Amos 5:18-24
Every time there is a mass shooting, my former seminary professor Dr. Lisa Davison posts her translation and adaptation of the Amos verse I read this morning. She says:
I hate, I despise your excuses about 2nd Amendment rights,
and I take no delight in your solemn moments of silence.
Even though you offer me your exorbitant prayer days,
I will not accept them;
and the offerings of your lip service
I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your political posturing;
I will not listen to the melody of your “God Bless America”.
But let justice roll down like waters,
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
We’ve talked about the prophet Amos before. Amos is one of those oft-overlooked prophets, and the book that bears his name is primarily concerned with the treatment of oppressed peoples. The book of Amos is likely the oldest book of prophecy in the biblical record. Amos was likely one person, but this isn’t an autobiography. It was likely written in 760ish BCE and was specifically addressing the end of the Northern Kingdom (aka Israel.).
Amos shares God’s disappointment with the people of Israel. The best way to summarize Amos’ message is to say that God is disappointed that the Israelites are just continuing a “business as usual” kind of religion while the world crumbles around them. Essentially, the people have decided that their traditions are more important than the people around them. They have decided that tradition matters more than helping others- that sacrifices of bread and meat are more important than feeding those who are hungry. The people are so focused on the rules of their religious practice that they aren’t actually doing what they have been called to do. This is a perfect example of following the “letter of the law” rather than the spirit.
I know I’ve said these words before, but I think it bears repeating. God is disappointed in the “business as usual” response to tragedy. And if that’s not a message for today, i don’t know what is.
As of Wednesday morning, when I began writing this sermon, there had been 213 mass shootings in the United States during 2022. That’s more than one per day. 242 people are dead as a result of those shootings. This was the 30th school shooting this year. 30. This year. The gunman in this case, bought two assault rifles on or right after his 18th birthday. He used those assault weapons to murder 19 children and two teachers. This was the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook.
And i can’t help but ask why? Why have there been ANY school shootings since Sandy Hook? Since Columbine? Why are we still teaching children how to shelter in place, hide behind desks, stay quiet so that a gunman can’t hear them? Why do our teachers have to know how to handle their classroom in a lockdown situation? Why are they being asked to risk their lives to teach? Why are our teachers and our students being asked to return to “business as usual” the day after 19 children were murdered at school? How can any of us return to “business as usual?”
And yet that’s exactly what has happened. We’ve already stopped talking about the Tops grocery store shooting in Buffalo just a week ago. Politicians have weighed in with their usual “thoughts and prayers.” But here’s the thing. There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a situation you are unwilling to resolve. This is exactly the kind of situation Amos is speaking against. Amos is calling out those who are more concerned with clinging to their traditions and their rules than they are about the welfare of the people around them.
Amos would not be pleased with senators who are more concerned with the rights of gun owners than they are about the victims. Amos would call out politicians who care more about the rights of an unborn fetus than they do about 19 murdered children. I don’t believe for one second that God didn’t value the lives of those children more than the rights of an 18 year old who wanted some big guns.
No, Amos’s prayer would be similar to that of Chad Lucas who said “This is the only prayer on gun violence that makes sense to me anymore: may God visit insomnia and misery on every lawmaker and lobbyist who values profits over children’s lives until they change their ways and take action.” Of course, I don’t think God actually works that way. But I wish, in this case, that God did. Because those who refuse to make legislation that would put an end to this type of violence don’t deserve restful sleep.
God is not interested in lip service. God is not interested in prayers that do not have action behind them. God is not interested in “thoughts and prayers” when there are actual things that CAN be done. God is not interested in a press conference where the Govenor offers thoughts and prayers. Amos would interrupt. Beto O’Rourke interrupted and called out the governor. Amos would have done the same thing- in fact Amos WAS doing just that.
He was interrupting the status-quo response of the people. He was interrupting the cycle. Amos was calling the people out for doing nothing, but expecting things to magically get better on their own. Amos understood that change was the only option for progress. Offering thoughts and prayers isn’t enough. Action is required.
What kind of action? Well, that’s a bigger debate for another day, but suffice it to say that I don’t think anyone should be able to walk into a gun store and on the same day walk back out of that store with a weapon capable of mass murder. There has to be a line somewhere, and for me, assault rifles are that line. I don’t think that’s what our founding parents meant when they wrote the second amendment, and I really don’t think it’s God’s great desire for our country or our world.
And to be perfectly clear about it, Jesus wouldn’t be a gun-toting weekend warrior either. When Jesus followers bragged about defending themselves with weapons, he told them “No More of That.” When they came to his defense with swords and hurt the soldier? Jesus said “No More of that” and healed the injured. Jesus didn’t fight off his crucifixion with an AR-15. And even in his most angry moment- the flipping of the tables in the temple, Jesus didn’t harm anyone. That’s not how Jesus handled things. That’s not how we should handle things.
At the end of the play, the Laramie Project (a play about a terrible act of violence perpetrated against an innocent person), Zubaida Ula says, "We have to mourn this and we have to be sad that we live in a town, a state, a country where shit like this happens. I mean, these are people trying to distance themselves from this crime. And we need to own this crime…We are like this. We are like THIS. WE are like this."
We are like this. We are broken. And the fact that today is just "business as usual" somehow makes it feel that much worse. We are *SO* like this that 10 people can die at a grocery store and 19 kids can die in their classrooms and we just keep going. 213 mass shootings this year and we just keep going. We've lost 140 children under the age of 11 to gun violence in 2022. We've lost 507 teenagers to gun violence in 2022. We Are like this.
And so, I’ll close with another version of a prophet. This one from Jeremiah (again courtesy of Dr. Davison)
A voice is heard in Uvalde today,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.
[Jer 31:15 alt]
We weep for:
Nevaeh
Jacklyn
Makenna
Ellie
Eliahna
Irma and Joe
Uziyah
Amerie
Xavier
Jayce
Tess
Eva
Alithia
Annabell
Alexandria
Jailah
Eliahana
Rojelio
And for those who have not been identified or publicly named.
We weep.
Amen.