This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

 Laissez Faire economy simply wrong says Obama 

AMOS 8: 1-12

Then the Lord God made me see this sight: there was a basket full of ripe fruit.

And he said, Amos what do you see?

And I said, A basket full of ripe fruit. Then the Lord said to me,

So are my people Israel ripe for destruction.

I will not relent again.

Listen to this, you who trample upon the needy,

And grind the faces of the poor!

You who say, When will the new moon be past,

So that we may sell our grain?

When will the sabbath be over,

So that we may offer our corn for sale?

While you make your measure short

And your prices high,

And cheat with biased scales.

And all to possess the poor for silver,

And the needy for the price of a pair of shoes,

Selling for grain the sweepings from your floor.

The Lord has sworn by the glory of Jacob,

Never will I forget what you have done.

Because of it, shall not the earth be made to quake,

And every inhabitant of it to mourn?

Shall not the whole land rise like the Nile,

And sink like Egypt’s flood?

The consequence will be darkness, death and despair

On that day, the Lord God declares,

I will make the sun go down at noon

And darken the earth in broad daylight.

In that day the singing in the temple will be turned to wailing,

Says the Lord God,

As everywhere corpse is thrown upon corpse in deathly silence.

10 I will turn your feasts into funerals

And your songs into dirges.

I will put sackcloth upon every man’s loins,

And every man’s head shall be shaved in mourning.

I will make your mourning like the lament for an only son,

And the end of it will be bitter despair.

See, the days are coming, says the Lord God,

When I will send a famine on the land.

It will not be a famine of bread or water,

But of hearing the words of the Lord.

12 Men shall wander from sea to sea,

They shall run to and fro,

From the north to the east,

Seeking the Word of the Lord,

But they shall not find it.

famine...

Yes, it’s a long passage today but I give it in full so that readers can see the extraordinary precision of Amos’s language. “You make your measure short and your prices high” –this perfectly characterises the practice of rogue traders from ancient times to contemporary energy companies. The casual ruthlessness of the rich is wonderfully presented in “you possess the poor for silver and the needy for the price of pair of shoes.” They may in times to come forget their brutality but Amos promises that God will always remember it. The poor who suffer also remember, with shame and anger, what was done to them. God is on their side; justice will be done, Amos says.

Into this society given over to luxury and profit there will come a famine, not for food but for the word of God. People will have gotten so used to ignoring those who speak the truth, that when they need to find reality again, they will be without guidance. For Amos, God’s word is the precious wisdom that describes things as they are and points the way to life. To be without this resource is deprivation indeed.

Much of what has been done in the U.K by those who love only money is simple wickedness and should have been judged as such. Many clear voices have said so, but clever people have walked about with their fingers in their ears saying, “I hear nothing.” The terrifying thing is that as catastrophic global warming threatens, they have lost the ability to hear the truth. Those who can hear even a little truth need to speak out, with the eloquence of Amos, in the hope that others may respond.

Matthew 23:1-12

23Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; 3therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practise what they teach. 4They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. 5They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 6They love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, 7and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them rabbi. 8But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. 9And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11The greatest among you will be your servant. 12All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

students together

Jesus’ words are an attack on the honorific titles of a particular religion. The community of Jesus’ students is not a religion and should not get involved in the honorific trappings of religion. All are students, with one teacher, Jesus Messiah and one “father” God, and the greatest is the one who serves the others. The simplicity of this scheme of church order seems to have escaped the notice of succeeding generations of the church, especially those which have invented elaborate hierarchies; but even comparatively simple forms of church order reserve for their ministers the right to be called “Reverend.” Should people revere me as a minister of the Church of Scotland? I’d much rather they saw me as a fellow student and we could get on with learning from Jesus together.