Go, Prophesy to My People - July 15, 2018 - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 10) - Text: Amos 7:7-15

Certainly we have all heard jokes that start like this, “I have good news and I have bad news. Which would you like to hear first?” Certainly we have actually had people, not telling a joke, tell us that they have good news and bad news and then ask, “Which would you like to hear first.” In our text for this morning Amos does not come with good news and bad news. He comes only with bad news and his bad news is not what the people want to hear. As a matter of fact, his bad news, which really is not even his bad news, but he is simply the messenger, bringing the bad news from the Lord. Amos has only bad news, he does not even have any good news to share. And he has no choice except that God told him to tell the bad news.
 

Our text begins with the vision of Amos from the Lord and the accusation of the people, “7This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumb line.’ Then the Lord said, ‘Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; 9the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.’ 10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11For thus Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land’” (v. 7-11).
 

Amos speaks of a vision from the Lord. In the vision, the children of Israel are compared to a plumb line. A plumb line is a line that is drawn in order to make sure everything was perfectly aligned, level and squared. In his vision, then, Amos is shown a plumb line by the Lord to point out the fact that the Lord had created a good upright nation. The Lord showed Amos a plumb line and then when asked what he saw, he answered and the Lord says He will measure Israel and they will not measure up to what is just and right and good. And so the Lord has determined to make Israel desolate. And because of his words, or rather because of the Lord’s vision which he speaks, Amos is accused of being a traitor and a conspirator.
 

Because of his words, or rather because of the Lord’s Word of prophecy through Amos, Amaziah, who is the priest of Bethel, finds Amos to be a threat. How do you deal with a threat? You tell the king, but you do not tell the king the whole truth and nothing but the truth, rather you tell him what you want him to hear.  Amaziah tells the king that Amos is conspiring against him and this is not good for the people to hear. Amaziah says that Amos says the king will die. These words are intended to anger the king even more.
 

What is Amos really saying? He is saying that the king, Jeroboam will die by the sword and that the people will be taken into exile into a far away land, a land not their own. Amos tells the truth. He speaks the words the Lord has given him to say. These are not Amos’ words and they are words he probably does not really want to speak, but they are the Lord’s Word which He has given to Amos and so Amos must speak them.
 

Our text continues with the words of Amaziah to Amos, “12And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom’” (v. 12-13).
 

In essence, Amaziah tells Amos to get out of town before it is too late. He tells Amos that he is no longer allowed to make a living as a prophet. You see, Amaziah was a paid prophet, which is why he only spoke what those who paid him wanted to hear. Today we might refer to someone like Amaziah as a “yes man.”
 

Amaziah threatens Amos that he should not prophecy any more in Bethel because that is the kings sanctuary and he does not need to hear any gloom and doom proclaimed in his sanctuary. Amaziah forbids Amos from prophesying in Bethel. Notice that for Amaziah truth does not matter. It does not matter to him if what Amos is speaking is true or not true, whether his words are really from the Lord or not. He is simply more concerned about keeping his position of prestige, power and authority.
    Finally, we are given Amos’ response, “14Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, ‘I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel”’” (v. 14-15).
 

Amos’ response and answer to Amaziah is to assure him that he was not a prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but was a shepherd and a gardener, taking care of sycamore-fig trees. Amos has no connections with any of the prophets, nor with their disciples. He was not hired by anyone. All he did was care for sycamore-fig trees and sheep and that is all the business he really wanted to have. But the Lord had other plans for Amos.
 

The only reason Amos has come to prophesy is because the Lord took him and told him to go and prophesy. Amos’ defense is that he can only say what the Lord tells him to say, these are not his words.
 

It was not Amos’ idea, it was the Lord’s doing. How could Amos stop his prophesying? What could Amos do? He was doing only what the Lord gave him to do. In other words, Amos is telling Amaziah, it is not me that you have a beef with, but with the Lord. Amos must obey God rather than men.
 

