Let Justice Roll!

Amos 5:18 – Woe to you who long
    for the day of the Lord!
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
    That day will be darkness, not light.
¹⁹ It will be as though a man fled from a lion
    only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house
    and rested his hand on the wall
    only to have a snake bite him.
²⁰ Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—
    pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

²¹ “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
    your assemblies are a stench to me.
²² Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
    I will have no regard for them.
²³ Away with the noise of your songs!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.
²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river,
    righteousness like a never-failing stream!

 Today, across our nation, many will gather to remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.  They will gather to remember not only the life of a man, but the life of a movement. This great movement, which for this country found its voice in Martin Luther King, did not begin with Martin Luther King.  This movement did not begin in this country.  From our reading from an ancient prophet, we hear that this movement was alive some twenty-eight centuries ago. 

 “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”  These words were spoken by a simple herdsmen named Amos who could not understand how a people who claimed to worship a God of justice could then turn around and use their system of human justice as an instrument of their own greed.  Indeed, in the days of Amos the name of God was used to oppress the poor, and Amos, a simple herdsmen by trade, could not stand idly by and watch as the children of God were ruthlessly burdened in the name of justice.  So, the prophet cried out, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

 Amos was not blind to the fact that the government of the land, which by all rights should have stood up for those who could not stand for themselves, was corrupt and unjust. The courts were easily swayed by money. Not only were the poor oppressed, but the opportunity for a fair trial was non-existent. Perhaps worst of all, Amos recognized that the religious institutions of the day, while busy with its various religious activities, was totally oblivious to the living conditions of the common people.  To be sure, there were sacrifices and prayers of every kind, but what did all this religion amount to except to nurture a false hope?

Likewise, Martin Luther King could clearly see things that many people refused to see.  He had the power to speak out against injustice.  Most of all, he realized that if religion was to be true to its nature it must be concerned not just with religious rituals and prayers, but that it must be concerned with all of life.  While still a young man Martin Luther King had the courage to face those who hated him and boldly proclaim that: “Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion.”

 It was a dry as dust religion that Amos sought to change.  Through Amos, God spoke to the people. God told them that it was not sacrifices that satisfied the heart of God.  It was not feasts; it was not elaborate shows of fanciful assemblies.  The songs that God’s children offered up in praise of God were nothing more than noise.  Indeed, God refused to even listen to their music!  What made Amos a visionary is the same quality that made Martin Luther King a visionary.  Like Amos, Martin Luther King challenged the entire religious system.  He did not challenge a few.  He did not challenge the black church. He did not challenge the white church. He challenged the Church – all of Christianity. He challenged the whole system, from smallest congregation in the backwaters of Mississippi to the largest and fanciest churches in New York City.  Martin Luther King, Jr., challenged the church to understand the true nature of God.

The issue for Amos came down to the understanding of the very nature of God.  That was the issue for Martin Luther King, Jr., as well.  This must be our issue today.  Our actions, our behavior, must be modeled after our beliefs and concepts of God Almighty.  This is true for our congregations, and this is true for us as individual Christians.  Because of our understanding of the nature of God, each of us must seek to relate to one another as God would, not as we would like. 

Amos, though he lived thousands of years ago, was ahead of his time when it came to spiritual insight.  Martin Luther King, Jr., knew those same insights.  And we, three millennia after Amos, nearly six decades after Martin Luther King, Jr., must continue to strive to achieve what they could see so well – injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  Whatever we do to the least of the children of God, we do to God. 

Posted by Ramón Torres