God's gift of wealth
Commentary
The Second Reading and the Gospel lesson for today both present strong cautions against the misuse of wealth. The story of the rich man and Lazarus sets the mood for the whole day, even though the First Reading is unrelated to this specific theme.
The parable seems to be typical of Luke's overall negative perspective on the problems of riches. This Gospel preserves more traditions related to the theme of possessions than any other, so we have already heard quite a bit about the matter in this year of the Cycle C lectionary. The story of the Unjust Steward was last week, and the story of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21) was just two months ago (Proper 13, August 2). A month hence we should be getting the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10; Proper 26), except that this year that one falls on All Saints' Sunday and gets omitted. The point is not simply that all these stories are in Luke, but that all these stories are unique to Luke.
Commentators sometimes observe that, although Luke consistently speaks about money, he does not seem to speak about money consistently. On the one hand, it is the poor not the rich who are blessed (Luke 6:20, 24), but on the other hand it is more blessed to give (as the rich are most able to do) than to receive (Acts 20:35). One man is praised in the Gospel for giving away half his goods (Luke 19:1-10), while another is apparently rejected because he will not give away all (Luke 18:18-25). In Acts, the Jerusalem church is described as practicing a sort of "Christian communism" (2:44-45; 4:32), but there is no indication that this practice is continued in the churches established by Paul.
So, what response is expected? Does Luke advocate vol-
untary poverty or asceticism or communism or simply generosity? The consensus of recent scholars has been that Luke's concern over money is just that: a concern. He does not have the answer, but he is quite sure that treasure on earth and treasure in heaven are incompatible (Luke 12:33). He does not know what everyone should do, but he passes on several examples of what some have done: Jesus' disciples abandon their possessions (5:11, 28); a centurion donates funds to build a synagogue (Luke 7:4-5); Zacchaeus gives half to the poor (19:1-10); Barnabas sells a field and gives the money to the church (Acts 4:36-37); the Jerusalem Christians share with one another (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32). No one example is made the paradigm for all, but other stories -- including the one for today -- illustrate the disaster that can befall those who do nothing (see also 12:13-21; 18:18-25). In short, Luke presents us with a problem and a challenge rather than offering us a specific agenda to fulfill. We may never be sure that the response we make is sufficient, but we can know for certain that "no response" is not.
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
The story of Jeremiah purchasing a field records a prophetic act that testifies to the endurance of hope in God's sure and certain promise.
The year is 587, an auspicious date that would be remembered forever as the beginning of the Babylonian exile. Indeed, Judah is currently under siege, the Babylonian army is obviously invincible, and the fate of the nation is clearly sealed. At that time, a man named Hanamel found it necessary to sell his field, probably as a result of the indebtedness that such troubled times can bring. According to Leviticus 37:17, whenever property was sold, the law granted kinsmen of the seller the first right of purchase so that, if they wished, they could keep the land in the family. Hanamel's cousin, the prophet Jeremiah, exercises this right and buys the field.
It is perhaps the worst time in history to be buying real estate. Before the year is up this field and all other land in Judah will belong to Babylon, and the people will be expelled from it. Anyone who is paying attention should be able to see what is happening. Is this prophet blinder than everyone else?
No, for Jeremiah himself has predicted the fall of Judah. In fact, he is currently in prison on account of those predictions. He knows better than anyone what will befall this country. The purchase, rather, is a prophetic act, prompted by a word of the Lord (vv. 6-7) to convey the message that "houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land" (v. 15). It is a sign of hope -- not a message that circumvents judgment, but a vision that sees beyond judgment. Jeremiah is not backpedaling from his earlier predictions of gloom, but insisting that God's final word is a promise, that God's final act is salvation.
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Our Second Reading offers "good advice" regarding money and material possessions. It comes in two blocks (6:6-10, 17-19) framed around an exhortation to confessional faith (6:11-16). The advice itself is not specifically Christian, but the confession is -- thus, the organization of the pericope makes faith central to what otherwise would be just generic wisdom.
