crumbling foundations

 Amos 7:7-17

We as Christians don’t normally spend a lot of time hanging out with the prophets like Amos, Hosea and Jeremiah.  Their message always seems so crude and angry.  They say a bunch of stuff no one wants to hear and only in the end do they offer some sliver of hope.  It’s not usually fun, light reading.  It is definitely not the type of book you’d want to take on vacation as you try to relax.  But they are books we should read. 

When we do read them and hear their angry words of judgement, it is easy to brush them off as something written thousands of years ago for someone else.  It is easy to point the finger to Israel and Judah and judge them alongside the prophets.  Shame, shame, shame, you should have known better, God gave you fair warning.  God gave you so many chances and you refused to listen.  You got what you deserved.  It’s like someone refusing to evacuate when they know a category 5 hurricane is coming.

Before we go down this road, lets first define what a prophet is.  In Old Testament times, there were a few different types of prophets.  Some were paid employees of the King.  Their job was to read the tea leaves so to speak and predict the outcome of war, the future of a child, and the success of the king. 

Then there were others who were career prophets.  They studied and worked hard to not necessarily see the future but to see the writing on the wall.  They were perceptive about current circumstances and people often sought them out for advice and guidance. 

Then there were those like Amos and most of our biblical prophets who were called by God through visions and spiritual means to speak truth to power, to help God’s people see the error of their ways and encourage them to get on the right track. 

They weren’t there to punish but to help people see the potential consequences of their actions. And how they as individuals and as a nation were straying from right relationship with God.  They were called by God to express God’s displeasure, the consequences of their choices and to share God’s plans to use those consequences to get them back on track. 

It is no surprise then that these prophets, were not liked very much.  Most of them were jailed, ran out of town or worse.  No one likes the bearer of bad news; even when it’s true. 

When I first read through this scripture, especially the chief priest, Amaziah’s, response to Amos, I flashed back to a girl I knew in college.  She hated bad news and difficult conversations.  One day we were driving down the road and we were trying to talk to her about what all college girls talk about, boys.  A guy she had been dating had begun to be abusive, cheat and was an all-around jerk.  We were trying to help her see the light but instead, she responded like a child, literally putting her fingers in her ears and saying “la,la,la,la, I don’t want to hear it.”  She, like Amaziah, wanted us to go prophecy somewhere else to someone else.    

Amos had come to town in order to help the Israelite people to see the error of their ways.  They had broken their covenant with God to love and worship God only and to love their neighbors and were showing no signs of remorse or attempt to repair it.  They may not have even realized how far from God they had strayed.  This was a time of peace and prosperity from the King’s point of view.  They were between battles.  There was food and water, gold and power.  Low gas prices, low interest rates and low unemployment.  All signs of what they and we often think means God is pleased.  But it was kind of like putting lipstick on a pig.  Just because it looks nice doesn’t mean it is.

Jeraboam, the king of Israel was living the good life but they weren’t worshiping God, they were worshiping success and prosperity and they had gained prosperity by taking advantage of those less fortunate.  Their 1% were thriving while the 99% were being oppressed, paid unfair wages and barely able to care for their families.  But on the surface it felt like progress.  It had gotten so bad that the chief priest referred to the temple at Bethel (the center of the worship of God in Israel) not as the temple of God, but as the temple of the king. 

The one person whose job was to make sure God was being worshiped correctly was actually worshiping Jeraboam, and the power and influence the king gave him. 

Along comes Amos, criticizing and trying to tell them that what they think is a strong foundation is crumbling around them. 

Sometimes it is hard to see the cracks in our own foundation.  The foundation of Israel, our foundation, is in God and when we decide to build our lives on something else, it is doomed to fail.  As anyone who as ever bought a house knows, one of the things you always look for are problems with the foundation.  Are there cracks in the foundation itself, are there cracks in the walls where the house has settled over time?  Is it just a sign of age or is it a symptom of a much bigger problem? 

This is in essence what Amos is telling Israel with his vision of the Plumb line.  A plumb line is used to see if a wall is square.  Is it perpendicular to the ground?  Is it leaning in or leaning out?  Is it showing signs of a shifting foundation? Is there a potential that it might fall?  Is it safe or does it need to be torn down before someone gets hurt?

