snicker just a bit at their plight

Sunday September 22^nd, Amos 8:  4 Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land,  5 saying, "When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?" It has been interesting to watch this being played out in such grand proportions over the last 30 years.  We have seen the very large and arrogant beg for bailouts and then maneuver for buyouts and bonuses while those at the bottom, the least, lost and lonely we are to care about bearing the financial burden of multi-million dollar bonuses for those who wrecked the economy and in the process the jobs of those asked to bail them out.  The intent was for a stabilized economy and jobs; the result was a continued crumbling economic outlook and company closings with everyone except a few at the top standing there with the pockets empty.  To the denizens of Wall Street and “K” street, may I draw your attention to verse seven.  May it open your eyes to the destruction around you?  Both Amos and history remind us, we have been down this road before, it has been trod by every major empire in history shortly before they fell, or at the very least stumbled.  And it will be heard again because that is the way of human nature, while most are content with community, there are those few who quest for quantity and control.  In the end they lose, as do we when community crashes down around us, by their winning.   What bothers me is how their victims seem to cheer them on.  The cynic in me says it is because deep down inside we may find the desire within ourselves to be able to look down on the huddled masses yearning to breathe free and snicker just a bit at their plight, and we hold out the hope that someday maybe, by hook or by crook or by lottery, be in a position to look down on others.  The theologian voice says it is because we are all at the same time saint and sinner.  The synthesis tells me it is something we must all guard against within ourselves as we look to the Lord for guidance each and every day and forgiveness along the way.