Prophet Against Privilege

Scripture: Amos 6 Amos 9

Sermon: Prophet Against Privilege

Topics: privilege, racism, hope, dream

Preached: January 18, 2015

Rev. Mike Abma

PREAMBLE — Two Stories

Before turning to some passages from the prophet Amos, I would like to start with a few stories from the news lately.

The first story comes out of Chattanooga Tennessee.

It happened the day after Christmas.

The police department received a number of calls that there was a driver in Chattanooga who was driving through town shooting at other cars.

The callers reported seeing the gun out of the window.

The police responded to the calls.

They found the car matching the description,

and proceeded to try pull it over.

But the car took off.

And there was a car chase through town,

with that gun being pointed out the window at the police several times.

Are you worried right now?

Do you have a sense that things are not going to end well?

But, lo, and behold, the police eventually cornered that car,

and the driver was arrested without incident or injury.

Without incident or injury.

That is story number 1.

Now story number 2.

This time it is 2 days after Christmas.

The city is Baltimore Maryland.

Again a car and driver, and this time there is a bicyclist involved.

It is late afternoon.

The bicyclist, a 41 year old man, father of two young children, aged 4 and 6,

was biking in the designated bike lane.

A car and driver going in the same direction as the cyclist,

swerved into the designated bike lane

and struck the cyclist.

The car and driver then left the scene of the accident.

The cyclist died of his injuries.

The driver returned to the scene of the accident about 30 minutes later.

The driver was taken by police to the police station.

A breathalyzer test was given.

The driver had a blood alcohol level of .22 more than double the legal limit of .08.

When the police checked the driver’s cell phone, it was also discovered that the driver was texting when the accident occurred.

The driver was released and allowed to return home.

Now these two news stories sound quite different from others that we have heard recently about young, unarmed African American males and their encounters with the police.

But let me tell you a key factor in both the news stories I told you about.

In the first story, the driver in Chattanooga with the gun shooting at other cars,

well, that driver was a 45 year old white woman named Julia Shields.

And the hit and run intoxicated, texting driver in the second story was also a white 58 year old woman named Heather Cook . Added to this, she happens to be a Bishop in the Episcopal Church and when she returned to the scene of the accident, she was accompanied by a Church official from the Episcopal Church.

The jarring thing about these stories

especially when they are put beside other news stories

is that they raise the question of “privilege.”

Are certain people given the “privilege” of different treatment

because of the color of their skin,

their economic standing

or their gender?

Privilege.

It is an interesting word.

Privilege is actually the putting together of two Latin words:

Privus – meaning private

Legis — meaning law.

Privilege means that you enjoy a private law that others do not.

A sense of Privilege is one of the major problems the prophet Amos addresses in his writings.

Over and over again he challenges the assumed privilege of the Israelites:

their assumption that God was on their side;

that God blessed how they lived;

that they had nothing to worry about from God.

Let me give you some examples of how he does this.

Let’s first turn to Amos 6: 1-3

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,

   and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,

the notables of the first of the nations,

   to whom the house of Israel resorts! 

² Cross over to Calneh (north near modern Aleppo), and see;

   from there go to Hamath (north of Damascus) the great;

   then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are you better than these kingdoms?

   Or is your territory greater than their territory, 

³ O you that put far away the evil day,

   and bring near a reign of violence? 

Here Amos pokes at Israel’s assumption that

they had a privileged status before God, the Judge,

because of their nationality;

because they assumed that they were the “First of the nations.”

Amos pointedly asks – Are you any better than these kingdoms?”

It is a rhetorical question, of course.

They are no better, and Amos was there to remind them of that.

Amos was there to poke at Israel’s sense of Privilege vis-à-vis other nations.

But Amos was also there to poke at those who had a sense of privilege within Israel.

These were the wealthy in Israel,

those who

in Amos’ words

trampled upon the poor

and pushed aside the needy.

In the next verses of chapter 6

Amos takes aim at these wealthy and privileged Israelites,

who paid no attention to the moral decay of the country,

the lack of justice

the lack of care for the needy.

Listen,

⁴ Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,

   and lounge on their couches,

and eat lambs from the flock,

   and calves from the stall; 

⁵ who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,

   and like David improvise on instruments of music; 

⁶ who drink wine from bowls,

   and anoint themselves with the finest oils,

   but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! 

⁷ Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,

   and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away. 

So Amos takes aim at national privilege —

we are treated better by God because

we are Israelites and you are not.

Now he takes aim at economic privilege –

we are treated better by God because

we are blessed and wealthy and you are not.

Judgment, exile, is waiting for you, says Amos.

I would like us to look at one more passage.

This one in chapter 9: 7-8

It takes aim at Israel’s racial privilege.

⁷ Are you not like the Ethiopians (Cushites) to me,

   O people of Israel? says the Lord.

Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt,

   and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? 

⁸ The 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. 

Are you not like Ethiopians or Cushites to me?

You know, the little Sudanese group that meets in the Ministry Center calls itself Cush CRC.

Here Amos mentions the most different people he can think of

the Ethiopians, the Cushites

who were racially different

culturally different

and who were geographically the most distant place that Amos probably knew.

And even here,

Amos asks Israel,

Are you not like the Ethiopians, the Cushites to me?

In other words, there is no difference.

Why does Amos take such aim at Israel’s sense of privilege?

Because Israel was using their sense of privilege

to sin more and more

and to seek justice less and less.

So Amos has to say to Israel,

bluntly, even shockingly

that Israel has no privilege before God;

no privilege to sin more than others;

no privilege to expect mercy more than others;

no privilege to presume God will give them differently than others.

It is as if Amos is saying,

as loudly and clearly as he can,

“When you come before the Lord

check your privilege at the door.

For we are all sinners,

and some of you privileged ones

are in fact greater sinners than others.”

CONCLUSION

If this is where Amos ended,

he would be a very difficult prophet to read.

But Amos ends with an “I Have A Dream” speech.

Amos ends with a dream….

a dream of creation being renewed

with wine dripping from mountains

gardens overflowing with produce

and a new Eden being born.

Amos ends with a dream

of God’s people

of all nations

being raised up and restored by an heir of David;

all nations

sitting at one table

worshipping one Lord

enjoying one Mercy.

That is the dream we share

every time we come around this table.

Not a dream of privilege,

but a dream

of God’s grace

given to sinners like us.

Amen.