September 22, 2019
Amos 8:4-7
by Paige Wimberly
Clergy of Newbern UMC (Dublin, VA)
New River District
It can be really hard to live with God in the moment...
...Sometimes it’s easier to carry the past around like broken baggage. Instead of befriending it and learning from it, we hold onto it like a false security blanket made of thick, heavy, unbreakable chains. We don’t want to let it go because we know it so well.
It can be really hard to live with God in the moment...
...Sometimes it’s easier to laser focus on the future like there’s a magic bullseye that would solve everything. Where we are isn’t quite right and what we have is never enough. We are left feeling empty because the horizon is always out of reach.
It can be really hard to live with God in the moment...
...Sometimes it’s easier to get caught up in pride for our greatness or despair for our lowliness. We forget that God’s image, imprinted on us at Creation, is one of grace and mercy. We are left feeling lost, like a ship without a sail -- riding the waves with misguided delight or holding onto the deck in fear for our lives.
It can be really hard to live with God in the moment...
The target of Amos’ prophecy belongs to this last misguided group. They claim that ‘God is with us” but err on the side of their own greatness. They have developed a false sense of importance and security because of their success in the world. Their identity as the people of Israel has gone to their heads. Rather than caring for the poor out of their abundance, they use the disadvantaged like play things. Like con men with smoke and mirrors, they alter scales (shekels) and measures (ephahs) to cheat the needy out of what little they have. With a broken conscience, they “sell garbage as grain.” (Amos 8:6 CEB) Without mercy, they line their pockets and bleed the beggars dry.
Understandably, God is worried about His people. So God shows Amos a summer fruit basket and says: “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. In that day the singing in the temple will turn to wailing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence.” (Amos 8:2-3 NLT)
Amos, a seasoned shepherd from the south, is so taken by this surprise word from the Lord that he travels to the closest northern city he can find to share the news. When Amos arrives to the border city of Bethel, he goes straight to the temple to confide in the high priest. But Amaziah is a royal vassal. Rather than hearing Amos’ prophesy as a divine word of warning, he hears it as a treasonous plot against the king. Instead of warning King Jeroboam about the prophetic danger they face, Amaziah warns the king about the prophet himself. Then he exiles Amos back to Judah and tells him to never come back.
As the summer months wind down, are we, too, like a basket of summer fruit? Are we in danger of coming to a destructive end? Are you? Do we hear the cries of the needy or do we join the powerful in trampling them down?
Amos, Amaziah, Jeroboam. None of them knew how the story would end. But we do. The northern kingdom of Israel did come to an end. And it was a destructive end. And even though it felt to Amos like God would wipe His hands clean of His troublesome children and move on, never to look back, we know that’s not what God did. We know that’s not what God does. We suffer the consequences of our actions and we suffer at the hands of others. But God showed us through Jesus that He is with us always and that he never tires of second chances. So what’s important for us to remember from this reading isn’t what God does. It’s what God wants His people to do. And what God wants us to do, in fact what God requires us to do, is “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God.” (Micah 6:8)
Like the people in the Northern Kingdom, God holds us accountable for the ways we live our lives because God holds us to a higher standard. God wants us to recognize the ways we seek or hold onto power at the expense of others. God wants us to repent of our self-centeredness and pride. God wants us to live lives worthy of our calling, for we have been called by God. (Ephesians 4:1 NLT)
...Sometimes it’s easier to carry the past around like broken baggage. Instead of befriending it and learning from it, we hold onto it like a false security blanket made of thick, heavy, unbreakable chains. We don’t want to let it go because we know it so well.
It can be really hard to live with God in the moment...
...Sometimes it’s easier to laser focus on the future like there’s a magic bullseye that would solve everything. Where we are isn’t quite right and what we have is never enough. We are left feeling empty because the horizon is always out of reach.
It can be really hard to live with God in the moment...
...Sometimes it’s easier to get caught up in pride for our greatness or despair for our lowliness. We forget that God’s image, imprinted on us at Creation, is one of grace and mercy. We are left feeling lost, like a ship without a sail -- riding the waves with misguided delight or holding onto the deck in fear for our lives.
It can be really hard to live with God in the moment...
The target of Amos’ prophecy belongs to this last misguided group. They claim that ‘God is with us” but err on the side of their own greatness. They have developed a false sense of importance and security because of their success in the world. Their identity as the people of Israel has gone to their heads. Rather than caring for the poor out of their abundance, they use the disadvantaged like play things. Like con men with smoke and mirrors, they alter scales (shekels) and measures (ephahs) to cheat the needy out of what little they have. With a broken conscience, they “sell garbage as grain.” (Amos 8:6 CEB) Without mercy, they line their pockets and bleed the beggars dry.
Understandably, God is worried about His people. So God shows Amos a summer fruit basket and says: “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. In that day the singing in the temple will turn to wailing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence.” (Amos 8:2-3 NLT)
Amos, a seasoned shepherd from the south, is so taken by this surprise word from the Lord that he travels to the closest northern city he can find to share the news. When Amos arrives to the border city of Bethel, he goes straight to the temple to confide in the high priest. But Amaziah is a royal vassal. Rather than hearing Amos’ prophesy as a divine word of warning, he hears it as a treasonous plot against the king. Instead of warning King Jeroboam about the prophetic danger they face, Amaziah warns the king about the prophet himself. Then he exiles Amos back to Judah and tells him to never come back.
As the summer months wind down, are we, too, like a basket of summer fruit? Are we in danger of coming to a destructive end? Are you? Do we hear the cries of the needy or do we join the powerful in trampling them down?
Amos, Amaziah, Jeroboam. None of them knew how the story would end. But we do. The northern kingdom of Israel did come to an end. And it was a destructive end. And even though it felt to Amos like God would wipe His hands clean of His troublesome children and move on, never to look back, we know that’s not what God did. We know that’s not what God does. We suffer the consequences of our actions and we suffer at the hands of others. But God showed us through Jesus that He is with us always and that he never tires of second chances. So what’s important for us to remember from this reading isn’t what God does. It’s what God wants His people to do. And what God wants us to do, in fact what God requires us to do, is “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God.” (Micah 6:8)
Like the people in the Northern Kingdom, God holds us accountable for the ways we live our lives because God holds us to a higher standard. God wants us to recognize the ways we seek or hold onto power at the expense of others. God wants us to repent of our self-centeredness and pride. God wants us to live lives worthy of our calling, for we have been called by God. (Ephesians 4:1 NLT)
As we seek to hear and heed Amos’ warning, may we bow down to God’s mercy and stand up for God’s grace so that we can reach out with God’s heart for justice. Because the Kingdom is with us, here and now. In each of us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit. We worship a once and future King, so there’s no need to wait. We can live with God in this moment. God’s depending on it.