God drought

The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirsty for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord (Amos)

“Why is Amos in such a bad mood?  Because the rich have used their riches to burden those who will never work their way out of debt.  Because the clever have used their cleverness to trick those who cannot think as fast.  Because making a profit has become more important than anything else in the land – more important than justice, more important than Sabbath, more important than God… Amos is in a bad mood because the health of the market has become a higher good than the health of the people and God can’t stand it anymore… He is stabbing an entire nation on God’s behalf”

                                                                                  Barbara Brown Taylor

___________________________________________________

I believe we are going to pay

For calling good evil and evil good

I believe we are going to pay

For putting profits above justice

And power above love

And money above people

It may not be

That anytime in the near future

America will simply collapse

It may not be that those who legislate injustice

Will find themselves voted out of office

It is doubtful that those who with great impunity break the rule of law

will ever have to answer for their crimes.

I am not suggesting imminent calamity

But I am suggesting that we will experience poverty

And a gnawing hunger

And extreme thirst

I am suggesting that we will end up, in this country

Which suggests it is “blest by God”

Will find itself with a God drought

I have listened for years

While the right has talked about how God was “driven” from the schools

and courtrooms.  I have wondered just how you get rid of God, who is in everything and everyone.

The fact is, that we, Sacred Children, carry God with us, everywhere

Where ever we go God goes

Whatever we do God is there (scary thought)

Whatever we think, the Sacred senses

Whatever we say the Sacred hears

So if I walk through any courtroom, or classroom, and think for a moment of God

God becomes real

God emerges as something real and tangible in my heart

But it is possible, Amos reminds us, to stop thinking of God

And stop thinking about all those people in whom God dwells

All those black people, brown people

Poor people

Ill people

Old people

All those convenient and inconvenient people

Who stumble around this planet

It is possible to make power and wealth

To make profit and control

So important that people no longer matter

And when people no longer matter, God no longer matters

We can pretend all we want that wealth and power are signs of God’s favor

They aren’t

Jesus, paradoxically, says poverty is, as is grief, and compassion, generosity, and a thirst for justice.

God’s presence comes

God’s favor comes

When we are people who (you guessed it )

Love our neighbor as ourselves

(and everyone is our neighbor)

But when we focus on power and profit

And when people no longer matter

The Sacred in us dries up

It is not that God is not there

It is not that we can’t tap into that living spring again

But God droughts can and do come

And in those moments

We are thirsty, and hungry

And our souls cry out

For what we have lost

And we are the most miserable of people

Who all too often take our misery out on others

Thankfully, droughts end

Droughts end when we seek God

And they end when we find God, in the people around us

All the people

They end when we feed and clothe,

When we advocate, and comfort (Matthew 25)

I am tired

Tired of living in a ‘dry and thirsty land”

I want living Springs

I want life

I want vitality

I want love

I want justice to roll like a river,

And righteousness to flow like a never-failing stream!

I want God