As for the advice, "contentment" is recommended over greed. Many commentaries point out that the word translated here as "contentment" (autarkeia) was a favorite term for Cynics and Stoics, for whom it described the goal of "self-sufficiency." That can be misleading, however, if we think in terms of how Americans define self-sufficiency: being sufficiently wealthy so as not to need anyone else. In the Pauline tradition, to which this letter belongs, contentment means simply being satisfied with what one has (Philippians 4:11-14). Frequently, this entailed mutual dependence within a community.
The opposite of contentment here is "the love of money" (v. 10) or simply the desire to have more than one needs (v. 8). When this author defines needs as "food and clothing," he sounds like he's been reading the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:24-34). And when he reminds us that we lack even these when we enter and leave this world, we know he's been reading the book of Job (Job 1:21).
The arrangement of this advice into two sections indicates that greed is not just a problem for the rich. The first block is apparently addressed to those who are not rich, but who would like to be, to those whose "eagerness to be rich" not only leads them to compromise their faith but also becomes the source of much grief in this life (v. 10). The second block instructs those who are rich not to be haughty, not to set their hopes on their riches, but to take care that they do not miss out on "the life that really is life" (v. 19).
Again, we are reminded of Paul's words in Philippians 4. The secret is to be content whether one has little or plenty (Philippians 4:12). Neither circumstance makes contentment easier to attain -- that is a myth. The poor often think, "If only I had this, then I would be content." The rich are often depicted as being so obsessed with their wealth that they can never just say, "Enough is enough." Neither scenario is necessary. It is possible for both rich and poor to find contentment, in spite of wealth and in spite of poverty.
The secret, this epistle reveals, consists of "fighting the good fight of faith" (v. 11). All the good advice in the world may not take us there. Many who acknowledge the wisdom of such advice succumb to greed nonetheless. The heart of the matter (literally, in this pericope) is the confession of faith that so alters our perspective that we begin to see this world in light of eternity.
Luke 16:19-31
At first glance, Luke's parable of the rich man and Lazarus seems to present a harsher assessment of riches than that offered by our Second Reading. First Timothy sees no crime in being rich per se, so long as those who are wealthy set their hopes on God, are generous, and in other ways give evidence of the faith that sustains them (1 Timothy 6:17-19). But, here, the rich man is sent straight to Hades where he is in torment. Why?
Often, people try to read between the lines to figure out just what it was that this rich man did wrong. There's no hint that his wealth was ill-gotten, that he was dishonest or a thief. Maybe he mistreated poor Lazarus, some will suggest, or at least refused to help him. Maybe, but the text does not actually say that either. Rather, Father Abraham explains it this way: "During your lifetime, you received your good things ... now, you are in agony" (v. 25).
Is that how it works? Enjoy life now -- suffer agony later? Is it wrong to have "good things" now? What ever happened to the God of 1 Timothy 6:17, the one who provides us with things for our enjoyment? There's got to be more to it than this.
Indeed, there is. Verses 29-31 reveal that the rich man does not go to Hades simply because he is rich. He goes to Hades because he did not repent. And, he did not repent because he did not listen to Moses and the prophets. Earlier in this Gospel, John the Baptist warned that if people did not repent, claiming to have Abraham as their father would do them no good. Here we have a graphic illustration of this prediction being fulfilled.
It is typical of Luke to leave the story open-ended. We are left asking, "What if the man had listened to Moses and the prophets, what if he had repented, what precisely would he have done?" The purpose of the parable is to prompt us to ask that question. If Luke provided the answer, we would not have to ask it. So, he doesn't give the answer, only the question. He hopes that we will empathize with this poor rich man to the point that we ask the favorite Lukan question, "What then should we do?" (see Luke 3:10, 12, 14; Acts 2:37).
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
The time is 588 B.C. in our text. Jerusalem is under siege by the troops of Babylonia, and Jeremiah is imprisoned in the court of the palace guard. He is a traitor to the government of King Zedekiah, because he has been preaching that it is the will of God that Judah surrender to the Babylonians.
