Why That Guy There?

Why did you send that guy to that place? Of all the questions I’ve got queued up for the hereafter, that one is the most frequent. I think it crosses a lot of theological assumptions we make. We make assumptions like everyone in the prophetic role intends for the good of the Kingdom. We assume that even looking at the history of the office. Just the Medici Popes might dissuade us of that. We assume that ministers correctly discern calls with the specificity of the Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. And we do that even after observing our share of 18 month pastorates. Of course Paul himself didn’t tend to stick around that long. And maybe the toughest one to consider is our assumption that God sends the prophets in order that the people might hear and repent. And we assume that even after reading the Old Testament and seeing these cantankerous guys who seem to have no social filter doing anything but persuading. Even Jesus said the parables were so they might hear and not understand (Matthew 13:13). I’ve asked that question of many a place and privately thought, “that is an act of divine judgement.” Of course the LORD has never answered one of those questions of mine, so I can’t say with surety. It remains private speculation, and yours is just as good as mine until that hereafter.

I bring that up as a reflection upon our Old Testament reading today from Amos 6:1-7. Of all those cantankerous guys, Amos might be the most. And he seems to be specifically chosen to get under the skin of those he is sent to. One of his famous lines is “I was neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet (Amos 7:14).” We tend to translate that line in the past tense “was”, but the Hebrew could also be rendered the present tense – “I am neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet.” As if that office in the Northern Kingdom of Israel has become so polluted Amos would not claim it. I’m sure that went over well with the court prophets. But even more it is followed immediately by what Amos does claim he is “A herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.” And what does that call him out as? Primarily poor. Sycamore figs were not the plump figs that we think about. They are more like crab apples compared to apples. It grows in abundance and it is edible, but you won’t find them on the tables of Kings. And one last thing about Amos, he is from Tekoa, a village near Bethlehem which is the very heart of the Southern Kingdom of Judah loyal to the line of David.

This poor crabby Southerner is sent to the heart of the rich Northern Kingdom. And he is sent at the height of the Northern Kingdom’s influence and extent. He was sent in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and Jeroboam II King of Israel. Both long ruling kings of peaceful kingdoms, Uzziah reigned 52 years and Jeroboam II 41 years. Both had extended their borders almost to the extent of Solomon and the United Kingdom. And the Northern Kingdom had become very rich. But “Jeroboam II did evil in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat (2 Kings 14:24).” You couldn’t pick someone less likely to be heard by the court of Jeroboam II than Amos. And that is exactly the response, the priest of Bethel – the Northern counter Temple to Jerusalem – tells Amos, “Seer, go, flee, prophesy there, but not here, for it is the King’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

What does Amos say to them? “Woe to those who feel secure on the mountains of Samaria. (Amos 6:1).” How does he classify them? As those whose every moment and thought is about leisure. “Woe to those who…stretch themselves out on couches (6:4)…who sing idle songs…and invent for themselves instruments.” And of their ways? “Who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves.(6:6).” But what is Amos’ greatest charge? “You are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.” You can imagine the laughter that might cause. What ruin? The GDP is higher than it has ever been. Our plumbers live in ways that would have made the old Kings blush. Maybe even God has blessed us from the Temple at Bethel. Long live Jeroboam the King. But the ruin was not the wealth. The ruin was spiritual. They cared not for their fellow countrymen (Amos 8:4), and their worship was correct in form but absent of meaning (Amos 5:21ff) as it did not change their hearts.

I don’t know why some are sent. But Jesus tells the story with these lines, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” Do we care about the ruin of Joseph?

