Amos - Thus Says The Lord

Thus Says The Lord

Not an easy message.  It's not that we don't sometimes resonate with messages like this one . . . at least when we think they apply to someone else.  The problem with Amos, however, is that his message is not addressed to someone else.  It is addressed to God's people.

Wait a minute.  There were a lot of really bad nations out there, doing a lot of bad stuff - and Amos is talking to Israel and Judah?  How can that be?  Can it be that, somehow, our vision seems to be 20/20 or even 20/15, when looking at someone else, and yet experience huge visual impairments when it comes to looking at ourselves.  Is it possible that our perceived privileged status can make us blind when it comes to looking at ourselves?  Amos, however, cuts through all the spin and hubris and tells it like it really is, how God actually sees the world.

It is amazing how we can distort reality when things are going well for us, and the tortured logic we can employ when it comes to responding  to the needs of others who may not be doing quite so well.  According to Amos, God is not impressed.

At the root of the problem God's people were experiencing, had to do with what His people were seeking most of all.  Their behavior did not give evidence that it was His Kingdom and His priorities that came first, but the acquisition of stuff, and status, and power, and . . . and a good share of it, at the expense of others.  Real expense.  Real suffering.  Real needs.  Not just inconvenience.  Not just restraining our appetites a bit, or shortening our vacations, or tightening our belt a bit, but the real stuff.  God is not impressed . . . and He will not allow even amazing worship services to cover over the impact of our actions and lifestyles on others.  Nor is going to let us get off by simply saying that that is for later after the second coming . . . but is what we are to be about now as we anticipate it.

Hard to stuff to hear, for a relatively "prosperous" people of God, isn't it?  

Have we wondered why it is hard to hear?  Why the resistance?  How well have we seen and responded to God's graciousness to us . . . and allowed that to splash over into the real life of where real people actually live?  Questions worth reflecting on.  Not only for the sake of others, but for the sake of us as well.  And, perhaps most of all, for the sake of God.

Take a few moments to reflect on the passage to the right, and to what Pastor Jon shares in the sermon.  If you would like to listen to the sermon again, or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library by clicking here.