Rotten fruit

6 Pentecost Proper 11

17 July 2022

When I was in grade school, I remember getting hearing tests at the school nurse’s office; they were the standard “raise-your-hand-if/when-you-hear-a-buzz.” Apparently I did fine until the higher frequencies were reached, at which point I lost the sounds. Each year my parents were notified that I might have a hearing problem; I don’t remember what, if anything, was done about it. What was finally ascertained was that I had tinnitus and have had it as long as I can remember, but unlike tinnitus that starts later in life it was not a harbinger of hearing loss. Annoying, yes. I have no concept of total silence because for me that does not exist. But my hearing is surprisingly good, unless I choose to tune someone out!!

Our friend Amos was dealing with hearing loss of another sort. He was from another county, a Judahite prophesying in the land of Israel. The people he addressed had ceased to be able to hear the voice of God because they were caught up in the noises of their own corrupt way of life. They had tuned God out for so long God’s words and ways ceased to be a language they could understand. The nation of Israel was prosperous at the time of Amos; their GNP was much better than that of their southern cousins. They had good harvests and crops, a sense of identity, stability, and a strong religious structure. Surely these were all signs of favor from God! Nope; they are the summer fruit, rotted fruit, too far gone to use. These were the folks who rigged their scales in order to pay less for a pound, who inflate prices when selling to the poor. Folks who live in an inner city in America often have no place to go to buy healthy food; quick marts sell food at inflated prices and deflated quality. Farmers who try to sell their crops or livestock are at the mercy of what a few conglomerates are willing to pay. Affordable housing is an oxymoron; there is lots of money to be made in rental properties in poor neighborhoods. I had my eyes opened wider than I really wanted when I read the book Evicted[1]. In this book, the author painted a picture of what rental housing was and is like in Milwaukee (and other cities) from the point of view of poor people trying to make ends meet. Amos would be incensed.

Go just about anywhere in the world and things are generally not stacked in favor of the poorest of citizenry. Amos reminds me it is nothing new. Neither Judaism or Christianity are religions built on worship or dogma; they are built on the premise that social sin, the oppression of “the poor, the widow, and the orphan” is at the heart of what God opposes and at the heart of what true worship is all about. In the case of Israel, Amos said things had gone so far there was no redemption to be had.

I cannot say if we have gone “too far” as a nation. I do believe that our national sense of what is morally wrong are not the same things that Amos sees as wrong. The moral failings that make the news seem to be those surrounding personal behavior. Now to be clear, behavior in the realm of our interpersonal relationships that harms another being is wrong, but Amos says the problem is economic behavior! It is not who marries whom or what books are in the library. What he condemns is any behavior and any group of people to take economic advantage of others. Again: the poor, the widow, the orphan. The least in society receive the most concern from God.

Our system of taxation has, in the last 50 years, put more of the load on those with the least to spare. Tax cuts have benefited the wealthiest, all the while promoting the lie that everyone benefits. The wealthy, who benefit the most from our current legal and economic system, pay the least and receive the most in federal aid. That is morally wrong. Period.

Those who have ears to hear, listen. Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, [2]

Why is God so insistent? I do not have a simple answer to that question, but I believe it is in part because God wants the best for all God’s children. To do so, in Amos’ eyes, is to serve the economic and social needs of all the citizens, and in a larger Biblical sense, the foreigner as well. No wonder the world is a mess. As long as we keep pointing fingers at personal behaviors and letting the few promote their own welfare over that of the many, the world will stay a mess.

I think Jesus’ discourse to Martha, while not a statement of God’s idea of justice, is a call to all of us to place our energy where it needs to be placed. The word that always catches me in this Gospel is “distracted”. Such a good word!! Martha is not condemned for preparing dinner, for caring for her guests. She is, in fact, not condemned at all, but rather gently reminded of that which is most important: the words and teachings of the master. Listen!! We need deeds and we need contemplation; one without the other will make us incomplete followers of the Word.

As a church, we often think the solution to declining membership is to create the right program, have the correct music, serve the best coffee. Hospitality matters: it matters greatly. True hospitality welcomes, respects, and includes. Programs matter, but what really matters is asset-based community development. What do we have in our community and how can we put it to work for the benefit of all? What matters most is how you conduct your own life and work. Martha, on this occasion, had become entangled in the program and the production; Jesus said that the message is what mattered. Worship is not for entertainment; it is for us to experience God and to return to God our thanks and our joy. It is for us to be renewed and to hear afresh the message those early followers heard. God is doing a new thing and we can be part of it. We can be the people who call out injustice and who work to make the world a place where there is food and clothing and shelter and where living is a joyful experience from which no one is excluded, save those who continue to thwart the will and the way of God.

I live in holy fear of God; not the visceral fear of physical danger, but the fear that comes from knowing the greatness of God and the awe and wonder that I matter.

I matter, you matter, we all do. Let us then not be distracted, either by the lure of wealth and the voices which seek to divide and separate us nor by the need to be in constant busyness but let us keep our eyes on the one who will always offer us, and the world, the better part.

[1] Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Crown: Matthew Desmond, 2017) [2]The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Am 8:4.