God of the Prophets
Richard R. Crocker
Church of Christ at Dartmouth College
June16, 2013
Amos 2:4-16, 7:10-17
I am honored to be asked to preach
several times (six to be precise) during this summer when Carla is focusing her
attention on preparing for the bar exam. I have decided to use this opportunity
to preach a series of sermons on a topic that I have never addressed before. I
will be speaking about six of the so-called minor Hebrew prophets - so-called minor, not because their message
was unimportant, but because their writings are concise. I have planned the
series so that you can either go back and read the book of the prophet after
you have heard my sermon on it, or, even better, prepare for worship by reading
the book ahead of time. There is a schedule of the sermons in the bulletin.
Today we begin
with Amos. But before we dig in, there are a few things you should know.
First, I have
selected these minor prophets in chronological order, based upon the time of
their ministries, rather than on the canonical order, which is the order of the
books in the Old Testament. This arrangement will allow you to place these
prophets in a chronological, historical context.
Second,
because these prophets must be understood in their historical context, you will
be remembering, or perhaps learning, some of the basic, key events of Old
Testament history. I will try to provide just enough context to make the
messages more understandable.
Third, I will
often refer to these prophets, and their writings, as Old Testament. I notice
that your lectors prefer to use the term “Hebrew Scriptures”. Such a preference
is fine. However, I assure you that I have it on good authority that many biblical
scholars, both Jewish and Christian, agree that, for Christians, the term Old Testament
is not derogatory. It is simply descriptive. These scriptures are not only Hebrew scriptures. They are also Christian
scriptures. But for Christians, they are the Old Testament. I certainly mean no
offense by using this term, and I hope that none is taken.
Fourth,
although often we have an Old Testament lesson in our worship service, it is
unusual to have sermons and readings dealing exclusively with Old Testament
texts. This series is therefore unusual. I will not be preaching from the lectionary,
so there will be few or no New Testament readings during this series. I hope
that the power of these prophetic readings will show why they deserve our
focused attention. Often when Christians use texts from the Old Testament or
Hebrew Scriptures, they use them almost as proof texts, without paying adequate
attention to their original context. I hope that this series will not make that
error.
Fifth, this
series will certainly introduce us into the study of the nature of prophecy.
While many of us think of prophets as simply predictors of the future, we will
come to understand that they are more accurately understood as interpreters of
the present.
Finally – do not worry – I will not
repeat this explanation every Sunday. You’ll just have to remember it.
Now, to Amos. Chances are that Amos
is better known to you than any of the other minor prophets, but he is still a
mystery. To appreciate his message, you will need to remember the history; The
twelve tribes of Israel, after the exodus, spread across the territory that we
now call Israel/Palestine and lived under tribal rule until they demanded a
king. You remember how Saul was anointed as King over all Israel – over all the
12 tribes - by the prophet Samuel. But the Israelites remained scattered and
not united until King David and King Solomon conquered and centralized their
authority in the Jebusite city of Jerusalem. The united kingdom of Israel
reached its greatest height under Solomon in the year around 1000 BC. After his
reign, things began to fragment once again, until by about 920 BC the kingdom
had been divided into two parts – north and south. The southern part was Judah,
with its capital at Jerusalem. The northern part was comprised of the other tribes
and was called Israel, with its capital at Samaria. Each part had its own
kings. There was tension and bitterness between Israel and Judah, and of course,
both kingdoms were constantly worried about their more powerful neighbors.
Amos, a man who
called himself a shepherd and a pruner of sycamore trees, lived in the south, in
Judah, in Tekoa, near Jerusalem. The south was the more religious part of the
region. The northern part had become more secular and much more prosperous. Amos
felt called, however, to go from the south to the north, during the time when
the north was experiencing its greatest prosperity under King Jeroboam II. The
Israelites attributed their power and prosperity in part to their formal piety
and to the sacrifices they made at the official temple in Bethel. Amos made his
way to Samaria and to the shrine at Bethel to deliver bad news – to tell the
Israelites that their piety was not pleasing to the Lord. At the royal temple,
he gained a hearing first by working up his audience - by proclaiming God’s judgment on all their
unrighteous neighbors. But then he turned the tables and saved his harshest
words for Israel. When he started doing that, he had, as the saying goes, stopped
preaching and gone to meddling. We read part of his word to the Israelites in
our first scripture reading today. It is not surprising that Amos’ scathing indictment of Israel was unwelcome.
In our second reading, we heard how the official priest of the national shrine,
Amaziah, after speaking to the King, told Amos to go back home and never
return. The words of a prophet can be very troubling. Israel was, in its own
eyes, just fine. It was more prosperous and powerful than it had ever been.
What right did that shepherd – not even an official prophet – what right did he
have to challenge their wealth and comfort?
Now it is important
to understand that, in the time of Amos as well as in our time, there were many
prophets – some officially commissioned by the king and priests, who only spoke
good news, and some unofficial ones like Amos who told it like it was. This is
the problem we have with prophets. There are always too many of them, and they
speak contradictory messages. The prophetic writings that we have in our
scriptures are, of course, highly selected. These writings are remembered
because, in hindsight, the words proved so valuable and true. But at the
moment, Amos’ words were disturbing. The king and the official priests found
him a trouble-maker, not a prophet. Only in hindsight do we understand that his
words were the true ones.
