The lectionary’s appointed passage from Amos for this week uses the seasonal imagery of a basket overflowing with summer fruit to illustrate the abundance that God has provided us -- and the necessity of saving some of that abundance to tide us over during the famine that will inevitably come sooner or later. But lest we think that the message we are to take here is merely one of wise stewardship of our resources, the Lord tells Amos that the imminent famine is a metaphorical one... not of bread or water, “but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11).
