Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13
Amos is one of the so-called “minor prophets,” a shepherd (1:1) turned poet and prophet during the prosperous reign of King Jeroboam II in the 8th century BCE. He prophesied in the northern kingdom, called Israel, from one of the royal sanctuaries until he was kicked out by the priest in charge (7:12) because of his harsh oracles.
These few verses are about justice—specifically about not cheating people by using false scales or enslaving them because they owe you some money for sandals. When acquiring money by unjust means is your target, keeping the Sabbath and observing other laws that level the playing field between rich and poor (such as forgiving debts, for example), are simply an unwelcome distraction, a pious nuisance. Corruption becomes a way of doing business. Sound familiar?
Where is God in all this? Amos makes Him out to be an almighty avenger who will exact terrible vengeance on these people who are so proud: “I will make the sun set at midday…I will turn your feasts into mourning…and make every head bald…and bring their day to a bitter end” (Amos 8:9-10). Those verses are outside our reading today, and we can also look outside of Amos’s worldview at a different concept of God. Jesus gives it to us—a God who hates not us, but our pain; a God who cries with the destitute and motivates his lovers to do something about their state.
Remember last week’s Gospel stories about lost sheep and lost coins? True, we are all lost, but once we are found by the Relentless Pursuer (remember The Hound of Heaven?), then we ourselves want to come to the aid of the destitute, to go find some lost sheep, to be sweepers in the dark corners of life.
Psalm 113 talks about God as “above the heavens…enthroned on high,” which may be one of the reasons we look UP when we pray and have an idea of God as “out there” somewhere. Again we can get caught up in the idea of a mighty God wreaking justice by raising “up the lowly from the dust…to seat them with princes.” But if we can get out of the king/power/winners-losers paradigm, we can see God as one for whom everyone is of equal importance—those on the dunghills of life and those in the palaces. Both are called to respond to his love and to take care of each other according to their means (which means the prince has the bigger obligation).
1 Timothy makes this clear: God “wants all men to be saved and come to know the truth” (4). In fact, the Pauline writer implies that the kings and those in authority can do a lot to make it possible for all of us to live “tranquil lives in piety” (2b). And so we should pray for them and thank God for good ones.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a story about a wealthy owner who found out his manager was cheating him. Fearing he was going to be fired and out on the street, the manager made friends with those who owed him money by cutting their debts in half. He did what he needed to do, and he was praised for it.
What WE need to do, says Jesus, is to learn that all wealth is temporary. It doesn’t last. In itself, it can’t even make us happy. [Did you see the study that found that after reaching $75,000, more money does NOT increase happiness?] So why do we have it? Should we use it to level the playing field? To look around to see if anyone is destitute and needs it?
Few of us have the courage to do much of that. See the poignant comic strip at: http://www.freethunk.net/russells-teapot/comics-russells-teapot-strip-10.php.The rich young man goes away sad (but still loved!). We may need to do something first. We are lost in all this “stuff;” we need to allow ourselves to be found. Once we experience the God who loves us, there will be no need to serve money.
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