A Basket of Summer Fruit - off lectionary - August 18

A Basket of Summer Fruit

August 18, 2013  Amos 7: 1-12

Once, a long long time ago there was a simple man named Amos, who raised some sheep and tended some fig trees. One day when he was tending his sheep in the field the voice of God came to him and said – “ I am not happy with the way things are going in the world – people are not treating each other well – they are worshipping other gods and expecting me to come through for them, those who are wealthy are exploiting those who are poor.  I want you Amos to go to Judea, and let them know that I am not happy with what is happening here –tell them that there will be consequences for this distance that is now between the people and me. 

So that is what Amos did, although he did not have any experience being a prophet – going out and sharing with his world the words God had given to him – he went anyway and as you can well imagine –because he was not coming and bringing good news the people and the power of his land and time rejected him and his prophecy.  But he spoke it anyway – for what else could he do, God had given him a job to do and Amos was going to do it no matter how much he was rejected.   Amos is able to exert a certain amount of influence as he shared the visions that God has given.  He manages to make it to the inner circle and let Amiziah – the chief priest, the head God expert of the nation (or at least so Amiaziah thought) Amos tells Amiziah, the priest at Bethel, the visions that God has given to him – he is like conduit where God speaks to Amos and Amos speaks to Amiziah – Five visions Amos has – a vision of locus, eating up the land, a vision of fire consuming the land, a vision of God as plumb line measuring the people, a vision of God standing by the temple alter and a vision of a basket of summer fruit. 

A basket of fruit?  What a strange vision that was - why would a basket of fruit get any one upset – what about a basket of summer fruit would freak out the priest at Bethel.  Well first off – prophecy is first and foremost a spoken thing – its about words spoken out loud - and the words that are spoken to the priest at Bethel sound like other words – for ‘ripe fruit’ and ‘the end’ sound the same in Hebrew.  So Amiziah, the priest at Bethel may have heard Amos say – God showed me the end instead of God showed me a basket of ripe fruit’.  Nevertheless it is a wonderful image – this basket of fruit.

For think about it –imagine this fruit , all plump and juicy and rich in colour and aroma – part of the wonder of ripe fruit is how it smells – yesterday afternoon my kitchen smelt wonderful and all this fruit sat out on the counter top waiting to be put away.  This fruit that I know if I did not put away would be spoiled by this morning – sitting on the counter – it would not take long for a gazillion fruit flies to come, and for the plump sweetness of the fruit to become the messy rottenness and an oozing mess.  And in a time before refrigeration when produce needed to be eaten almost as soon as it was picked – ripe summer fruit to Amiziah, who must have know just how far off course the people of God were living their lives – for him this vision of a basket of fruit was a curse instead of a blessing.

But does it have to be – we too are living in a world pretty similar to the world of Amos – the rich get rich on the backs of the poor, more and more people turn from God to worship others gods, the gods of consumerism and money and power and prestige – and yet in the midst of this here sits before us ripe fruit – moist, juicy, delicious ripe fruit –and we have a choice – we can look at this fruit and say isn’t it lovely and look how much we have – but very quickly, the fruit will become soft and start to rot and within a day or two, this rich goodness becomes a mass of stinking rotting mess.  Or another choice – we can take this fruit and we can share it amongst ourselves and share it with others and enjoy the flavours and benefit from the nutrients.  We can take the gifts that are in front of us right now – thank God for them and partake of them. 

The ripe fruit reminds us of the gifts the come to us all the time in our now, not our tomorrow or not our yesterdays – the gifts of today – which can be as simple as the sunshine, the beauty that surrounds us, the friendly word of a stranger, the touch of a child’s hand – the gifts of now –that come all the time – even in the midst of fear, of pain or frustration, or sorrow.  Like fruit ripening on the vine everyday is filled with gifts of blessings that we are invited to partake and share in.

And so, as we continue this service and sing some more favorite hymns, and later go and share a meal and some conversation at the picnic – look around for the fruit that is in your life – the gifts that you have been blessed with – and then eat them, consume them, thank God and enjoy them.  I guarantee you that every day, every single day God provides for us gifts of ripe fruit, gifts of beauty and blessing into our everyday.  We have a choice – we can partake of the gifts or we can let them rot on the counter – our choice.