Amos 7:10-15
July 13, 1997
In years past, before GPS and other navigation wonders, the lighthouse was an important feature on every coastline. On the shoreline of Lake Superior, on a point that sticks well out into the cold waters of the big lake, there is a lighthouse on the shoreline. In a dense fog, you cannot see the shoreline or the safe harbor that lies just beyond the rocks. If your boat ventures just a few hundred yards in the wrong direction, all of its cargo, including its human cargo, might be lost in the cold sea. For a body does not survive long in the cold waters of Lake Superior.
The light on the lighthouse performed another function. The horn warns of the dangerous rocks. The light directs you to the safety of the harbor beyond. On a foggy night, ships at sea are thankful that the fog horn continues to drone its warning all through the night , and the light on the lighthouse never stops pointing the way to the safety of the harbor.
Imagine if you were in the lighthouse on a foggy night, making sure the horn was sounding and the light was shining. A neighbor on the lake comes for a visit and says, “How do you expect us to get any sleep in this neighborhood? That bright light keeps flashing right through our bedroom window. And the horn! Does it have to be so loud? Can’t you turn them off just for a while until after we get to sleep?” But if you didn’t sound the horn to warn the ships, or shine your light to guide their way, what would happen to the people on those boats? Just because the neighbors complain once in a while, it doesn’t mean you can shut down the lighthouse!
Friends, God has called us, as he called Amos, to sound the warning and to keep our lights shining in our world. That message won’t always be appreciated. In fact, many will encourage us just to shut down our message because it makes them feel uncomfortable. But God has called upon us to proclaim that message to the world without holding back, even when some would want us to do so.
Don’t Hold Back!
1. God still speaks to the world
When you read a prophet like Amos, it’s helpful to read some of the introductory material your Bible might have that provides you with some background. Amos lived about 750 years before Christ. He lived and preached primarily to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which had been divided after the time of Solomon. To keep his people from going back to Jerusalem to the temple, Jeroboam I set up altars with golden calves at Bethel and Dan so that his people would stay home to worship. But in doing so, he led them into idolatry. And it would appear that for the people of Israel one religion was just as good as the next and they went along with it.
The Jeroboam in our text was no better. The Bible says, “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.” This Jeroboam was a tremendously successful king and expanded the borders of Israel. But this didn’t make him popular with God! This was Amos’ message. "’Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’" Amos message wasn’t “politically correct” for his time.
Nor was his message popular with the priests. Listen to what Amaziah, the priest in Bethel, had to say. "Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom." You can imagine his motives for wanting to kick Amos out of Israel. After all, Amos was talking about HIS church and HIS temple. How dare he say that he was wrong in what he believed! I suppose when the climate in Israel was that “any religion” was all right, we can understand why Amaziah was angry that Amos said that his religion was nothing more than idolatry and a false religion.
Nor was Amos’ message popular with the people. The Lord instructed Amos to call attention to people’s sins. Crooked business practices were in evidence. Merchants were using one set of scales for measuring the grain and another for weighing the money. Poor people couldn’t get a fair hearing in the courts. People were committing adultery and immoral acts. At a time when people were prosperous and wealthy, they were squandering and misusing the resources that God gave them. Amos called attention to their sins and told them to repent and turn back to God. How dare Amos play the part of the judge with them!
Is God’s message to the world any different today than it was in Amos day? Or does it receive a better reception today than it did in Amos day? A few presidents ago, Jimmy Carter made the statement that he believed that the people of our country were suffering from a “spiritual malaise” (another word for being spiritually sleeping). That one comment probably did more to hurt his image as the president than anything else he said. It just isn’t “politically correct” to say people are spiritually lazy! In fact most of the things that aren’t “politically correct” today are things God would be in favor of!
Not long after I entered the ministry, someone took me aside and gently chided me. “Pastor,” he said, “I think you’re preaching too much about material things. We work hard to get ahead in this world and people don’t like to hear that they spend too much on themselves.” But as much as people think the foghorn is too loud, they still need to hear God’s message!
Friends, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that Amos was preaching to God’s people, not just the world. When opinion polls are made of people in our church body, it is frightening to see how our people are being influenced in their thinking and in their actions by what’s going on out there. Morals have deteriorated in my short lifetime. There are more divorces in the church today. There is more sexual immorality. There is less respect and honor of children to their parents. There is a greater love for material possessions. And when these things are pointed out to us, our Old Adam rises up in rebellion and says, “Get out of here, you seer! Go preach somewhere else! Don’t bother us any more!”