If one reads of the conditions in Jerusalem during the siege, the situation is appalling. Jeremiah (19:9), Ezekiel (5:10), and Lamentations (2:12, 19-20; 4:4, 7-10) all tell us that toward the end of the siege, parents were eating the flesh of their children. Epidemics and disease swept through the weakened and crowded population. Material property was of no value. Silver and gold were worthless, because there was nothing to buy. All commercial enterprises collapsed because there was nothing to sell. Property values plummeted, as they always do in war, because everyone was trying to sell property and flee the city. Who wanted any land when the Babylonians were knocking at the gates?
It is in this situation that the Word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah. "Buy the field which is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself. Then I knew," declares the prophet, "that this was the word of the Lord."
The command is totally incomprehensible to Jeremiah, as we read in verses 24-25. Jeremiah knows that Jerusalem is going to fall because of its rebellion against God. And yet Jeremiah is told, send and buy a field. When everything looks hopeless! When fields and farms are not worth a penny. When there seems to be no hope, because the world is crumbling about us, and the only thing worth doing seems to be to survive by any means here and now, and never mind the consequences. When our terrible, weak, blind human failures have gotten us into this mess, and we can no longer stand to analyze the guilty past or to look forward to the awful future that we have determined for ourselves. When we try to shut out memory, shut out hope, and just try to stay alive.
But the word is not, "Guard what you have, Jeremiah. Hide your scraps of bread and your cup of water from those who peer hungrily into your courtyard. Never mind what's happening outside in the street. Look out for yourself." No. The word is, "Buy a field." And the reason for that command to the prophet is given in verse 15. "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land."
That is the Word of God that comes to us from this passage in Jeremiah. When everything is hopeless on our human scene, God still has a plan for the future.
When we stand beside the grave of a loved one, and all the pain floods over us, when we realize that we can nevermore say what we wanted to say and can nevermore do what we wanted to do for that loved one, God has a plan.
When everything lovely and gracious and pure in our world seems to fall victim to corruption and evil, when no good work seems to endure, and no project of love seems to bear lasting fruit, when everything we do is tainted by selfishness, God has a plan.
When the meek, the peacemakers, the pure in heart get trampled into the dirt, when the weak constantly are sacrificed on the altars of power, and the tongues of the proud and mighty strut through the earth, God has a plan.
When there seems to lie ahead of us nothing but a crucifixion, when the Gethsemane of prayer is darkened by the shadow of a looming Golgotha, when we would rather do any other thing than obey the will of the Father, and we cry out to him to remove this cup from us, God has a plan.
It is a plan of love to save us and our world, despite the fact that we deserve nothing but God's condemnation of death. It is a plan to re-create that good and abundant and eternal life on earth that God intended for his world in the beginning. It is a plan to make a new people, a new community, that knows how to live together in justice and peace and righteousness, under the lordship of God. And in Jeremiah, we see God patiently, step by step, working out that plan for the future that will finally lead to a cross, a resurrection, an ascension, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to us all.
Lutheran Option, Amos 6:1a, 4-7
This judgment oracle is the second in a series of three in which Amos attacks those things in which the eighth century northern kingdom of Israel places her confidence and security (Amos 5:18--6:14). Significantly the section begins with an announcement of the coming Day of the Lord, the day of God's final judgment on his people (5:18-20), that will be darkness and not light because of Israel's continuing violation of God's order for the covenant community. The people place their confidence in their lavish worship rituals (5:21-24), in their wealth (6:1-7), and in their military might (6:8-11), and the prophet declares that all of those guarantees of security will be useless before God's judgment (6:12-14).
Our particular text concerns the ill-placed confidence that Israel's leaders have in their wealth (cf. Isaiah 2:20-21). The lectionary has wisely eliminated verses 2 and 3, because those are probably inserts from the later time when the cities named fell to the Assyrians. The remaining verses have the form of a Woe oracle, that is, of a funeral lament for one who is dead, presaging Israel's future ruin.
