Amos 8:4-7
Intro
Much as we mentioned with Jeremiah a few weeks ago, the message that Amos was offering was not one that the people wanted to hear. Once again, the Israelites’ political fortunes were on the upswing. Their rivals were dealing with internal political issues and that left the Israelites in a position to acquire their weaker neighbors through military conquest. This also meant that the economy was humming. People were making money.
However, instead of being grateful to God for the blessings that they were in the midst of receiving, the people of Jerusalem and the surrounding area became greedy. They began to find ways to cheat people out of their hard earned money, and allowed their faith to become nothing more than something they had to ‘get through’ in order to have the opportunity to make more. It is the combination of those things, money and lack of faithful fervor, that we hear Amos riling against in our passage this morning.
For Amos, the cheating and monetary greediness are a symptom: a symptom of a people who have wandered so far away from their God that they are no longer able to see the benefit in worshiping, really worshipping, at all. These people have forgotten what it means to place their reliance in the Almighty and have instead created a mentality where they are the ones in control; where they are the only ones who matter.
As you hear that sort of description, a description of a people who have traded divine providence for personal wants and desires, especially when it comes to their treatment of worship, are there any other societies that you can think of that might need to hear this sort of prophesy? The scripture reads this way.
Amos 8:4-7
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Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, 5saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, 6 buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat."
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The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds."Religion v. God"
I’ve had an extremely difficult time writing this sermon. I have started more times than I care to admit, and deleted more pages text then I ultimately ended up printing. It’s not so much that the text is all that difficult to comprehend. It’s not. People were treating others poorly and had forgotten that their loyalty should begin and end with God Almighty and not the Almighty buck. Amos is calling those people out and declaring that they are in opposition to God. Like I said, that part isn’t all that difficult.
What is tough to get your head around is that the people that Amos is talking to, the very people that Amos is calling out, would probably be considered very proper religious individuals. It was as I dwelt upon that thought, that the people that this prophecy was offered to were quite religious, that I began to grieve the fact that not a whole lot has changed. Not that that’s a surprise. After all, we are human. We have made it our specialty of finding new ways to do the same negative things that have been done for time in memoriam. The reality of a sinful nature.
But I grieved because as smart as we can be, as many scientific miracles as now exist in the world, we still don’t get it. We still don’t get that God and religion (especially as we tend to put them together) do not necessarily mix all that well. Once again, the people that Amos is talking to know the law of God, and they’ve found ways to work around it, to use it in fact, so that their own personal gains are met. There not worried about serving God. They’re worried about living up to the letter of the law, and if that happened to be in contrast to how God would have them live, then so be it.
My guess is that there are many of you who have been in many a church where this sort of conflict between religion and God have been on display. And it can happen in a whole lot of different ways. In some churches it’s the pastor who is running the ship and whatever that pastor says goes because who is going to stand up and disagree with what the pastor is saying? They’re the one who has been trained, who studies the Bible, and knows what God would have us do. Why would we disagree with pastor? In some of these settings the Word of God is used in contrast to what the Spirit of God would call us to do. The Methodist church actually passed an edict that said that only the local pastor could determine who would be considered a member of a congregation (aka: the pastor sets the rules, and uses the pieces of scripture that fit his or her particular theological bent to back those decisions up). Not that the Methodists are alone with these sorts of issues because every denomination, including the RCA, has their version of this sort of decision.
In other churches the power broker is a family or two where all the decisions need to be funneled through a small group of the same people. Any, and everything, is regulated by this family. In these situations the Spirit of God comes into conflict with religious history. The phrase, "well, we’ve always done it that way" has shot down the will of God in a religious setting more than a few times.
In still other churches what becomes the guiding principle of religious life is the dollar, or the lack thereof. We all know of situations were religious communities have all but shut down because they were unwilling to step out in faith and spend some of that money so that the love of God might be felt in the world.
In the same breath, we also know of those religious communities that have a lot of money and are doing as little as the folks who don’t have any. To be honest I’m not sure why it happens, but for way too many folks as soon as the congregational wallet becomes heavy, the collective will to do anything beyond write a check becomes very small.
