WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:02.500 On, and of the Holy Spirit. 2 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:05.000 You may be seated. 3 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:10.200 So did you really mean it? 4 00:00:10.700 --> 00:00:14.000 Now, one of the blessings of the Liturgy is that it puts the right 5 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:18.700 words into our mouths words that we often don't know to speak or 6 00:00:18.700 --> 00:00:22.300 sometimes we know, we're supposed to speak them, but we really don't 7 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:23.300 want to say them. 8 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:26.500 And then the Liturgy comes along and puts those good words into our 9 00:00:26.500 --> 00:00:27.100 mouths. 10 00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:33.100 He reminds of reminds me of myself as a child. I was had a habit of 11 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:35.800 getting into fights with my older brother. 12 00:00:36.300 --> 00:00:37.300 As boys are known to do and 13 00:00:37.500 --> 00:00:40.200 brothers are known to do. And my mother would come along and as 14 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:42.900 soon as she would find that my brother and I were fighting, she would 15 00:00:42.900 --> 00:00:43.700 separate us. 16 00:00:43.900 --> 00:00:50.300 And then tell us say you're sorry, the thing was I really wasn't all 17 00:00:50.300 --> 00:00:50.500 that 18 00:00:50.500 --> 00:00:54.300 sorry, especially if I had gotten in a few good licks on my big 19 00:00:54.300 --> 00:00:56.400 brother who really deserved it. 20 00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:00.400 I wasn't the least bit sorry, but yet mother insisted that we say that 21 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:04.700 we're sorry because she was doing her job as a mom by putting the 22 00:01:04.700 --> 00:01:07.300 right words in our mouth so that we could learn 23 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:12.500 that we ought to be sorry for what we had done. Now 24 00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:17.100 the Liturgy works the same way as well. That it comes along when I 25 00:01:17.100 --> 00:01:21.000 don't want to say the right things and puts the right words of my 26 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:26.000 mouth, when unholy words went to occupy my mouth, the Liturgy comes 27 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:31.000 along and puts holy words in there instead. So that brings us back to 28 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:32.300 our opening question. 29 00:01:32.900 --> 00:01:35.400 Did you really mean it? 30 00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:37.300 You heard the word of the 31 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:39.400 Lord spoken by his Prophet 32 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:45.200 Amos who's standing toe-to-toe, with the priest Amaziah concluding 33 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:47.800 with this, very heavy message. 34 00:01:47.800 --> 00:01:51.200 It's a law text and comes to a conclusion with this 35 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:57.700 even heavier dose of law. Your wife will be a prostitute, your sons 36 00:01:57.700 --> 00:01:59.900 and daughters are going to fall by the sword. 37 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.200 Israel is going to go into Exile. 38 00:02:02.700 --> 00:02:05.700 This is the word of the Lord, and you responded. 39 00:02:06.800 --> 00:02:09.199 Thanks be to God. 40 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:11.500 So did you mean it? 41 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:15.500 What about that would prompt you to give 42 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:17.100 thanks to God. 43 00:02:18.100 --> 00:02:23.900 Well, for one thing, the Lord is holding to account those who are in 44 00:02:23.900 --> 00:02:28.800 high places. In the 8th Century BC of Amos 45 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:34.200 many of Israel's neighbors believe that the King was God on Earth. 46 00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:36.500 And so he was above 47 00:02:36.700 --> 00:02:41.900 the law. That, of course, was incompatible with a Biblical worldview. 