September 17, 2004

Treasures

Pent 16/20C

A friend once said that he would like to ask God why God allows such things as war, famine, hunger, terrorism, disease, and poverty, but that he was afraid to. “Why?” I asked. “Because,” he said, “God might ask me the same question.”

Whether or not Amos ever wondered much about God’s stewardship on such matters — and there’s not much evidence that he did — God sure wondered about his. Like many of us, Amos was pretty much minding his own business, when, with no warning at all, God signed him on, and it wasn’t just to teach Sunday School. Again, like many of us, Amos could think of plenty else he’d rather do, but it didn’t take long for him to make the turn. Pretty soon, he had everybody running for cover, and his special target was that one percent of us with all the tax breaks, the noblesse who consistently disregard the oblige.

“Hear this,” said Amos, “you who trample on the needy, and bring the poor of the land to an end… ” Pretty soon the Lord will send a famine all over the place, he went on, and not the usual food and water kind which probably wouldn’t bother you anyhow, but a famine of making himself so scarce that you won’t even have the foggiest idea under whom you’re pledging allegiance anymore [Amos 8.4,11].

We could use a little more of that kind of Amos and a little less of our kind of bragging and strutting. Nevertheless, all we’ve got is us, a church that a couple of millennia ago was called The Way, and if its present behavior speaks at all, has lost its own. But prophetic witness, you know, is not just about showing off our own treasures and threatening others to sign up. It’s also about showing others the treasures they’ve already got and don’t even know about. That could be, for the moment, the better part of our prophetic ministry.

Historian and churchman Thomas Govan spoke of our system of government as “the American political experiment.” He said that it is perhaps the greatest gift we have to offer. But if any of the polls about government are correct, not a lot of people know enough about it to give it away to anybody. We churchers could find a lot less important things to do than tell them. And one way to do that is to learn about it ourselves, maybe take a course on Constitution as a second language, and then to be about in a convincing and winsome way.

Trouble is, the system’s not working, and it’s not just because we’ve failed, although there’s that. Why are so many millions in poverty and without security of mind and body? Why do we seem so to revere the economy at the ultimate expense of the environment and our people? When will we learn that justice is the social equivalent and embodiment of love? Perhaps as soon as we pay attention and stop our leaders from pulling the flag over our eyes in the name of patriotism.

Among other things, God makes a covenant with us to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. We’ve got a Constitution that has that primarily in mind. All we have to is insist on its being employed and implemented and to stop tolerating the outrageous way that its being mishandled and even ignored.

So what does God ask of us? God wants a loving fellowship of faith that withstands the temptation to hide behind its religion and that becomes a secure community of mutual trust and accountability that not only speaks with authority, but demonstrates it by attending to its gospel. It must ask the necessary and searching questions first of itself and then of the society in which it finds itself in service. Only then can it lead by example to become an instrument for healing, always mindful that the nature of God is more nearly shown by grace and forgiveness than by judgment and condemnation.

Then we must learn to have and lead our nation to have a serious and respectful dialogue with the Muslim world and its political leaders, for it is proven time and again that a capacity for self-criticism produces a stronger people. We must ask not only why is such engagement not tolerated today by any Arabian leader, but why is it even less and less tolerated by our own leaders both in church and state? Surely Islam, a grand religion that never perpetrated the sort of Holocaust that Europe did, is being distorted when it is treated as a guidebook for suicide bombing. How is it that not a single Muslim leader will say that? How is that we cannot help them say it?

The church has all the gifts of grace from God with which to be nourished and energized and made secure so that it can ask such questions and model such a society, so that it can listen creatively, witness to its own resources, and to all those others, as well, that wherever the brokenness of the world is being mended and under whatever name, there is present the kingdom of God.

Let not the hostile outrage provoked by the perils of this time impede us, but stir and inspire us as it did Amos in our mutual vocation and in our will to love and perfect justice as children of God. Let us pray that we may engage this challenge comforted by Paul’s profound assurance “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rms

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