Amos 5 is spot on. Like Israel in Amos’ day, we have wandered far from God’s ways. We worship at the shrines of consumerism, power over others and their resources, military might, greed, rugged to hell with the 99% rugged Randian individualism, and abusive political power. Political candidates assure those living in hunger, want and poverty that good things will trickle down to them. Amos says rubbish to all this:

So seek God and live! You don’t want to end up

with nothing to show for your life

But a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground.

For God will send just such a fire,

and the firefighters will show up too late.

Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar

and stomp righteousness into the mud.

Do you realize where you are? You’re in a cosmos

star-flung with constellations by God,

A world God wakes up each morning

and puts to bed each night.

God dips water from the ocean

and gives the land a drink.

God, God-revealed, does all this.

And he can destroy it as easily as make it.

He can turn this vast wonder into total waste.

People hate this kind of talk.

Raw truth is never popular. Continue reading →