“Who Is Your Master?”
Amos 8:1-12
A basket of ripe fruit…it’s delicious, but it doesn’t last long.
This week, the strawberries we just bought grew layers of fuzz before we could finish them.
Our bananas spotted up, becoming overripe much sooner than we expected.
Peaches deteriorate fast, as do apples.
Fruit just doesn’t last very long.
It’s the same with youth, beauty, prosperity and life in general.
A couple of weeks ago I spent some time with my 93-year-old mother who is now living in a nursing facility in Northern Kentucky.
She is a sweet and thoughtful soul.
She is also at peace in her old age.
We were having a nice time together when she looked at me and said:
“Life is so short.
What were we running after?”
Our Scripture Passage for this morning begins with God showing Amos a basket of ripe fruit, and then going on to compare it to the people of Israel.
They are ripe, like fruit, good for only a very short time, then they will quickly spoil and decay…dead bodies all over…Darkness will come suddenly, and famine…
But what kind of famine?
Not a famine like the starvation in refugee camps, but a famine where folks will hunger to hear the words of the Lord, but no matter how they try, they will not find it, for they will hear nothing.
In other words, God was angry.
REALLY upset.
Why?
The people in Israel were in a time of prosperity.
They were having feasts and they had lots of grain and wheat to sell.
The merchants went to church regularly, but they couldn’t wait for church to be over so they could get back to selling and making money.
But the people were doing more than having their hearts in the wrong place.
Amos tells us that they were trampling on the needy and actually doing away with the poor of the land.
It appears that the urban merchants controlled the markets, making it possible for them to sell to the landless peasants at high prices.
And then, the peasants were forced off their land because the interest rates were too high.
It’s sort of like those predatory lenders that line the streets of our city—the title-pawn folks.
The prophets in the Bible considered predatory behavior toward the weak and vulnerable as one of the worst possible sins.
And that is what Israel was doing in the time of Amos.
In all reality, Jewish Law included ways to provide for the needs of the poor.
For instance, landowners were required to leave the edges of their fields unharvested so that poor people could come and glean those fields and have enough food for themselves and their families.
But instead of doing this, the rich were ruining the poor!
Amos says they were “skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales.”
An aunt of mine used to say to her butcher, “Is your thumb on the scales today?”
She laughed when she said it, but it kept the butcher honest.
But in Amos’ Israel, this is no laughing matter; the needy can’t demand that the measures and scales be checked.
God accused the people of “buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat” which, again, farm owners had been commanded in the Bible to leave as leftovers—free for the poor to eat.
Cheating poor people who are already living on the edge financially is a very chilly thing to do.
Ever notice how gas stations in very poor sections of town tend to have the highest prices?
Or how about grocery stores.
In big cities, it’s common for grocery stores that are set in the middle of very poor neighborhoods where people have little access to transportation to jack up their prices—forcing the poor to pay much more for a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread than the rich suburbanites who can go anywhere to shop.
The merchants in Amos’ day bought low, sold high, gave short measures, charged high prices, and then went to church.
And in verse 7 it says: “The Lord has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: ‘I will never forget anything they have done.’”
A common theme throughout the Bible is that those of us who have enough are called to share with those who don’t.
There’s nothing wrong with making a profit, but making a profit becomes evil when it distorts our relationship with God and with our neighbor.
What did Jesus say:
“No one can serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and Money.”
Let’s all ask ourselves this morning: “Who is my Master? God or Money?”
The Israelites in Amos’ day were trying to “work both sides of the street,” shall we say.
They were offering sacrifices to God, and at the same time they were treating their poor neighbors like filth.
And God doesn’t work that way.
For God is love.
And to love other people is to love God.
And the way we treat other people is the clearest indication of our love for God.
I think that is one of the coolest things about Christianity.
It’s all about loving God and neighbor.
And God is saying through Amos: “You people have not loved Me, and this is made obvious by the fact that you have not loved your neighbor!”
In 1st John Chapter 4 it says: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his or her brother or sister they are a liar.
