Summer Fruit

 

Amos 8:1-12

Proper 11 / Year C

The Lord said, “Amos, what do you see?”  And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” (Amos 8:1)

Let me tell you about a country which enjoyed great prosperity under the governance of its popular leader.  He recovered lands lost in conflicts under previous administrations.  He subdued the longtime enemies who threatened their boarders.  He opened up foreign trade which made new goods available, created great wealth, and allowed many to live lives of luxury.  Sounds good, right?  And who is the leader who made his once great country great again?  Jeroboam II, the 13^th ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel.  His 8^th century BC reign lasted 41 years.

And while the sun shines on some during this time, there is a dark side to its prosperity.  Moral standards collapse.  The people ignore the Torah’s sacred call to help the poor.  Justice becomes slanted in favor of the powerful.  Basic human kindness wanes.  The worship of idols, which is something akin to longing for material goods combined with ancient superstition, ramps up.  Employers exploit the labor of the vulnerable and needy.  Financiers create risky financial ventures for personal gain with disregard for how it affects others.  Merchants eagerly await the end of the Sabbath so they can resume their dishonest business practices.  Everyone grows more selfish and less concerned about the needs and rights of others.  

Into this setting steps the prophet Amos.  He is a shepherd by trade who harvests figs on the side.  From the southern kingdom of Judah with no formal religious schooling, God sends him to the north to proclaim impending judgement on all that ails its society.  His ministry lasts only about two years.

Amos’ message is shaped by four separate visions, each of which he introduces in his book by saying, “This is what the Lord showed me.”  The images are…

A Swarm of Locus (7:1-3)

A Rain of Fire (7:4-6)

A Plumb Line (7:7-9)

And today’s vision…

A Basket of Summer Fruit

While the first three unmistakably are harbingers of bad news, the last one sounds somewhat positive, hinting of a time of harvest and abundance; a reaping of the rewards of a season of labor.  But if you read this verse in its original language (Hebrew), you will hear a play of words impossible to miss.  The word for fruit is “gayits” while the word for end is “gets.”  The two are spelled differently but sound the same.  The basket of summer fruit signals the end of Israel’s prosperity.  We might say they are ripe for the picking.  Amos is clear.  God is going to judge the nation.  It will be harsh.  It will be swift.  And it will it is certain.

Well, you can imagine this is not welcome news, especially to a people used to hearing religious leaders tell them how great they are because the times are so good.  Jeroboam despises Amos.  Amaziah, a ranking religious authority at the time, demands Amos return to his homeland.  After all, the best thing to do with a foreign critic is to deport him.  The well-placed priest goes so far as to incite the people to violence against the prophet.

Of all the ways God’s judgment will be manifested, this is what Amos says will be the worst:

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.  (8:11)

Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a time when God’s word is not heard; to live in a society devoid of God’s guidance, where the moral good is foggy, and people have no idea which way to turn?

Some think this is an apt description of our times.  Two weeks ago, The Atlantic published an article by the conservative commentator David Brooks who holds we live in a “state of moral numbness” where millions of people are unable to make “basic judgments” about the character and conduct of our leaders and role models.   

He concludes we need restore “the vocabulary that people can use to talk coherently about their moral lives, and distinguish a person with character from a person without it.”  Amos, I think, would say we are living in a time of famine of the words of God and desperately need to return our culture to a place where it can listen again to what the Holy One is saying.

Brooks closes by stating, “We need to offer the coming generations an education in morals as rigorous as their technical and career education.”  He argues “the formation of the heart and the will is as important as the formation of the rational mind.”

Our “moral numbness” didn’t come about overnight.  I think back to the 90’s when Bill Bennet’s Book of Virtues was a best seller.  In it he told and retold the old stories which once shaped our ethics and behavior.  Critics dismissed it when Bennet’s own actions did not match his lofty rhetoric.  David Brooks, for his part, argues the seeds of our society’s moral decline begins to germinate during the onset of the industrial revolution, but, considering the reign of Jeroboam II, we might question if there ever has been a time and place grounded in an untainted manifestation of the good. 

At best, the moral integrity of a people is a fragile thing which calls for vigilant safe-guarding, honest, fearless self-assessment, communal repentance, and reformation.  To employ a metaphor I use often, we struggle to live into God’s dream for the world.

For us who gather here each week, St. Paul’s plays an important role in all of this.  At every baptism and every time we reaffirm the vows we make through it we embrace what God calls us to do and witness to it for all who are present.  Of course, it must be more than words.  We must teach it to our children, manifest it in our lives, and pray our society will see it in us and hear it as God’s words of life.