48 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.800 It was incompatible with the reign of Yahweh who is over his whole 49 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:51.700 creation, even Kings must give an account to him. 50 00:02:52.700 --> 00:02:56.600 This has been among the great blessings of the biblical faith that has 51 00:02:56.600 --> 00:02:59.800 been given to society. All in 52 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:05.000 authority are under the authority of Yahweh and so they're accountable 53 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:10.800 to him. And that has served as a great check upon the abuse of power. 54 00:03:11.800 --> 00:03:16.300 But with the waning influence of the biblical worldview upon society 55 00:03:16.300 --> 00:03:21.500 we can become rather cynical about the corrupting influence of power 56 00:03:21.700 --> 00:03:23.800 upon those who are in power. 57 00:03:24.200 --> 00:03:29.000 We take note of two sets of rules the rules for those who are in power 58 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:29.900 that allows them to 59 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.100 get away with whatever they might do. 60 00:03:32.300 --> 00:03:37.500 And then there are the rules that apply to everybody else, those who 61 00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:39.200 are without power. 62 00:03:39.500 --> 00:03:43.500 So that the heavy burden is set down upon them. 63 00:03:44.700 --> 00:03:48.200 That's how it goes, amongst sinners. 64 00:03:48.900 --> 00:03:52.700 But that is not how it goes with Yahweh. 65 00:03:53.000 --> 00:04:00.000 He holds everyone to account. So Amos, he's the Lord's Plumb line 66 00:04:00.100 --> 00:04:01.900 being held up to measure Israel. 67 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:06.900 Revealing that they are not square, true or upright. 68 00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:12.600 Quite the opposite with the plumb line, revealing, that Israel is not 69 00:04:12.600 --> 00:04:13.300 straight. 70 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:14.000 The Lord says, 71 00:04:14.100 --> 00:04:19.200 that the sanctuaries of Israel are going to be ruined and that he 72 00:04:19.200 --> 00:04:24.400 himself is going to rise up with the sword against the house of 73 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:27.200 Jeroboam the king of Israel. 74 00:04:27.700 --> 00:04:32.500 Now, the king, he may be powerful in his own eyes and in the eyes of 75 00:04:32.500 --> 00:04:38.100 man, but he will not escape the Lord's judgment and rightly 76 00:04:38.100 --> 00:04:38.500 so. 77 00:04:39.400 --> 00:04:45.200 As king of Israel, he should have led the people to faithfulness to 78 00:04:45.200 --> 00:04:49.800 Yahweh, but instead he has done the exact opposite. 79 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:51.800 Amos delivers 80 00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:57.800 these hard words at the sanctuary of Bethel and the priest of Bethel 81 00:04:57.800 --> 00:04:58.600 Amaziah 82 00:04:59.100 --> 00:05:01.900 doesn't take kindly to Amos's message. 83 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:06.700 So he tells Amos leave go down to Judah, eat your bread 84 00:05:06.700 --> 00:05:11.600 there preach down there just be done up here in Israel. 85 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:18.100 Now, you can feel the tension that is mounting. On one side 86 00:05:18.300 --> 00:05:20.200 there is the unrighteous king 87 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:25.400 Jeroboam along with the priest Amaziah, who's little more than his 88 00:05:25.400 --> 00:05:25.700 yes 89 00:05:25.700 --> 00:05:26.100 man. 90 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:33.100 On the other hand there is the true king of Israel Yahweh and his 91 00:05:33.100 --> 00:05:35.900 Prophet Amos. 92 00:05:37.900 --> 00:05:43.400 The kingdom you can see is divided against itself, it shall not stand, 93 00:05:43.700 --> 00:05:45.400 its end is coming 94 00:05:45.400 --> 00:05:48.900 swiftly. And standing right there in the midst of it 95 00:05:48.900 --> 00:05:54.700 all is Amos. Of course, Amos is on the right side. 96 00:05:54.700 --> 00:05:59.800 He stands there to speak faithfully for Yahweh, but that sets him up 97 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:05.300 against the powerful against king Jeroboam and the priest Amaziah. 98 00:06:05.400 --> 00:06:09.800 It leaves him with the unenviable task of telling people, what they 99 00:06:09.800 --> 00:06:13.300 really don't want to hear. It 100 00:06:13.300 --> 00:06:18.900 gives him the unenviable task of being the most unpopular guy around 101 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:22.600 and that's the way it tended to be for the prophets. 102 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:31.300 They spoke unpopular words but powerful words that the powerful didn't 103 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:32.200 want to hear 104 00:06:32.200 --> 00:06:36.100 and that left them standing all alone. 