People Before Profits--March 24, 2020

People Before Profits--March 24, 2020

"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.'

The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

    Surely I will never forget any of their deeds." [Amos 8:4-7]

People before things.

Preserving life before clutching onto stuff.

I tell it to my kids when they are getting buckled into their seats in the car and don't want to let go of the fifteen toys they wanted to take along with them for the ride.  I tell it to them on their birthdays when they are more interested in opening presents than in saying hello to their friends or relatives who have come for a party.  I tell it to myself when I start dreaming about some big purchase I want to make for myself, rather than how the money could be used for clothes for my kids or their savings for college.

And the prophets were saying it twenty-eight centuries before the words ever came out of my mouth:  people before things.  Preserving life before clutching onto stuff. Love your neighbor more than you love your money.

And sometimes, that means leaving your business closed for the well-being of a stranger you'll never meet.

It's funny to me in these days of the coronavirus, how often the ancient words of these wild-eyed prophets from so long ago and half a world away speak so clearly to the choices in front of us.  When all of this began and our local schools were closing, my initial gut fear was that the Scriptures wouldn't have much guidance for us because there are no Bible stories about COVID-19 by name, or commandments about whether to take ibuprofen or not.  I was--and this should not surprise you--wrong.

Even if the specific matter of this global pandemic isn't mentioned in the pages of the Bible (and it's not--please, let's stop trying to look for predictions of tomorrow's headlines in the back half of the book of Revelation; that's not what it's for), the voices in the Scriptures do speak to what matters most to God, and how we live out the values of our God.  

The Scriptures might not specifically mention toilet paper... but they do warn us against the futility of hoarding, and the way it misplaces our trust in stuff rather than in the God who gives us daily bread.

The Bible might not use the phrase "social distancing"... but it does insist on rhythms of work and sabbath rest (sometimes for a day, and sometimes for a whole year) when work stops, business pauses, and both people and creation can be renewed and restored to life.

The prophets don't address the question of "flattening the curve" the way experts are teaching us to think these days... but they do have a warning for the folks who are more interested in making bucks than in preserving their neighbors' well-being.

And so maybe we do need to hear these ancient and sharply-pointed words from the prophet Amos.  Maybe what we need is to consider the prophet's claim, like we are children clutching onto toys instead of getting our seat belts buckled, that human beings matter more than having things, and that it is more important to preserve people than profits.

In Amos' day, there wasn't a clear and present danger like a global pandemic closing down businesses: it was just the regular rhythm of stopping work for the sabbath day, or the monthly celebration of a new moon that made them close up shop.  And yet, there were folks in Amos' day who were so bent on making more bucks that they didn't care who it hurt (Amos calls it "trampling on the need" and "bringing to ruin the poor of the land") or who they cheated (Amos charges them with some sneaky and questionable tactics for doing their business) or even whether it was a commandment from God (like keeping sabbath).  They were itching to open their doors again to make more money, even if it came at the cost of other people's lives and livelihoods.

And God said it was downright abominable.  

Why was God so upset?  Why don't the prophets want to let the tycoons get back to business?  And why isn't God cheering the CEOs on for increasing their profits and their efforts to improve the national economy?  Doesn't Amos know that if their businesses do well it means increased offerings and sacrifices offered to God?

The answer is simple: God has always valued restoring life over making profits.  God has always insisted that the point of existence cannot be bound to the value of your 401(k) or the close of the stock markets.  God has always believed that people are more important than things.  And God won't be bribed into thinking otherwise even if the ones chomping at the bit to get back to commerce say they are motivated by piety.

I wonder what Amos would say to us in this moment.  Or maybe that isn't quite right.  Maybe I have a pretty solid guess what Amos would say... but I'm nervous about admitting it.  We are all getting anxious, I get it, about how long and how much of our ordinary lives gets put on hold while experts and authorities tell us to stay home and avoid big gatherings. Kids are getting stir-crazy off of school.  Parents are getting frazzled knowing how to handle their amended routines.  Business owners are worried about how long they can live without their usual volume of income.  And pastors and other religious professionals (gulp) are worried more than they will say out loud about how they will weather the imposed closures for worship, and even whether people will decide when this is all over that they never really needed to go to church anyway, and that they won't bother going back.  We're all antsy about how long it will take to deal with the sickness lurking around.  Believe me, I get it.

And it is very easy--VERY easy indeed--to start finding ourselves in the same sandals as the Ancient Israel Chamber of Commerce and wanting to get back to making profits again. Pretty quickly, too, we find ourselves offering all sorts of justifications for why making more money is more important than saving the lives of our neighbors.  You can hear them already--inside your own mind if not also from the talking heads on television. "The elderly are near the end of their lives already--they should be willing to be OK with risking their lives so that their children and grandchildren can get back to making money again."  Or, "The truly faithful won't get sick anyway, because God will protect them, and therefore we should open back up for business--only heathens will suffer, so who cares?" Or even, "Sure, the church has weathered being fed to lions, crucified, and pushed underground during the time of empires and authoritarian regimes, but we are afraid we can't last for more than two weeks without people giving their offerings."

I suspect Amos would simply call us out on each of those sentiments--each of which I have heard expressed in some form or another in the last couple of days--and give us the same lecture I give to my kids: people before things.  Preserving life before goosing profits.  Loving your neighbor is more important than making a buck.

Look, nobody is saying that it is morally wrong to operate a business--and obviously, lots of work needs to continue even when other things have to temporarily close.  And nobody is saying that it won't be scary to see things shut down for a while--believe me, as a religious professional whose ability to feed my kids depends on the whims of generosity of strangers who put money into envelopes each week, I get that fear and anxiety. (Being a pastor is like being self-employed in a lot of ways, except that you can't just "work harder" to increase revenue.)  But what Amos and the other prophets do seem to have to say to us is that our God is always more interested in bringing people to life than in bringing people to wealth. And they would remind us that there have been times before when the ironclad expectation was that the people, rich and poor alike, would value each other more than their chances to make more money.  Even if it meant closing their businesses up for the sabbath when they could have been open to customers.  Even if it meant a smaller bottom line at the end of the fiscal year.

The question to ask as the people of this particular God is always, "How can we best save and preserve life?" before asking, "What will make me the most money?"  Sometimes we just need a prophet like Amos come along and remind us of what matters... and of who we are called to be.

May God indeed raise up such prophets... and may God indeed restore us to life, even if it costs us disposable income.

Lord God, raise up the voices who will speak your word to us and help us to see what matters as you see things... and then give us the courage to live in light of your priorities.