July 14, 2019
Amos 7:7-17
by Peggy Meade
Clergy of Adult Outpatient Therapist
Holston Counseling Center
Kingsport, TN
Whenever I read Amos whatever the liturgical date or year, I hear and feel as though the prophet is speaking to me ...today about current relevant issues...I hear hope and power and truth. I pray that You...whomever you are hear that too.
Speaking truth to Power is an amazing gift, an even though I’ve often been told “if you would just keep your mouth shut, everything would be so much better” I agree to disagree as does Amos...always...I have chosen in my lifetime to model my behavior after people who refused to “keep their mouths shut”. People like Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr, Amos and Jesus. The prophetic voice calls us to “Speak Truth to Power”, to remind the emperor that he has no clothes on and in reference to Amos 7:7-15, informing King Jeroboam that neither He nor his Kingdom would stand against God...He just didn’t measure up.
There is divine anger welling up in the words brought through the Prophet Amos...God’s Justice breaks out as divine fury against injustice. If no one else will stand for “ the victims of human cruelty”, the Lord will. Amos denounces any claim to authority with exception to that given to him by God. Amos did not possess “ the proper credentials”; not those given my the political authorities of his day. Amos did have and does have the Spirit-of God inside him and at least for me Amos challenges me in these cautious times...to not sit down, to not shut up, because I hear through the words of the prophet Amos: “ A true word in the mouth of a honest person, whether credentialed or not, can bring down any power on earth; a true word can change the hearts of people.” So, I will not sit down and shut up, I will not run back home and cry to my family...I will stand with the convict, I will stand with the addict, I will stand with the abused, I will stand with the homeless, I will stand with the transgendered Meth addict, I will stand with the sick, I will stand with the alien In This land, I will stand with the neglected, I will stand with the hungry, the disenfranchised, the least, the last, the lonely...as Martin Luther sang: “ the prince of darkness grim does not reduce us to a puddle Of anxiety, for lo his doom is sure, one little word shall fell Him...that word above all earthly powers, no thanks to thou abideth”
God will bring Justice and I stand with God...I invite you to stand with Me!
Even in these perilous times...nothing will stop the words, the righteousness, the justice of Almighty God.
Reverend Peggy L Meade,MDiv.,BCCI,APC