On Choosing Well--October 5, 2020

On Choosing Well--October 5, 2020

"Therefore because you trample on the poor 

     and take from them levies of grain,
you have built houses of hewn stone, 

     but you shall not live in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards, 

    but you shall not drink their wine.
For I know how many are your transgressions, 

    and how great your sins--
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
    and push aside the needy in the gate.
Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time;
    for it is an evil time.
Seek good and not evil,
    that you may live;
and so the LORD, the God of hosts,
     will be with you,
     just as you have said.
Hate evil and love good,
     and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
     will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." [Amos 5:11-15]

Sometimes the choice in life is between vanilla and chocolate for your own personal ice cream cone.  Sometimes it is between vanilla...and rancid seafood with shards of glass in it--for everybody.  When it's the former, we don't have to agree, and the stakes are low--in fact, the vanilla for you means there's that much more chocolate for me. Everybody can be happy with what they pick. But when it's the latter, the choice is not only more important, but needs to be clear.  Even if vanilla isn't your all-time favorite, don't ever choose the bad oysters with a side of broken glass for everyone.

You might think that's an obvious choice to make, and it really should be! But from the early day's of Israel's memory, back in the wilderness, they needed to have it spelled out for them in stark and clear terms.  "See, I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse," God tells the people through Moses at the end of Deuteronomy.  And then, if it weren't clear which they were supposed to choose, God says, "Choose life!"  Seems obvious, but maybe needs to be said.

And then over the course of its history, God has to keep sending prophets with the same message over and over again, because we have a way of choosing what is terrible--and not only with choices that affect only an individual, but that affect everybody in community.  So you have voices like Amos here, who tells the people of Israel that they are faced with another one of those vanilla-or-bad-seafood choices--and that they really need to say no to the shellfish.

"Seek good and not evil," Amos says, "so that you may live."  It really is that clear a choice, and it really is a matter of life and death.  It should be obvious, but Amos has to spell it out.  As a whole society, they are knee-deep in some terrible choices, choices which touch the lives of everybody, even if they don't all recognize it. In particular, Amos is upset that the poor of Israel are being taken advantage of--they are hit with sneaky fees and an extra burden of taxes and levies to pay for the opulence of the king and religious shrines, and they are being denied the chance to get their claims heard in court ("the gate" that Amos talks about, is likely a reference to local city gates, where local claims were brought for judgment and court decisions).  Those with means have the ability to weasel out of paying what should have been theirs to pay, and they have the leverage to bribe those in power so they're not held to account.  This is the rotten-seafood-with-glass-shards way of life, and it makes for a pretty rotten system of running a society.

And that's just it--it's a whole system.  In ancient Israel, there weren't LOTS and lots of super-rich people who were actively cheating the poorest of their neighbors.  But there were indeed lots of people who knew it was happening, figured it didn't directly affect them, or at least figured they were better off with at least some other poor slob lower than them on the food-chain, and so nearly everybody in ancient Israel kept quiet about the arrangement of things.  The king didn't want to rock the boat--he had a booming economy he didn't want to mess with.  The Respectable Religious Leaders, including the priests of Israel, were all invested in keeping things the way they were--and their voice gave the impression that God was endorsing the way things were.  And then most of the ordinary people in the middle of things just kept their heads down--it would cause more trouble to stick up for someone else who was getting cheated or defrauded.  There was every reason just to stay quiet, but that quietness meant everybody got stuck with an order of bad oysters--because everyone was now trapped in a system where those who were most in need got stepped on--"trampled," as Amos says it--and it was going to make everybody's stomach turn.

Into all that mess, Amos was sent.  His message was meant to see that their choices didn't just affect each person individually, but that their choices--what they would and wouldn't accept for each other, what they would or wouldn't speak up about--affected everybody.  Amos is sent on the scene to remind people that while some choices are personal preferences, like vanilla ice cream for me and chocolate ice cream for you, other choices affect everybody--and in those times, everybody pays the price for picking rancid shellfish.  And in times like those, if the only choices in front of you for everybody at your table are your second-choice for ice cream versus something poisonous loaded with glass shards, you pick the vanilla.  For Amos, that meant daring people no longer to accept other people being treated like they were disposable, ignorable, or negligible because they were poor.  That meant calling for people to change they way they did business, and daring them no longer to live their lives just to make more money.  It meant calling people back toward a sense of the common good: where you left some of your grain in the field for those with no land of their own to harvest, even though that meant cutting into your own profits.  It meant not squeezing every dime out of your neighbor just because you had the leverage to do it.  It meant a change in values from profits to people.  

