Homily for July 12, 2009

Last Sunday I talked about the call of the prophet Ezekiel and the message of the prophets in general. Today's first reading features the prophet Amos, and I want to continue that theme by sharing with you a little bit about Amos and what he taught.
Amos was not a professional preacher and he was not a professional prophet. He was a shepherd and a dresser of trees, and God called him. He lived in the south; he lived in Judah. God called him to go to the north and prophesy. The theme of his preaching was that he condemned the rich for trampling on the poor and the needy. The conservatives of our day would accuse him of stirring up class warfare. He preached that the upper classes were benefiting themselves at the expense of the poor and the needy, and that because of that, God would abandon and take his blessing away from the nation, and they would all fall into ruin.
There are two streams of thinking about poverty in the Bible. One comes from the Wisdom literature and the book of Proverbs, and that's what most of us are familiar with. That would stress that people are poor because they don't work hard enough or were lazy or drunkards or because they had bad luck.
The understanding of poverty that comes from the prophets is that God made a covenant with the people and we are all part of God's people. If some people are rich and others are poor, it's because the rich stole from the poor what was rightly theirs, because God intended it for everybody. Now that's harsh, isn't it? But that's the teaching of the prophets, that those who are excessively wealthy got to be that way by stealing from the poor.
I want to read some of what Amos said. I deleted some passages. There was a passage, a beautiful passage, where he talked about the wives of the rich and the wealthy and referred to them in very plainspoken language, but somebody said to me, "There are enough passages in the Bible degrading to women, so don't read that." So I deferred. Even though I love that passage, I'm not going to read it today. If you want to find out what it was, read the book of Amos.
Here are some words of Amos. "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, they who trampled the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and pushed the afflicted away." And he goes on, "They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks truth. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take from them the levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you will not live in them. You have planted vineyards, but you will not drink from their vine. For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins, you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe and push aside the needy in the gate."
Then he says, "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies." Imagine God saying, "I hate your liturgies."
"Even though you offer me burnt offerings, I will not accept them." And choir, listen to this. "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 waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream."
By the way, is that last phrase familiar to you? Somebody made it very famous. Who was it? Martin Luther King. "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream."
Well, it was after Amos was preaching like that, that the first reading is found. The priest Amaziah says, "Get out of here, you visionary. Go earn your living by prophesying in Judah. But don't do it here because this is where the king lives."
And Amos said, "I'm not a prophet, and I don't belong to a company of prophets. I'm a farmer, a shepherd, a dresser of sycamore trees. And God has sent me to give this message."
He goes on to say, "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, that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great and practice deceit with false balances'"  (in other words, crooked scales) "'buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.' The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, 'I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it?'"
Well, what do you think? Is that message relevant for today? What? It sounds very contemporary. Can you imagine Amos going to Washington? Can you imagine him going to the state legislature? Can you imagine him coming into our church and saying, "Do you think I like your liturgy? Do you think I love your music? Let justice roll and let righteousness flow like a living stream."
I don't want to explain those words to you, but I think they ought to bother us, and I think they ought to give us cause to reflect on what's happening in our country and in our world. What would the prophets say if they were here today?
I hope you notice that in the lectionary we use the second reading goes its own course, and the Gospel goes its course. We're reading the Gospel of Mark. The first reading is always picked because, well, whatever committee picked the readings, they thought it fit with the Gospel.
So the Gospel  Jesus gives weird instructions, doesn't he? You can have a walking staff and you can wear sandals. You can't take any food with you, you can't take a bag. I think this is what he meant: You can't take a collection basket to put down at your feet while you're preaching, and you can't have any money with you. I'm struck by the fact that religious teaching often gives us injunctions or instructions. It doesn't explain them, doesn't say why, it doesn't even say how. It just says do it.
Well, if you went out to preach and you didn't have any money, and you can't take up a collection, and you can't have any food with you, and you can't have any credit cards in your pocket, and you just did that, what would it do to you in the way you preached? You'd feel extremely humble? Vulnerable? You would go with an entirely different attitude, wouldn't you, than if you had a lot of resources? You'd be a pilgrim.
And by the way, when he says, "At whatever house you enter, stay there," in one of the other Gospels he says don't go looking around for a better place to stay, or don't go looking for better food to eat, but stay wherever you are and eat what they give you.
I was in the county jail Friday, and a Muslim who was leading a pilgrimage to Mecca was there, and we were conversing. He was talking to the chaplain and said, "How hard it is to take Americans on pilgrimages, because when the food is set before them, they say, "I don't like it. And I say to them, 'You need to eat that.'"
[Inaudible response] It makes you part of the community that you're with.
I want to close with this. I once met a Captain in the Navy, a Navy chaplain, who said once a priest asked him, "Would you be my spiritual director?"
And he said, "Okay, but I tell people to do crazy things."
And he said, "Well, what do you want me to do?"
And this priest was in a busy city parish, and he said, "Every day stand out in front of church from 11:30 to 1:00 and from 4:30 to 6:00. Don't do anything, just stand there."
So he did it for six months, and then he died. And two thousand people came to his funeral. Imagine what began to happen as he just stood there every day for an hour and a half. Religious life is crazy like that.
Jesus gave the Apostles some crazy instructions. Many but call our attention to the poor, to the needy, to those who are trampled underfoot by our culture or our economy or our political or economic system. I think the prophets are very relevant today. What would they say?