The picture given of the wealthy in Israel's society is vivid. The upper crust, "the notable men," consider themselves to be leaders of "the first of the nations," the most important and powerful kingdom on earth -- a sarcastic address on Amos' part. While the southern kingdom is mentioned ("Zion"), it is only for purposes of comparison. In the north, in Israel, are found the leaders of the world -- or so they think. And it is their wealth that gives them that delusion.
After all, God has blessed them. They are able to sprawl about at their banquets on couches inlaid with costly ivory. They can eat the choicest meats, although meat of any kind was a rarity in Israel. They can amuse themselves by improvising songs (the Hebrew calls it "screechings") on lutes and timbrels. They can intoxicate themselves with wine drunk not from cups, but from bowls. And they can stimulate themselves by anointing their skin with fragrant oils. All the luxuries of life are theirs. So surely they live in the favor of God, because he has poured out innumerable blessings upon them. It is a confidence not unknown to us well-to-do in American society.
Yet, these rich leaders of Israel lack the most important gift -- the gift of concern for the "ruin of Joseph" (v. 6), compassion for those less well-off, anger over the injustice taking place in their courts and commerce, zeal for the will of God for their society. Secure, comfortable, able to have and to do anything they want, these so-called notable, well-fed, well-
off people give no thought either to the Lord or to their neighbors. Is that not a description of many of us so much of the time?
But God gives thought to them -- and to us. And so those who are "first" in the "first of the nations" will indeed be "first" -- first into Assyrian exile (v. 7). Those comforts and that power in which they place their trust will be useless to turn aside the judgment of the Lord of all upon them. For there is only One who can give us true security, no matter what our station in life. There is only One who can mark out for us the way to a truly just society. And there is only One whom we can trust to preserve our lives, though heaven and earth pass away. The psalmist sings it well: "God is our refuge and strength ... Therefore we will not fear" (Psalm 46:1, 2). In God and his will for human beings, though we be rich or poor or middle-class, important or useful or insignificant, lie all our hope, our preservation, and our good.
The parable seems to be typical of Luke's overall negative perspective on the problems of riches. This Gospel preserves more traditions related to the theme of possessions than any other, so we have already heard quite a bit about the matter in this year of the Cycle C lectionary. The story of the Unjust Steward was last week, and the story of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21) was just two months ago (Proper 13, August 2). A month hence we should be getting the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10; Proper 26), except that this year that one falls on All Saints' Sunday and gets omitted. The point is not simply that all these stories are in Luke, but that all these stories are unique to Luke.
Commentators sometimes observe that, although Luke consistently speaks about money, he does not seem to speak about money consistently. On the one hand, it is the poor not the rich who are blessed (Luke 6:20, 24), but on the other hand it is more blessed to give (as the rich are most able to do) than to receive (Acts 20:35). One man is praised in the Gospel for giving away half his goods (Luke 19:1-10), while another is apparently rejected because he will not give away all (Luke 18:18-25). In Acts, the Jerusalem church is described as practicing a sort of "Christian communism" (2:44-45; 4:32), but there is no indication that this practice is continued in the churches established by Paul.
So, what response is expected? Does Luke advocate vol-
untary poverty or asceticism or communism or simply generosity? The consensus of recent scholars has been that Luke's concern over money is just that: a concern. He does not have the answer, but he is quite sure that treasure on earth and treasure in heaven are incompatible (Luke 12:33). He does not know what everyone should do, but he passes on several examples of what some have done: Jesus' disciples abandon their possessions (5:11, 28); a centurion donates funds to build a synagogue (Luke 7:4-5); Zacchaeus gives half to the poor (19:1-10); Barnabas sells a field and gives the money to the church (Acts 4:36-37); the Jerusalem Christians share with one another (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32). No one example is made the paradigm for all, but other stories -- including the one for today -- illustrate the disaster that can befall those who do nothing (see also 12:13-21; 18:18-25). In short, Luke presents us with a problem and a challenge rather than offering us a specific agenda to fulfill. We may never be sure that the response we make is sufficient, but we can know for certain that "no response" is not.