Now, in Amos' day, there were no elections, no voting, no ballots, and no political parties--so this wasn't about Amos advocating for one party's platform over another, the way we might be tempted to oversimplify things.  It was about changes in everyday activities, habits, business practices, and societal norms.  It was about making the conscious choice, day by day, not to put your own interests first, but to look out for others, so that everyone could feed their families and no one would be cheated.  It was about refusing to grant special deference or privileges to the ones with more money or power.  And it was about questioning the Respectable Religious Leaders when they said, "The system we have is the way God meant for things to be--that's why we have the system we have."  

In our day, we are so quick to turn everything into a contest between political parties, and we find ourselves willing to to defend things that should be unconscionable to us, except that it's coming from the party you affiliate, and we perceive any criticism as a vote for "the other side."  But that kind of thinking still is more concerned about Me-and-My-Group having power, rather than thinking, as Amos would have us do, about what is just, what is decent, what is compassionate, what is honest, and what reflects integrity.  Those are not qualities owned by a political party, or at least they shouldn't be.  And when Amos calls for people in his era to be concerned about doing justice, he isn't backing a candidate for office or getting a kickback from the palace.  He is speaking up for everybody to make changes in how they live and act and work, so that nobody--nobody--gets left out, pushed aside, or stepped on.  That should be an obvious choice, Amos thinks: as obvious as choosing good over evil, decency over rottenness, and justice over crookedness.  But because the people in his society kept condemning everybody to the Rancid Oyster and Glass Platter, Amos feels like he has to keep saying what should be as plain as day:  choose differently.  Choose vanilla, even if it's not your favorite flavor, because at least it won't made anybody nauseated.  Choose life, even if you are used to choosing the deathly ways of the old arrangement.  Choose looking out for your neighbor, even if that means you don't have as large a pile of money or as big a house for yourself at the end of the third quarter.  Choose to insist on justice, even if that means you aren't offered any bribes as a bonus any longer.  

Amos' message reminds me of two vital insights of James Baldwin's. First, Baldwin says, ""A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked, but only that they be spineless." In Amos' day, it was just easier for folks to keep their heads down and not speak up when others were taken advantage of or elbowed out of the way because they were poor and lacked influence, and Amos says that cowardice was killing them all. His answer: it may be scary, but choose life. Seek good--for you and for all people. And then second from Baldwin, "We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist."  In other words, in those times when we're each picking our own ice cream cones, sure go ahead and pick chocolate, and I can pick vanilla for me... or strawberry or cookies-and-cream or butter pecan.  But when it comes to our common life together, my choices aren't just about me--they are about the kind of community we create for each other.  And in those times, I can't choose something that is good for me but comes at the expense of my neighbor in need.  We sometimes forget how many of our choices in life are not chocolate-versus-vanilla-for-me-alone, but vanilla-versus-bad-seafood-and-glass-for everybody.  Choose well, and choose wisely, Amos says.

Today, God brings to us again the choice between good and evil, life and death, blessing and curse, justice and crookedness, honesty and lies.  It is not just a once-and-you're-done sort of choice, but the daily, even moment-by-moment choice we make to do good and to choose what is right and decent rather than what we think is profitable in the short terms.  And it means recognizing that my choices are rarely just about me, but affect many neighbors all the time, just as their choices affect mine.  It shouldn't have to be said, but because we keep needing to hear it, let's say it once more:  seek good.  Seek life.  Seek justice.  Seek integrity. Seek the well-being and welfare of all, not just your immediate circles. Don't settle for the bad seafood. Keep on choosing good--for all of our sakes.

Lord God, help us to hear your voice through the people you raise up who call us back to choosing good and saying no to what is rotten and crooked and greedy.  Bring us more fully to life as we seek the good you have in mind for all of us.