Shall we be like obstinate Israel, who didn’t want to hear God’s warnings, and to whom Amos could preach only a little gospel in the end of his book for the sake of the few in Israel who still believed? Let the law hurt our Old Adam! Only then will the soothing promises of God’s love in Christ feel sweet and its light guide us into the safe harbor of God’s forgiveness! This has always been one of my favorite passages. 1 John 1:8-9 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” He is faithful. No matter how often we have offended him with our sins, God remains true in his love for us. His fatherly heart can never refuse us. He is just. You would think it would be fair and just for God to punish and condemn us. But it is not. Because Jesus bore the shame and punishment of our sins on the cross. God is therefore fair and just when he says, “Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more.”
Friends, if we have heard that message and believed it, we have found safety in the harbor of God’s family. The foghorn of the law has warned us of our sins, and the light of the gospel has guided us into the safety of God’s forgiveness. Only now we have an obligation to those who are still out in the fog, trying to find there way.
2. God still speaks through his people
We read in our text: “Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom." Amos answered Amaziah, "I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ’Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Understand first what a “prophet” was. A prophet spoke God’s Word. Sometimes that message concerned the future for God’s people. More often that message was a call to repentance, or a promise of God’s forgiveness. Amos message to Israel both told them how they stood with God, and what was going to happen to them in the future if they did not repent.
Amos wasn’t “seminary trained.” He didn’t go to the “school of the prophets” before God called him to speak to God’s people. I suppose for the priests like Amaziah and for the false prophets in Israel, that was something that they sneered at. After all, who was Amos to be prophesying to them?
Nor was Amos on the king’s payroll. Amaziah insinuates that Amos is a mercenary and prophesying just to earn money when he says, “Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.” But Amos can say, “I was a shepherd and took care of sycamore-fig trees.” I’m not prophesying to earn a living. I was making a good living before God called me and I can support myself. I prophecy because God told me to prophecy and for no other reason.”
Friends, God still uses ordinary people today to speak his word to the world. 1 Peter 2: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” You do not need a seminary training to speak God’s Word to the world. Have you heard the message? Are you God’s people? Do you know what is right and wrong in God’s eyes? Do you believe that Jesus died for you and rose again? Can you tell someone how to get to heaven? Then God has also spoken to you and you can speak to the world.
Sometimes I hear people say, “But I am just a lay person.” Don’t ever say “just” a lay person. The word “lay” or “laity” comes from the Greek word “laos,” which means “people.” It is the same word that Peter uses when he says you are a “people belonging to God.” “Lay” people are “God’s people” and God still uses his “people” to speak to the world today.
In fact, sometimes you may have an advantage over me as a “professional clergyman.” When I first entered the ministry, I did a lot of door to door canvassing in the community, looking for prospects. I would stop at the door with a smile on my face and introduce myself as “Pastor Degner” from Faith Lutheran Church. As soon as I would say the word “pastor,” the people at the door would back up about two steps, and the expression on their face would change from a warm welcome to “What do YOU want?” I’m convinced that some of the best outreach is done over a back fence by neighbors who are neither trained nor paid to say anything, but who just speak their faith.
What is true of evangelism work is also true of soul-care work in our own congregation. People who aren’t being faithful in using God’s Word, or whose life has become entangled in temptation, expect to get a call from the pastor. After all, that’s what he’s paid to do (even though I hope I never do my work just because I’m paid to do it). But when a father works up the courage to speak to his son or his daughter about their relationship with Jesus, or when a friend invites a friend for coffee and talks to them about the opportunities they are missing to grow in God’s Word, I think people may be more apt to listen. But even if they don’t, as God told Ezekiel in our Old Testament lesson last Sunday, at least they will know that God has spoken to them.
If you were manning the Split-Rock lighthouse on Lake Superior, you had no control over whether or not the ships at sea woud listen to your fog horn or choose to be guided by your light. But let it not be said that someone was lost because you failed to sound the warning or to keep the light shining. So it is with us. Don’t hold back if people don’t want to hear God’s Word, or if it is not the popular thing to say today. Sound the fog horn of God’s law in a world run amuck with sin. Then shine the light of the gospel and show the way to God’s forgiveness. God still speaks to the world today, and God still speaks through us, his people. Amen.