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
The story of Jeremiah purchasing a field records a prophetic act that testifies to the endurance of hope in God's sure and certain promise.
The year is 587, an auspicious date that would be remembered forever as the beginning of the Babylonian exile. Indeed, Judah is currently under siege, the Babylonian army is obviously invincible, and the fate of the nation is clearly sealed. At that time, a man named Hanamel found it necessary to sell his field, probably as a result of the indebtedness that such troubled times can bring. According to Leviticus 37:17, whenever property was sold, the law granted kinsmen of the seller the first right of purchase so that, if they wished, they could keep the land in the family. Hanamel's cousin, the prophet Jeremiah, exercises this right and buys the field.
It is perhaps the worst time in history to be buying real estate. Before the year is up this field and all other land in Judah will belong to Babylon, and the people will be expelled from it. Anyone who is paying attention should be able to see what is happening. Is this prophet blinder than everyone else?
No, for Jeremiah himself has predicted the fall of Judah. In fact, he is currently in prison on account of those predictions. He knows better than anyone what will befall this country. The purchase, rather, is a prophetic act, prompted by a word of the Lord (vv. 6-7) to convey the message that "houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land" (v. 15). It is a sign of hope -- not a message that circumvents judgment, but a vision that sees beyond judgment. Jeremiah is not backpedaling from his earlier predictions of gloom, but insisting that God's final word is a promise, that God's final act is salvation.
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Our Second Reading offers "good advice" regarding money and material possessions. It comes in two blocks (6:6-10, 17-19) framed around an exhortation to confessional faith (6:11-16). The advice itself is not specifically Christian, but the confession is -- thus, the organization of the pericope makes faith central to what otherwise would be just generic wisdom.
As for the advice, "contentment" is recommended over greed. Many commentaries point out that the word translated here as "contentment" (autarkeia) was a favorite term for Cynics and Stoics, for whom it described the goal of "self-sufficiency." That can be misleading, however, if we think in terms of how Americans define self-sufficiency: being sufficiently wealthy so as not to need anyone else. In the Pauline tradition, to which this letter belongs, contentment means simply being satisfied with what one has (Philippians 4:11-14). Frequently, this entailed mutual dependence within a community.
The opposite of contentment here is "the love of money" (v. 10) or simply the desire to have more than one needs (v. 8). When this author defines needs as "food and clothing," he sounds like he's been reading the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:24-34). And when he reminds us that we lack even these when we enter and leave this world, we know he's been reading the book of Job (Job 1:21).
The arrangement of this advice into two sections indicates that greed is not just a problem for the rich. The first block is apparently addressed to those who are not rich, but who would like to be, to those whose "eagerness to be rich" not only leads them to compromise their faith but also becomes the source of much grief in this life (v. 10). The second block instructs those who are rich not to be haughty, not to set their hopes on their riches, but to take care that they do not miss out on "the life that really is life" (v. 19).
Again, we are reminded of Paul's words in Philippians 4. The secret is to be content whether one has little or plenty (Philippians 4:12). Neither circumstance makes contentment easier to attain -- that is a myth. The poor often think, "If only I had this, then I would be content." The rich are often depicted as being so obsessed with their wealth that they can never just say, "Enough is enough." Neither scenario is necessary. It is possible for both rich and poor to find contentment, in spite of wealth and in spite of poverty.
The secret, this epistle reveals, consists of "fighting the good fight of faith" (v. 11). All the good advice in the world may not take us there. Many who acknowledge the wisdom of such advice succumb to greed nonetheless. The heart of the matter (literally, in this pericope) is the confession of faith that so alters our perspective that we begin to see this world in light of eternity.