Plumb Lines

“Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” – Amos 7:8

I’m always hesitant to bring up things that originate from the larger Christian world that I consider bad ideas. There used to be a never ending stream of dumb ideas floating over from Evangelicalism. Even that term I don’t exactly like because it doesn’t really describe that movement or the churches that they form. There really is no consistent theology believed, taught or confessed. It varies church to church and pastor to pastor although most of it is vaguely Baptist. I like the historian Miles Smith’s term, Folk Religion. There is a core of general doctrine, but more important are the feelings and practices. And those practices are ever changing and morphing as the folk themselves change. That is both the power and the danger. American Evangelicalism is often able to meet the moment and a folk practice can spread rapidly, but it can also spread terrible ideas just as fast.

One of those ideas goes by the name “Faith Deconstruction.” The general idea behind it I believe is a healthy one. Over the last 50 years in this folk religion evangelicalism there have been lots of practices and beliefs that have attached themselves and even moved into central identity roles. The original faith deconstructionists undertook to examine some of those practices and beliefs and be more discriminating if they deserved a central place. I’d take that general idea has something of what Paul would mean by “examine yourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5)” or “work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).” We should take note of our faith and practice. Satan is tricky and our hearts are idol factories. But folk religion is and was a terrible basis to do that from. Being concerned primarily with personal feelings and practices, it had no “plumb line”. Or the only plumb line was the individual heart. And so faith deconstruction, which has spawned an entire genre of memoirs about it, became not a healthy spiritual practice, but a method often to ditch the faith all together, or to re-craft the faith into exactly what our sinful hearts desire.

This is exactly where folk religion/evangelicalism needs its confessional spine like the Lutheran Church. In our Old Testament Reading for the day (Amos 7:7-15), God tells the prophet Amos what he is doing with the Northern Kingdom of Israel. “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel (Amos 7:8).” And what is the purpose of a plumb line? It is to see if the wall constructed is straight. Is what has been built, built square, built to last? Or is it crooked and destined to fall? In Israel’s case it is all destined to be taken down. “The high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste (Amos 7:9).” What the folk religion of Israel had built was crooked and needed to be deconstructed in a radical way. But the question for us is: What is the plumb line?

The answer is first the scriptures. If someone says search your heart in spiritual matters, that is bad advice. In spiritual things, in the things of God, you start with the Word of God. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you (Micah 6:8).” Resting under the authority of Scripture the church through the ages has found certain expressions of the faith to be wholly consistent with the scriptures. The creeds which we confess and the Small Catechism fall into that category. We believe, teach and confess them because they are a right understanding. To faith deconstruct one needs a plumb line. And we have been given one. Although we often disdain it. Just as Amaziah the priest and Jeroboam the King said to Amos when he held up the plumb line of God. “Seer, go, flee to Judah, and eat there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the King’s sanctuary and it is a temple of the Kingdom (Amos 7:12).” We often prefer our sanctuary and our temple, the King’s sanctuary and temple, our folk religion over the religion of Jesus.

But we don’t get rid of God and his plumb line so easily. Amos’ reply to the High Priest and King, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ (Amos 7:14-15)” The word of God, that plumb line, has a way of sticking around. And God is not embarrassed to have his humble witnesses. Amos might never get a book contract for his memoir, but he has a plumb line. And what is not straight shall come down.

Perfectly Free, Perfectly Bound

Biblical Texts: Mark 6:14-29, Amos 7:7-15
Full Sermon Draft

The real question in free and bound is: to what?

The normal way we talk about free and bound is in regards to sin. That comes under the doctrine of the keys. But in this sermon we are looking not at that doctrine, but at the bets we all place at the foundation of our lives. We all place some. Sometimes we might not know it, but they are there. What these two passages do is give us a glimpse of two foundations and how they bind and free us.

There are several applications, but today we were saying good-bye to a man and family that is off to study for the pastorate. We as a congregation were wishing them farewell and Godspeed. We were freeing them for this larger call as much as it pains us, but we along with the entire church were binding them to the Word. The plumb line that makes us free from sin and the crookedness of the world, binds us all to Christ. We might be separated in the World, but we are still one in Christ. The hymn at the end – The Church’s One Foundation – perfectly expresses this.

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