What do you think about when you think about gun violence? What kinds of scenarios, settings, and contexts come immediately to mind? Active shooter alerts? Schools on lockdown? Mass shootings in public places? Heated debates and political stalemates about gun control laws? 

Jesus being criticized yet again by the Pharisees for hanging out with lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes–and worse than just hanging out with them, he is eating with them. He has “received” them returning their hospitality and receiving them as any host would receive a guest. The sinners are fascinated–no one has ever treated them like this before, so whatever this man has to say, whatever he is going to do, they want to be there with him. They come closer as he invites them in and the Pharisees and scribes blow a gasket.

There is nothing bad about a safe, warm environment. Nor is there anything bad about being polite and kind. But that is not what Jesus was all about, not the vision Jesus has for his disciples. He says we cannot be disciples unless we carry our cross, turn away from our family, and give up all our possessions.

If God was hosting a dinner party, God would be sure to invite all the people we would never have considered inviting. Not out of malice toward us, of course, but simply because God has the capacity to enjoy, to delight in, the people we find most unappetizing.

We are a people of divisions, breaches.  As with Isaiah’s people many, perhaps all, of our breaches are at root our failure, our refusal, to see those who are different from us as equal, as children of God. Breaches formed by our limited and limiting understanding of God and Creation.

There’s a certain militance that is detectable in some of Jesus’ speaking and acting, and this tone can make us uncomfortable. It would be so much easier if we could just write it all off, so much easier if we could just frame this as some sort of aberration.

In Hosea’s time things were bad: priests and religious leaders were running amok and exploiting the poor and the weak—interpreting scripture to justify their own prejudices and desires, creating rules to ensure they remained on top, hopping into bed with the King, and using religion as a weapon against the other. 

Many of us may harbor a degree of skepticism regarding the power of prayer to accomplish what seems to be promised. And, for all of the sermons and classes and books describing Christian prayer, we may find ourselves somewhat vague about what prayer really is.

Amos was living in a society where the gap between rich and poor was massive. Amos can clearly see that the health of the market, the health of the few, has become far more important than the health of all the people and God really just can’t take it anymore.  Time to expose this rotten core—to smash the economic idol and bury it—complete with sackcloth and ashes.

Asking for and receiving help just isn’t something many of us like to do. We prefer to be the helper, rather than the one who is being helped. We relish the power of offering help, but hate the powerlessness of needing it.