Pastor Kerry Nelson

Today's thought from Pastor Kerry Nelson of Covenant Lutheran Church, Houston TX. Pastor Kerry is good enough to write these daily devotionals and provide them free of charge to anyone interested. He's been a great inspiration to me over the years.

___________________________

"Good morning. Welcome to Thursday, May 18th.

Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat." The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? Amos 8:4-8

Let’s start by acknowledging that there isn’t anything particularly holy about being poor, nor is there anything diabolical about being rich. We have to begin with that reminder because that runs contrary to how we often think. In Amos’ day, as in ours, there is a tendency to assume that the rich are rich because they have been particularly blessed by God – and that the poor are poor because they have not been blessed by God, they have been immoral, slothful, foolish, etc. It is just the knee jerk way we think, the unconscious judgments we make. And if we need to find evidence to back up either assertion, we probably can find it.

On top of that, we associate wealth with privilege and poverty with obligation. We think that wealthy people “deserve” what they get and that poor people are a “burden” because of what they get. A wealthy salesman can spend $1000 taking customers out to dinner and write the whole thing off as a business expense. We think that’s good. A poor single mother can pick up $300 in food stamps for the month and we can think that she is a drain on our resources.

We pamper and pander to the rich while the poor are neglected and used. I’m not saying that happens all the time, or that individual people don’t act differently. I’m just suggesting that the mere presence or absence of money in the bank makes us think differently, act differently and assume different things about life.

The problem for Amos, the problem for us, and the problem throughout the ages, is how the poor (read: powerless) are treated by the rich (read: powerful), how they both get where they are, and the meaning each attaches to their position in life.

Amos is writing against business people who give lip service to their faith (When will the Sabbath be over so we can sell grain again?) while cheating the poor (practice deceit with false balances.) Riches gained dishonestly through unjust and deceitful practices, especially practices that take from those who have little to begin with, crumble the foundations of life.

For the past few months the Enron trials have been front page news in Houston. Over the past years, “Enron” has changed from a noun naming a powerful energy company to a verb meaning corporate excess, dishonesty and deceit. Regardless of the outcome of the trial, I hope it reminds us of the value we once placed on a “social contract” where loyalty, quality, integrity, honesty and hard work were the hallmarks of success in business.

Let us pray: Gracious Lord, we still haven’t lost the tendency to measure personal worth and value using money rather than character. We still haven’t lost the tendency to make judgments about people based on external appearances and material possessions. And we still live in a day when we misunderstand the responsibilities that come with material blessings and instead, we allow them to insulate us from the world around us. Forgive us, transform our thinking, and come to the aid of the powerless. In Jesus’ name. Amen."

________________
Pastor Kerry Nelson