Let Justice Roll Down
We are stepping more deeply into the prophets this week, beginning a journey into their work that will last until almost Christmas. This time we hear from Amos, who was a prophet called from the Southern Kingdom of Judah to speak prophecy into the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Over a few weeks now, we have seen that prophets were those who have a unique call to speak God’s truth to the people, who call people back to the covenant established at Sinai, and who also reflect the people’s experience back to God.
This book containing the work of Amos,is a mix of oracles or visions, sermons or exhortations, and vivid poetry. The collection opens introducing Amos as a prophet among shepherds. Perhaps he was, himself a shepherd. But the Hebrew word here is an unusual one, only found in one other place in the old testament to refer to a Moabite king. By syntax then, this word translated shepherd probably meant something more like a sheep breeder or the owner of a big flocks – a businessman, not a day laborer. Amos was likely a person of means. That is important here.
Today’s reading launches with strong images.
The LORD ROARS from Zion.
His voice comes from Jerusalem (in the Southern Kingdom)…and as the Lord roars, the pastures of the shepherds whither and the top of Carmel dries up. Here another word is used for shepherds – one that is often symbolic language for kings. So Amos is describing how the voice of God is destroying the kingdoms in its wake.
Amos is proclaiming God’s judgement because the human kings and their kingdoms have failed to seek justice.
What is justice here? What is meant by that word in our scripture?
Biblical justice, the Hebrew word mishpat, has to do with the whole of life and community being ordered in the way God calls it to be. Not the way economies demand. Not the way human kings demand. (That should sound familiar, like an echo from the past few weeks). God’s way is not oriented toward human power but for human thriving. For all humans.
That is biblical justice.
Amos breaks it down – seek good and not evil. Hate evil and love good
Establish justice in the gates.
We don’t have a great modern context for that language about justice at the city gates, but in ancient times, a lot happened at the city gate. The daily market happened at the city gate. City gates were military boundaries. Public announcements were made at the city gates. And judges and officials held court and administered justice, upholding and enforcing laws at the city gates.
Amos was calling for God’s justice to be the kind of justice administered at the city gates of Israel and Judah.
Then Amos goes on to condemn the worship of the people. He specifically references their festivals, not just their average weekly worship. So imagine as a Christian being told that your Christmas and Easter worship were despised by God. My guess is that feels uncomfortable. It touches a nerve.
But instead, Amos implores, let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Justice – mishpat, I’ve already unpacked. Justice should roll down like water – it should flow and keep coming.
And righteousness – tsedaqah (tzedakah) – biblical righteousness is about having right relationship and moral and ethical alignment across all relationships – not just in your faith life but across the fullness of life and relationships. In your businesses. In your neighborhoods. In your leadership.
Righteousness should be ever-flowing. And remember that this is being proclaimed in a arid place where many streams, wadis, were dry until it rained, at which point they raged…but they came and they went. Amos is calling on righteousness that is plenty and ever present. Ever flowing streams.
I think that when we talk about justice in church, people get uncomfortable. They might think of a call to protest, a call to vote a certain way. But here Amos is calling people to the non-stop work of setting things right by God’s standards. You know – loving God and loving others.
Amos is calling the people to pay attention to right relationships, to making sure everyone has what they need, to protecting the orphan and the widow and the immigrant, the unhoused and the underfed, those threatened by war, by famine, by a lack of health care.
That’s not political. That’s God’s justice.
I also think that sometimes when we hear “let justice roll down like water
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”
we hear BIG things, movements, social shifts. And that feels overwhelming.
But really, what if Amos is talking about evoking justice and righteousness in every aspect of a person or a community’s life. Waking up in the morning and thinking – what can I do to advance God’s justice today? How do my decisions and actions make it possible for others to thrive?
Faith Church has been doing amazing work to pay attention to the ways justice rolls down. It’s happening in the little things and in the big things.
Our blessing box is one way that we help to make food available to people who need it. We don’t ask questions. We don’t ask for ID or for proof of need. We share from what we have. Each of us can buy a little extra when we have the ability. Not everyone can, but from the little we have, we can share. It’s not perfect. And it is a drop that adds to the way that justice can roll down.
Our commitment to giving away 10% of our tithes and offerings to support good work in the community is another way that we add drops to the justice that rolls down and to the streams of righteousness. We support housing organizations and community service providers that offer direct support and also advocacy to change systems for those who are not thriving.
When disaster strikes, we rally to pack flood buckets or hygiene kits for the United Methodist Committee on Relief – a global project that makes sure there is rapid response for natural disasters like the recent hurricane in Jamaica. And it is a drop in the way justice can roll down.
As United Methodists, we have a set of Social Principles that help us to think theologically about a range of real world issues like health care, voting access, dependence on fossil fuels, climate change, racism, poverty and income inequality, corporate responsibility, restorative justice, religious minorities, civil disobedience, death with dignity and medical research. And our commitment to these principles is another drop in the way justice can roll down.
We fly a flag (one that was stolen overnight again, by the way) that quietly proclaims to those passing by that we are committed to seeing and loving LGBTQUIA+ folks. I need you to understand the importance of that proclamation to people who have and are growing up here, to people sitting in our pews, and to our neighbors. And it is a drop in the way justice can roll down.
Faith was represented this week at the reconsecration of the grave site of enslaved folks and enslavers, a place now paved over as an Aldi parking lot in Silver Spring and largely forgotten. By telling the story of how lives were devalued and how holy remains were disrespected and forgotten, we remember that history has something to say to us today. And it is a drop in the way justice can roll down.
Every month a dedicated group of people at Faith gather to discuss matters of justice and righteousness – and it shapes their lives so that they go out to act in ways that offer yet another drop in the flow of justice rolling down.
Justice and righteousness that bring about God’s preferred future – that bringing about the thriving of all of God’s beloved children – requires human hearts and human hands. The works of justice and righteousness don’t have to be huge. They don’t have to change whole systems. Small acts will change human lives. Small acts contribute to thriving.
Beloved our social principles include a social creed adopted by the General Conference. I’d like to share it with you today. I invite you to listen deeply:
We believe in God, Creator of the world; and in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of creation.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, through whom we acknowledge God’s gifts, and we repent of our sin in misusing these gifts to idolatrous ends.
We affirm the natural world as God’s handiwork and dedicate ourselves to its preservation, enhancement, and faithful use by humankind.
We joyfully receive for ourselves and others the blessings of community, sexuality, marriage, and the family.
We commit ourselves to the rights of men, women, children, youth, young adults, the aging, and people with disabilities; to improvement of the quality of life; and to the rights and dignity of all persons.
We believe in the right and duty of persons to work for the glory of God and the good of themselves and others and in the protection of their welfare in so doing; in the rights to property as a trust from God, collective bargaining, and responsible consumption; and in the elimination of economic and social distress. We dedicate ourselves to peace throughout the world, to the rule of justice and law among nations, and to individual freedom for all people of the world.
We believe in the present and final triumph of God’s Word in human affairs and gladly accept our commission to manifest the life of the gospel in the world. Amen.
May it be so.
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