Pentecost 7b - Amos 7:7-15

Amos 7:7-15
I’m blogging from the front porch of the Lela Haus at Ebert Ranch Camp in the Texas Hill country. We’ve had a little bit of rain today and the cloud cover and breeze make for a pleasant afternoon for putting your feet up and relaxing. It’s not very good for having something to say about the Lord hijacking Amos to speak a harsh word against Jeroboam and “my people Israel.” But then the harsh word is sometimes the only word left to say for one cannot continue to abandon the truth and expect there will never be a consequence for living the lie. The Lord is merciful and slow to anger but there comes a day when even the steadfast love of the Lord is compelled to say to the wicked, “Thy will be done.” There is loss for God as well, like a parent of wayward child or the partner of an unfaithful spouse, the Lord goes into exile and all the hopes and dreams begun in the desert exodus – I will be your God and you will be my people – are for naught. But then God’s anger does not burn eternally as God’s desire for intimacy cannot withstand exile forever. Long after Israel is abandoned and Judah captured and returned God will write a new covenant on the hearts of humans. The true nature of God will revealed in Jesus living and dying and rising and creating for himself a people to bear witness to the grace of God. The desert will bloom like the Texas Hill Country after a rain and the dry land will rejoice and the people will prosper, not because we fully abandon rebellious ways but because God will not fully abandon us.