November 8, 2020
“Nothing New”
Amos 5:18-24
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
There is a verse from the book of Ecclesiastes that says:
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
So, there are a number of ways this verse from Ecclesiastes can be interpreted – and I’ll visit it again in a few moments – but I thought of this verse specifically as I was contemplating our scripture passages for today because it seems that so many of the issues that we are currently facing as a country and as a world, are as old as time itself.
Our Old Testament lesson from Amos, that we just heard read, was written at a time in the history of the ancient Israelites when the nation was divided into two kingdoms, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. This was around the 8th century BCE, so nearly 800 years before the birth of Christ, but the notion of a nation divided in two is certainly a notion to which we can currently relate. In the words of Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun.
The prophet Amos’ lived during a very tumultuous time and his words to those ancient people are harsh. It was a time of great excess and corruption, and God, through the prophet Amos, rages against those whose pious religious acts are seen as hypocritical in light of the way that the people are living their lives.
Allow me to repeat two of the verses we just heard from Amos. Chapter 5, Verses 21 and 22 say:
I hate, I despise your festivals, and take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them;
It is not religious practices per se that God is railing against in these verses from Amos. Worship and praise are of course necessary and important practices for people of faith.
Rather, it is the fact that these religious practices are not then followed by action. The people are not living their lives in ways that honor and glorify God. They are failing to seek justice and practice righteousness in their daily lives.
And so, Amos ends his tirade against the people with these words:
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Those words, of course, were made famous by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr as part of his “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on the Mall in Washington DC in August of 1963.
The 1960s were, of course, a time of great social unrest and racial strife in our country. And once again, given our current struggle for racial equality, we can certainly still relate to Dr King’s words.
And so, once again, we might quote Ecclesiastes and say, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
However, allow me to speak for a minute on these words from Ecclesiastes because I want you to know I do see a message of hope in all of this. Stay with me.
It is easy to see the words of Ecclesiastes as a very pessimistic view of the world. To say, “there is nothing new under the sun” might cause us to want to throw our hand up in the air and ask, “why even try, then, to make things better? Nothing ever changes.” We are still fighting the same issues the Israelites were facing nearly 3000 years ago.
However, allow me to offer a more hopeful interpretation of these words. When Dr. King quoted Amos back in 1963, it was with a vision and conviction and commitment to how things could be. It was with genuine hope that one day, indeed, justice would roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
The statement, therefore, that there is “nothing new under the sun” also speaks to the hope and conviction and vision of so many who over the centuries have continued to work tirelessly to carry on the fight for justice and righteousness, and who continue to carry that message forward today.
Throughout the Bible, the people continually mess up and fall short, but God continually gives them opportunities to do better, to try again. With God, all things are possible.
So, let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
That is our challenge, and that is our hope.
AMEN