Last week, we discussed some of the work of bible scholar Walter Brueggemann who passed away recently. Brueggemann used the message of the prophet Amos to challenge sexism, racism, and heterosexism while also affirming marginalized people including the LGBTQ+ community.
The prophet Amos, Brueggamann reminds us, debunks Israel’s claim to the exclusionary love of God and insists that, in its universal scope, God’s emancipatory reach extends everywhere, bringing emancipation for those not yet liberated. Indeed, the wide sweep of history can be seen as a sequence of Exoduses.
Israel had no doubt it was “the chosen people” but Amos says, to the contrary, even Israel’s enemies can be liberated by God.
