Wednesday, July 14, 2010

hardship and repentance

Good morning brothers and sisters,
This morning's reading is a challenging one. Amos lists off disasters that have fallen on Israel beginning with "Cleanness of teeth" (famine) and including things like "killing your young men with the sword." All of these disasters are said to have come from God and were sent to call the people back to faithfulness to God. When things went badly for our puritan ancestors when they first moved to this continent, whether it was a bad harvest or illness or anything else, they considered the possibility that God was correcting them for some sin. Their response to hardship was to fast and meet together to pray so they could see where they were going wrong and mend their ways.

Today we usually understand different sources for our hardships: crops fail because the weather wasn't right; illness comes from germs, etc. The advantage to our viewpoint is that often by seeking a scientific cause to our problems we can find a cure. Also, we don't end up burdened by the idea that God is causing our hardship, which often makes our relationship with God more positive. On the other hand, we've lost the habit of repenting and seeking God anytime something goes wrong, and sometimes we feel like God is far away from real life. I wonder if there is a way to balance the two approaches where we can take hardship (and success too) as a call to examine our lives and repent while not assuming that everything that goes wrong is God's doing. Scripture has three main ways of looking at suffering. Sometimes suffering is random, things just happen. Other times suffering is the result of injustice: an abused spouse suffers not for her sin but because her spouse is unjust. And sometimes we suffer because we have done something wrong. These different causes are often mixed together, but we can always respond by seeking the Lord and trying to be more faithful.

God bless,
Sam

Amos 4:6-13
6I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. 7And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered; 8so two or three towns wandered to one town to drink water, and were not satisfied; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.

9I struck you with blight and mildew; I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards; the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. 10I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword; I carried away your horses; and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. 11I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a brand snatched from the fire; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.

12Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel! 13For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

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