And
what were his words, precisely? Well, you can read them for yourself. Some of
them, like the passages we read, are familiar to us. Here are others that Amos
spoke to these very religious, very pious, very prosperous people who thought
that the anticipated “day of the Lord” would bring them even greater triumphs:
Alas
for you who desire the day of the Lord!
Why do you want the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, not light,
As if someone fled from a lion and was met by a bear;
Or went into the house and rested his
hand against the wall and was bitten by a snake.
Is not the day of the Lord darkness,
not light,
And gloom with no brightness in it?
I hate, I despise your festivals,
And I take no delight in your solemn
assemblies,
Even though you offer me your burnt
offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
And the offerings of well-being of
your fatted animals I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your
songs;
I will not listen to the melody of
your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters,
And righteousness like an
ever-flowing stream. (Amos 515-24)
No wonder he was declared unwelcome.
He was indeed a skunk at this garden party.
It was unthinkable to these people
that their way of life was weakening them, so much so that, in about a hundred
years, their land would be captured by the dreaded Assyrians. Many of them would
be exiles; foreigners would come in and mix with them, so that the kingdom of
Israel would be utterly destroyed, leaving in its place only the despised
people known in Jesus’ time as the Samaritans.
When we read the words of the
prophets, we are always tempted to overlook their original meaning and to apply
them to our own situation. And it is
true, to a point, that prophetic words
are always pointing toward a future. But they are anchored in a concrete and
immediate situation. Amos indicted Israel, not because it was impious, but
because it was unjust; not because of its wealth but because of its greed; not
because it was not religious, but because it was unrighteous. And these words
of warning to Israel are, quite properly, a warning another nation which is, by
all accounts very religious, but which
is arrogant, and greedy, and unconcerned about the gap between the rich and the
poor. No thoughtful American can read the words of Amos without seeing their
implications for our nation – or for any nation where the gap between rich and
poor continues to grow, where some have far too much and others have far too
little; where words of criticism, when offered, are called disloyal; where many
so-called prophets proclaim our goodness, and true prophets are exiled. It is a
message as unwelcome now as it was then.
When I was a pastor in New Jersey, I
had a friend who was also a pastor, in one of the wealthiest suburban towns of
New Jersey, whose church was generally recognized as the best (most
prestigious) in town. Indeed, it was so prestigious that, in one of the state
elections, both the democractic and the republican candidates for governor were
members of that same congregation. The church, of course, had expanded, and it
built a beautiful new stone addition to its original building, with an ornate
entrance. Above the entrance was a space for an inscription. My friend, the
pastor, was showing a few of us around the new edifice. He pointed to the
entrance and asked for suggestions about what should be inscribed over the
door. Such passages as “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go unto the
house of the Lord” were suggested. I, being a contrarian, and also something of
a skunk, immediately countered with another suggestion. I said, “Inscribe the
passage from Amos: I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in
your solemn assemblies.” I do not think my suggestion was taken seriously, even
though I meant it so.
For indeed, if we are to be
Christians, if we are to follow the one, Jesus, who certainly stands in the
line of the Hebrew prophets, then all of our worship should take place under that
inscription. What is required of us is not piety but justice, not empty praise
but honest concern for those who have become lost in the greedy rush for gain.
Last week at this hour I sat on the
stage at Dartmouth’s graduation and watched the young graduates receive their
diplomas, after they had heard a stirring address by Geoffrey Canada,
challenging them to remember the children in Harlem, and in places like Harlem,
whose opportunities are stunted by the culture of poverty. It was an address
that I hope was heard by some, but I know how many of those graduates are
headed off directly to lucrative jobs in finance, where they will soon absorb
the pernicious message that they deserve to be rich. Mr. Canada left them an
out: he said that he hoped some of them would make a lot of money, because he
had tried raising money from poor people, but it didn’t go so well. And of
course, he is right. It is up to those who have been privileged to carry the
greater burdens in any society, and it is true that some rich people understand
that. But many do not. Wealth has a way of expanding our sense of entitlement
and diminishing our sense of responsibility.
The words of Amos are for me echoed
in the familiar words of Lincoln, spoken at the dedication of the cemetery in Gettysburg,
150 years ago this summer: “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil
war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated
can long endure.”
Our nation has endured and has
increased in prosperity. But the
question posed by Lincoln, and by Amos, haunts us still with its truth: can a
nation deeply divided between rich and poor long endure? Can a nation so
obsessed with security that it undermines the liberty for which it was founded
long endure? These are questions posed by prophets and answered by us all. The
prophets who posed them, and the words they spoke, were judged so important by
their descendants that they were enshrined in sacred scripture, where we read
them today, and ponder them, and ask ourselves anew: what is the true religion
which we should practice – the religion to which Amos and Jesus call us? And
how have we answered? Amen
