Sermon Tone Analysis

I’m thinking most of us will find it a bit disappointing to hear that this morning we’re still stuck in the muck and mire of sin.

Yes, another sermon on SIN.

But the good news is that this is the last sermon on sin! Next week the season of Advent begins and with it we begin a new series on HOPE.

We’ll be taking a short break in our Come and See series and will resume with the next section in Our World Belongs to God, the section called Redemption!

Now some might be wondering, why this extended excursion into sin, why delve into it not for just one week, or two, but four weeks?

I think another confessional document that is important in our Reformed tradition gives us a very helpful answer.

Let me share it with you:

The Heidelberg Catechism, a confession written in the 16th century begins with this opening question:

Q.

What is your only comfort

in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own,

but belong—

body and soul,

in life and in death—

to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

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Now the very next question is an important one.

The first reason is that it answers the question I asked a moment ago, why delve into the topic of sin for not one but four weeks!....the second reason is because this answer gives us the outline for the rest of the Catechism (129 Q&A’s).

Here it is:

Q.

What must you know to

live and die in the joy of this comfort?

A. Three things:

first, how great my sin and misery are;

second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery;

third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.

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[Explain briefly these three parts.....linger on part one: moves us to pray, “help”...”forgive me”....”have mercy on me”....this is quite different than praying, “God, can you improve things in my life for me?”.......

You see, many are tempted to think of God a bit like a genie in a bottle.

The well-known Disney film, Aladdin, captures this way of thinking about God.

God is like a cosmic genie who is available to satisfy your wishes....EXPLAIN …]

So our text for this morning is from the prophet Amos, chapters 1 and 2. We’re not going to read them in their entirety, but I would like to read selected portions and make come comments along the way.

Date: around 760 BC.

Divided Kingdom - point out Israel and Judah, but also neighboring nations…Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab

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Northern Kingdom at this time was very wealthy and powerful.

In some sense Israel was experiencing a great economic revival.

Can read in 2 Kings 13,14 that Israel’s borders had been expanded.

People thought their wealth was God blessed and ordained!

Lord is mostly thought of as Israel’s SHEPHERD....who protects from lions.

But Amos describes Yahweh as a LION who is roaring.

No doubt this has gotten the attention of the people of Israel…that’s who this prophecy is written for.

And as Amos begins....it would appear that Yahweh is roaring towards the neighboring nations.

....and on it goes to Moab, then to Judah.... “Go God!!” we can hear Israel saying to themselves as they listen to the prophecy of Amos.

But then comes this word against Israel....

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God through the prophet Amos is exposing the nature of sin among the people of God in the northern kingdom of Israel.

And we see that it has a societal impact....Amos is talking about social or societal injustices.

And through the prophet Amos, God speaks a resounding NO to what is happening in the society of Israel.

This is not the way it is supposed to be!

And so what we are seeing in these opening chapters of Amos is an illustrative description of the way in which the reality of sin infects, corrupts, and pollutes entire societies.

Sin truly affects every sphere of life.

This is how the CT describes this aspect of sin:

16.

All spheres of life—

family and friendship,

work and worship,

school and state,

play and art—

bear the wounds of our rebellion.

Sin is present everywhere—

in pride of race,

arrogance of nations,

abuse of the weak and helpless,

disregard for water, air, and soil,

destruction of living creatures,

slavery, murder, terror, and war,

worship of false gods,

the mistreatment of our bodies,

and our frantic efforts to escape reality.

We become victims of our own sin.

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I think it is easy of us to think of many examples of how the reality of sin has affected all the different aspects of society that the CT describes in this paragraph.

Dysfunctional families, misguided political enterprises, racial prejudice, mistreating our planet, mistreating our bodies.....and yes, frantic efforts people make to escape reality, either through social media, excessive gaming, Netflix binge-ing.

I could spend hours giving examples.

[take a few moments to focus WORSHIP.....work and worship the CT says.... (work: excessive focus on profit or greed)....but what about worship?

How do we as the church think about ourselves as God’s people....what are we expecting when we come to a worship service?

Let me help us think about that as it relates to church architecture.... transcendence of a cathedral vs. entertainment of a movie theatre..... how are these worship spaces forming the identities of God’s people?

]

This week I went back into my notes of a course that I took on Amos with my OT prof.

John Stek…who’s now with the Lord.

What are some corrupting expectations that people have about worship or what it means to be a Christian?

He talked about the trend in our society to “reinvent” church?

[rather than a community living in the presence of God, people who are dying to sin and rising with Christ to be his witnesses…]

“Church is a local dispensary of “chicken soup for the soul”—or of vitamin tablets and non prescription drugs....”

Recall the God as “Genie in a bottle” image....

You see when we understand ourselves in this way, Going to church in order to get some spiritual vitamin tablets that give us the energy we need for the coming week....or going to church as a way of rubbing the bottle so that the genie comes out and gives us our wishes..... when we understand ourselves in this way, to use the language of the CT, we become victims of our own sin.

Let me quote Cornelius Plantinga as he describes something St. Augustine once wrote.

Here’s what Plantinga writes:

“Our core problem, says St. Augustine, is that the human heart, ignoring God, turns in on itself, tries to lift itself, wants to please itself, and ends up debasing itself.

The person who reaches toward God and wants to please God gets, so to speak, stretched by this move, and ennobled by the transcendence of its object.

But the person who curves in on himself, who wants God’s gifts without God, who wants to satisfy the desires of a divided heart, ends up sagging and contracting into a little wad.

His desires are provincial.

“There is something in humility which, strangely enough, exalts the heart, and something in pride which debases it.””

(Cornelius Plantinga)

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I think that this quote helpfully leads is into the next paragraph in the CT.

17.

In all our striving

to excuse or save ourselves,

we stand condemned

before the God of truth.