The Great Litany Part 1 and Amos

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From Rodger:   (Advanced warning:  A LONG post and perhaps one that needs a “rant” alert here at the beginning:  You will probably want to know this 1st point and you will each need to decide for yourselves on the 2nd.)

There is something that’s been gnawing at me for the entire time we’ve been embracing Thomas Cranmer’s Great Litany.  It’s taken me a while to figure it out for myself and then even longer to figure out how to write it as a coherent post.  So, it’s coming now at the end of thinking through the first part of Cranmer’s Great Litany – something Phil will write about as we move on into another movement of the litany.  And this whole thought revolves around the prophecy of Amos and how it may well (I believe does) speak to us in the here and now.

So, before we leave the first part of the Great Litany – the part where we clearly and succinctly are asking forgiveness for our sins and shortcomings, I truly believe we need to stop and see ourselves, and our nation, through the Prophet Amos’ eyes. Below are various verses from Amos chapter 1 & 2; first written as they originally appeared. Then listed again to see how clearly they can be imported into OUR world, and have almost exactly the same message to us as they did in the original.

Amos 1 & 2 – Various Verses:

The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds wither, and the top of Carmel dries up.

Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab… of Judah, and of Israel… and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, [I will cause it to return]…

• • 

    Because they (Damascus) have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron: (Threshing was used to denote brutal and barbaric martial warfare. Micah 4:13: “You shall beat in pieces many peoples and shall devote their gain to the Lord.” Isaiah 41:15: “I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff. You shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them.”)

  • They (Gaza) have carried into exile entire communities.
  • They (Edom) have pursued brothers with the sword and cast off all pity.
  • They (the Ammonites) have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead in order to enlarge their territory.
  • They (Moab) burned to lime the bones of kings. (This is the practice of desecrating a corpse through disinterment and incineration. See 2nd Kings 23:16: “As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount, and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it,”)
  • They (Judah – the southern kingdom of Israel in Amos’ time) rejected the instruction of the Lord and have not kept his statutes, been led astray by the same lies after which their ancestors walked.
  • They (Israel – the northern kingdom of Israel in Amos’ time) “sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and push the afflicted out of the way, profane my holy name, lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge and drink wine bought with fines they imposed…”

So I will send a fire to Gaza, on Hazael, Tyre, Teman, Rabbah, Judah, and Israel… and it shall devour all their strongholds.

Below are these same prophetic pronouncements, but written to address OUR world. (Keeping the contextual meaning that they had in the original, but letting them speak to the theological reality of what is currently happening in our nation and culture)

Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of those who (1) claim my name when it suits them, or to co-opt me into their political games or ideological worldview, (2) who love to talk about “Christian this” and “Christian that” and wear all kinds of crosses as jewelry, but whose actual fruit is clearly rotten and repulsive to me… or (3) who appear to think that calling on my name is a source of privilege instead of a call to sacrificial discipleship… for all these and for four (daring to use my name for actions that I have clearly shown to be anything BUT the gospel I came to announce… I will not revoke the punishment, [I will cause it to return]…

• • • Because they (“Damascus” – or the United States, Russia, Israel, and any other nation seeking to use force to subdue or destroy those who are weaker) have threshed Ukraine, Gaza, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America with “threshing sledges” made by the powerful military-industrial complex only available to such rich nations: U.S. missiles, Russian tanks, Israeli drones, reign down terror and death on both innocent and guilty alike with no distinction.
    • They (“Gaza” – or Homeland Security, ICE, and coopted parts of the United States Armed forces – which is illegal under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878) have acted as judge, jury, and executioner, removing people from U.S. soil with no due process, with no humane treatment, with a clear and distinct disregard for the humanity of all, and have carried into exile to whatever Latin American country could be enticed by financial promises (like El Salvador) entire communities – despite clear and unambiguous orders from the American Judicial Branch to cease and desist such inhuman actions.

  

