Text: Amos 1:1-2; 5:7-15, 21-24 

A long time ago in and land far, far away (Winnipeg in about 1999) I worked as a volunteer coordinator for a number of small food banks and drop-in day centers for people who were unhoused or struggled with income or food security. I would visit churches to talk about our programs and do volunteer trainings and one of the practices I’d do is the chair exercise.

In this exercise there are ten people and ten chairs. Each chair represents ten percent of wealth. Each person represents ten percent of the population. I don’t exactly remember the stats in the late 90s but I looked up recent ones and it would look like this: 1 person would have the first 6 chairs. The next 4 people would own 3 chairs between them. Then the last five people would share the final chair. 

I don’t think the overall distribution is much different than it was in 1999. But what has definitely changed is that those on the top have more and those on the button have even less. 

I am a visual person, so exercises like this are helpful, as was a creator on Instagram talking about the astronomical difference between even our super-rich pop stars and and movies stars (her examples were Billie Eilish and Beyonce and Taylor Swift, who all worth in the 50-800 million dollar range – wildly wealthy. 

But that is a teeny tiny percentage when put next to the Gates and Bezos and Musks of the world. Something like 8 people own 50 percent of the world’s wealth. And they hoard it. Even when they give away millions and seem like philanthropists, it is not even a drop in the bucket. It’s like water vapor from their ocean of wealth in their possession. 

Apparently Billie Eilish recently gave away about 11 million dollars to environmental organizations vs Bill Gates coming out and saying about climate change, “People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.” Maybe he didn’t notice the hurricane that just decimated Jamaica.

The point is – billionaires are the problem. I know that many of us struggle with and think about how we use the wealth and privilege that we have. Agonize even, over consumption and ownership and investments and ethics. But we are not the problem. Billionaires are the problem. I believe Amos agrees with me.

Or more accurately, God has thoughts about the morality and injustice of those who are oppressing the poor and crushing the weak and exploiting the laborer and Amos is God’s mouthpiece:

Doom to you who turn justice into poison,
        and throw righteousness to the ground!

[you] hate the one who reproves in the gate,

    and [you] abhor the one who speaks the truth.

…you trample on the poor

    and take from them levies of grain,

you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe

    and push aside the needy in the gate.

Amos is talking about a system problem. A system in which people are getting wealthy on the backs of the weak and poor. A system where the gap between those who have billions (which they didn’t in the time of Amos but we do now!) and those who are deeply indebted grow farther and farther apart.

When Amos talks about ‘the city gate,’ he’s talking about the public forum, the place where politics are hashed out. These are the spaces where justice is being crushed and truth tellers are being silenced. When they speak about the problem with taxing the poor and letting them go hungry.

There are so many parallels now! Even as more and more of our tax dollars are being directed toward nuclear weapons and immigration agents and corporations and billionaires are getting tax breaks. 

The problem is not that I have too many shoes in my closet or too many tech gadgets in my pockets, is that those shoes and gadgets are being produced in factories that collapse on their workers. Workers who are being paid pennies a day for their labor. Or distributed by warehouse workers who can’t even get a break to go to the bathroom. 

God rejects all of that.  And especially hates the hypocrisy of anyone who, after building and profiting and allowing such systems, comes into worship to sing and pray and praise. God despises any claims of love that come from one who is not following the most central part of the law about doing justice and loving mercy.

It is interesting then, that Amos says that ‘the wise will stay quiet.’ He himself is obviously not staying quiet. Amos is using his voice to call out the unjust. But I wonder if the point is that you can’t change a billionaire’s mind by shouting at them. The powerful will not be influenced by the cries of the less powerful. In fact they may react with even more strength.

I do not believe this means that we’re off the hook. Not at all. Because Amos goes on to say: 

Seek good and not evil, 

that you may live;
and so the Lord, 

the God of heavenly forces, 

will be with you just as you have said.

Hate evil, love good,
and establish justice at the city gate.

Let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Stay in the game for good. In both senses – engage in what is good and stay committed to that engagement over the long haul. This is a long game. Nurture justice, build relationships, connect to others who are seeking good and not evil. Wherever you are able and whenever you are able. The moral arc of the universe is long, as King said, but it bends toward justice. 

King is also the voice who maybe most famously quoted Amos’s words about the rolling out of justice like a torrent of water, an ever-flowing stream. These are well known words from his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. 

I think he used this quote more powerfully at the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, almost a decade earlier. As the boycott kicked off in Montgomery he gave one of his first public speeches and he said:

“…we are not wrong in what we are doing…If we are wrong, justice is a lie.  Love has no meaning. And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

…There is never a time in our American democracy that we must ever think we’re wrong when we protest. We reserve that right. When labor all over this nation came to see that it would be trampled over by capitalistic power, it was nothing wrong with labor getting together and organizing and protesting for its rights.” [reference]

He recognized that the power of capitalism does not respect the rights of workers, it only respects profit. Uniting with others in acts of goodness and justice and righteousness in sustained and ongoing ways starts to chip away at what seems like an  impenetrable dam. Yet, especially when our small acts combine to have economic consequences as in the case of the bus boycott, there will be a turning point and justice will break forth.

Seek good and not evil and you will live and God will be with you. When we are turning toward God in seeking good, we give our worship in hours like this one meaning. Amos is blunt: God does not desire our worship and praise if we are not also considering the ways that we are a part of systems of evil and at the same time. 

That’s what can sound disheartening and difficult because how can we know what is enough. Enough good, enough righteousness and justice. I am constantly encouraged by the words of Thomas Merton who prayed: 

But I believe that the desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire…

…Therefore will I trust you always…

…I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

[Full Merton quote]

I am not sure whether or not I will be able to be there this year yet, but Christians for a Free Palestine is once again planning a caroling event. This event will, in a way, unify all of Amos’s themes: anti-militaristic action and economic boycott and justice and joyful of worship. It will focus on the boycott of Chevron, which supplies 70% of Israel’s power, including to prisons and military facilities that are crucial to Israeli occupation and illegal settlements in the West Bank. (On Dec 6 at 2 during Cherry Street Village’s holiday market)

So big unified action are great but that (as you all know) is not the only way to seek good and not evil. It’s all the accumulated actions in communities. Working at and donating to food banks and making welcome baskets for folks finding housing and knowing your neighbors. It’s training to know how to respond when ICE or the national guard shows up in your community. It’s supporting actions against gun violence. It’s buying from local and family-owned businesses. reducing and re-using and repairing before consuming more. 

With all of these small chips in the dam, may we begin to make cracks, so that that justice will roll down like Niagara falls and like the mighty Columbia river. May our pursuit of goodness and justice nurture the fruit of peace. Amen.

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Photo by Sigurd Brown

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