So, what does this text mean and what does it mean for us today? Just as in the days of Amos, so today, the Lord calls us. You might recall last week we talked about the callings from God. God calls us to life at our conception. God calls us to faith through the means of grace. He calls us to faith through the waters of Holy Baptism. He calls us to faith through the means of His Word. He strengthens and keeps us in faith through that same Word, through our remembering our Baptism, through confession and absolution and through His Holy Supper.
 

God also calls us to vocation. God calls us to be His people where ever we are. No matter what our vocation, no matter what our job, God calls us to live lives as priests. God calls us to live lives as living sacrifices for Him. God calls us to do, whatever it is we do, our best, and to do whatever we are doing as if we are doing it for Him.
 

For some, God calls some men into the office of Holy Ministry. Those He calls into the office of Holy Ministry, He gives His Word to proclaim to His people. The man called by God is to speak as the Lord gives him the word to speak and he is not to be concerned about what his hearers want or desire to hear. Sometimes, just as was the case with Amos and other prophets, this means he proclaims words that are hard to hear, or that we do not want to hear such as repent.
 

Mostly, the Lord calls our pastors to rightly divide the law and the Gospel. To preach the law in all its severity, that is to make sure we hear the law, to make sure we understand that we are conceived and born in sin, that we sin in thought, word and action, that we sin sins of omission, not doing what we ought and sins of commission, doing what we should not do, that every inclination of our heart is evil all the time, that we are spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God. We need to hear the law otherwise the Gospel will mean nothing to us. Why or of what would we need to repent if we did not know we were sinners. So, even if our pastors should not necessarily want to preach the law, they must, because the law was given to them by God to proclaim to His people.
 

And our pastors are called by God and given His Word and authority to preach the Gospel in all its sweetness. We are to hear our pastors proclaim the fullness of that Gospel that is that Jesus lived for us, perfectly, obeying all of God’s laws perfectly, for us, in our place, because we cannot. We are to hear our pastors proclaim that Jesus lived perfectly, and then He took all our sins, all your sins, all my sins and He paid the price, He suffered the eternal death penalty, the price for sin, for us in our place and He died. But death and the grave had no power over Him, because He rose from the dead and now He lives and reigns with the Father and the Spirit. He has ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father where He is watching over us, ruling over us and interceding for us. And we know because He rose, we too will rise again. That is not simply good news, but that is the greatest news in the world. It is news that truly is out of this world.
 

Our response to all that God does for us and gives to us is that God calls us to be His witnesses, through our thoughts, words and actions. No, we are not all ministers or pastors, but we are all priests. Remember the role of the priest was to offer sacrifices. The pastor is not a priest. He does not offer sacrifices. We are priests, we offer sacrifices. We offer our lives as living sacrifices for the Lord.
 

We live in a world that has changed and continues to change. We live in a world where one sides against another and just as Amaziah did not always speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth but rather spoke his own version of the truth to gain support, so too it happens in our world today. As Christians we must be very discerning at what we hear and do not hear because there are many false prophets and false proclaimers in our world even today. What is more is that we were once a Christian nation founded on Christian principles, yet this foundation has been given up for the lies and false teachings of fallible humans. Indeed, as a country we have lost much of our heritage and Christian foundation.  All one needs to do is to look at the so called Christian churches in our country today to see that too many do not look much different than our society, that is that what was once considered sin by the church is now hailed as meet, right and salutary, and what was once considered meet, right and salutary is now hailed as wrong. And yet, we are to continue to obey God rather than humanity and to proclaim what God says as truth, even in the face of persecution. We are indeed to be like Amos for the sake of the truth of God’s Word. And like Amos, our Lord will protect and defend us.
 

We may most certainly feel like Amos. We are simply practitioners of our vocations. We are simply minding our own business, and I would add, always being ready to give an answer for the hope that we have in our faith in Jesus. We would rather not be accused as Amos was, yet with the help of the Holy Spirit, we stand firm in our faith, giving an answer for the hope that we have as we have the opportunity. We rejoice and share the good news of sins forgiven, faith given, and eternal life won for us and given to us. And we rejoice and give God praise. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.