As part of a series on biblical prophets, Pastor Brooks preached this sermon on Amos. Listen now to this sermon.
First Scripture Reading—Amos 7:10-15
Second Scripture Reading—Amos 9:8-15
Let me confess from the beginning that there are parts of the book of Amos with which I have some trouble and there are some parts of book that I simply love. At the same time, I am aware that some of the parts with which I have trouble are probably liked by others and some of the parts of the book that I love are probably hated or at least disliked by others. Instead of giving you my opinion about each aspect of the book that I like or dislike, I thought we might take a different approach. We would consider five parts of the book and simply raise the question of whether they should be re-written.
The first part of book that we might want to re-write has to do with just how hyper-critical Amos is. We might want to re-write it so that we curtail or soften some of his criticisms. Let me explain what I mean. From the very beginning of the book, Amos criticizes the peoples and nations of his day. He begins by criticizing Damascus. Then, he criticizes Gaza. Then, he criticizes Tyre. Then, he criticizes Edom. Then, he criticizes the Ammonites. Then, he criticizes Moab. Next, it is Judah. Now, all of this might actually seem fine. These countries were apparently doing some awful things. The Ammonites, for example, were ripping open the stomachs of “pregnant women in Gilead in order to enlarge their territory.” Surely, someone had to condemn this in unequivocal terms, but the part that we might want to re-write is the part that comes after Amos criticizes all the foreign countries. Because after he does that, he criticizes Israel, the land that he is in. Amos was actually from Judah, but he was in Israel when he was making all of these criticisms. And, this is where things can get uncomfortable. Can you imagine a human rights organization from Canada coming to give a presentation in Vancouver, and they list all of the horrendous human rights violations of China, Iran, North Korea, Saudia Arabia, and then to finish their presentation they say, “And, now, we will list all of the human rights abuses of your country, the United States”? Do you think this would rub anyone the wrong way?
Someone in Amos’s time might have objected to Amos saying, “But, we are different than those other countries. We have a covenant with God.” It is precisely because of that covenant, however, that Amos launches into his criticisms of Israel. They haven’t been keeping up their half of the deal. God brought them out of Egypt, but the people rebel against God. To make matters worse, they silence their own prophets, so that they can’t even be called to account. What might be the parallel for us today? With the human rights organization from Canada, someone might respond saying, “But we are different than those other countries. We are a democracy.” Some might even feel we are democracy ordained by God. Would a modern day Amos despite being an outsider then criticize us for not living up to our democratic ideals? Would Amos point out instances in which whistleblowers and journalists have been arrested, censored, fired, imprisoned, and so forth in our own country? The organization Reporters Without Borders did knock the United States down 13 places in its global rankings of press freedom last year and 27 places the previous year for these very reasons. We don’t know what a modern day Amos would criticize, but we do know from our first scripture today that Amos upset the government of his day. Amos was an equal opportunity criticizer, so he would have upset just about every country. All of this can be very uncomfortable, so maybe we should re-write some of the critical parts. We might even want to cut out the part about Israel altogether.
Another revision we might want to make to Amos pertains to the parts in which he encourages class warfare and seems to even suggest the regulation of markets. He attacks Israel for selling “the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.” He talks about the rich trampling “the head of the poor into the dust of the earth.” He complains that the wealthy are sleeping on beds of ivory. He doesn’t even like how much meat they are eating and how much wine they are drinking. It is one thing to have an opinion, but Amos is on a campaign. He wants to stop all these things he sees as going against the will of God. He wants regulation to rein in the rich.
Now, some might be okay with taking a stand here and there. Some might even say a little regulation is fine, but what we might want to re-write is what Amos says will be God’s response to all this exploitation of the poor by the rich. Amos declares how God is going to punish people. Those who have been living luxurious lives while others suffer will be sent into exile and “done away with.” God is going to press Israel down into its place in the same way that “a cart presses down” on the ground when its carrying a heavy load. God is going to bring down the mighty to the point where they are going to have trouble saving their own lives. Some are going to be in such shame that they are going to run away naked.