Luke 16:19-31
At first glance, Luke's parable of the rich man and Lazarus seems to present a harsher assessment of riches than that offered by our Second Reading. First Timothy sees no crime in being rich per se, so long as those who are wealthy set their hopes on God, are generous, and in other ways give evidence of the faith that sustains them (1 Timothy 6:17-19). But, here, the rich man is sent straight to Hades where he is in torment. Why?
Often, people try to read between the lines to figure out just what it was that this rich man did wrong. There's no hint that his wealth was ill-gotten, that he was dishonest or a thief. Maybe he mistreated poor Lazarus, some will suggest, or at least refused to help him. Maybe, but the text does not actually say that either. Rather, Father Abraham explains it this way: "During your lifetime, you received your good things ... now, you are in agony" (v. 25).
Is that how it works? Enjoy life now -- suffer agony later? Is it wrong to have "good things" now? What ever happened to the God of 1 Timothy 6:17, the one who provides us with things for our enjoyment? There's got to be more to it than this.
Indeed, there is. Verses 29-31 reveal that the rich man does not go to Hades simply because he is rich. He goes to Hades because he did not repent. And, he did not repent because he did not listen to Moses and the prophets. Earlier in this Gospel, John the Baptist warned that if people did not repent, claiming to have Abraham as their father would do them no good. Here we have a graphic illustration of this prediction being fulfilled.
It is typical of Luke to leave the story open-ended. We are left asking, "What if the man had listened to Moses and the prophets, what if he had repented, what precisely would he have done?" The purpose of the parable is to prompt us to ask that question. If Luke provided the answer, we would not have to ask it. So, he doesn't give the answer, only the question. He hopes that we will empathize with this poor rich man to the point that we ask the favorite Lukan question, "What then should we do?" (see Luke 3:10, 12, 14; Acts 2:37).
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
The time is 588 B.C. in our text. Jerusalem is under siege by the troops of Babylonia, and Jeremiah is imprisoned in the court of the palace guard. He is a traitor to the government of King Zedekiah, because he has been preaching that it is the will of God that Judah surrender to the Babylonians.
If one reads of the conditions in Jerusalem during the siege, the situation is appalling. Jeremiah (19:9), Ezekiel (5:10), and Lamentations (2:12, 19-20; 4:4, 7-10) all tell us that toward the end of the siege, parents were eating the flesh of their children. Epidemics and disease swept through the weakened and crowded population. Material property was of no value. Silver and gold were worthless, because there was nothing to buy. All commercial enterprises collapsed because there was nothing to sell. Property values plummeted, as they always do in war, because everyone was trying to sell property and flee the city. Who wanted any land when the Babylonians were knocking at the gates?
It is in this situation that the Word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah. "Buy the field which is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself. Then I knew," declares the prophet, "that this was the word of the Lord."
The command is totally incomprehensible to Jeremiah, as we read in verses 24-25. Jeremiah knows that Jerusalem is going to fall because of its rebellion against God. And yet Jeremiah is told, send and buy a field. When everything looks hopeless! When fields and farms are not worth a penny. When there seems to be no hope, because the world is crumbling about us, and the only thing worth doing seems to be to survive by any means here and now, and never mind the consequences. When our terrible, weak, blind human failures have gotten us into this mess, and we can no longer stand to analyze the guilty past or to look forward to the awful future that we have determined for ourselves. When we try to shut out memory, shut out hope, and just try to stay alive.
But the word is not, "Guard what you have, Jeremiah. Hide your scraps of bread and your cup of water from those who peer hungrily into your courtyard. Never mind what's happening outside in the street. Look out for yourself." No. The word is, "Buy a field." And the reason for that command to the prophet is given in verse 15. "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land."
That is the Word of God that comes to us from this passage in Jeremiah. When everything is hopeless on our human scene, God still has a plan for the future.
When we stand beside the grave of a loved one, and all the pain floods over us, when we realize that we can nevermore say what we wanted to say and can nevermore do what we wanted to do for that loved one, God has a plan.