In each of these cases, people have taken control of the religious entity in such a way that it’s tough to find God; in such a way that God is in opposition to the very religion that was created to offer praise and worship. Up until Friday night, that’s where my mentality was stuck. I kept thinking about all of the examples of houses of ‘worship’ that have had the focus of their worship transferred from where it should be. I was stuck in those sorts of thought and I was grieving.
On Friday night, after sludging through the day writing pages worth of material that were never to be printed, Jen and I went over to Kingston to begin our Christmas shopping (how frightening is that? Geez, I ought to have my ‘guy license’ taken away for beginning that early). In any case, Jen wanted to hear a song that she had heard on the radio on her way back from Westchester. The five year-old song is by a Christian contemporary group called Newsboys. We put the CD in and just let it run. As we were on the bridge approach, headed toward Kingston a song called ‘It Is You’ came on. By the time that song hit the chorus, which was right about at the peak of the bridge, my mood of grieving had lifted. I said to Jen, while pointing at the radio, "I’m going to use that song on Sunday". In my head I was thinking, ‘that’s the point of inspiration that was needed to take this sermon from rather depressing to a message of hope’. The message of the song was a religion that is focused on offering all the praise and adoration to the Holy God Almighty.
Because here’s the thing, just because religion can be in opposition to God and God’s will doesn’t mean that it has to. It’s really all contingent on where our worship is focus. If our worship and service is focused on us, on what ‘we’re missing out on’, then were just like the people Amos is prophesying about. If we’re sitting in worship or helping out in some service project (or even a meeting) and thinking to ourselves, "what a waste of time. I’ve got all of this other stuff that I could be doing that is so much more fun, so much more relaxing, so much more profitable" then we’re missing the point as to why were supposed to be there.
If we’re sitting in worship or helping out in some service project (yes, even a meeting) and thinking about how what is taking place will shine a positive spotlight on us, on our idea, on our ‘generous spirit’ then we are equally missing the point as to why we are there.
Worship, the lynchpin around which our religion is based, is not about us, its supposed to be about God and God alone. It’s when that other stuff, that stuff that is all about us, its when that stuff begins to creep into the picture that religion becomes something that is contrary to God. When we start to focus on what we want, then, regardless of how much time is spent sitting in a church pew, it is then that our religion has moved into a position of direct conflict with God. Worship, and everything about our religion has to be about God.
You may ask, "how do I know if its focused on God?" Simple response: look at the results. What is being created? We look at our scripture this morning and what we have are examples of people who were going through all of the appropriate religious motions. But what they produced showed that what they were focused on was anything but God; they were focused on themselves.
It’s the same today. You want to know if a particular religious body is focused on God? Then look at what is being produced through them, and remember that busyness does not necessarily equate to the work of God. We all know of churches that are all sorts of busy but the work that is being done is not to the glory of God.
The other night at Consistory, we talked about a whole lot of stuff. Talk with anyone who was there and what time we left, and they’ll vouch for me that we talked about a lot. However, as I pondered about where our religion needs to be focused, and how it needs to be focused on God and God alone, I began to think, "you know what, we, as a family of faith, need to make sure that what we are doing as a church, we are doing for the right reason, for the glory of God. In the same breath, we need to make sure that we do not shy away from new and different worship and service opportunities because they don’t necessarily fit the template were comfortable with emotionally and monetarily. I agree these new ideas need to go through the same vetting process of are they focused on God, but if they are of God, then we need to be willing to follow the Almighty, step out in faith and try, giving all of the glory to God. It doesn’t mean the new idea will succeed in totality or forever, but its worth trying it because it is focused on the right thing: its focused on God.
There are too many segments of our society, including many portions of way too many religious bodies, that have allowed their focus to become transfixed upon that which is temporal, that which is human, that which is self-aggrandizing. We need to fight that sinful tendency with all that we have, with all that God will grant us.
Let’s allow our little corner of religion to be an expression of total commitment to one thing and one thing alone: God. If we work with each other to do our best at allowing the Spirit of God to work through us to do that very thing, then our religion will not be in opposition to God, but instead an avenue through which God and God alone might be worshiped and glorified. That’s what we’ve all said we want. Now lets do our best to help it come to fruition. Let’s allow all that we do to be focused on God.
After Sermon Prayer
Holy God, where is our focus? It is on the one we see it the mirror, or is it on You? God let all that we are focus on You and You alone. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.