Living in a Bitter Day

Rev. Dr. B. Kevin Smalls

We are thrilled to welcome the writing of Rev. Dr. B. Kevin Smalls for the Preaching Notes for this worship series. Dr. Smalls is senior pastor of Hope United Methodist Church in Southfield, Michigan, and an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church. Click here to read more about Dr. Smalls.

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There’s nothing more exciting than the season of summer. Growing up in Washington, DC, I’d often head to the farmer’s market tucked in a small section of the city. It was packed with murmuring, quickly moving patrons loading up on special items that larger commercial grocery stores couldn’t seem to secure or duplicate.

There seemed to be a more down-to-earth feel to the farmer’s market. It looked like a warehouse for food. There would be an array of meats just waiting to be cooked. I was fascinated and terrified by seeing the parts of a pig laid in a refrigerated showcase. Pig ears, snouts, feet, and even tails. It was repulsive to me. Then there would be the greens of every type. Let’s not forget green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, and then some.

Yet, in the midst of all this noise and aftermath of slaughter, there was one part of the market that was rather serene, at least visually. That was the location of the summer fruit displays. The fruit was beautiful! Decked out in an array of colors, shapes, and sizes. The fuzzy peaches, sharp yellow bananas, the bright red apples, the deep purple grapes, the colorful mixture of lemons and limes and the juicy red strawberries. Usually, in the hot month of July, the fruit was ripe and perfect for the picking.

Looking back over those years, fruit was a special part of summer cuisine. This didn’t last, however. It was frustrating in the fall months, seeing a marvelously round cantaloupe waiting to be picked up only to take it back home and discover it has lost its sweetness. It was no longer enjoyable and usually ended up being discarded.

God and Amos have a discussion. God uses a visual to help get the message across. Knowing Amos was a bit of a farmer himself, God brings this narrative in a way Amos could thoroughly understand it. “What do you see?” Amos mentioned a fruit basket and possibly all the enjoyable things related to it came to his mind.

But God didn’t see just ripe fruit. God saw fruit that was on its way to being rotten. This fruit didn’t have long before it began to be no good.

God likens this scenario to the people of Israel. God is receiving what the people are giving. God sees the injustice; God sees the oppression; God sees the inequality; and God sees the economic injustice. God unfolds for Amos the plan of judgment.

This is not a God we often encounter in the newspaper or in the media today. Today, God is being thrown in the middle of political wars, religious rivalries, and philosophical theories. God always raises up a prophet to represent God’s refusal to go along with oppressive behavior. In Amos, we are able to refute any arguments that God is not a God of the oppressed.

I, however, like to turn to Amos, himself. He’s a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees. He’s not seminary trained. He has not been commissioned or ordained. Amos does not have a license to preach. But he has an enormous job. His job is to give a message that people don’t want to hear. Quite frankly, he has the kind of job that can get him killed.

If there is a shortage of prophets today, it may be that the same danger exists. In fact, it may not be a danger of being killed. It’s a greater danger. There’s always the danger of being called a troublemaker, making people uncomfortable, especially when you do these things, well—from the margins.