The day is coming God said, when “I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.”

So, what was it that made God so angry?  The answer to that question can be summed up in just one word.  Greed!  God was angry because of the greed that was everywhere. Because of that greed the rich were trampling on the needy, buying the poor for silver and practicing deceit with false balances. 

If that doesn’t sound similar to some of the things that are going on today then you might want to take a moment and think about Aunt Millie.  Do you remember Aunt Millie?  Back in 2001 energy traders at Enron joked about “sticking” it to Aunt Millie.  In their taped telephone conversations they talked about faking power plant failures to limit the supply of electricity.  Then they laughed about how poor Aunt Millie, a grandmother from San Diego on a fixed income.  They laughed about how she would pay her $1000 a month electricity bill.  One of them sarcastically suggested that she just use candles.

I wonder what Amos would have said about that?  Here’s an even more important question. I wonder what God thinks about that?  I wonder what God thinks about the injustice that took place a couple of years ago over at Polaroid.  That company went bankrupt of course.  A former member of this Body of Christ who worked for Polaroid all of her life lost everything.  Actually, that’s not quite true.  After everything was said and done she did get a check for all of the money she put into her pension plan over the years.  Imagine how she must have felt when she opened that envelop and saw the check for $47.  What makes that injustice even worse is when you look at what Jacques Nasser got.  Jacques Nasser was the CEO who came in to “save” the company.  He was there for just two years and he walked away with $12.8 million in his pocket.   

I wonder what Amos would have said about that?  I wonder what God thinks about that?  I wonder what God thinks about the fiasco that is unfolding right now in the sub prime mortgage industry?  Thousands of families are loosing their homes because unscrupulous lenders gave them loans that they knew they couldn’t afford to repay.  Or how about all those credit card fees and exorbitant interest rates?  Did you know that there’s a commandment in the Bible that says that usury is a sin?  God says that charging excessive interest is a sin.

Amos also lamented the fact that those who were wealthy couldn’t wait for the Sabbath to be over so they could get back to making more money.  Now we don’t even wait for the Sabbath to be over.  The stores are open all the time.  Maybe I’m getting old, but I long for those good old days when all the stores were closed and families spent time together on Sunday afternoon.

Greed is destroying this great land of ours.  The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.  The greed is killing the middle class and making us rich in things and poor is spirit.   With fewer dollars to go around it’s pitting people who are elderly and need to be taken care of in their old age against children who are young and need to be educated.  It’s creating a huge national deficit that is going to eventually bankrupt this country. 

Of course, maybe the thing to do is just raise the white flag.  If you can’t beat them, join them right?  I’m sure that our Stewardship Ministry wouldn’t object if I decided to do the same thing a minister down south did one Sunday morning.  Right before the offering he made an announcement.  “Sisters and brothers,” he said, “I have in my hand three sermons.  “A $10,000 sermon that lasts five minutes, a $1000 sermon that last 15 minutes and a $100 sermon that lasts a full hour.  So, why don’t we take the offering now and see how long you’re all going to be here this morning.”

When you listen to the words that the prophet Amos spoke long ago you realize that God doesn’t want people who are willing to give up and just raise the white flag.  God wants people of faith who are willing to confront the greed that is destroying this great land of ours.  Do you have what it takes to be one of those people of faith?  Whether you realize it or not the answer to that question is yes and there are two things you can do.

The first thing you can do is use your voice and your votes to demand that the politicians and the power brokers stop pandering to the special interests and start do about what’s best for all the people.  You use your voice and your votes to rock the boat and yank some chains and when you do that remember that you’re just doing what Jesus did.  After all isn’t that what Jesus did when he turned the tables of the moneychangers over and sent them running for cover that day in the Temple? 

God wants people of faith who are willing do what they can to confront the greed that is destroying this great land of ours; people like Judge Robert Lance Andrews.  Earlier this year he did something that more judges should do.  It happened during a class action law suit against the cruise line industry.  Lawyers from the law firm of Zwerling Schachter & Zwerling negotiated a settlement for cruise line passengers who had been overcharged.  The settlement gave them $10 to $60 coupons for a future cruise.  For their efforts the lawyers submitted a bill for $1.4 million.  Judge Andrews called that bill outrageous and slashed it to $294,000.  Not only that but he also ordered that the lawyers be paid a quarter of that fee with the same $10 to $60 coupons that the cruise line passengers were going to get. 

Let’s hear it for Judge Andrews!  Let’s hear it for people of faith who have the dogged determination to confront the greed that is destroying this great land of ours.

The other thing you can do to confront that greed is by practicing generosity yourself.  You practice a generosity that goes the extra mile because you realize that God is the one who gave you all of your blessings and that God wants you to be a blessing to others.  You practice the same kind of generosity that a woman by the name of Jessica Osborne experienced earlier this month.  Maybe you saw her on “Good Morning America.”  Jessica Osborne works at a Pizza Hut restaurant as a waitress.  Her dream was to go to college and become a photographer.  Because of financial troubles though she had to withdraw from a local community college and put her dream on hold.  All that changed though when a mother and her children came in to eat.  The mother and her children came in every Friday and always ordered the same thing: a Metalovers pizza, half pepperoni, half black olives and mushrooms.  Jessica Osborne was the waitress who always served them and over a period of several months became friendly with them  What Jessica Osborne didn’t know is that before a few years before she met them this mother had experienced a terrible tragedy. Her husband and oldest daughter had been killed in a tragic car accident.  Because of that she had received a very large settlement.  So, when the mother heard about Jessica Osborne’s dream about going to college and becoming a photographer she decided to do something to help.  She left a tip in an envelop.  When Jessica Osborne opened the envelop she was stunned.  She told “Good Morning America” I thought maybe I read too many zeros and I lost my breath.”  The tip was for a little more than the standard 15%.  The tip was a check for $10,000.   Jessica Osborne still says it’s unbelievable.  “It doesn’t happen to people every day,” she said, “I mean I work at Pizza Hut!”

If there’s hope for this great land of ours it’s going to come from people of faith who heed the words of the prophet Amos.  It’s going to come from people of faith who understand that Mahatma Gandhi was right. God has given us more than enough to meet everyone’s need but not enough to meet everyone’s greed. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

July 22, 2007