 

God is telling Israel that their foundation has shifted.  There are people and institutions that need to either shape up or be torn down.  And Amaziah tells Amos plainly- we aren’t changing anything.  We like things the way they are and we refuse to look for the cracks in our own foundation.  So, Amos tells him, there will be consequences for this choice.  Israel will go into exile, they will be forced to serve other kings, there will be many to die in battle, and their land will be divided up and given to foreigners.  One way or another, life is going to change whether you like it or not. 

This is the message of God to Israel through the prophet Amos.  

Ok, so what are we supposed to do with it?  The question we are always called upon to ask of scripture is how does this apply to us?  This is scripture written thousands of years ago, to people very different than us at a time very different than ours.  How is God speaking through Amos to us today? 

God continues to call us to a time of self-reflection as individuals, as a church and as a nation; especially one which claims to be a nation under God.  A time when we are to look at our own foundation and look for cracks. 

What is it about the way we live our life that brings honor or dishonor to God?  What is it about our lives and the world we live in that causes us to prefer to put our fingers in our ears than address the problems in the world around us? 

Maybe it is the worship of money that is degrading our foundation.  The desire to find the best deal, buy the cheapest clothes or cheapest food; despite the fact that the price of the item reflects the wages of the person who made, produced, harvested or sold it.  The desire for a cheap power bill that leads us to strip mine mountains, pollute streams and send dangerous chemicals into our earth to find more fuel to burn. 

Maybe it is the God of convenience.  It is inconvenient to spend your valuable time volunteering to help others.  It’s easier and faster to run to Wal-Mart than wait until Saturday to purchase something at the farmer’s market or wade through labels to find things responsibly made. 

Maybe it is the god of fear that you worship; fear that you won’t be liked, fear that you won’t be in control if someone else gains a little power.  Fear of being vulnerable, fear of investing yourself in the life of someone who might take advantage of you or let you down. 

Maybe it is the god of nationalism that chips away at your foundation or the god of partisan politics.  The god of being right, the god of choosing freedom at the expense of others, the god of prejudice or maybe even the god of pride.  There are a multitude of gods who distract us from the one true God.  This is only a few of them.

Amos is calling us to hold a plumb line up to our own lives and our own hearts.  Where is God calling us to shore up our foundation?  Are there parts of our lives that need to be torn down before they hurt someone?

The symptoms of a failing foundation are many and broad.  The symptoms are hard to deny if we will take our fingers out of our ears long enough to listen.  The events in Baton Rouge, Minnesota, Dallas, Orlando and Charleston are symptoms.  The issue of immigration and migrant workers being treated more like disposable rats than human beings.  The fact that despite African American’s making up only 13% of the population, make up 37% of our jails.  The issue of drug addiction in our nation, the issue of homelessness, unemployment and underemployment.  The issue of poor funding of education. The disappearing of the middle class the widening gap between the haves and the have nots. The fact that we would rather pay high wages to those entertaining us than the doctors, teachers or police who actually impact our day to day lifew.  The issue of healthcare and inadequate mental health care are all symptoms of a nation and a people who have for too long chosen to ignore the fact that the foundation was crumbling because the furniture looked nice. 

Throughout the Old Testament we see this image of God who is angry and judging; always smiting someone, sending the Israelites into exile, sending famine and storm.  But as we read the prophets, we realize this isn’t God punishing people for doing wrong.  God tried to warn them that their decisions were leading them down a dangerous path.   God doesn’t want our world to fall apart.  God doesn’t want our foundations to crumble but we have to accept responsibility for building on a solid foundation of loving God and loving our neighbors.  We have to pay attention to the symptoms, the cracks and the pieces that are being chipped away and we have to be willing to do the work of repairing our relationship with God and all God’s children. 

Ignorance is not bliss; it is simply denial.  How are we being called to open our eyes and our ears to our own hearts and our own deficiencies?  How is God calling us, begging us, to love God the way we are loved?  To not hoard our blessings but share them, to care more about God’s children and God’s creation than we do ourselves.  God’s desire is for us to love and be loved let us live into that solid foundation that can withstand any storm.

The events of this week, this month, this year, this decade, are a wake-up call to each and every one of us and louder than the voice of Amos.  Are we willing to listen?  Are we willing to change?  Are we willing to shore up our foundation in the love of Christ and love of neighbor so that God’s love can be known by all?