Behold, I make all things new!
Amos 9:8-15
8The eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth
— except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,
says the LORD.
9For lo, I will command,
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall to the ground.
10All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, "Evil shall not overtake or meet us."
11On that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen,
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old;
12in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,
says the LORD who does this.
13The time is surely coming, says the LORD,
when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps,
and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.
14I 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.
15I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall never again be plucked up
out of the land that I have given them,
says the LORD your God.
Shaken
When Amos, prophet and sheepherder, steps out with a message from the Lord, it is both good news and terrifying news. Israel has grown in prosperity, but it has done so with great inequality, neglecting the needs of the poor and vulnerable. The Lord will shake the house. The Lord will sift out what is unjust and unrighteous. As anyone who has been through an earthquake knows, the violent shaking is often terrifying. When the Lord promises to dismantle our unjust and unrighteous ways of living, we can prepare ourselves for the scary feeling of being shaken.
I recently heard Bishop Yvette Flunder of the United Church of Christ describe the pandemic as a period in which the church, like the rest of society, is being shaken. She, too, compared the experience to an earthquake. In a large enough earthquake, Flunder said, we discover what structures were built with strong foundations and “good bones.” The extra stuff on the building – the materials used to beautify or dress up or even cover up – those fall away. What is left standing is what was most important, most central, to begin with. Did the building collapse? Its problems began in the foundation.
What has the shaking of the last two years revealed to you? What has been shaken loose, shown to be unhealthy, unjust or unrighteous? What has been shaken loose in our churches that we thought was so important, but turns out it wasn’t? What has been shaken loose in our communities that reveal to us God’s call to “let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24)?
The shaking is scary. I have felt it. I am guessing you have felt it, too. But when the structure (our life, our congregation, our community) is shaken down to its bare bones, down to what matters, we discover a God who also promises to “repair its breaches and raise up its ruins and rebuild” (verse 11).
Holy God, in the midst of being shaken, help us to discover what you are sifting from our lives. In turning away from those things, help us to turn to you with trust and hope, and be raised up. Amen.
Rev. Liz Lowry - Lutheran Church of Hope, Anchorage