All of this can be hard to handle for a couple of reasons. First, who would receive these punishments today? How big a house is too luxurious? How much food and wine is too decadent? What counts as exploitation of the poor? Some might say if you are getting a minimum wage your not being exploited. Some might say that’s not good enough. One needs a living wage. Others might say that a living wage isn’t necessarily good enough either because whenever the person paying the wages is getting more of a profit than the person doing the work its exploitation. It would be nice to answer the question of who will be punished in such a way that we will never be the ones punished ourselves. I certainly don’t want to be punished for that triple fudge ice cream Sunday I ate the other day—although I might receive punishment enough when I look at the scale.
Another reason all of those punishments listed by Amos can be hard to handle is if one thinks of God as being a God of love and forgiveness. This might be a reason to do some re-writing, but if we are going to re-write this part, then we are stuck with the burden of deciding how we think God should respond to all of these wrongs? Should God just let it happen? As a people striving to be vessels of God’s love, should we just let it happen? I am trying to challenge your thinking and my thinking this morning. I don’t think I have the answers to some of these questions.
Yet another part of Amos that we might want to re-write is what he has to say about worship. He essentially thinks that the worship of his time is empty and worthless. He says, “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.” He doesn’t even like the music. Why? It’s all because there is a missing ingredient in all of it: justice. You’ve heard the famous phrase, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” That was Amos, and he was talking about worship. One commentator notes that Amos was most likely fed up with religious rituals and practices that allowed people to believe they were doing what God desired even though “their social sins were in fact a grievous offense against God.” Maybe we could just re-write this section about justice? It sounds too political. Maybe we can re-write it so that people can talk about justice so long as it is not political and doesn’t have anything to do with our country.
I looked at an old commentary on this text from the 1950s thinking that it might give a softer interpretation that wouldn’t be too radical in its implications. You know what it said? It said that “a religion which is first of all the handmaid of the state and the servant of society soon passes from being of service to being servile. Rather is it the first duty of religion to disturb.” Maybe we should just re-write Amos. Wouldn’t it be nicer if he comforted us instead of disturbed us?
It might sound sacrilegious to suggest re-writing the Bible, but did you know we wouldn’t be the first to re-write Amos? Scholars have found various parts of the book of Amos that make references and express ideas that could only have come from a later period. In fact, it is believed that the scripture I just read was added long after Amos lived. In order to understand this, one has to consider the scripture within its larger context. Our scripture is the final paragraph of Amos, and up until this point, the book of Amos has been very consistent. For all of the book, Amos lives up to his nickname of being the prophet of doom, because he is so unrelenting in his declarations of impending disaster and punishment. There is not the slightest glimmer of hope, and in a sense, Amos was right. Because after Amos died, Israel was conquered and people were sent into exile. Things did go bad. The final paragraph, however, comes from a different place. At first there is this gradual transition. Amos is still focused on punishment. He declares that all the sinners are going to die by the sword, but this there is a radical shift. Amos suddenly gives us this full blown picture of hope. He paints a picture of Israel being restored. Ruined cities will be rebuilt and inhabited once again. That’s idea that one would only have after the exile. Amos talks about how vineyards and gardens will be planted. The mountains are going to drip with wine. The people will be planted securely in their land and never again plucked up—in other words, sent into exile. Again, an idea one is going to only have after having experienced exile. With this final paragraph, the editors of Amos give us this poetic picture of hope.
In the end, we could re-write the book of Amos just as the editor did. We could make Amos more palatable to our ears. But there could be another way to approach the book. It might be that we don’t agree with all of the book, but it could be that we each have something to gain by wrestling with it. Perhaps, it is in wrestling with it that we can learn and grow. It is through this process that we do some deep sea diving of soul. It is through this process that we can finally arrive at a hope that is deeper and more profound than we might otherwise obtain. Perhaps, the gift of Amos comes to us as a result of the wrestling that brings us to this place of hope. Amen.