ginned up fear of people from other faiths…
I DON'T WANT ANY OF THAT!
I am revolted by those blasphemies.
Take away from me your bible-bro noise;
I am not listening to any of it!
What do I want? I'll tell you what I want...
It's the only thing I want…
I want to see justice rolling down like water,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos came to tell them that neither their twisting of religion in the Temple, nor their heartless exploitation of the poor in the market, nor their manipulation of the legal system was pleasing to God.
What Amos knew was needed way back then is exactly what is needed in our country and in our world right now. And that…
is Justice.
Justice is different than charity. Think of it like this: The path into town has one spot where a rock sticks up maybe just half an inch above the path. It’s the same color as the path and everyone who walks that path eventually trips on it and skins their knee.
Charity puts a first aid kit by the rock with antiseptic and bandages. It is deeply kind and is just what people need when they trip on that rock. Charity is necessary. Charity is good.
Justice on the other hand, goes at the problem from a different angle. Justice digs up that rock, tosses it off the trail, fills in the hole, tamps down the earth and makes the path straight and level.
Both are absolutely necessary.
But doing justice in a place will eventually change the landscape so dramatically that charity will hardly ever be needed in that place again.
You and I have landed, in the later part of this week, in a place I could not have imagined when the week began.
But this landing spot comes with real questions for us, for our country, and for our world.
Will we return to addressing the darkness and gloom of our world with charity alone?
Or are we now ready to challenge the systems that make charity necessary… with justice?
Will we return to only providing bandages for skinned knees or will we decide that THIS is the time to do Justice…
real Justice…
to dig out the ROCK
and have Justice ROLL... roll down like water?
The choice is ours to make. Amen.
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