“Of Prophets and Profits”

Amos 8:1-12

N. T. Wright: When the world has gone its own way, trampling on the needy, cheating on weights and measures, casting God’s wise ordering of life out of the way so that it can make another quick buck, the word of grace is bound to cause [a] panic. If that stuff were to get around, profits would drop. Not for nothing does [the Apostle] Paul celebrate the fact that Christ is Lord of the principalities and powers.

[and]

When Amos inveighs against social injustice, economic trickery, and exploitation in Israel, the most terrible of his threats… is that there is to be a famine, not of bread, but the word of YHWH. A vivid picture of panic: people wandering to and fro, running this way and that, longing for the word of YHWH and not finding it. Those who turn their back on the written word, that commands justice, sabbath-keeping, and care for the poor, will find the spoken word has gone silent on them as well.

[prayer]

The mid-eighth century b. c. was, at least on the surface, a very good time for what had once been the kingdom of David and Solomon. For both the northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah, this was a time of peace and economic prosperity. There were no major threats from outside the nation.

As I said, things looked really good on the surface. But beneath that glittering surface there was corruption of the worst sort. This was the time when Amos and Hosea in the north and Isaiah and Micah in the south proclaimed God’s word of impending judgment. Why? Listen again to verses 4-6 from the eight chapter of Amos. These are words echoed not only in other parts of the Book of Amos, but also Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea.

“Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, ‘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 epha small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat’.”

The successful businessmen could hardly wait for sabbath services and special holy days to be over. They wanted to be back out in the market making money. They attended services and observed the high holy days as a matter of lip service to their religious obligations, but the whole time their minds were on money instead of God. They had their priorities reversed in such a way that they were violating the spirit of God’s ordained sabbath.

Making money is not a sin. Putting it ahead of God is. But that’s not the worst of it. They couldn’t wait to get out there and make money dishonestly. Rigged scales. Charging full price for less than full service. Foisting shoddy products off on the innocent and unaware under the guise of selling them the good stuff. Lying, cheating, and stealing. And in the process reducing the poor, the weak, and the helpless to a level of poverty that forced them into a form of economic slavery.

And it wasn’t just done in the market place. Judges and witnesses were bribed so that the powerful could use the court system to further abuse the powerless. The rich got richer. The poor got poorer. Justice and righteousness, the basic underpinnings of their covenant with God, were being perverted in the name of financial gain. Throw into this mix the rampant worship of false gods and the accompanying sexual perversions, and you have the ingredients of a cultural stew that stank to high heaven.

Amos, just like Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea, made it clear that some drastic changes had to be made. Repentance was demanded. Folks had to stop breaking the Ten Commandments with impunity: the apostasy, idolatry, sabbath breaking, hypocritical worship practices, lying, cheating, stealing, sexual promiscuity, and covetous greed had to end. The so-called good times would not last forever. God’s patience would wear thin. Harsh judgment was about to fall.

In its aftermath the dead bodies would rot above ground because they would be too numerous to bury. There would be upheaval and distress beyond imagining. There would be darkness instead of light, mourning instead of rejoicing. Survivors of the coming natural and military disasters would wander in confusion, seeking too late the direction and comfort of God’s Word. That which they had so glibly ignored and disobeyed would not be there for them in their time of grief.

Ultimately there was no repentance in the northern kingdom. In due time Israel was conquered and destroyed by the armies of the Assyrian Empire. The southern kingdom would suffer through some of that and by the grace of God survive for another 130 years or so. In the end songs of the temples of both nations became wailing and lamentation. Joy was turned into a deep and bitter grief. Too late the people remembered the words God spoke through Moses, words preserved in Deuteronomy: Obey God’s law and live. Do justice and prosper. Be righteous and possess the very shalom of God. But do otherwise and die.

Some things have changed. Some things haven’t. People are still people. Sin still has consequences. God is still not to be blatantly ignored or disobeyed. There has been one eternally significant change. 250 years after Amos spoke the words of today’s text Jesus Christ came into the world as God’s very own incarnation, taking upon himself the sins of the world. Through him there can be found forgiveness, salvation, and peace. From him we can receive the gift of perfect righteousness that we could never achieve on our own.

This isn’t eighth century Israel. America is not a theocracy. But God’s people, the Body of Christ, are still required to do justice and practice righteousness. The Ten Commandments still apply to us. Jesus came not to abolish the law and prophets but to fulfill them. He expects his disciples to do likewise.

That means that as Christians we have to be prophetic even when doing so is unprofitable. We have to proclaim, but more importantly, live the Gospel – all of it, not just the parts we like. Jesus didn’t preach the Sermon on the Mount just to hear himself talk. He preached it to those who would follow him, and his intention in doing so was that they would hear it, take it to heart, and then model it before the world.

Back to that prophetic thing. We modern Christians must do more than just talk about piety. We must also model piety – social as well as personal. God needs to be our number one priority. His will must always trump the world’s wishes. The Good News of Jesus must be proclaimed even to those who will hear it as judgment – be they political leaders, captains of industry, or wielders of military might. And the message we live and proclaim must address more sins than just the typical sins of the flesh that are so often addressed from modern pulpits. Drug and alcohol abuse, pre- and extra-marital sex, abortion, and pornography are not the only sins being practiced in our culture. They most definitely need our attention, but so do some others.

We need speak out against those who profit at the expense of the weak and helpless, those who exploit the innocent in order to make a fast buck. While that most definitely includes pornographers, drug dealers, and their ilk it also includes those who make and sell shoddy and dangerous food products and medicines. And those who profit by way of sweat shop practices and wages that almost amount to economic enslavement. It includes those who have the money, power, and connections to find and exploit loopholes in the legal system in order to gain unfair advantage over those who are not as rich, powerful, or well-connected.

And those who profit by taking advantage of people whose lives have been disrupted by natural disasters: the price gougers, con artists, and even government officials who prey on those who are in no position to defend themselves. Or the profiteers of every generation who make money by cheating our military men and women out of the rations, equipment, and weapons they need in order to survive in battle zones.

The list of those who are sometimes deserving of God’s word of judgment could go on and on. Sometimes their sins are obvious. Sometimes their sins must be prayerfully and carefully discerned before we speak out against them. We must be careful not to end up acting lke that self-righteous Pharisee in this morning’s Gospel Lesson.

We must never lose sight of our own capacities for sinfulness. We need to subject our own ethics and lifestyles to careful and prayerful discernment for any possible inherent sinfulness. That, too, will lead to a long list of possible sins. In the end it boils down to the words of Micah 6: The Lord has told us what is good – what he requires of us – doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God. And we do that by opening our hearts and minds to God’s Word and God’s Spirit. We do that by following faithfully in the footsteps of Jesus. Amen.