Amos 7:7-17

I love Amos.  He has no pretenses.  He doesn’t fudge his resume or act self-important.  He is a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees (one who makes an incision in the fruit late in the growing season so it ripens faster).  He has no pedigree or family tree to fall back on.  He’s one of us.

So what are waiting for, all of us who feel we don’t have what it takes to heal the world?  So why do we grow silent when all the forces that wage war and violence are screaming ever louder?  Why we do we throw up our hands when we can use them to make the fruit ripen more quickly?

Look to Amos.  He listened to God rather than trying to control God for his own purposes.  He met fierce opposition but kept on going.  He found courage in God’s words and wisdom.  After more than eight chapters of relaying doom to the people, Amos ended on a high note.  “The time is surely coming,” God shares with him in an ever-growing crescendo, “when I will restore the fortunes of my people, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them, and shall make gardens.”  I love that vision.  Thank you, Amos, for the courage to share such hope for us in these scary, battered days.