Summer Squash

Colossians 1:15-28

15[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers - all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through he blood of his cross.

21And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he now reconciled in his fleshly body though death, so as to present you hold and blameless and irreproachable before him - 23provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

24I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. 25I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. 27To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God

Amos 8:1-12

This is what the LORD GOD showed me - a basket of summer fruit. 2He 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. 3The 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!”

4Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, 5saying, “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 ephor small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, 6buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”

7The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 8Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

9On that day, says the LORD GOD, I will make the sun go down and noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.

11The 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 for, seeking the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God.

I’ve got a book that normally lives on the coffee table in my study, called “The Bible Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness.” It’s meant to be a source of laughter, not a source of biblical scholarship. It playfully shortens each book of the Bible into a few lines. Its summary of the entire book of Amos is as follows: “Amos becomes, like, the 14,000th prophet to note that Israel is making God mad and when you make God mad things go bad.” Amos, from the southern kingdom of Judah, describes a righteous and holy God who is deeply offended by the empty worship and consistent injustice in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The LORD GOD sends Amos across Israel’s Southern Border to preach an anguished, heartbroken God who will not tolerate Israel’s sins.

And in the eighth chapter of the book that bears his name, the prophet Amos is shown a vision. “This is what the LORD GOD showed me - a basket of summer fruit. He say, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ ” After seven chapters of doom, perhaps we will see some life in this basket of fruit. A harvest at last that will give us good news, some comfort for the Northern Kingdom. A basket of summer fruit to nourish the people throughout the long, hot days. “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.”

Yikes. Dead bodies, wailing instead of worship, passover changing into the end? If that seems like a pretty rough transition from a basket of summer fruit, you’re not wrong. There’s a connection in the ancient Hebrew version of this passage that doesn’t quite translate into English. You can see it in the footnote of our pew Bibles that the ancient Hebrew word for “summer fruit” and the ancient Hebrew word for “end” are very similar. To get the same impression in English, we’d have to move from fruits to vegetables. “This is what the LORD GOD showed me - a basket of summer [squash]. He said, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer [squash].’ Then the LORD said to me, ‘[I’m about to squash] my people Israel...’ ” God is making a pun in a prophetic vision!

The introduction to Amos’s vision is a pun, but it’s no joke. Amos lays out a case before the people Israel and describes the judgment that is coming to them. “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land.” Hear this, you who take every advantage of those less fortunate, who enrich yourselves at the expense of those who have less than you. Hear this, you who say “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?” You who fake faith for the sake of business contacts, but jump at the first chance to trade piety for profit. Hear this, you who plan to “make the ephor 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.” These are the folks who are taking more in exchange for less, lying about what each thing is worth. These are the folks who see a desperate situation as an opportunity to benefit themselves, rather than to share what God has given them.

When we think of sin, the ones which come most easily to mind are spiritual sins. I did not obey God when…, I did not love my neighbor when…, I lusted in my heart when…, I don’t pray enough, or read my Bible enough, or attend worship enough. Amos, however, acknowledges that the people whose actions he warns against are at least giving some attention to their spiritual lives. They are not technically working on the Sabbath, or during the festival times. But their economic sin vastly outweighs their spiritual discipline. Christ is Lord of more than just your soul, Christ is Lord of our soul, and of our bodies, and of our wallets, and of our relationships.

God has had enough of Israel’s fraudulent faithfulness. Their summer fruit has turned rotten, and the LORD GOD will hold them accountable for their actions. “The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.” There will be a judgment, and those against whom Amos prophecies will answer for their actions, even if they seem to get away with it until that point. “Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it?” These sins are so offensive to God, and so widespread throughout the Northern Kingdom to whom Amos has been sent, that no only the wrongdoers will suffer, but everyone who lives in the land, and even land itself, will tremble and mourn.

In 2008, the Great Recession became personal to me. As credit collapsed, I was searching for ways to fund my college studies. Due to an extremely late payment of a scholarship, I was forced to take out a Student Loan through the Discover credit card company, they were the only ones lending at the time. Years later, the higher interest rate of that loan impacted my ability to tithe to my congregation, to support my family, to save for retirement.

Now I’m not against a free market setting prices for things, but in the years leading up to the Great Recession, people trusted their financial advisors, their bank officers, their lenders, to tell them how much house they could afford. Many of those “experts” padded their own wallets by giving loans to those who could not afford them. They made the ephah great and the shekel small, and it brought the mightiest economy in world history to its knees, and very nearly melted down the entire global financial system.

That’s what it looks like when the land trembles and everyone who lives in it mourns. Even those who are innocent, like the college students who had to take on extra loans, or the people who lost their homes because they were deceived, or those who watched a career’s worth of retirement savings evaporate overnight, feel the consequences of economic sins. “The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

The Nile was the source of Egypt’s wealth. It was also the symbol of Israel’s bondage. Just as God threw down the Egyptian empire to free Israel, God is promising to throw down the Israelites for the sinful ways they treat one another, especially the poor and the needy. “On that day, says the LORD GOD, I will make the sun go down and noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.”

But there is good news. Good news for the needy who have been trampled, good news for the poor of the land who have been ruined. There will be a judgment on those who oppress you. That judgment will be upheaval to break down a society that is founded on deception and oppression. Those things will be broken down not in some far off heaven, but in the creation we all know as the Kingdom of God breaks through into life now, establishing a new heaven and a new earth in Christ, who is Lord of all people, and all of each person. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers - all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through he blood of his cross.”

There may be a famine of the hearing of the words of the LORD, but some people only understand the value of something once it becomes scarce. The Church, including our family of faith, has stored up the word of God through the years of plenty, and now we have a the words of God to share. People are running to and for, seeking the word fo the LORD, and not finding it. We have been given a great commission “to make the word of God fully known, 26the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. 27To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

Christ is Lord of more than just your soul. Let’s spread the word we have been given to bring comfort to the needy and the poor, as well as those who mourn and those who wander seeking the word of the LORD. Telling them the good news of Christ and teaching them how to live differently because of that good news. That is our great commission.