Eagle Harbor Congregational Church, UCC

Sermon preached by Rev. Emily Tanis-Likkel

July 10, 2010

Let Justice Roll Down

Amos 5:5-7, 10-11, 21-24

This sermon is first in a series called Reality Check: Majoring in the Minor Prophets. The Biblical prophets were the ones in our church history who served as messengers from God to the people. The prophets were often the ones, that reminded and even accused the people of their time how they should act. Especially the religious and pious who could always talk a good talk. They brought  their people a reality check, saying, wake up! Do you see what’s going on here? Do you see the corruption in society, the greed, the deceit? And with Amos in today’s text the question raised is: do you realize that you, the rich are oppressing the poor? You have twisted justice to benefit only yourselves! Most prophets are typically not beloved by the majority, because they challenge the status quo, they challenge the comfortable, they challenge the religious.  Amos, our focus today, was run right out of town. Prophets whose short descriptions are part of the Biblical cannon - challenged their hearers. They challenge us today.

When Amos had something to say, he didn’t beat around the bush. He didn’t wrap his words in politically correct discourse or try to soften his words. Amos went directly to the religious people at their place of worship. In the text, this particular altar at Bethel, was not a place Amos or any of the other poor and disenfranchised, visited. They didn’t have the right clothes. They didn’t have the right smell. They didn’t have the right offering, or even any offering to bring to the altar. They were just trying to survive. When Amos went to the alter, it was not difficult to grab everyone’s attention. They were happy to join in on his indictments of the other nations. He listed off all of their corruption and greed and injustice. “Woe to them” was the chorus. Then Amos turned the tables and said: “You are not any better!” As you might imagine, the tone changed quite dramatically. Amos, was a great target for their anger. Abraham Heschel wrote, “. . . the fundamental experience of the prophet is a fellowship with the feelings of God . . . a communion with the divine consciousness . . .”^[1] The prophets have a deep sympathy for God, and participate in the emotion and suffering of God. The prophets speak to the people not simply a message of words alone, but convey the heart of God. Perhaps that is why the message of the prophets is always so startling.

Amos addressed the systemic injustice of his day. The court had the power in the community, but the rampant false witness of those who testified declared the wealthy innocent and found the poor guilty. This blatant corruption in the court system perpetuated a widening gap between rich and poor, which the religious leaders did not seem concerned about.  “Courts were no more than markets to enslave the needy and wring the last bit of land and produce from (them).”^[2] Even their garments were repossessed. The wealthy lived in palaces, reclining on ornate couches and anointed themselves with costly oils.  The Jews of Israel were prideful in their worship and sacrifice to God, and numb to the plight of those outside their customs. They did not have a whole lot of integrity.  

How would Amos address us today? Certainly, the message Let justice roll down like water applies today. In our society, the rich are rewarded. Tax cuts are granted for the wealthy and our poor are given salt for their wounds: you can’t pay, then we’ll tack on overdraft fees, late payment charges, inundate you with collection notices, take your house, take your car and let you fend for yourself.  Leonard Pitts, a columnist who spoke at last week’s General Synod of the UCC, said “the only thing growing faster than poverty is the lack of compassion for those trapped in it.”

No grace! Here are several snippets of the current reality on Bainbridge Island. These are all friends of mine on the island dealing with the economy in 2011. There is a woman who is so emotionally wrung out following her bankruptcy that her marriage fell apart. Another friend, as recently as last week, has sold nearly all of her possessions in order to pay her rent. She could take a job she was offered recently, but knows the boss was hiring soley based on her being an attractive young woman. Instead, she is now commuting off of the Island to work. Another family just lost their house because they couldn’t make their mortgage payments. In the past few weeks they took what little they had left to buy lottery tickets, grasping at any chance to stay. They have now moved out of state. In all of these portraits, these suffering, hard-working people of faith have been shamed by the world. They don’t feel welcome at the altar. Resilience for them is hard to come by. They pull away from the world to protect themselves, instead of being enfolded and lifted up by their community. These are not abstract portraits, but friends of mine. We must not insulate ourselves from those who need help, or isolate ourselves if we do!

Amos used the same literary form in his indictments that the priests did for their proclamations. His biting sarcasm and scathing assessments of the culture infuriated people. Yet his message, in essence, was this:

Be obedient. Be persistent in compassion. Live with integrity.

        Last week I visited a community of very humble dwellings. Families living in a single room and very few possessions. They spend more time outside, eating meals with other families, and instead of watching television, actually conversing! People in the community share many things in common and help each other out. Even for those who live in more traditional neighborhoods, the possibilities abound for people to come together in much more meaningful ways than simply saying hello and going on our way. The cropping up of clubs that are specifically a response to the economic recession are one example that intrigues me. These are known by many different names, often Common Security Clubs or Resilience Circles.

These clubs are groups of 10 to 20 people who have taken the step to decide that facing the current economic situation alone is not helping them, and it’s not helping anyone else. They are neighbors, church members, friends and people who get connected at workshops or online. They meet regularly for mutual support, education and social action. Some call themselves “Common Security Clubs,” “the Unemployed and Anxiously Employed,” “Economic Support Groups.” Some emphasize bartering goods and services, others concentrate their efforts on sharing ideas about securing work and collecting unemployment, while others do more advocacy and social action.

People drag along buckets of shame because of their financial situations. Yet, as Chuck Collins said at an informational meeting about resilience circles, it is not their fault!  As in Amos’ day, the problem is systemic. Where there is corruption and inequality the whole system suffers. Over recent decades, the General Social Survey data show, Americans on average have become less trusting and less convinced they live in a fair society.^[3] And this mistrust and sense of unfairness, the researchers discovered, matches up significantly with levels of inequality. According to inequality.org, inequality in a society results in poorer health, more stress, and more fear across the population than that of more equal societies.

Let justice roll down like water. In Acts 2 we can read that the earliest followers of Jesus ‘had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.’ In speaking of his Common Security Club in Massechusets, Rev. Branwen Cook said “Joining together to create a structure in which we can all benefit is to join in the action of the resurrected Christ. As we share recipes, the cost of childcare, plumbing expertise, and the work of making a vegetable garden on the church lawn, we are taking steps toward having ‘all things in common,’ a part of true discipleship.”

In building up the resilience of those in the group, the participants often experience a renewed hope for the resilience of the larger community, which can lead to systemic change.  It enables them to imagine what is possible, and to join together to make it happen.  “The Common Security Club has allowed us to get on the path of creating alternatives rather than just complaining about limited options,” says Woullard Lett, a circle leader at his congregation in New Hampshire.

        We can imagine the people in Amos’ time, the lack of integrity, the disobedience, the greed. We can imagine the shame, distrust, the inequality. We can imagine it because it continues, and at some level these pervade every society in every time. But that does not mean we should simply turn our backs to it, or hole up in our homes because of it. We need each other. We need to work to make justice roll like an ever-flowing stream.  

In the closing worship of General Synod, the closing worship sermon was preached by Rev. Elizabeth Mitchell Clement. She spoke of the transformative nature of Jesus’ conversations with people. "His conversation is small, it's low-tech, it's freely accessible, it's portable and it's a powerful act of ministry," ... "that upsets the status quo in the church leadership, and in society."  . . . “In the presence of Jesus, only people mattered. He engaged people—whosoever—wherever—in practiced ways that valued their whole being, and their living, that cared for and about their quality of life...." May we be so obedient, so persistent in compassion and live with such integrity. May we listen to and be changed by those who provoke, who challenge and those who speak not only for themselves, but on behalf of the heart of God.