Amos 8: 4-7 & Luke 16: 1-13 (Sunday, September 23, 2007 – Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

To understand the first reading of today, we need to understand the historical and social setting in which the prophet Amos was prophesying. Amos prophesied when Uzziah was king of Judah. This prophecy was given two years before the earthquake that destroyed Judah. This earthquake marked the crime of uzziah when he attempted to offer incense in the temple. These were good years for Israel. There was surplus in the land as well as prosperity. Business at this time was good and the economy was very prosperous.

Amos’ message was directed to a people who lived in prosperity, took on the external forms of religion and deprived the poor among them of justice. The people did not abandon the Lord, they continued to worship the Lord in their sinfulness as we too do today. But friends, God is more pleased with righteousness and justice than with sacrifices. We, like the people of Israel are called by the Prophet Amos to abandon our sinfulness and worship the Lord in truth and Spirit. In the first reading of today, I see three crimes Amos prophesied against, and these crimes still exist today.

The first crime is that of trampling upon the needy and destroying the poor of the Land. Amos is speaking against oppression of the poor. What were the rich doing to the poor? They placed heavy taxes on houses and land in order to force the poor to sell their houses to them. This is the greed and avarice of those who rule us. Amos is talking about those land hungry upper class citizens. They want to rob the poor of their land. Land was very important in this culture. In most cases, this land has been handed down from generations to generations and it was one thing the poor could hold unto and be proud of. Placing heavy taxes on the land made it incapable for them to pay and the wealthy bought over these lands at cheaper prices. Our society today is marked by this. We all have friends, relatives, neighbors who have been forced out of their homes because they cannot meet up the high mortgage rates. Many small family run companies have been forced out of business by wealthy leaders of our society. We have enshrined the principle, “I did it on my own, you too can do it on your own.” Saints, have you forgotten that these five fingers are not equal? Have you forgotten that your wealth is not yours, but you are holding it in custody of the poor and needy of our community? God has generously blessed you so that you may generously give to those who do not have.

Amos also attacked the crime of cheating. We have put in place all forms of laws to rob the poor. Is there anybody here that sells insurance? How many times has your insurance company refused to pay rightful benefits? If you are car dealer, how many times have you really paid too low below the value of a car as a trade-in because you know this person is desperate in getting a new car and has no cash down? If you are a loan officer, how many times have you charged too much interest on that poor person who is trying to get a loan for a house, car or college?

Amos prophesied against the crime of selling the just man for silver and the poor man for a pair of sandals. It was a very common practice in the Ancient Near East to sell people into slavery in order to pay debts. We are told that the poor fell deeper and deeper into debt to wealthy landowners that they finally had to sell their land and even themselves. In 2 Kings 4:1-7 we get a clearer picture of what Amos is saying. In this passage we see the story of a poor widow in the time of Elijah that was being forced to sell her children into slavery in payment for the deceased husband’s debt. Why did Amos use the example of a pair of sandals? This is to show us how cheap it was to buy a poor person. This was a serious crime because in Israel, there was a law against depriving a person of his basic needs even if it serves as collateral. That is why Exodus 22:25-26 tells us that, “If you take your neighbors cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset, for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? if he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.”

Saints, Amos has a message for all of us sitting here today. Our country is a rich and prosperous one. Our treatment of the poor in our society is as scornful to Yahweh as was that of Israel. The poor today are those who do not have at all, our brothers and sisters in the streets, our brothers and sisters addicted to drugs and alcohol, our sisters being abused by their husbands, our brothers and sisters who lost their jobs without any just cause or reason. Many of our people have lost their homes and property to the rich because they cannot meet the financial demands of our society. Our courts have denied justice to many of our brothers and sisters because they cannot afford the legal fees, and so they get stuck with a court-assigned attorney that is not interested in their justice. The helpless people we kill everyday through abortion. We have waged unjust wars killing innocent people. We rejoice saying God has given us victory, bring them on, in God we trust. Friends, God is telling us today that we need to do something about our land. God is giving us the responsibility of managing well the resources he has entrusted to us.

This is what the Gospel message today is all about. Stewardship, stewardship, and I repeat again, stewardship. Most of us sitting in this church today are the most lucky of our brothers and sisters in the community. Many are homeless, they have nothing to eat, but thank God most of us gathered here this morning have a home to return to and can afford our meals. Our own possessions should be able to benefit the needy. If we must be truly disciples, we have to convert mammon into heavenly capital by sharing it with others, particularly the needy. We cannot keep all we have to ourselves, less we are only building our treasures here on earth. Christ is telling us today, you cannot serve both God and mammon. You have to be loyal to God or be succumbed to mammon. He puts before you today, Life and death. Choose life that you may live. There is no middle standing. You have to choose one thing. Revelations 3: 14 tells us you are lukewarm, you are neither hot nor cold, because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. We do not want lukewarm Christians, we want Christians who are active in the community. We want Christians who are ready to share their resources with the poor and needy of the community. In this way, God will bless you abundantly and you would be rewarded with eternal life.