Courage

Courage Comes From The Word of The LORD

7.14.24 [Amos 7:1-15] River of Life (8th Sunday after Pentecost)

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen.

When you buy a brand-new house, you expect it to be without any of the major problems of a fixer-upper. But many in the Valley are finding out that new doesn’t always mean problem-free.

In a new build, there’s always cosmetic stuff that the builder promises to address before your warranty expires. In the best of worlds, they get to it quickly. If not, you have to be patient and persistent. But for some new homeowners, it’s not just cosmetic stuff that can wait. It’s stuff that violates city codes and state standards. It’s gas and water leaks. Shoddy electrical work that can take a tragic turn. A/C systems where the condensation line isn’t connected and spawns black mold. Rotting roofs and cracked foundations. Things you’d never expect in a new build.

Cy Porter sees it all the time. He’s a home inspector who specializes in new builds. Cy says new builds need inspections just as much as any other home. So he’s developed a social media presence where he broadcasts his thorough inspections and the problems he’s uncovered. Cy wants builders to be held accountable & new homeowners to know what they can demand the builder fix.

New-build homeowners love Cy Porter. Home builders aren’t as wild about Cy. It’s easy to figure out why. In April, one builder filed a complaint against Cy Porter with the board that regulates home inspectors. Their complaint wasn’t with his inspection reports but with his videos. They called the videos harassment and bullying. They want Cy Porter to stop making them look bad. Stop talking.

Amaziah wanted the same thing from Amos. In order to understand why, we need a quick history refresher. After Solomon was king, the people of God were torn into two nations that became rivals—Israel and Judah. Israel was bigger, but didn’t have Jerusalem. So, no Temple. The first king of Israel, whose name was also Jeroboam (though not this one), decided he could not have his people going down to Jerusalem to worship. If they did they would eventually give their allegiance back to Judah. So he built two golden calves and put one at the north end of the kingdom in Dan, and in the south end at Bethel and he told the people that (1 Kg. 12:28) it was too much for them to go to Jerusalem and that these golden calves (1 Kg. 12:28) were the gods who brought them out of Egypt. He took Aaron’s golden calf and Moses’ sacrifices & created a fiendish false religion.

And it stuck. For six or so generations the people of Israel had been going to Dan or Bethel to worship these golden calves and thinking they were worshipping the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob. During that time, the Lord sent faithful prophets like Ahijah, Elijah, and Elisha to rebuke them. But the people didn’t listen. Some kings, like Ahab, actively hunted down faithful prophets to kill them.

By the days of Amos, the Lord had seen enough. Without a true knowledge of God, the people of Israel were seeking and loving evil in all its forms. They took bribes and oppressed the poor with heavy taxes. When they couldn’t pay, they bought and sold them as slaves. Amos tells us Israel thought little of adultery, idolatry, and desecrating the Sabbath. They figured they must be doing fine spiritually because they were on the rise as a nation, economically and militarily. God wasn’t fooled. And he wasn’t fooling around.

So he showed Amos five visions. We read the first three today—the locusts, the fire, & the plumb line. The Sovereign Lord also explained to Amos what the last one meant. (Amos 7:9) The high places of Isaac, where idols like Baal were worshipped, will be destroyed. The sanctuaries of Israel, like Bethel & Dan, will be ruined. And the Lord’s sword would rise against the house of Jeroboam, the king of Israel.

When Amos announced that message in Bethel, the false priest Amaziah opposed him. First, he accused Amos of raising a conspiracy against the king. Then he told him to go back home because he was either jealous of Israel or didn’t respect king Jeroboam. If Amos wanted to earn a living and stay alive he better return to Judah.

You don’t have to be an Old Testament prophet to experience some backlash like Amos, though. Speak about the sins of greed and materialism and someone will call you a socialist. Speak about the sins of theft and property damage and someone will call you a capitalist. Speak about the sins of racism and people will dismiss you as a social justice warrior. Speak about any of the many sins of sexual immorality that are celebrated by our society—that God designed marriage for one man and one woman, that God created people to be male or female—and you will be called an intolerant, backward-thinking bigot. A homophobe. A transphobe. Speak about the evils of abortion and they will say that you hate women and are trying to deprive them of health care and their rights. Speak about what God calls men to do as fathers and husbands and spiritual leaders and people will call you sexist. Speak about the importance of going to church and people will tell you you can connect with God anywhere. Speak about any sin that has gained any level of social acceptance and they’ll call you holier-than-thou or a hypocrite.

