Amos - greed - health care

Amos prophesied judgment while Israel was prosperous. If we are prosperous that means God is blessing us, right? Not necessarily. Amos judged that they were oppressing the poor. The women were enjoying the wealth being made by their cheating husbands. Financially cheating. Amos calls them "cows of Bashan". So all were complicit. It reminds us of the USA lately. Many were cheating. The whole country was seemingly reaping the benefits until financial calamity showed the evil that was going on. Now the whole country is suffering the financial calamity. And few of us are innocent.

Amos' style was interesting. Amos pointed out the sins of the neighboring nations. I think he spoke of the sins of all the major nations around Israel. Surely his hearers thought this was great. They cheered at their impending downfall. Surely God was just in the judgment against these nations.

But then Amos turned his prophesies against Judah and then Israel. Now the cheers stopped. But what was sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, you know. After having been lured into approving what seemed to be good news and God's righteous judgment, the downfall of their sworn enemies, now their joy was tempered. Perhaps they had to begrudgingly admit the righteousness of God's judgment against them.

When we judge the Enron folks, the folks at AGI, or at Goldman Sachs let us not forget that we have been greedy and dishonest too. Many of us have.

I think most who are in favor of this awful health bill think someone else will pay for it. The "rich" will pay for it. Somehow the healthy will pay for it, spreading the risk. This is the kind of foolish greed that the men at these disgraced corporations had. They figured they could act recklessly and someone else would foot the bill. Friends there is no free lunch this plan will cost at least double what they are projecting, probably closer to triple. Others will not pay for this. We are will pay for it, directly and indirectly and our health care will be worse.

I hope that we will have the honesty to admit our sin to ourselves and to God and to ask for forgiveness.