Amos: a root text for social justice

Part 4: It shall be darkness, not light!

The consequences of injustice

A few years ago, I was eating lunch at a small pizza place in Washington, DC.
This was a few years after the Washington, DC, Columbia Heights riot and 
just after the Los Angeles riot, both of which were started by incidents
of police brutality.  As I was sitting and eating, I overheard the 
counterwoman talking to a male customer.  Both were black, and, as far as I
could tell, working class.  As he was waiting for his order, she looked 
up and said (as far as I remember), "You know, I really wish that a riot 
would start here.  That way... something would happen."  He looked back at 
her with a direct, eye-to-eye challenge.  "Why do you want that?  It's 
not just the 'right' people that get hurt in riots.  You could get hurt too.
And if this place burns down, you'll lose your job."

Who shall be punished for injustice?

According to Amos, everyone.  

Oh, he promises specific destruction for some of the wealthy and
powerful that he criticizes.  But most of the punishments that God
announces are general: drought, disease, fire, culminating in the
invasion of Israel by outside enemies, and survival of a mere remmnant
of the people in exile.  If I quoted all of these passages, I'd have 
to quote most of the book, so let's just see two: 


If ten people are left in one house, they shall die.  And if someone's
kinsman -- who is to burn incense for him -- comes to carry the
remains out of a house, and he calls to the one at the rear of the house,
"Are there any alive besides you?" he will answer, "No, none."  And he will
say, "Hush!" -- so that no one may utter the name of the Lord.
   For the Lord will command,
   And the great house shall be smashed to bits,
   And the little house to splinters.


Here's a passage that we've seen part of before-- now see what comes
after it:


Listen to this, you who devour the needy, annihilating the poor
of the land, saying, "If only the new moon were over, so that 
we could sell grain: the sabbath, so that we could offer wheat 
for sale, using a measure that is too small, and a shekel that
is too big; tilting a dishonest scale, and selling grain refuse 
as grain!  We will buy the poor for silver, the needy for a
pair of sandals."  The Lord swears by the Pride of Jacob:
"I will never forget any of their doings."

Shall not the earth shake for this
And all that dwell on it mourn?
Shall it not all rise like the Nile
And surge and subside like the Nile of Egypt?


Although the criticism is of the cheating merchants, the punishment
is of everyone.  If the earth really shook with earthquake and then
rose up like a flood of the Nile, everyone would perish, both just
and unjust.

I'll put in my personal opinion even more than I have through the
rest of this examination: I beleive that this is a more realistic 
portrayal of the consequences of long-lasting social injustice than
those that promise that only the guilty will be made to suffer.

In fact, some of Amos' scorn is reserved specifically for those who
call for the Day of Judgement and look forward to it.  These are some
of the most electrifying passages in the book: 


Ah, you who wish
For the day of the Lord!
Why should you want
The day of the Lord?
It shall be darkness, not light!

--As if a man should run from a lion
And be attacked by a bear
Or if he got indoors,
Should lean his hand on the wall
And be bitten by a snake!
Surely the day of the Lord shall be
not light, but darkness,
Blackest night without a glimmer.


Or more briefly, after a list of disasters:


Even so will I act toward you, O Israel--
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!


There is none of the nonsense that some so-called religious fundamentalists
say, that they look forward to Judgement Day and meeting God.
Try memorizing the paragraph ending "It shall be darkness, not light!"
if you are annoyed by these people.  But it equally well speaks to
those that promise easy salvation through political revolution.

There is a promise of future bliss in Amos.  The last few paragraphs
predict a nationalistic utopia in which Israel will once again rule
over the lands that she lost, and in which everything that was taken
away shall be restored.  These paragraphs are so out of place with the
rest of the book that many commentators think that they were added later
by another writer, after the actual exile.  Or they could be seen as a 
final failure of nerve, as Amos confronts the unrelieved pessimism of 
his prophecy.  In any case, they serve as a final reminder: social 
injustice has another consequence, the raising up of a new hope that 
often ends up by duplicating the injustices of the old.

In the end, everyone in a society will be affected by the injustice
in that society.  Our culture is focussed on personal responsibility for
all things, and devalues the idea that everyone is responsible for the
state of our society.  So this part of Amos' message tends to be the most 
neglected, and the least evident in modern social justice movements.

The next section will deal with hypocrisy, token actions, and rejected
worship, and will bring us back to the ordination story that we started 
with.