Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Good morning!
The end has come.
I will never again pass them by.
Temple songs will become wailings.
Dead bodies everywhere, cast out in every place.
Where’s the good news there?
You’re probably wondering, “Wow, Ben!
Where are you going with this one?”
I will say that this whole week I’ve been depressed with Amos, but at the same time I have felt impressed to sit with this text and let God speak to me, and now I hope to you.
This text from Amos is evidence for some that the nature of God in the First Testament (aka the Old Testament) is very different than the nature of God as expressed in the person of Jesus.
One modern worship song even suggests that Jesus is God’s "sloppy wet kiss” on the world.
Why was God so angry?
Why did he send prophets to predict such harsh things?
How do we reconcile God’s love with his judgment?
Does God ever feel this way towards us?
Illustration
Many years ago, when Luke was our only child, Amy and I were with him on the back porch of a friend’s house.
They had several younger children of various ages and a small swing set in the back yard.
Luke immediately went running up to the swings which were in full tilt and I sprung into action.
After rescuing him from getting accidently mowed over, our friend’s daughter, who was much younger than Luke began waddling over to the swings.
So, I began warning our friend of the impeding doom.
Her response to me made my jaw drop.
She said,
It’s ok.
She’ll do that once and she’ll never do it again!
So, which is more loving, to warn your child of consequences, to discipline them, and to physically intervene if necessary, or stand by while the child learns by hard nocks?
We had no doubt that our friends loved their kids, but we weren’t ready for this kind of Rambo parenting!
Several kids and years later, I’m admittedly more sympathetic to our friend’s approach, but it’s still too radical for me.
What I’m suggesting from this illustration is that Amos captures God’s love for his people through his prophetic ministry of warning them of the results of their continued disobedience.
Rather than say nothing, God was desperately trying to reach his people.
The good news, Wilmore Anglican, is that God’s love pursues us to the very end of our disobedience.
Will we listen and respond to his voice?
Why Can’t We Hear?
So what was wrong with Amos’s audience?
Why didn’t they hear and respond?
They had a prophet come to them after all!
If we turn to the church fathers, they are disappointingly less interested in understanding what God has to say to them as they are for maligning Jewish people.
But this is easy for all of us to do.
God’s message of judgment is usually for “those people.”
Am I right?
As outsiders of Amos’s context, a lot of things appear obvious to us, because we are not in the thick of things.
If we were insiders, we would be as hard of hearing as they were.
If you don’t think so, I need only mentions topics such as:
the border wall
immigration holding facilities
racism or white privilege
gun control
medicare for all
global warming
I don’t even need to state what my position is on these issues and most of you have already lined up your arguments to explain why I’m wrong in case I take a position contrary to your own!
If we have ears to hear, this morning, Amos invites us to take stock of our own commitment to God, not point fingers at others.
Of course, Jesus was no stranger to this kind of discipleship either.
So, let’s dive into this text and open our hearts to the word of the Lord.
Would you pray with me?
Some Context & Reasons We Can’t Hear
First, let’s get a little insider context to understand why Amos’s message was so unbelievable.
Chronologically, Amos is the first writing prophet.
The book mentions king Uzziah of the southern kingdom and king Jeroboam II of the northern kingdom.
The mention of the earthquake in the opening of the book dates it to around 760 BCE, about 40 years prior to the Assyrian exile.
So, strike one… he’s an early voice warning of trouble.
Kids rarely listen the first time, and neither do most adults.
And we have God’s grace, right?
We learn from Amos 1:1 and Amos 7:14-15 that Amos comes from Judah in the south to prophesy to the north.
He is a herdsman and dresser of fig trees.
Strike two… Amos was a southerner.
This guy ain’t from around these parts.
He is out of his jurisdiction.
He hasn’t earned the right to speak.
Thus, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, wanted to “send him back” to the south (Amos 7:12).
Amos defends himself against Amaziah by explaining that he is not a “son of a prophet.”
This meant that he neither held the “office” of prophet nor was part of a prophetic guild that trained prophets.
Strike three… this guy is not even qualified.
He hasn’t been to prophecy school.
Not to mention, there are false prophets everywhere.
Highly suspicious!
Furthermore, Amaziah accuses him before Jeroboam, the king, of conspiring against him.
He says to Amos,
never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.
(Amos 7:13)
Strike four…
(I realize that there are only 3 strikes in baseball, but this is how bad Amos is doing!)
this guy is unpatriotic.
How dare he speak against the king.
Doesn’t he know that he should pray for world leaders not call them out?
Notice that Amaziah says that it is a “temple of the kingdom.”
That is, the worship of God was in service of and supported the goals of the kingdom, not the other way around.
There are boundaries on acceptable prophetic speech.
Critique of the kingdom is ungodly.
Finally, we know from our text in Amos 8 (cf.
Amos 6:14, and 2 Kings 14:23-29), and from both historical and archaeological evidence that times were good for both the northern and southern kingdom.
Both kingdoms were at peace and had expanded their land holdings by conquering their neighbors and had control of the major trade route.
Strike five… if God were truly upset with us, surely times would be harder, right?
There is peace, the economy is booming, sales and trade have never been better!
Bug off Amos.
Summary of Context
If we put ourselves in the shoes of Amos’s audience, there are plenty of reasons to ignore Amos.
While we look back in hindsight and scratch our heads as to why the Israelites didn’t listen to God, it is for the same reasons we don’t listen to one another.
Amos is just another guy
he’s not from here, he has no authority here
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