by The Rev. Dr. Max Lynn
SCRIPTURE READINGS Amos 8:1-12, Luke 10:38-42
Transcribed from the sermon preached on JULY 17, 2022
Ok, so here we are back with the prophet Amos for second week. A little review:
Amos A is the original prophet who delivered his words orally. After just two generations of the United 12 tribes, David and Solomon, there was a split into two kingdoms. King Jeroboam split from Jerusalem and took the Northern portion, known as Israel, establishing Samaria as the political stronghold city and Bethel as a spiritual and agricultural center. The Southern Kingdom was called Judah and its capital was Jerusalem.
Israel, the Northern Kingdom, was destroyed by Assyria in the 8th Century BCE, specifically in 722, and 24,000 of the ruling elite were exiled or killed. Amos predicted this would happen. Amos is a regular guy, a shepherd, a dresser of fig trees who gets a calling from God to speak against the injustice of the ruling elite of Samaria. Because of this injustice, God would destroy them. He doesn’t offer any hope or way out. He just tells them what they have done and the inevitable consequences of it.
Now the second editor to the book of Amos, we might follow Bob Coote and call Amos B, writes about a 100 years later during or near the reign of Jasbeh from the Southern Kingdom of Judah. And this author is the one who throws in a bit of hope. He uses the strong condemning message of Amos A to say to Judah, if you continue like Israel, you are done for just like them. God will pass you by. But, if you change your ways, and act with justice, then there is a chance. So let justice flow like a river, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.
One of the issues causing trouble in the Northern and the Southern Kingdom was that the ruling elite begin to dispossess the poor of their land and change from subsistence agriculture of wheat and barley to large landowners producing luxury export goods like grapes and oil. Through taxes and rent, high interest and judges answering to the rich, peasant farmers were always on the verge of starvation. If they had a bad year, they would have to barrow to survive. When they couldn’t repay their loans, they would first lose animals and then children and finally the land. So, a small landowner unable to pay his debt may have to give away his children to be slaves as collateral. If they still can’t pay, they lose their land and become laborers who are worked and starved to death.
Now today’s Chapter 8. (For further background and historical context for the book of Amos you can refer to the sermon from last week.) We find the meat of the message from Amos in verses 4-6:
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.”
So here Amos points to 4 sins.
1. Disrespect for religious holidays in favor of making money
2. Manipulating the market with deceit and false balances
3. Using minor debt as a legal excuse to enslave and exploit
4. Selling junk to the poor
The author ties disrespect for holidays and the sabbath with greed for profit. Now one of the things not often noted is that the poor laborers get a break from work on holidays. Sabbath is a day of rest for all, a day that is much needed for the poor and slaves who are always short on food and often worked to death. So, Amos criticizes the large businesspeople who can’t wait to exploit the labor of the poor and overcharge them for cheap products.
The United States has long since let go of the Sabbath shut down on Sundays. Of course, the argument was that this was only the holy day for Christians, not for Jews or Seventh Day Adventists and others. But now there is literally no day or hour or place when business is not done. We are always in a hurry. There is always more to see on our phone, more work to be done. We are anxious and don’t think we have time to stop, breathe deep and worship God. There is always another buck to be made. And of course, even the religious holidays themselves have been turned into excuses to make money. Take a moment now to put aside all you have been busy with. Take a deep breath, center yourself in the moment. Thank God.
What about making the ephah small and the shekel great? The ephah was used to measure wheat, while the shekel was used to weigh coins to pay for the wheat. So, the poor would come to buy wheat and the seller would give an under measurement of wheat and ask for an over measurement of payment in coin.
Selling the poor for a pair of sandals could mean a few things. Here are the two I find most likely. It could be that a poor person is only in debt for a small amount, but they take them into slavery anyway. Or it could be that the wealthy debt collector gives a small bribe to the judge.
Where do we see such greed and manipulation of markets today? What we know when states use private prisons, incarceration rates increase and so do the length of the sentences, especially for non-violent crimes.
