'‘Mission’: a call to take sides with poor' - by Philipose John, Gurukul

Text: Amos 2:6-16

Irom Sharmila Chanu is in indefinite fast for the last ten long years. She is continuing her hunger strike against the beastly iron-handed law, the Armed Forces Special Power Act- 1958, enforced in Manipur to counter the insurgency. This law grants immunity to Army and Para-Military forces to shoot at or take into custody anyone who appears suspicious; without the need to wait for the usual judicial and administrative sanctions. This law guarantees the soldier a solid cover against any atrocities committed in the wake of upholding the security of the nation. The army personnel cannot be trialled in a civil court for any crime they commit against the civilians. They can only be trialled at a military court. Irom Sharmila considers that if this law rules, the bodies of the Manipuris will be crushed and their lives will be trampled to dust. She protests against this ruthless law to defend the dignity of the lives of ordinary Manipuris. Lying on the hospital bed in the police custody, she continues her struggle against the might of the Indian military. While the police ironically, takes the role of protecting her life by forcibly feeding her with liquid food. A glaring example of the ethical pauperism of government, which tries to save its face by saving the life of an activist protesting for taking the lives of thousands in Manipur.

Who is there to side with them? It is a pertinent question thrown up to all of us who are called to be in God’s mission.  Through the prophecy of Amos, God calls every one to a mission of taking sides. Mission is a creative response to God’s supreme will for the whole creation through decisive acts of taking sides. Let us think about two aspects of this mission, which are imperative in our missionary journey.

1. Taking sides to affirm the rights.

The text taken for meditation historically situates itself to the first half of 8^th century BCE. The leadership of Uzziah and Jeroboam II led Judah and Israel into prosperous nations. The military victories over the neighbours and the conquering of trade routes brought some peace in the land. But at the same time the gap between the minority rich upper class and the majority poor peasants widened.

In this context, Amos prophesises against the scornful sins committed by Israel, described in V.6. It is the style of wisdom literature to indicate the innumerable, unaccounted, cumulated sins committed, by the usage of ‘Three transgressions and four’. These sins refer to the human rights violations that dehumanised the poor and enslaved them in poverty. Any kind of violence committed by a person or group of persons against another person or group of persons denying others’ freedom comes under the purview of human rights violation. The innocent people in Israel were trapped, convicted and chained by the powerful and rich by bribing the judges. This eventually resulted in the kill of truth in the courts of Israel and the criteria for justice turned to be motives of personal gain.

Since the rich could buy justice from courts of law, the poor were sold as slaves even for meagre sums of debts. The story of Ruth reveals, as we see in Ruth 4:7, about the method of transfer by the exchange of pair of sandals. This was most commonly done with the exchange of commodities. So the selling of human beings for a pair of sandals violates the value of personhood of human beings and commodifies them to be sold in the market.  

In Ancient Israel, dust on the head was a sign of sorrow as we see in Job’s life in Job 2:12. V. 7 confirm that in Jeroboam’s kingdom monetary power got prominence over human values. The injustice of the influential elite took precedence over the rights of poor. They trampled the heads of the poor to the dust of the ground and those who had the will to confront these were disposed out of the way.

God commands Israel to be in favour of poor, in law-suits according to Exodus 22: 25 and 23: 3 & 6. But on the contrary the Israelites to whom Amos was prophesying, was never in favour of poor. The order of the day was that the justice and rights were only for the rich. The human life and dignity was distorted violently. And one should be cognizant that human rights violation is a serious distortion of Image of God. In a broader perception all kinds of violation of rights such as poverty, injustice, exploitation, discrimination amounts to disregarding and dishonouring God’s Image in creation.

We are more or less in the same situation as it was happening in the context of Amos. Poverty is the upshot of our myopia to see our brothers and sisters and stinking selfishness. Money lenders and goonda gangs rampant in Indian public spaces ravage the lives of poor, making their lives undesirable. The loop holes in the law guarantee safe passage to many who violate women and children. Manorama Devi, a Manipuri woman is just one among them to name. She was accused of seditious underground activities by the military. She was picked up by the army personnel her from her house in the cover of the dark, raped and killed.

In the name of development and mega projects, dalits and tribals are uprooted from their ancestral settlements and rehabilitated elsewhere. Their culture, faith and world views are things, which can be easily disposed with, to give way for the mega developmental projects like dams and mines. It is crystal clear that none of these projects are going to benefit the lives of these indigenous people, but it simply adds on to the sophistication and comforts of the super rich stakeholders of such projects. As in the case of the poor of Amos’ time, today’s poor are also bought for a paltry sum like a pair of sandals as they are silenced through assimilation into resettlement and rehabilitation programmes.

