The Prophet Amos, Then and Now

 

                                                           The Prophet Amos 12thC Manuscript

                                                         Amos -- Marc Chagall 

This is what the Lord GOD showed me-a basket of summer fruit. He said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." 

Then the LORD said to me, The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day," says the Lord GOD; "the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!" 

Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat."

1 The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
    when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
    but they shall not find it.

Amos 8:1-6, 11-12 NRSVue

During this summer the Sunday lectionary readings are from the books of the minor prophets, so called not because they are inconsequential but because they are shorter in length. In the past couple of weeks the Sunday and daily readings have been Amos and Hosea. These outspoken critics of the religious hypocrisy of 8th century BCE Israel were fearless. 

                                                             The Prophet Amos -- Irving Amen

As it happens I'm reading a novel by Rob Benvie, The Damagers, set in the early 1950s. Two young sisters, the older a teen, end up running from a father traumatized by World War II and landing in an apocalyptic community made up of the flotsam and jetsam of a post-war society. The charismatic leader fancies himself a prophet along the lines of Amos and in one teaching session another leader describes the ministry of Amos, who called the powerful in Israel away from sin and back to accountablity before God. At the conclusion of her sermon/lecture she says: "the corrupt will be exposed and thier systems will be dismantled. And out of this our new society rises, joyous and true. Joyous and true."

This coincidence surprised me. So, were these the words of a crank, a delusional voice emerging from the wilderness to challenge the status quo of a corrupt society? Was Amos just a strange cult figure himself? Or do we continue to heed these words in every age. Certainly the reading aobe for July 20th a strong warning about trampling the needy and the poor, still applies.