This is not the time to be complacent

Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you notable men of the foremost nation,
to whom the people of Israel come!
Go to Kalneh and look at it;
go from there to great Hamath,
and then go down to Gath in Philistia.
Are they better off than your two kingdoms?
Is their land larger than yours?
You put off the day of disaster
and bring near a reign of terror.
You lie on beds adorned with ivory
and lounge on your couches.
You dine on choice lambs
and fattened calves.
You strum away on your harps like David
and improvise on musical instruments.
You drink wine by the bowlful
and use the finest lotions,
but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;
your feasting and lounging will end.  Amos 6:1-7

This is not the time to be complacent.

This is not the time to be getting comfortable on your sofa.

This is not the time to be looking the other way.

This is not the time to be feeling secure in your comfort zone.

This is not the time to be losing yourself in all your riches and forgetting the poor.

This is not the time to be distracting yourself, pampering yourself, entertaining yourself.

This is not the time to be shutting the door on what’s going on in the world out there.

This is the time to grieve for what our world has become. Is becoming. May become.

This is the time to find your voice.

This is the time to stand with the oppressed.

This is the time for action.

Wake up!

Open your eyes and really see what’s going on.

Listen to the stories.

Engage your brains.

Rouse yourselves.

Wake up!

Yesterday, American Christian speaker and writer Rob Bell posted a podcast for the first time since mid-November. Back then, he was exhausted after a long world tour and announced that he needed a break. Some space. Some silence. Yesterday he broke that silence. It was as if he could no longer stay silent, as if the words were bursting out of him. He talked about every American being part of a larger body and how it’s time to wake up to what is going on. He described waking up as both awkward and awesome. That facing up to the truth can be uncomfortable and unpleasant and scary, but that seeing people waking up and marching and discussing what’s going on and seeking the truth is exciting and inspiring and challenging.

And what’s going on in America is not just affecting America. We can’t look the other way and say that this has nothing to do with us. The world looks to America. What’s happening there will affect us all. You can feel it right? That thing in the air, as Rob Bell puts it. That unease and shifting morality and clouded truth. Because every human being is part of a larger body that is all humanity. And so listening to this Robcast ‘The thing in the air’ is inspiring and challenging not just for the Americans out there, but for each one of us too.

The dictionary describes complacency as a feeling of quiet pleasure or security and self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction. Not just that in isolation though. Complacency takes place as part of a wider context – it’s feeling that way, often while unaware of some potential danger or defect. It carries that whole sense of ‘fiddling while Rome burns’.

There is no place for complacency in our world and in our lives.

Whether you like it or not, ‘your feasting and lounging will end’. You will be held to account for what you did and what you did not do.

So wake up! We are all in this together. Together, we can change the world.