Many tribals and social activists of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand regions are indefinitely kept as trial captives in the jails of India to abort any efforts of resistance to the inhuman coercion and displacement by the powers promoting the so called developmental projects. Dr. Binayek Sen, a paediatrician working in Chhattisgarh was arrested and kept in jail without any trial for two years accusing alleged relations with Maoists as he was working for the development of Tribals. If an educated doctor like Dr. Sen had to undergo such kind of torment and trouble what could be the state of poor peasants of rural India. He is one such, who took side to confront the dehumanising programmes of the government to benefit the multi billionaires of the country at the disposal of the rights of the tribal poor. His imprisonment was an instance of disposal of a genuine resistance to defend the sanctity of life.

What has been the main engine of the processes that created a situation of exploitation of the poor during Amos’ and our times? I think it is the fake spirituality, which is constructed and sustained by the unholy alliance of the priests, the judges and the ruling class to conveniently suit their self-seeking agendas.

2) Taking sides to assume a renewed spirituality.

The Spirituality of the Amos’ time was a distorted one. God is speaking through the prophet to those hypocrites who have domesticated religion and temple for their ulterior desires. V. 7b refers to yet another wickedness of the community. The ‘Temple prostitution’ was copied from Canaanites by the Israelites at that time and is said to have performed inside the Temple premises. This expresses the unholy nexus that was built between the stakeholders like priests and judges to sustain the economic luxury, which was also linked with the temple worship. The desire for pleasure that overwhelmed the lives of the religious leaders sought its legitimisation by developing a spirituality, which assures divine sanctions for it. The prostitution done by both the father and son alike to the same girl makes it a perversion that runs through the generations.

The foundation of Israel’s spirituality is the dwelling of God in the house of God, in the midst of God’s people, which is the visible expression of the God who delivered God’s people out of oppression with strong, outstretched hands. They have desecrated God’s temple with these filthy acts which was an abomination to the Lord God.

 The Clothes mentioned in v 8 have much significance in the Hebrew understanding of the honour of a person. Clothes taken in pledge implied ones reconciliation with God and the people, as the honour of a person is understood as a possible experience only in continuum with the glory of God and glory of the people. There were provisions in Hebrew law to safeguard the poor from any possible abuse of this judicial ritual. The divine commandment stipulates that the clothes taken in pledge from the poor are to be returned before the sunset as we see in Exodus 22: 27 and Deuteronomy 24:13. Clothes are the final belonging that one can give in pledge, which shows the unfathomable depth of financial crisis that one goes through.

When clothes are taken from human beings the whole dignity and glory is snatched away from them. They imposed on people fines for default of payment and they enjoyed the wine collected as fines on the cloth collected as pledge, negating the basic subsistence of the poor. This wine symbolises the squeezed outcome of the peasants laborious days, which some are unlawfully enjoying. All the relationships were got corrupted and commercialised. Religion and its leadership forgot the entrusted duty of caring expected of them and indulged in ways of enjoyment and dominated and manipulated the fellow beings.

This manipulating spirituality of Israel draws parallel with today’s spiritualities complying with globalised commercial intends. The places of worship have become spaces ridden by consumer relations. Altar is supposed to be a place where everyone is considered equal. This affirms that every creation is a member of the ‘family of God’ and it confers us the right to call our God Abba and Emma. This family endorses a system of no disparity and each call to the Lord’s Table is to quench the thirst and quell the hunger of the brothers and sisters by offering ourselves as the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Considering ourselves as the part of Family of God is not just our spiritual fervour but it is the core of Christian life. This leads us to a spirituality of care and concern.

Advocate P. A. Cyrus is an epitome of this caring spirituality. He was a leading advocate in the bar of Kerala High court, when he left his lucrative profession in fulfilling this caring spirituality. He went to ‘Vatattupara’, in the high ranges of Kerala, the place where I happened to do my internship program, where he joined with the daily labourers who cut bamboo for their daily living and became part of their life. He became a member of their families, stood for their rights and sowed the seeds of socio-economic changes in peoples’ lives. His is a beautiful model of the siding mission of God with the poor. Even at an advanced age of 80 and more he continues his missional voyage of realising the extension of the family of God in the North Indian villages.

Where do we, as the called ones, find meaningful mission models of taking sides for the rights of the poor and excluded? We see it nowhere else, but in the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus took his stance with the poor and oppressed and announced the challenging message of the reign of God, establishing justice and fair deal to the poor. This vision of life that was open to the interests of the poor and the weak provoked the powerful of the day and they eventually murdered him. Though he was slain on the cross and suffered a cruel death he could keep his eyes open, to see the pain of his neighbour on the cross. This mind of Jesus should be our desire in our missiological endeavours.

Amos, as his name indicates was ‘laden’, with God’s message to the people of Israel of 8^th Century BCE. In today’s world we, as called for God’s mission are challenged to stand along with the poor for their rights and life? As God’s spokespersons, can we keep silence when the Image of God is distorted in front of our eyes? Would our pale spirituality get lifeblood to indulge with those who stand protesting for the liberation of the poor? Did the Kingdom Family which Christ envisioned take sides to include everyone irrespective of divisions? Let us side with the weak and poor and envision for a renewed spirituality so that justice may roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. May the Christ our Lord empower us for this. Amen.

[Philipose John, the preacher of this sermon, is a final year BD student in Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India.]