But it’s not just speaking about sin that people hate to hear. When we say that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, the only name by which sinners are saved, we’re called narrow-minded, spiteful, and too dogmatic. Tell people that God will judge the world and they will tell you that they can’t believe in a God like that. Speak any of the frequently and clearly articulated truths of the Bible and people will scorn and mock you. Speak God’s truth and, like Amos, you will be opposed. Speak God’s truth and, like Amos, you will be misrepresented. Speak God’s truth and you will be slandered.

It’s not fun to be opposed. It hurts to have people you respect turn their backs on you. Satan uses social pressure to drive us to silence. He wants us to just sit on God’s truth rather than profess it. He wants us to be intimidated when confronting sin and just go back home.

But that’s not his only trick. The other thing he wants is for us to begin to despise the people God has sent us to rebuke. He wants us to assume that they aren’t going to listen. That it’s never going to work. If we must speak God’s truth, he wants us to call them out with contempt. To be a prophet like Jonah, rooting for their destruction with diabolical glee.

Did you notice how Amos didn’t make either of those mistakes?

He knew his message wouldn’t be popular in Bethel, but he still spoke God’s truth. He knew that the people of Israel deserved condemnation, but he still prayed (Amos 7:2) Sovereign Lord, forgive!… Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop!

Why did Amos do these things for people who loved evil and hated good? Why did Amos pray for the Lord to relent when any reasonable person would recognize how this message would go over? Amos knew the Lord who called him to prophesy was a God of righteousness and mercy. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but wants all sinners to turn from their evil ways and live. The reason he sent Amos was to call Israel back to the Lord.

Ultimately, Israel as a nation would ignore that call. They would not listen to prophets like Amos or Hosea. Their land would be invaded by the Assyrians and their people would be carried off into exile. The plumb line of God’s righteousness was set among the people and they were found to be crooked, wicked, & evil. They were unfaithful.

But God remains faithful to his promises. So in this land of unfaithfulness, God set a perfect stone—he sent his Son, Jesus, to be his precious cornerstone. In the heart of the land that forsook him, God placed his Son to save his people. Places like Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee are smack dab in the middle of these northern tribes. That is where God proclaimed his message of repentance for the whole world.

And Jesus was rejected for much the same reasons that Amos was. People looked down on him because he wasn’t from the right place. He was the son of a carpenter, not a trained rabbi from Jerusalem. His words of rebuke in the Temple about turning his father’s house into a den of robbers were as well received as Amos’ words in Bethel. And like Amos, Jesus prayed that those who hated him might be forgiven. But Jesus did something that Amos did not. That Amos could not. He stood in the place of all sinners & endured the righteous wrath that was depicted by locusts and fire. He knew that we were not plumb. That we wandered and strayed and rebelled against God’s perfect design. He sacrificed himself so that we might be spared. He loved those who hated him. He prayed for those who put him to death. His life, his death, and his resurrection are the cornerstone of our faith. God in his grace has made us right, set us plumb, when he placed us upon the cornerstone we know as Christ.

The Apostle Peter picks up on this image as he writes about Jesus being this Living Cornerstone. (1 Pt. 2:5) You, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. What are these sacrifices? To declare the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light, the one who made you people of God, the one who showed you mercy.

How do we do this? By speaking the word of God about sin and grace, Law and Gospel. We live in a world like Amos—full of greed, injustice, abuse, selfishness, and wickedness. God’s people speak up about these sins even when they are not personally victimized by them. God’s people courageously rebuke sin because they know of God’s great mercy and love. Like Amos, we must be perceptive, courageous, and faithful to the truth. When we do so, we must be prepared to be challenged. To be opposed. To be misrepresented. When we do so, we must struggle and strive to speak the truth in love, to genuinely and sincerely desire their repentance.

Then we must remember the words of Psalm 118. The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans or princes. The Lord is my strength and my defense. He has become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever. Amen.