Immorality and Injustice: 1st Thursday of Advent

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
      who are on Mount Samaria,
      who cheat the weak,
      who crush the needy...       
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
      your tenth-part gifts every three days.
 Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice
   of leavened bread,
      and publicize your gifts to the LORD;
      for so you love to do, people of Israel! (Amos 4:1,4-5, Common English Bible)

The prophets of the Old Testament usually brought two counts of indictment from the LORD God against Israel: idolatry (the worship of other gods) combined with immorality, and injustice. Surrounded by people who worshiped many gods and goddesses; it was always tempting for the Israelites to call on them as well as the LORD God who had rescued them from the Egyptians. Some of that included acting like the gods and goddesses when they had sex. Supposedly, if human beings imitated them when they "reproduced," then the crops of the field would be fertile spring. Idolatry and immorality became linked in the eyes of the prophets.

But as is clear from today's reading from the Prophet Amos, the LORD God of Israel was just as angry at injustice, particularly toward the poor. And even if the Israelites did not worship other gods, but brought their required offerings to the LORD God, their right worship wouldn't help them if they cheated the weak and crushed the needy.

It's easy enough to see the idolatry and immorality in our own time. So many of the magazines in our checkout lines, with scantily clad women, are  testimony to the power of sex to control the imagination and reduce others to objects for gratification. But what about the injustice? This column by New York Times columnist Nick Kristoff is a revelation of how many of the poor and less educated were taken advantage of by some bankers (not all) during the housing bubble.

Every Advent, we prepare our hearts for a fresh coming of Jesus Christ. But if Jesus is coming again, it  means that we need Jesus to return to our sin-broken hearts, and to this sin-broken world. We prepare by confessing the brokenness of our hearts and our world.