Today, I have spent some of my morning in Amos chapter 5. I want to say I’ve been “meditating” on it, but it feels more like brooding over it. Amos came with a message from God for the Northern Kingdom. He wasn’t invited to a religious or policy forum. He was yelling this in the streets. It was a warning that the injustice would destroy their nation. It did. And it sounds like a message for America today.

Let his words sink in:

⁷You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt.

¹⁰How you hate honest judges! How you despise people who tell the truth!

¹¹You trample the poor, stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent. Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses, you will never live in them. Though you plant lush vineyards, you will never drink wine from them.

^12bYou oppress good people by taking bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

¹³So those who are smart keep their mouths shut, for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed.

¹⁵Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.

²¹“I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.

²²I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.

²⁴Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. – Amos 5 (NLT)

We’ve “twisted justice” for a long time… Here are some of my unfiltered thoughts from this morning:

It’s not that we are still ignorant of the ugly soul of racism in our nation. We’ve all heard the narratives and seen the underbelly on our own screens. Up to today, most people just haven’t chosen to actually do anything about it beyond shameful silence. Maybe we just don’t know what to do.

I don’t need to read another book, article or FB post to gain a deeper understanding of white privilege. I live it. We all have to take righteous actions over the long haul that will begin to create opportunity not prefaced by race.

Don’t mistake reverting back to silence as healing. Jesus, the Wounded Healer, brought authentic healing that forever changed the real people he touched. But in the process, he loudly revealed and confronted the very heart of the brokenness within the community.

Don’t mistake the absence of protest for peace. Shalom, biblical peace, meant that all things were as they should be. Peace is not just that we put a stop to protests while injustice and unrighteousness continue. The path to authentic peace is not always a peaceful path. Jesus even said we would misunderstand real peace. “You think I’ve come to bring peace…” (See Matthew 10:34)

Don’t think there is a quick fix to systemic problems. Racism doesn’t disappear when we have a summer of protest or post some stuff online for a season. It is deeply complicated and not entirely knowable to its owners. God will painfully dig it out of the hearts of his people who didn’t recognize it was there.

Don’t think destroying American Democracy will fix the future for anyone. We have a process that provides the opportunity for righteousness to exist and for authentic justice to prevail over time. Engage the process. Hold the overseers of the process accountable. Repair the process before it breaks entirely.

Don’t think government will save us from ourselves. It can’t do that. “We the people…” doesn’t work as a societal construct if we the people are not righteous people.

Don’t think the “mighty river of justice” in Amos 5 means retribution against historical perpetrators of injustice and their descendants today. If that’s what it means, then it will sweep us all away because we all descend from injustice around here. What rushes in like a flood creates the righteous living we should all desire.

Do admit that the “good ol’ days” were not good for everyone. Ask my Native ancestors who survived the Trail of Tears or your neighbor of a different race today. Let’s work toward “good new days” together. It can be.

Do understand that most authentic Christ followers are trying to listen and are willing to take action if we know it’s right action. That is Christlikeness, right?

Do remember that hope is not found in positive thinking, police reform or new political constructs. Hope has a name… A name above every other name… Because he alone has the power to change hearts. He alone is the source of life changing, forgiving, loving, amazing grace. I wish for more marches in our cities proclaiming hope.

Keep praying, listening, loving, doing real righteousness and untwisted justice.