John Perkins, author of Confession of an Economic Hit Man, tells of the job he had: He and his fellow economic hitmen would “befriend Third World leaders and convince them, often using bribery or deceit, to take on enormous debts to develop their national infrastructure. U.S. corporations profited from the development contracts, and the World Bank, – source of the majority of the loans – profited from the interest. The only ones who didn’t profit were the Third world nations themselves, who found they were unable to pay back the money they owed.” As part of his duties, Perkins says, he inflated the economic projections of development projects being sold to Third World countries so that the country in question would be induced to take out exorbitant loans to pay for the project — which, of course, could be built only by a U.S. corporation. (An Offer They Can’t Refuse: John Perkins on his life as an economic hitman. By Pat Macenulty, The Sun. Sept 2005)
Perkins said he didn’t have to convince a whole country, only a few wealthy leaders. The payoffs came from the big projects themselves, or from legal payoffs. Family or friends may have an equipment franchise, such as John Deere or Caterpillar; or they might own companies that are subcontractors to Bechtel or Halliburton.” Then they would contract these companies and intentionally pay them more than the going rate, with extra profit going to the government official.
When I was on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala, I met one of these economic hitmen at a bar on the river. Over a cold beer, he freely told me how he had managed to convince the Guatemalan government to work with US AID to give free tree saplings to small landowners to grow trees for the Pacific Paper Company. At first it sounds like a great idea; giving trees to the poor and then buying trees from them after they grow. But he explained to me: The trees were soft wood so they couldn’t be used for anything but paper and Pacific Paper controlled the processing market for this type of paper. Meanwhile Pacific Paper bought a bunch of land in Guatemala so that they could produce half the trees to be harvested. So, if the government decided they wanted to raise taxes on their land or the export tax, the company could threaten to pull out, leaving all the farmers with no market. Or, if the farmers wanted to charge more for their trees, the company would have enough trees on the land they purchased to refuse to buy and starve them into a low price. So, the deal guaranteed they would pay low taxes and a low price to poor tree growers.
Here at St. John’s, we have undertaken certain mission efforts which reflect God’s words in scripture. A couple years ago we helped a coop of indigenous Mayan coffee farmers purchase a coffee thresher. Karl Shadley, a local presbyterian minister in his retirement worked very hard to set up a direct market from the village to churches. Now why would we do that? The giant corporations have a monopoly on threshing of coffee, and thus control the price of coffee paid to the farmers. They also control the export market. So, they buy low and sell high. Their ephah is small and their shekel great. Even though it is all legal, they practice deceit with false balances. Now this small coop can thresh their own coffee and export it up here and receive full market price for their coffee. Now this tiny effort is just a drop in the stream and as all development work very hard to sustain, but no matter, we hear the cry of Amos, Let Justice flow like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
After worship today we will have fair trade coffee and chocolate and nuts, and Palestinian olive oil which we hope will help small farmers avoid the middlemen who go light on the price they give and heavy on the price they get.
And we have developed an endowment with Primera Iglesia down in Oakland to give out zero interest micro loans, so that small economic hardships don’t lead to undo suffering. We let the borrowers determine how much and how often their payments will be. We gave $3,000 to a man whose business is recycling cans. He drives around and looks for cans and then hauls them to the recycling center in his truck. His truck engine gave out. He couldn’t qualify for a loan to buy a new car. He and his family were in danger of getting kicked out of their apartment. We helped him get a new used car.
Two mothers needed more income to make ends meet. Meanwhile they each had new babies but couldn’t pay the high price for childcare on the low wages they would make. They borrowed $2,000 to start a food cart business and are paying it back.
One day a construction worker and member of the church went to fix something that was broken at the church. He told Pastor Pablo that he had started a construction business but that his tools had been stolen out of his car. We gave him a $2,000 loan to purchase new tools.
Now these are small efforts in a large world, but I know you are people of faith. Like Mary, you have taken the time from work to sit at Jesus feet. And you are not just coming to worship and then rushing out to ignore God’s word to you the rest of the week. You are working in your business to be fair and honest, to get and give an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s work, to sell a product worth what people pay for. And if you are in a corporation, you are keeping your eyes out for ways your corporate power may have undue influence over politicians, markets or natural ecosystems. And you are working toward sustainable practices that benefit the whole community. God help us in this endeavor.
For if Amos is correct, then power and selfishness leads to downfall of society, and with the downfall of society we all lose. So, if we want a society where people can find work and prosper, and have money to spend to help others prosper, then the distribution of wealth needs to be more equal.
Now I have heard a lot of talk recently about how Christians shouldn’t be using the Bible to influence policy. But the problem is not using the Bible, but using it badly, using it to justify taking away rights, for discrimination and exploitation. If we are Christians, our faith should influence our politics towards equality and justice.
This message in the bible is loud and clear. Let Justice flow like a river, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.