It is time to be looking deeper at America. Deeper not in the sense of more analyzing or theorizing or debating. But deeper in the sense of looking closely at what we are doing without looking away from what we see. Because the earth is shaking under us.
Traveling from coast to coast, looking through ferry, train and bus windows at America, my first thought was wow, so this is America. There was a sense of self-satisfaction. Hey, all you guys up in planes, I’ve seen it and you haven’t. But this is school yard talk.
America too could experience what history tells us is inevitable when a people don’t heed a trembling of the table at which we all sit. When a people shrink that table to family size, or country size, like-minded size or look-a-like size. When a people don’t see deeply into the reality that there is only one table and by giving weightlessness to some at the table, the table becomes unstable and begins to shake.
Without our seeing the signs, gone is the sanctity and certainty of grass growing, birds singing, people living. Visions cease and violence begins. However, there is nothing head scratching about this. It is simply the logical result of not looking deeply, or seeing and turning away from what we are doing to each other. Nonetheless, we have plenty of company in the history of humanity. We can travel back to one of the first stories told of a people for whom the earth began to shake.
Looking deeper in 800 BCE
This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
Amos 8:1-2
Amos was a shepherd and dresser of Sycamore trees around 800 BCE. Then God saw fit to show him how to look deeper and see that his world was headed towards violence.
God said, “Hear this, you who trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land.” So says the Lord God, “the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place.”
God looks deeper at that basket of fruit and sees violence ahead. Was it that it was summer fruit, eaten today and gone tomorrow with no vision of what there would be to eat in the winter? Or simply that the season of plenty was over because not all shared in that plenty. The Hebrew Bible doesn’t say but the book of Amos does offer insight on what is needed for looking deeper at America.
Finding America’s basket of summer fruit
Here is some of what the book of Amos offers those of us wanting to see deeper into the reality of America.
- Become who you are meant to be. Amos was a shepherd. A person accounted no weight until he chose to listen, see and speak out. “…the land is not able to bear all his [Amos’] words.”
- Be visceral. Talk blood and gore because that is the reality when a people see the trampling of the poor and look away. “…your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword.”
- Hope always. Look so deeply that you can see good creation fermenting within the violence. “…they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.”
Looking deeper into the news
As we look at images from across America and attempt at looking deeper, here are images showing before and after air strikes in 2014 in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, with buildings reflecting a 2,000 year settlement that look like security itself. In reality, looking secure can not save a city when security is not shared by everyone.
The May 26, 2025 article in The Guardian, ‘Nothing left to bomb’ by Ruth Michaelson and Hashed Mozqer reflects on the loss of sanctity and certainty in Sana’a as new airstrikes continue to destroy lives and the life of this city. In response, Mohamed Althaibani, a naturalized US citizen living in Sana’a, can only lament,”Many people have died – and for what? There is nothing to strike here, except people trying to live, looking for food.”
Whatever work is needed for looking deeper at America, the book of Amos is clear that we humans have trouble seeing what we don’t want to see. Decidedly, this is a theme throughout the history of humanity, recorded many times in the Bible, and lamented by those who see deeper.
The earth is shaking. Will we look deeply at America’s basket of summer fruit and meet the gaze of all around the table?
Leave a Reply