Sermon preached at the Sung Eucharist on the Seventh Sunday after Trinity 2024

On Washington Avenue, in Montgomery, Alabama, there is a Civil Rights Memorial. Montgomery is, of course, the city where Rosa Parks was arrested, when she refused to give up her seat, on a bus, to a white man. It is also the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was Pastor. The Memorial is a black granite fountain inscribed with the names of 41 people who died in the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King is one of those names. The fountain, that sheet of water, has meaning. Behind it are inscribed words familiar to anyone who knows about Martin Luther King, words he used on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, in 1963

until justice rolls down like waters, 
and righteousness like a mighty stream

We are supposed to notice the ceaseless, steady, sure torrent. The speech at the Lincoln Memorial, one of several occasions when he spoke about justice rolling down like waters, is world famous. That is where we heard that Martin Luther King had a dream. He dreamed of justice.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy… Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

Martin Luther King could identify injustice. He could see it and he could name it. That made him a little unusual. It takes a degree of honesty and a degree of courage to name injustice. What made him extraordinary however, was his gift for naming his hope. He could also see justice, and he could name it. He knew what justice looked like. He knew, he trusted, that in the fog and dust of all our shameful failures, in all our confusions and equivocations, there still remain things that are sure and permanent and sure. Justice and righteousness exist not as a vague hope, nor as a thing we might dream up, but as realities, ‘solid rock’, as certain as ground beneath our feet and as great rivers flowing by. He could look, confidently to the day when 

justice rolls down like waters, 
and righteousness like a mighty stream

And, of course saying that he was repeating the words of scripture. Repeating in fact, the voice of the prophet Amos who refused to be deflected, 

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amos 5:22-24 

It was the voice, the voice of Amos, that we heard in our first reading. We know about Martin Luther King and Montgomery Alabama. We might need to remind ourselves about Amos. He was a prophet in Israel, the northern Kingdom, living near Bethel, in the reign of Jereboam II about 750 BCE. It was a time of fat cats in the Northern Kingdom, they had never had it so good. There was wealth and there was luxury, archaeology turns up, occasionally, glimpses of palaces of ivory. Of course, there was wealth and luxury only for some. This was a time of poverty for others. This was a time of deep injustice. Amos knew it. Amos named it

you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine… you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate. Amos 5:11-12 

That is chapter five and it is chapter five where Amos declares, ‘let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’. He too was a man who believed in the sure, abiding nature of justice and righteousness, deep down things which do not fail.

We hear Chapter 7 and a famous passage. It is in fact a bit of scripture that gets discussed at Conferences where people with earnest expressions and a taste for footnotes discuss cult and covenant in Ancient Samaria. I had to write an essay on this at Theological College. We should all be glad that I could not find the essay. So, briefly, Amos was a visionary prophet. He saw things that you and I do not see. Today we heard that, in a vision, he saw a plumb line. He saw a weight on a string, the thing that a builder used to make sure that a wall was built straight and true. He saw the plumb line and then the Lord explained why he had seen that,

"Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel

And here there is something very important to notice about what it is like to be Amos. Amos sees, but it is the Lord who speaks, the Lord who explains and interprets. Amos knows, Amos believes, because the Lord has given him the vision and the Lord has given him the words. If Amos believes that there is justice and there is righteousness it is simply because the Lord assures him that it is so.

The Lord speaks to Amos in a time of injustice. The Lord of the plumb line would have things straight and true. So, the Lord announces judgement. 

“the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword”
 
At which point things get really interesting and a man called Amaziah gets involved. Now, in royal Israel, where Jeroboam is King, and the palaces are clad in ivory, there are royal places of worship and a royal liturgy. Jeroboam wants it decent and Jeroboam wants it right. Amaziah is the man for that job. The loyal, royal man.

Here we must pause for a moment, and look at our shoes. It is slightly awkward to have to admit that Amaziah the royal priest of Bethel, looks just a little bit like the Dean one of the royal priests of Westminster. It is slightly awkward to listen to all this in loyal and royal Westminster. I squirm. I should, it is meant to be awkward. This is precisely a test of loyalty.

Amaziah comes to Amos and tells him, in no uncertain terms, to sling his hook.

Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary

Amos, says Amaziah, is not royal and not loyal. Worse, Amos speaks uncomfortable, upsetting words. The King would have things decent and acceptable and convenient, but Amos has seen an inconvenient truth. Amos has noticed in-justice and Amos knows what justice looks like. The King determined that privilege and power should be protected. The king found his wealth concomitant and fitting. Amos came speaking words he had learned elsewhere, announcing awkward truths he knew to be self-evident. Amos came to declare judgement

Until justice rolls down like waters, 
and righteousness like a mighty stream

He could no other. He says as much. He even tells Amaziah,

"I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son”

He belongs to no Club, he is not signed up to the Union of Clairvoyants, Fortune Tellers and Allied Trades. He does not draw a wage, or speak out of a manifesto. He speaks simply because the Lord speaks first. He is loyal only to the God who speaks and truth that is revealed. He describes what it is and what will be. He knows the justice and the righteousness that abide and that will one day roll down like waters.

Do you remember the American comedian Groucho Marx? He is supposed to have said,

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them, well, I have others

It was meant to be funny. It is quite funny, but maybe it is not quite as funny as it was. I keep finding myself in conversations about values. What are the values of this School? What are the Abbey’s values? What are the values of the shop where I buy my coffee and get rewarded with a loyalty card? There are really good reasons for having those conversations and of course, we are talking about the Abbey’s values. The trouble is you find your self living in a world where the question becomes, ‘These are my values, what are yours?’ Or even ‘These are my values, but I could have others’. There is a market place of values and we are all invited into particular loyalties. 

Not so says Amos. Not me, he said. Not this. I refuse and I will go on refusing,

Until justice rolls down like waters, 
and righteousness like a mighty stream

Of course, there must be discussion of the way we do things here and of course there is a debate about values in public life. Of course, there are big philosophical questions about a shared belief. But… there is also the voice of Amos who is sure, as Martin Luther King was also sure that there are truths that abide. When the naysayers come with their concerns that this justice is not convenient, this justice is awkward and upsetting, please spare us the bad news, there is Amos and that justice that keeps rolling down like waters. I believe in that. I believe in what abides, in a truth that is sure.