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Living Into God's Future

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Living Into God's Future Living Into God’s Future Amos 5:18-24 Jim Zazzera, Faith Presbyterian Church, 11.09.08 Tuesday night many of us watched as this country set a new course for the future. It is a future that many of us have been thinking about, praying about, even fighting about for almost two years. Some us are celebrating, some of us are concerned, and all of us know this historic nature of Tuesday’s election. Directions for the future are always set by the actions we take today – whether that be in an individual life, a national election, or a global agreement. While often say we should “live for today,” we do well to always have our eyes on what is ahead, to look to the future. President Bush put it well when he said in 2004, “History is moving, and it will tend toward hope, or tend toward tragedy.”1 And so we all look ahead, seeking to avert tragedy, longing for hope. Today’s bible reading is a look into the future. It is a look into the future of the people of Israel at the time it was written. I will admit, this is a strange text to choose for a worship service, for this day, for any day, for any time. You see, at first glance, it seems bleak, it seems heavy with judgment, it seems bereft of any hope. In fact, as I researched this text – I noticed a striking lack of preachers willing to speak on this passage. Perhaps others have avoided this passage because of it somber and critical tone. But I think there is more here, so stay with me, and I think we can get somewhere today. Maybe even somewhere hopeful. How many of you know what a prophet is? What is one word you would use to describe a prophet? The words you heard are part of the story and the message of a man named Amos. He was one of the first prophets of (Israel) in the 8th century BC, a kind of “golden era” for prophets. It was a period of wealth, prosperity, and power for many in Israel & Judah. And prophets like Amos, Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah came on the scene to do the job a good prophet always does – to speak for God. We often think that a prophet’s job is to tell us about the future – and it is true that at times they do that. But the real job of a prophet is to speak for God in a time when people are not listening to God. The real job of a prophet is to make people aware of God in a time when they would rather ignore God. The real job of a prophet is to bring a message from God that (quite often) people would rather not hear. Some people have said that a prophet’s work is less about “fore-telling” than it is about “forth-telling.” The other thing to notice about a prophet is that he or she is usually not speaking to individuals, but to a whole society. Because of that, a prophet’s message can often sound political. And while the prophets’ message does address a whole community – it is 1 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/05/20040524-10.html usually more theological (about God) than it is political (about communities and governments ands nations). Though from the small town of Tekoa in the southern kingdom of Judah, Amos preached in the Northern Kingdom of Israel (whose capital was at Samaria).2 Amos undertook his ministry at a time of strength, expansion, and great wealth. He was a small town preacher called to speak to the sophisticated and powerful. Amos was not only a geographical outsider, but he himself tells us that he was not an official prophet of the court.3 He talks about himself as a herdsman and a kind of gardener, someone who takes care of sycamore trees. Amos was simple working man who was called out by God to bring people a not so popular message. As you can imagine, Amos’ bleak and critical words during a time of prosperity and growth were not well received. But, in fact, Amos’ prediction of dire consequences for unfaithful behavior was to come true. Twenty-five years after Amos’ death Israel fell to the Assyrian empire. Well, so much for the history lesson – what are all these words about? Amos’ message finds its focus in the call for justice – and it has been said that no prophet ever proclaimed it more passionately and powerfully than Amos. You are probably familiar with the words you heard from the end of this passage, “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.” They were frequently used by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his sermons and speeches. Now, when King and others use them, we cry – “right on!’ and “preach it!” But we usually hear these words outside of the full context of Amos’ world and message. “Let justice roll” and “righteousness flow,” sound great until we realize what they might really mean. In this passage in particular, there are three things to notice. God speaks through the voice of Amos and: • Warns people about something called “the Day of the Lord,” • Criticizes the people’s worship practices • Calls for a new justice and righteousness The message of Amos seeks to correct corrupt beliefs and practices of his time. God’s words through Amos being this way in this passage: “Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord?”4 Though we might mistake this “day of the Lord” as a kind of “Judgment Day” in some supernatural sense, Amos’ listeners imagined the “day of the Lord” as a military victory where God would step in 2 Some of the following comments are taken from the introductory notes to the Book of Amos in The Access Bible, p. 1175. 3 Amos 7:10-17, NRSV. 4 Amos 5:18 NRSV. and defeat all the opponents of Israel. The people of Israel would then get all the spoils of battle – power and wealth and land.5 The people of Israel expected a kind of military jihad where they came out on top. What Amos proclaims to them however is the ultimate irony, he tells them that the day of the Lord is darkness – not light. That it is not really a day of victory for them but a day of defeat. And that the people of God, are not God’s friends but God’s enemies.6 This is not exactly the kind of message that could make you popular. The words of God in the voice of Amos are even stronger in the next paragraph. “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.”7 For some reason – God was rejecting all the religious ritual and worship that the people offered – and doing so with great passion: “I HATE your festivals!” I like the way Eugene Peterson uses a contemporary word picture to describe God’s unhappiness with Israel’s religion: I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me?8 Just as God tells the people not to depend too much on a “victorious day of the Lord,” God points out to people that the abundance of religious practice is not what God is looking for.9 In the very next verse we get to the heart of things. God doesn’t want the people of Israel to assume that God is on their side, God doesn’t want the people of Israel to assume that religious ritual and practice is enough, but what God wants is to “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.”10 What does Amos/God mean here? What was the problem in that place and time? Evidently Jewish society at the time of Amos was prosperous, but also corrupt. 5 Rev, Saundra Washington, http://ezinearticles.com/?Amos-And-Social-Justice--Part- 2&id=22705 6 Preaching the New Common Lectionary, Year A: After Pentecost, p. 263. 7 Amos 5:21 NRSV. 8 Amos 5:21-24, The Message. 9 See also another prophet, Micah 6:6-8, for a similar theme. 10 Amos 5:24, NRSV. It was one of the last glorious periods in Israel’s history, but it had a deep undercurrent of despair. It was a place and time where those in power felt little responsibility for the poor. It was a place and time where the legal system unjustly deprived many citizens of their land and possessions, and where a great economic gulf developed between the powerful and the powerless.11 God’s words through Amos himself sum it up well: they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink wine bought with fines they imposed.12 The personal, legal, and religious behavior of the people of Amos’ time all flies in the face of God’s demand for “justice and righteousness.” Justice was really a fairly simple concept, that Amos defined as “hating evil and loving good.”13 Righteousness was really the idea of being in right relationship with God and others.
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