105 00:06:37.100 --> 00:06:42.500 Like all the prophets Amos has a hard calling. 106 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:45.100 But that's just it. 107 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:52.700 It's his calling he has been called by Yahweh for this very thing to 108 00:06:52.700 --> 00:06:59.000 say the hard truth things that need to be said and that nobody else is 109 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:04.400 willing to say. Nearly three Millennia later, the church is still 110 00:07:04.400 --> 00:07:08.900 called by Yahweh for that same purpose, and her pastors are still 111 00:07:08.900 --> 00:07:12.600 called for that same purpose, to say the hard 112 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:13.200 but 113 00:07:13.900 --> 00:07:15.100 necessary things. 114 00:07:16.500 --> 00:07:21.400 But that's not everything that the church and her pastors have to say. 115 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:27.200 Amos had previously interceded for Israel when he had brought words of 116 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:31.700 judgment, and because of his intercession, Yahweh ended up changing 117 00:07:31.700 --> 00:07:34.000 his verdict and spared Israel. 118 00:07:35.500 --> 00:07:37.800 That is what happened in the verses immediately 119 00:07:38.100 --> 00:07:38.800 immediately 120 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:41.500 before today's reading. It's what you find in 121 00:07:41.500 --> 00:07:44.700 Amos chapter 7 verses 4 through 6. 122 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:51.700 The thing is, you don't find that happening in our text today itself. 123 00:07:52.100 --> 00:07:55.700 That's what happened previously in our text today. 124 00:07:56.300 --> 00:07:57.900 There is no intercession. 125 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:01.700 There is no statement by Yahweh that he's going to spare 126 00:08:01.900 --> 00:08:02.500 the people. 127 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:05.900 They have persisted in their sin. 128 00:08:06.400 --> 00:08:08.300 Judgment is coming. 129 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:15.000 So, where are we going to find hope in such a hopeless situation? 130 00:08:16.200 --> 00:08:20.300 You have to look beyond the hopeless situation. 131 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:27.600 Look beyond this tense confrontation between prophet priest and king. 132 00:08:28.700 --> 00:08:31.000 Your called too long for a day 133 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:34.900 that is overflowing with hope. 134 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:42.000 When prophet, priest and king will not be at odds with one another, but 135 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.500 perfectly united in the way of 136 00:08:45.900 --> 00:08:46.600 Yahweh. 137 00:08:47.700 --> 00:08:53.600 Amos is calling for us to long for the day of Yahweh when the true 138 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:59.500 King, the King of Kings who will come as your high priest 139 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:05.300 earning forgiveness by shed blood. Who will be the profit of prophets 140 00:09:05.500 --> 00:09:10.800 speaking the word of Yahweh, that delivers life. He's calling for you 141 00:09:10.900 --> 00:09:17.400 too long for the day when prophet, priest and king will be bound up in 142 00:09:17.400 --> 00:09:20.700 one person who gets them 143 00:09:20.700 --> 00:09:22.200 all right. 144 00:09:22.900 --> 00:09:25.500 That one has come. 145 00:09:26.300 --> 00:09:32.400 His way of doing prophet, priest and king is so radically different 146 00:09:32.400 --> 00:09:38.200 that this upside down world, can't see that his right side up with way 147 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:40.500 of doing things is actually good. 148 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:46.800 The upside down world, in which we live, remains blind to his ways. 149 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:54.400 And so he still sends his church today to make known his ways just 150 00:09:54.400 --> 00:10:00.300 like he sent the prophets of old and all the while he's pointing you 151 00:10:00.400 --> 00:10:07.200 in the midst of what seems hopeless to what is overflowing with hope 152 00:10:07.500 --> 00:10:09.100 certain and sure. 153 00:10:10.300 --> 00:10:17.700 Amos knows that the day is coming and so he'll later say days are 154 00:10:17.700 --> 00:10:27.000 coming and so they are days, are coming full of hope and life. 155 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.500 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.