For anyone who does not love their brother or sister…cannot love God.
Whoever loves God must also love his or her brother or sister.”
We are only allowed one Master.
God knows that our hearts and our treasure follow the same path.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Where is your heart?
Where is my heart?
I know this is tough stuff.
I mean, we live in 21st Century America.
And there are a lot of toys available, for a price!
A couple weeks ago, Clair and I had been listening to a book…it’s not on tape anymore…it’s on computer…
And we had been listening to it on our car-ride home from Northern Kentucky.
When we got home, we decided to sit and listen and finish the book in the den.
The book was on my i-pad, and I was playing Words with Friends at the same time we were listening to the book.
Words with Friends, though, has advertisements.
And the voice overs from those advertisements would jumble up our ability to hear the book properly.
So, Clair said, “I’ve got a better way of doing this—Alexa play my book.”
And right away our artificially intelligent friend started playing the book we had been listening to on the I-pad.
I get it.
It’s hard not to be in service to Money and stuff when the stuff is getting so “out of this world.”
I had an Apple Watch for about a year.
That is, until I fell on my back skateboarding and broke the thing to bits.
When I told my wife about it, she said, “You know you are going to have to go a while without a new one.
We just don’t have the money right now.”
I had gotten used to that watch.
I could talk on the phone with that watch.
I could check the weather.
It would tell me how many steps I had taken in a day—and so much more.
Then, in a few weeks we had the money, and my wife said: “You can buy a new Apple Watch now if you want.”
But I had gotten used to not having it.
And I realized I didn’t need it.
So, I said to her: “No, let’s do something else with the money.
An Apple Watch is not a necessity.
It’s a luxury.”
And I had such a feeling of freedom.
In that instance, Money and Stuff had become my servant rather than my master.
When Money is our master, a host of evil follows.
God, however, is on a mission to win our hearts and set us free from Money.
And when that happens, Money can be put to good use.
And that is exceedingly good news, because Money makes a terrible master but a fantastic servant.
Jesus, over and over again connected the use of money with generosity to the poor—just like, throughout His entire ministry—He reached out to and hung out with the poor and marginalized people.
In doing this, Jesus was faithful to the Hebrew Scriptures, and in particular, to the Prophets.
Prophets like Amos who proclaimed justice for the poor and oppressed.
Jesus, however, went far beyond the prophets by identifying Himself with the poor and oppressed and with those Who help Him.
After all, what is the criteria for Judgment in the Bible?
It is found in Matthew Chapter 25 where Jesus separates the sheep from the goats.
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me.
I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.”
Identification with the poor and oppressed is essential in being a follower of Jesus Christ.
And for this to happen, personal contact and, if possible, personal friendship with those who suffer is an invaluable step.
This can be done, for example, by connecting with a family struggling in the absence of an imprisoned father, visiting the lonely, sick or elderly, helping the mentally or physically impaired, volunteering at Safe House or becoming involved in our upcoming food pantry, and really getting to know and love those who come in need of help.
In doing so, we will discover the humbling joy of receiving much more than we give.
The people of Israel had not loved their neighbor and had lost sight of loving God.
They had allowed Money to become their Master.
People meant little or nothing and God was a pawn.
Amos declared that their prosperity would not last long—much like a basket of ripe fruit.
And that soon they would no longer have the possibility of hearing that Voice which first called Life into being and which gives us hope and breath all along our way.
They have taken the Word of God for granted, and have even rejected it.
However, once the Lord withdraws His Word, they will realize what a bad bargain they have struck.
They will seek the Lord’s Word, but will not find it.
It has been suggested that Hell is the only place where we can’t hear God’s Word and experience God’s Presence.
If that’s so, I’ve been there.
It’s not a fun place to be.
There is no peace there, just a sword piercing the heart.
We are created and called to live in the Kingdom of God right here and right now.
We do this by saying “Yes” to God’s love for us, and then seeking to love others the way God loves us.
And God’s love is unconditional, it is compassionate, it is sacrificial.
It puts “the other” first.
And it is the Key to Life.
Praise God.
Amen.
