Rev. George Miller
Nov 14, 2021
Amos 1:1-2, 5:14-14, 24
A few months ago, thanks to the watchful eye and listening ear of Rev. Vertigan,
the Florida Conference paid for me to attend the Rural Ministry meeting that took
place in Iowa.
It was an affirming experience- being with pastors who understood what it’s
like to serve places where pastures of cows and groves of trees line the road.
Absent was the big-city crassness of over-read folk telling us that we
must care for x, y, and z. It was WE who
talked about what mattered when you are the shepherd of a place where-
-Aging takes place
-Beauty Queens matter
-You actually know the store owner, the cashier, the other customer
A highlight of the Rural Conference was guest speaker Tex Sample; couldn’t
be any more country!
Tex taught that in rural communities, no one’s really republican or democrat;
they are Cultural Traditionalists.
Cultural Traditionalists are folk in which family, neighbor, and what is
best for their community comes first.
In business, a Cultural Traditionalist cares about free enterprise, but
the family unit is numero uno. They appreciate
fair competition, but cooperation is king.
A Cultural Traditionalist asks “What is best for the family?”, not “What
is best for me?”
In a Cultural Traditionalist town, men are accountable to their family
and community, and… STORIES MATTER.
Folks in rural towns could care less about talking points and graphs; what
they care about is the story attached to the thing you want them to care about.
Issues about the environment, equality- they’re best addressed through
personal stories that show why they matter, framed within the context of
family.
As Tax taught “Never miss an opportunity to tell a story with a Cultural Traditionalist.”
It is more important than the written word.
To develop relationship with a Cultural Traditionalist, watch how they
act, where they gather, what’s in their fridge, ask about the things you see.
When it comes to voting, Cultural Traditionalists are 24% liberal, 28% conservative,
the rest fall between.
So, you listen to and you tell stories.
The farmer who lost their land. The
father who found out his son is gay.
Stories of the veteran who’s scared whenever 4th of July rolls
around. Stories of the woman who’s been sexually
abused and verbally harassed in the field.
According to Tex- big city folk care about cut-throat competition with a
goal to win; small town folk care about daily interactions in which family and
neighbor can live their best life.
Amos would’ve liked Tex Sample.
After all, Amos was himself a small-town boy living around 800 BCE; a
southerner who raised sheep.
Amos knew the stories of his people inside and out. He knew all about the family of God.
He knew about how his great-great-great MeMaw and PePaw were mistreated in
Egypt.
Amos knew the stories of how God rescued his faith family, fed his faith
family, simply asking that they fairly treat their neighbor, the orphan, immigrant,
and the widowed.
So Amos was shocked, absolutely shocked when he traveled to the northern
part of Israel into the big city.
What Amos saw defied description- huge opulent mansions, people is
designer clothes, priests in ornate sanctuaries with expensive items purchased
with people’s offerings.
Amos saw people who had multiple homes, worship leaders who engaged in extravagant
feasts while using superfluous words.
All while the local famer was struggling to pay the exorbitant rent the real
estate moguls were charging them.
All while widows were overcharged by store owners using dishonest scales.
All while the poor and vulnerable were coming before unjust judges who
were giving them the harshest of sentences.
In other words- Amos, as a Cultural Traditionalist, is shocked to see how
the HAVES have so MUCH, while the
agricultural workers, elderly, and immigrant have so little.
Amos is aware that this lopsided system can not hold up, that even though
things look good for the 1%, the nation is heading towards disaster.
So Amos speaks up, he speaks out.
He reminds them of the Covenant; he reminds them of all God has done.
He condemns the business leaders and the priests; not for being rich or successful,
but for how they’re using their resources, mistreating others, refusing to pay an
extra penny per pound.
As you can imagine, this does no go well.
But it doesn’t stop this small-town boy from speaking up.
“Seek good; love good. Establish
justice in the gate. Let justice roll
down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.”
“Do these things, and God will be gracious to us.”
But the priests, the CEOS, the Fortune 500 do not listen to Amos.
They kick him out of town, sending him back home to Kansas. Sure enough, 50 years later, his words come
true, and the Big Apple is turned into political, economic applesauce.
Amos tried to empower the people to let justice roll down like living
waters, but the folk chose not to listen…
For years we’ve been using words like justice, kindness, humility, but I’m
not sure if we really know what that means, or what that looks like.
After all, justice and kindness are not things, they are actions.
Kindness, humility it not something you can buy, they are things you do.
What is just? What is kind?
What may be seen as just or kind in the city may not be seen as just in the
country.
Sometimes all this talk about kindness and justice can feel like we’re running
an election, not a church service.
We talk about justice.
But what does justice look like?
Amos says “Seek good; love good. Establish
justice in the gate; let righteousness roll like a stream.”
What can justice look like? Well,
in the spirit of Tex, a story.
Once upon a time, in the land of Philippi, around the early 40’s, a man
named Paul and his traveling companion Timothy entered the city.
Recently, Paul had an amazing experience in which he encountered the Living
Lord and could not wait to tell everyone about it.
So near and far, north and south, city and countryside, Paul traveled, sharing
the Good News.
On this particular day, in this particular city, he and his companion
decided “Let’s go to the gate and see who is there.”
Since it was the Sabbath, he assumed they’d meet men gathered in prayer.
Instead, what they saw was a group of women sitting by the river. One of them was a businesswoman named Lydia
who made purple clothes.
There’s a good chance that on this day of rest, these women were working,
doing the time-consuming process of turning crushed shells into purple dye.
What do Paul and Timothy do by these waters on a Saturday when surrounded
by hard-working women?
They sat down beside them.
They talked with them.
They shared stories.
Paul and Timothy could’ve stayed within the gates of the city, attend the
big mega church in town.
But instead, Paul and his companion went to the city gates, where the
river flowed, and they sat down besides a group of working women, and they talked.
Got to know them. Shared stories.
Could it be that the roots of justice are that simple?
Could that be what righteousness and humility looks like?
To simply show up; go to the outskirts.
To sit beside ordinary folk doing ordinary things.
To speak, see, listen.
To be on the same level.
To not stand above, or stand apart, but to sit right beside, next to,
right with.
After all, isn’t that what Jesus did?
Jesus met folk in the sick room, the living room, the dining room of
people no different than you and me.
Didn’t Jesus go to the shore where men worked, to the homes where women
had many tasks, to the places where children and family gathered?
Perhaps justice is not as complicated as we think, or something so
scholastic it has to be studied ad nauseum.
Perhaps righteousness is nothing more than what Paul and Timothy did.
Went where the people were at.
Sat down beside. Shared stories.
As you may recall, Lydia and her household not only turned their hearts
to Christ, but so did their actions.
When Paul and Timonthy are unjustly arrested, it is Lydia who gives them
a place to stay and recuperate.
In closing, Amos is an amazing fellow, a small town boy with the audacity
to remind folk that they have strayed from what matters.
His words are not lost on us today, 2,800 years later.
We don’t have to fear what he has to say.
We can remember his story.
To know that when we seek good, when we love good, the Lord is more than
happy to be gracious.
When we do what is right and what is just, the water of everflowing life
pours out upon us.
And not just us, but our family, our friends, our community become
blessed as well.
Our faith is not just a set of beliefs.
Our faith is a set of stories; our faith shines in how we act and how we
exist with one another, with creation, and with God.
Amen and amen.
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