Proper 11C + Pray as if it depends on us + 7.17.16

(image from: http://storiesoftheking.typepad.com/
thewatchmanscall/2011/08/a-basket-of-summer-fruit.html)

M. Campbell-Langdell+

All Santos, Oxnard

(Amos 8:1-12; Psalm 52; Colossians 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42)

The lushness of a basket of summer fruit, all the full heady promise of summer’s delights. All of a sudden, this image is replaced by the bodies of the fallen. It is rather jarring to have this scripture from Amos this week in the lectionary, a series of pre-set readings for several churches including ours, in light of the jarring events in Nice this Thursday.

Bastille Day, what many refer to as France’s July 4^th, is a gathering with fireworks and a celebration of freedom, democracy or equality and fraternity. In the fullness of summer, people gather to delight in the fruits of the season and in their country. So to have that moment violated by such a heinous act is almost unimaginably jarring. Like summer fruit representing the end.

Because the Hebrew word for summer fruit, is qayits, but the word “end” is qets, and so in a traditional Hebrew pun, the fruit is also a symbol of the end for Israel.[1] If it keeps following the wrong way.

But surely this is an image, a metaphor? Yet we know that these people did experience destruction, and that is what makes the end of Amos so sweet -  a vision of David’s Kingdom restored—“I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit” (Amos 9:14).

This vision is so real to me, because I was in the wine country of Sonoma county last week, and I hung out in places with vineyards and orchards. I tried wine made in someone’s garage! And we had a baptism, of my very tiny cousin. And a piñata. With a view of orchards full of apples and other fruit, hens and roosters and bees clucking and crowing and buzzing all round. And in this slice of earthly bliss I saw a bit of what God was promising the Hebrew people.

But first they had to reckon with the ways they were not listening to God. They were so focused on economic gain that they were cheating the poor. They were under-sizing the ephah or container of grain, and then using too heavy of a rock to weigh payment, so that both in buying and selling there were people taking advantage. The sweepings of the chaff are not to be sold, both because they are the gleanings for the poor but also because in selling them as wheat they are cheating, since the leftover grain had a lot of dust and dirt mixed in.[2]

A little while back I attended an explanation of the economics of the movie The Big Short. In the presentation it was explained how those buying and selling mortgage bonds managed to package mortgages that were almost guaranteed to fail as a prime asset and buy and sell them on the market. They pointed out that this was a pretty slimy economic practice. But they also pointed out how even those buying the houses that were way above their means were in a sense in the wrong (although I think you could say they were just optimistic) because they also took advantage of the situation. I think it is much more likely that certain folks trusted the businessmen too much because they assumed they knew the business of real estate.

Israel is chastised here because God has clearly laid out ethical and equitable ways of dealing with the produce of the land and people have found ways to cheat others and not respect God’s ways of dealing well with all. People have begun to see each other as just means to an end of enriching themselves. Of growing fat off of the land despite the suffering of others.

In a global society, there may be different ways that we may inadvertently feast on other’s sorrow. We do not mean to do it. But every time we purchase something the construction of which included another person’s suffering, we may be participating in some small way in an injustice against God. I have done this. I am an equal sinner to all. I am trying my best but also acknowledging my personal limitations.
There are many reasons that young adults in this world are getting so desperate, are falling into such despair, that they would want to remove themselves and others from the earth. Some say these are religious reasons; but if they are, they are twisted beyond recognition. Because we come from the same root in Abraham. We are the stuff of the same stars, the same plentiful vision of God’s children splashed across the heavens.
So I think that the evils of economics are at play here. Countries that for solid political reasons have experienced trade embargos and sanctions then raise up youth who despise our country and other western countries because they perceive us as thriving while they suffer. There may be some truth to that, but just as those in this passage from Amos sinned in taking advantage of others and not seeing them as humans but just economic transactions, so too those who see us in this way sin. Those who will see the entire “West” as evil because some suffer due to complex economic situations sin also in not seeing those they attack as human.
So, how can we respond? We can be humans together. We can work for justice that is real and peace in our hearts. We can not respond in fear. Driving home after hearing about the attacks on Nice on Thursday, I passed a pair of women in traditional Muslim head scarf and full sleeves and pants under their dresses. And I wondered, just for a moment, how must these women be seen by those who have been attacked by a so-called Muslim? And for a moment, I imagined so many people just thinking “enemy.” But one of France’s values is fraternité, fraternity, or brotherhood. Seeing all of us as brothers and sisters. We would say all part of God’s good creation. And so we must resist seeing each other as the enemy. We must resist seeing a police officer or a young black man or a Muslim woman or a fashionably dressed Western person as the enemy.

We all come from the same root. The same vine. In Christ everything, everything has been reconciled. How do we do our part in this reconciliation?
Richard Rohr recently stated that instead of “Work as if it depends on you; pray as if it depends on God,” we should say “Work as if it depends on God; pray as if it depends on you.” Let us work together for peace even in the midst of grief, as the people did this week offering roses and pizzas to cops. Let us work together for the sake of fraternity and liberty and equality. Let us know that God, working with us, will flood every dark corner with light such that no despair need take these young men and women again. May their violence be turned to butterflies, and the bodies into the enjoyment of the fruits of the land.
But in all this, let us pray as if it depends on us. As if our lives depended on it. Only through powerful prayer will these walls be broken down. Because we have to know that something powerfully spiritual is at work in the hearts of many in our world, and not just Muslim extremists. We must pray for God’s light to flood every heart. For Christ’s peace to drive out all hate, even for those who do not know Christ.
In the midst of despair and fear, let us turn to the light. And let us work like it depends on God, and pray like it depends on us.

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[1] Blake Couey, “Commentary on Amos 8:1-12,” https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2932.

[2] Ibid.