When everything lovely and gracious and pure in our world seems to fall victim to corruption and evil, when no good work seems to endure, and no project of love seems to bear lasting fruit, when everything we do is tainted by selfishness, God has a plan.
When the meek, the peacemakers, the pure in heart get trampled into the dirt, when the weak constantly are sacrificed on the altars of power, and the tongues of the proud and mighty strut through the earth, God has a plan.
When there seems to lie ahead of us nothing but a crucifixion, when the Gethsemane of prayer is darkened by the shadow of a looming Golgotha, when we would rather do any other thing than obey the will of the Father, and we cry out to him to remove this cup from us, God has a plan.
It is a plan of love to save us and our world, despite the fact that we deserve nothing but God's condemnation of death. It is a plan to re-create that good and abundant and eternal life on earth that God intended for his world in the beginning. It is a plan to make a new people, a new community, that knows how to live together in justice and peace and righteousness, under the lordship of God. And in Jeremiah, we see God patiently, step by step, working out that plan for the future that will finally lead to a cross, a resurrection, an ascension, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to us all.
Lutheran Option, Amos 6:1a, 4-7
This judgment oracle is the second in a series of three in which Amos attacks those things in which the eighth century northern kingdom of Israel places her confidence and security (Amos 5:18--6:14). Significantly the section begins with an announcement of the coming Day of the Lord, the day of God's final judgment on his people (5:18-20), that will be darkness and not light because of Israel's continuing violation of God's order for the covenant community. The people place their confidence in their lavish worship rituals (5:21-24), in their wealth (6:1-7), and in their military might (6:8-11), and the prophet declares that all of those guarantees of security will be useless before God's judgment (6:12-14).
Our particular text concerns the ill-placed confidence that Israel's leaders have in their wealth (cf. Isaiah 2:20-21). The lectionary has wisely eliminated verses 2 and 3, because those are probably inserts from the later time when the cities named fell to the Assyrians. The remaining verses have the form of a Woe oracle, that is, of a funeral lament for one who is dead, presaging Israel's future ruin.
The picture given of the wealthy in Israel's society is vivid. The upper crust, "the notable men," consider themselves to be leaders of "the first of the nations," the most important and powerful kingdom on earth -- a sarcastic address on Amos' part. While the southern kingdom is mentioned ("Zion"), it is only for purposes of comparison. In the north, in Israel, are found the leaders of the world -- or so they think. And it is their wealth that gives them that delusion.
After all, God has blessed them. They are able to sprawl about at their banquets on couches inlaid with costly ivory. They can eat the choicest meats, although meat of any kind was a rarity in Israel. They can amuse themselves by improvising songs (the Hebrew calls it "screechings") on lutes and timbrels. They can intoxicate themselves with wine drunk not from cups, but from bowls. And they can stimulate themselves by anointing their skin with fragrant oils. All the luxuries of life are theirs. So surely they live in the favor of God, because he has poured out innumerable blessings upon them. It is a confidence not unknown to us well-to-do in American society.
Yet, these rich leaders of Israel lack the most important gift -- the gift of concern for the "ruin of Joseph" (v. 6), compassion for those less well-off, anger over the injustice taking place in their courts and commerce, zeal for the will of God for their society. Secure, comfortable, able to have and to do anything they want, these so-called notable, well-fed, well-
off people give no thought either to the Lord or to their neighbors. Is that not a description of many of us so much of the time?
But God gives thought to them -- and to us. And so those who are "first" in the "first of the nations" will indeed be "first" -- first into Assyrian exile (v. 7). Those comforts and that power in which they place their trust will be useless to turn aside the judgment of the Lord of all upon them. For there is only One who can give us true security, no matter what our station in life. There is only One who can mark out for us the way to a truly just society. And there is only One whom we can trust to preserve our lives, though heaven and earth pass away. The psalmist sings it well: "God is our refuge and strength ... Therefore we will not fear" (Psalm 46:1, 2). In God and his will for human beings, though we be rich or poor or middle-class, important or useful or insignificant, lie all our hope, our preservation, and our good.
