Returning: January 9, after a troubling week

After Hebrews, I decided to study the portion I know the least: the "minor" prophets. (A strange name because they are short, not unimportant. We don't call I and II Peter, Philemon, and I, II, and III John the minor epistles.") I am not posting my writings on all of them, but have finished Hosea and Joel and now move to Amos. This is a response to the last week of our lives, too.  

Amos, 1 and 2, January 9. So we come to Amos.  Amos starts with six “For three transgressions, and for four, I will not turn away is punishment” to Damascus (Syria), Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab mostly for their sins against the Jews but in general for their violence against neighbors.  Then he comes to 2:4, with the same opening to Judah and in 2:6 for Israel. But their reasons for judgment are different:  “Because they have despised the law of the Lord and have not kept His commandments,” and Because they sell the righteous for silver and poor for a pair of sandals. . . A man and his father go in to the same girl to defile My holy name.” The Jews had a special revelation the others did not have; they were privileged with a special relationship of covenant the others could not have. Their sin is greater, and more personal, and at the individual level.” The voice of God goes on, “It was I who delivered you from enemies, especially Egypt, who raised up prophets. . . I am weighed down by you. . . Nor shall the mighty deliver himself….”

I am slow, very slow, to make connections of Israel and Judah in the Old Testament to the church, but it’s hard to overlook this one. Those of us who have revelation and deliverance and a covenant relationship live under different expectations in this life, just as the Jews did. We have a mandate from God to live and believe and think differently about everything, and WE HAVE BLOWN IT. And we should fall on our knees in repentance not as Americans, but as the church, to find out what we should do. This is a gray day, not in the sense of an attractive gray for clothes but gray in the  It’s in the 30s outside, and gloomy. It’s been a wild week: it started with church, then a trip to Nashville to see the Chihuly holiday lights exhibit at Cheekwood, working Tuesday, and then Wednesday, the day that will shift everything. Not quite as bad as 9/11, not nearly, of course, but something that will split Americans for a long time to come.

I am overwhelmed by my “friends” on Facebook and their reactions. Either horror at the pillaging of the Capitol and the deaths of five people, or a “whataboutism” that seems to want to justify anything Trump does. To my Christian friends who put Trump loyalism above obedience to Christ and following the law: you need to rethink your views and repent. To others, there’s a measure of self-righteousness in your views. We should mourn for our country, more than anything.

I have posted nothing on social media and do not plan to. I might blog about it, but I have nothing profound to say.  Do I have my doubts about the election? Yes, but I could have the same about other elections. In a country where 150-160 million people vote, there are going to be irregularities, but why would they only be for the dems? Is Trump a bad person? Yes, not doubt about it, and I support any action to put Pence in charge for 10 days, if for no other reason than he can get protection from the Secret Service and because he would have the nuclear codes rather than that lunatic. Do I have any faith in Biden? Are you kidding?  Of course not. But I had none in Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, going back quite a while. It’s not my job to have faith in those men.

And about the Georgia elections? Not enough Republicans got off their butts and voted, that is what happened. And that was Trump’s fault, too. There’s a billboard in my county that says “Don’t vote for Loeffler and Perdue because they didn’t stand with the president” or some such nonsense. Maybe Joe Manchin of WV will change parties….

We got what we wanted from Trump. Three good justices; a decent economy for a while; less regulation; better deals in the Middle East; some better support for the military. Maybe less money for Planned Parenthood (that seems debatable). NATO allies pay more. This was because of his advisors, not because of him. Immigration was not “fixed.” North Korea and other countries are emboldened. We are more divided, but I blame the white church for a lot of that. He has coarsened us. He has courted genocidal totalitarians. But maybe we were already coarsened and uncaring about genocide, and he gave us a permissions structure to go to the next levels, where it’s okay to vandalize the Capitol and threaten senators and congressional reps, and call for the death of the Vice President.

Christians, start believing God rather than QAnon; start praying rather than fussing on social media; start repenting rather than making excuses; start serving your church and community rather than wasting time and money in politics; and start knowing what’s going on in the global church rather than reading OAN.