Are you now, or have you ever been, a prophet?… There’s a novel called: ‘Night flight’. It’s by the same author who wrote ‘The Little Prince’. In it there’s this line: ‘In every crowd are certain persons who seem just like the rest, yet they bear amazing messages.’
Amos was minding his own business when God taps him on the shoulder and makes him an offer that he couldn’t refuse. Amos was a man of the land. You can imagine him out in the fields, tough hands, weather-beaten face. Pragmatic, practical, no-nonsense. But he is overwhelmed by God and called to be a prophet.
Not for laughs
It must be hard being a prophet. You don’t do it for laughs or for popularity and it often ends badly. Amos got into trouble with the authorities, just like John the Baptist, who in our Gospel got into deadly trouble 800 years or so later. Agents of God who confront power tend to suffer the consequences. And I do wonder whether the compilers of the Lectionary were being slightly mischievous selecting the beheading of John to fall on or around July 14th, which is when France celebrates Bastille Day and the revolution which followed.
Both Amos and John were compelled to say what they did. St Mark’s Gospel uses John the Baptist to prefigure the same challenges and obstacles that Jesus would later face with the political and religious authorities of the time.
But it would be wrong to see prophets as simply messengers of God. Prophets stand in the presence of God. They challenge and argue with God when the message is one of woe. They show compassion, they pray for mercy on our behalf.
As much a loss to God
And this is the burden of the prophet: to show compassion for us and sympathy for God. Prophecy proclaims what will happen to us but what has happened to God. We often forget that second part. Sin isn’t only a violation of God’s law – it’s as if sin is as much a loss to God as it is to us. Prophecies aren’t just full of God’s disappointment, anger and indignation – but also His mercy, compassion and love. In speaking, the prophet reveals God. The invisible God becomes audible.
And this is how we need to read Amos. Someone who holds God and us together, together in a single thought.
Righteousness
Most prophets have a particular God-given bee in their bonnet, their own recurring theme. For Amos it was God’s desire for righteousness: in individual lives, religious institutions and society at large.
We don’t use that word ‘righteousness’ much these days. Today we’d probably call it ‘social justice’ – decency, integrity, fairness, honesty.
To those in power, Israel must have seemed ok. It was prosperous. Its military was strong and gaining territory. The King, Jeroboam II, reigned for over 40 years. He was popular. He had high approval ratings in the polls. By any normal human standards, it was a success.
Crooked
But in this vision, Amos has the illustration of a plumbline, which shows whether a building is built true. Israel, both the religious institution and the state, is found to be out of line, crooked.
Because, despite the seeming success of the King and the country, Amos shows that underneath it all they were also self-indulgent and proud (6:8). The religion was all show (5: 23-24). The financial markets were being manipulated to make more money than was reasonable (8:4-6). Worse, there was a huge divide between the rich and the poor (2: 6-7, 4:1).
Post-election in the UK, and looking around the world, does all this sound rather familiar to now? These people in authority weren’t righteous. They were indifferent to the fate of others. There was no fairness, no social justice. Yet these were God’s chosen people and that meant a higher standard than other nations, not a free pass.
Divine concern
So, God is angry at their indifference – but he also cares. He loves. He is not indifferent because justice is a divine concern. The message spoken by Amos is the utterance of a Redeemer who is pained by the misdeeds of his people, by the thanklessness of those he came to save.
Amaziah, the local vicar, takes exception to this troublemaker from out of town being on his turf and escalates to the King. And, just like the media and politicians today, he misquotes Amos. It’s fake news. Ironically, on the weekend that there’s an attempt on Donald Trump’s life, that fake news is about political violence. There’s no mention of the King’s response but Amaziah and Amos have words – and Amos is thrown out, expelled.
TikTok
Some speculate that Amos was one of the first prophets to have his sayings written down. After he was pushed out of Israel, he got his prophecies published in an effort to still get them to his intended audience. If he was around today, you can imagine that Amos would be on TikTok or X, to get his voice heard, to cut through and around the normal media channels.
And Amos voices the heart of God. In verses before ours, the pragmatic, tell-it-how-it-is farmer rages against Israel with a surprisingly pure, visual, poetic language: Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light… Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps… But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (5:24)
A dream
Do you recognise that last bit? Martin Luther King Jr, himself a victim of assassination, who infused his speeches with scripture, quoted it in 1963 before famously proclaiming that he still had a dream. And again in 1968, when he went to the mountaintop.
And, so, the themes from nearly 3000 years ago are just as relevant today. Not just in the United States of the 1960’s but here in the United Kingdom of 2024.
Because we still see around us the concentration of wealth in some quarters and the corresponding increase in poverty elsewhere. We can’t escape the displays of self-importance by some in the public eye.
Inequalities
According to Amos a nation should be judged on how it cares for the lowest members of society – and he tells us that a nation of hypocrisy and injustice will ultimately perish.
Remember that Amos criticised the religious set up as well as the state. It was the church not the King that expelled him from Israel. Some time ago, the Church Times had an article on the financial inequalities between the Anglican dioceses here in England – and how that directly impacts on the effectiveness of parish mission within their communities. How the unequal distribution of money in the church today affects who gets to see Christ at work amongst those that the church serves. What would Amos say of the Church of England today I wonder?
Closer to home, if it was Amos and not the Archdeacon who did a Visitation then what would his audit of our own churches come up with?
Building blocks
And Amos talked about personal righteousness too… So, what about you and me? 1 Corinthians tells us that Christ is our foundation stone. You and I are the building blocks. If we’re being judged by the Amos plumbline, then how upright are we? Do we speak up regardless of the personal cost? Do we stand up for justice? Are we known for our personal integrity and honesty? Do we actively love our neighbour?
Martin Luther King finished his speech urging his listeners to go and work together to speed up the coming of God’s Kingdom. A world marked by righteousness and social justice.
Hope and restoration
That world can be in here in this church as well as out there on a global stage. Each of us here today is in a different situation. We may be content with our lot in life – or we might be a leader or manager faced with some tough decisions, or a worker struggling with a low income, or a parent weary from looking after children or a sick relative.
We may be in a hard place this morning – but the Book of Amos ends with words of hope and restoration: ‘They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.’
With God’s help, and in community with those around us here today, we each need to go and figure out how we can be more honest and more upright. How to show more personal integrity in our own individual lives and circumstances. And, hopeful of God’s restoration, bring a bigger story, God’s Kingdom, God’s righteousness, more speedily to this place.
Amazing
And perhaps there’s someone here today called to be a prophet? Someone here in the congregation who seems just like the rest, yet they bear amazing messages. Look around you. Maybe they’re sat in front of you or beside you? Maybe it’s you? Are you a prophet?
It’ll be a tough job – but, like Amos, you may get to hold God and us together in a single thought. Now wouldn’t that be amazing? Amen
‘Amazing Messages’ was delivered by Ian Banks at St Margaret’s, Heywood on July 14th 2024. It was based on Amos 7:7-15.
References
- De Saint-Exupery, A. (1931/2016). Night Flight. Alma Classics.
- Heschel, A. (1962). The Prophets. HarperCollins.