Today’s Scripture Reading (June 23,
2013): Amos 6
One of the challenges
of the Christian faith is found in the things that we believe that we know. It
often seems hard to discuss with people some of the basic tenets of the faith
because we seem to believe that there is something sinful in the discussion. I
love Peter Rollins comment that whenever we react strongly against something
that has been said it is usually because we have questions and doubts that run
in the same direction – doubts we do not want to be reminded of. So when you go
to a friend and suggest that maybe their spouse is cheating on them, and they
react by being angry and throwing us out of our presence and telling us never
to return – our reaction to that situation should be “Oh, you already knew.” We
want to build structures around us that hold people that agree whatever it is
that we believe. And no one is welcome inside of those structures who do not
believe what it is that we believe because they will only remind us of all of
our doubts and, ultimately, disturb our complacency.
Amos says
that all of Israel, both the North (Israel) and the South (Judah) had grown
complacent. They no longer had to struggle with anything – and as a result,
they were no longer growing in their faith. In fact, faith had become so
stagnant that the confidence was now in the physical characteristics of the two
capital cities. For both Samaria and Zion (Jerusalem), protection was in the
mountain upon which the city sat. They no longer had to have an active faith in
God – they no longer needed to struggle with things like doubt. They had
everything categorized – doubters were no longer welcome and growth was no
longer necessary.
We do not
know what Amos was thinking about as he wrote these words, but it might have
been the complacency of the ancient people of the city of Jebus. Jebus was the
name that Zion (Jerusalem) held before the time of David. And in the history of
David we read that David and his mighty men camped outside the city while the
citizens of Jebus taunted them. The Jebusites had grown complacent in the
security of their mountain and called out to David. “You will not get in here;
even the blind and the lame can ward you off” (2 Samuel 5:6.) So David and his
men climbed into city using the city’s water supply and Jebus in its
complacency fell without a fight.
Jerusalem
and Samaria had fallen into the same complacency – they became satisfied in
themselves and that satisfaction prompted a lack of faith. And in that lack of
faith the people of both nations had sinned against God. They had come to
believe that they were the authors of everything good in their lives. But that
belief came with a price tag. A people that no longer needed a faith in God
could no longer be protected by him. And the time was coming when both peoples
would find that there mountains would not be enough to save them.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 7
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