  • They (“Edom” – or the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, and other federal law enforcement agencies) have pursued fellow citizens with nothing but innuendo and false accusations, to incarcerate, deport, and threaten violence to those merely exercising their first amendment right to free speech or who are “guilty” of being “American while black, or brown, or Muslim or of Palestinian descent. Such actions, done with such an utter lack of pity, that these departments of our federal government seem to have most decidedly taken to heart the words of our current President, who seems to live by the mandate “Get even with people. If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard.”
  • They (“the Ammonites” – or the Anti-abortion crowd) have ripped open pregnant women in states where even medically necessary procedures have been outlawed, where doctors have been threatened with crimes and prison if they attempt to treat a pregnant woman in distress, where the repeal of Roe v. Wade has been clearly seen to not be enough; only a return to the brutal world of “The Hand Maid’s Tale” will satisfy their myopic quest of power over women and their bodies in every single state in our Union.
  • They (“Moab” – or the current anti “WOKE” or anti “DEI” crowd) have “burned to lime the bones of kings,” desecrating both history and memories of some of our most honored Americans, by removing their service to our nation from ANY website (Medgar Evers’ being erased from the Arlington National Cemetery website, even though his grave certainly still exists, Jackie Robinson’s Army history removed from the Department of Defense website, or even the name “Enola Gay” and the picture of the B-29 Superfortress that was piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets when the “little boy” bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 being totally erased by the current Pentagon “DEI purge” because no “gay plane” shall be included in government records.
  • And they (“Judah” or the countless people who keep claiming that the current chaos and harm being caused here is somehow part of God’s “plan” to “MAGA” again, who clearly have forsaken reading their Bibles), rejecting the “instruction” of the Lord, (to listen to nonsensical claims of greatness and God’s favor from prosperity gospel preachers like Paula White and Robert Morris), have not kept God’s statutes (like practically every single one of the Beatitudes), been led astray by the same lies after which their ancestors walked (And while we are on the subject of “lying” – something that comes up practically every single time our current executive branch of government is mentioned – isn’t Jesus pretty clear on the subject? Or for that matter, have we forgotten what the 9th commandment – “Thou shall not bear false witness”  –  actually means?)
  • And they (“Israel” – or the MAGA “true believers,” who for some illogical reason seem to believe the lies of the Elon Musk and the “DOGE” crowd), who truly are “selling the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, (claiming to “cut out waste, fraud, or inefficiency” in our governmental agencies, yet who essentially are diverting needed support for countless humanitarian, ecological, support and social safety net programs, in order to pay for tax cuts to the wealthiest ZERO – point – ONE percent (0.1%) of Americans who want another, unneeded “pair of sandals,” even when getting them will cost some people their very lives!), those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and push the afflicted out of the way (who are the 90% of government workers whose lives have been upended by having their jobs ended, even when their modest salaries were all that kept functioning the Veteran’s Administration, or the Social Security Administration, the National Institutes of Health, our National Parks, or how many other parts of the federal government that have been gutted like fish in the past two months), those who profane my holy name, lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge and drink wine bought with fines they imposed (like how we keep hearing our current federal government is going to “cut spending, save money, lower the deficit, get rid of waste…” when the reality is, the current Trump administration spent 36 billion dollars MORE in February, 2025 than did the Biden administration in February, 2024. And YES, you read that correctly; half of the Superbowl, an appearance at the Daytona 500, how many flights to Mar-a-Lago and who knows how many rounds of golf at one or another Trump International course, all ran up a tab that’s THIRTY SIX BILLION MORE than the executive branch spent last year during the month of February.)

Take all this in the same spirit that Amos prophesied in the original, and listen again to what the Lord is saying through the prophet (that by now I dearly hope we all have gained some kind of sense at how clearly it applies to us, right here and now)… “I will not revoke your punishment,” says God. “I will cause it to return.”

The next 7 chapters of Amos outlines just what that punishment shall be. And it culminates in chapter 9, for which the sub-chapter heading is titled “The Destruction of Israel.”

Should we take the message to heart? Should we recognize that the current course our own nation is own is leading to exactly the same kind of punishment?

Before we end our thoughts and reflections on Thomas Cranmer’s first part of the Great Litany, those parts where we wake up and ask for God’s mercy for all our sins, all those failings and shortcomings where we have not lived up to the call of the gospel, before we move on to beseeching God for the harvest, or peace, truth, or preservation of the “bountiful fruits of the earth, before we” lay aside the Lenten notion that my Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Book of Common Worship calls “the season of “self-examination and penitence,” a reminder that following Jesus – honestly and seriously following him, something we choose to do because of the compelling reason that, while it is often difficult, it is also always worth the effort…

Shall we dare to take Amos’ words to Israel to heart as a clear and present warning to ourselves? I hope so. I truly do hope so.

And one final thought; for those who are either thinking – or have been reduced to screaming at the computer monitor or tablet screen at this point – those who are saying or thinking, “THIS IS POLITICS!  WE CAME HERE LOOKING FOR RELIGION! GET OFF YOUR POLITICAL SOAPBOX AND STAY IN YOUR RELIGIOUS LANE!!!  It’s actually not political; or certainly not wholly political.  But when we look at our national life, the behavior of our elected leaders, the values and priorities that are either expressed or denied in our collective life as American Christians, and see such a clear example of what Thomas Cranmer was exhorting us to confess and repent of, do we not say so?  In other words, instead of tying to see our religion through a political lens, doesn’t our faith in Jesus Christ carry with it the expectation that we will look at our politics (as well as all areas of our lives) with a theological lens?  And if the Amos chapter 1 & 2 “shoe” fits?  Do we not hear the duck quack and call it a duck?  Do we not look at people who claim to be fellow Christians (or at least use the label and language for their own purposes), and seeing what clearly appears to be “bad fruit” (Matthew 7: 15 – 20) and speak up as the gospel enjoins us to?

As Jesus said: Those of us with ears to hear? May it please God that we actually use them to listen.