Prayer versus Social Justice
Imagine soldiers going into battle and simply praying that enemy bullets would not find them. Or worshippers on their way to church to pray for deliverance from the horrors and disasters they are always reading about in the papers. Some expressions of the faith flourish on the back of a spirituality which offers an escape from the toils and tribulations of daily life. In varying ways all are saying, ‘Surely the Lord is with us and will help us.’
Amos courts unpopularity (a good sign of a true prophet) when he says (in effect), ‘Not a bit of it. Forget your sacrifices, offerings, sacred rites and rituals. I am not even listening.’ Then he concludes, ‘Let justice flow on like a river and righteousness like a never-failing torrent.’ (v 24 REB). Why does he say this? Because he believed that the popular image of God and religion is all too often a delusion. It is a tough message for a religious figure to deliver but the truth must be told.
If you heard that message today, whether from a religious leader, a parish priest or lay person, in church or on the street corner, how would you react? This man is crazy and seems set on destroying everything that faith has stood for? This man is not against true worship but false worship? So is this is a justifiable tirade against popular religious behaviour rather than the real thing? Your answer will tell you quite a bit about how you see worship and how you feel about people who worship in different ways from you.
But suppose it is not about worship at all. Suppose the underlying question is how we think of ourselves as ‘seeking the Lord’ and knowing when he is with us. In that case it is not about people worshipping in the wrong way or the wrong place — Bethel and Gilgal, Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant. It is about our failure to realise that ‘seeking the Lord’ means taking a public stand against evil and exploitation wherever we find it. It’s about finding him ‘in the throng and press’ and the formula is not prayer (or worship) versus social justice but the realisation that social justice can be prayer and those who engage in it will find God.