Threads

Threads: Connecting Amos to the Church

Amos 5:18-27

The Theology of StickBall

When I was a kid, we used to play baseball in a cul-de-sac on the street just above my house. Aside from the rules about what happened when the ball was hit out of the cul-de-sac and down the hill or the differences in home runs between using an actual baseball or a plastic wiffle ball, it was the wild west of sports. We never played the same way twice and the rules could change from minute to minute depending on who owned the ball, bat, or glove and who bullied whom, and who cried to their mother the loudest (those people were never allowed to play long). The truth of the matter was and still is: there is no justice with stickball.

Somebody will cheat. Somebody will count too many ghost men. Somebody will throw a tantrum and go home. Worst of all, some people refuse to give up the bat. They claim that every foul ball is fair or that you didn’t count balls and strikes right. They hold the bat when challenged or run away with it or charge you with it. It isn’t pretty. It’s rigged. It’s unfair. No justice. Not no way. Not no how.

Ancient Stickball

As we step into the world of Amos we find Israel and Judah as two separate kingdoms ruled by Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom of Israel and Uzziah in the southern kingdom. This was a time of great prosperity for the kingdoms something like what we think of with the 1980’s in the United States, a lot of money being made, used, and wasted. The kingdoms and their people lived in the lap of ancient luxury – two carts garages in the farmhouses and luxury mudbrick condos with rooftop air conditioning in cities. People had what they needed and more.

But not everyone. There were, as always, those who had fallen on hard times. Those who never seemed to be able to make ends meet. Those whose luck just wouldn’t hold no matter what. If this was an ancient version of stickball, these are the people that never got a turn to bat or always seemed to popup to the pitcher. They survived from hand to mouth, day to day with little to show for their efforts.

And those living the high life seemed to have forgotten them.

Another thing the wealthy forgot was their Torah. God says to the people in Leviticus,

“35 If one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty and is in a shaky situation with you, you must assist them as you would an immigrant or foreign guest so that they can survive among you. 36 Do not take interest from them, or any kind of profit from interest, but fear your God so that your fellow Israelite can survive among you. 37 Do not lend a poor Israelite money with interest or lend food at a profit. 38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you Canaan’s land and to be your God.”

The passage goes on to talk about how one Israelite should not take another who is in financial difficulty into slavery and that they should instead be treated as hired laborers, not slaves. In other words, God says, “give them a turn at bat.”

But Israel wasn’t listening. They changed rules, called fair foul and foul fair, and refused to give others a chance at the plate. So God sent an umpire.

Who is Amos?

Called out of a little town called Tekoa, Amos was a rancher/farmer from south of Jerusalem. Tekoa was a place known for its folksy, rural common sense; the kind of place where people say what they mean and mean what they say. It sounds a lot like the little towns that dot the map across the state of Georgia where I grew up. Places like Kingston, Senoia, Winston, and Jackson. Some scholars think he was a simple herdsman while others believe he was a wealthy breeder or large scale broker of herds. Either way, Amos was called to set the game straight and reorder the lineup.

A Trinitarian view of what is truly just

Old Testament View (Father) – Amos 5:18-27

In Stickball terms, you might be able to thread together or string together several games or at-bats that are productive. Often, we find a thread, a series of connecting points that tie things together across the Scriptures. Here in Amos, we see that God has much to say about his disdain for those who mistreat those who are vulnerable in their midst. The prophet offers these words from God,

 “I can’t stand your religious meetings.
    I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
    your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
    your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
    When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
    I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
    That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”

Amos 5:21-24 MSG

One of the most interesting things about this passage is that I happened to be reading in my office last week while we were listening to the proceedings from General Conference. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a United Methodist and I support our conference and our denomination. I pray that we can get past the nonsense that is distracting us from the real mission of being the hands and feet of Christ to and for the world. But I have to draw a line with the kind of waste that goes into having a multimillion dollar meeting to solve nothing and the vitriol that comes from both sides of the issues when I have every confidence that Jesus would say that our mission is, “to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

That’s strike one for Israel.

Gospel View (Son) – Luke 14:7-24

Speaking of Jesus, the prophetic story of Amos has threads that we can see already reach back into the Torah but they also reach forward into the Gospels and the New Testament. In Luke 14, Jesus is sitting down to table for a meal with a group of Pharisees who, as usual, are questioning Jesus’ methods, motives, and manners when it comes to his teachings and his way of life. As they gathered, the Pharisees tried to move into seats closer to Jesus. For those of you who played baseball or softball this is kind of like asking the manager to move you up in the batting order.  The Pharisees were looking to pad their stats by being closer to Jesus. You see the closer you are to the guest of honor the more honor you gain by association. But Jesus notices this and has a few parables for them. Jesus says,

8 “When someone invites you to a wedding celebration, don’t take your seat in the place of honor. Someone more highly regarded than you could have been invited by your host. 9 The host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give your seat to this other person.’ Embarrassed, you will take your seat in the least important place. 10 Instead, when you receive an invitation, go and sit in the least important place. When your host approaches you, he will say, ‘Friend, move up here to a better seat.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.”

In other words, you honor is not yours it is given to you by the host. You can’t make yourself important, but you can make yourself sit in the back. By clamoring for more and more at the expense of others you diminish your own value. But Jesus isn’t finished yet. He goes on to say,

12 … “When you host a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return and that will be your reward. 13 Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. 14 And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.”

15 When one of the dinner guests heard Jesus’ remarks, he said to Jesus, “Happy are those who will feast in God’s kingdom.”

16 Jesus replied, “A certain man hosted a large dinner and invited many people. 17 When it was time for the dinner to begin, he sent his servant to tell the invited guests, ‘Come! The dinner is now ready.’ 18 One by one, they all began to make excuses. The first one told him, ‘I bought a farm and must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 19 Another said, ‘I bought five teams of oxen, and I’m going to check on them. Please excuse me.’ 20 Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ 21 When he returned, the servant reported these excuses to his master. The master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go quickly to the city’s streets, the busy ones and the side streets, and bring the poor, crippled, blind, and lame.’ 22 The servant said, ‘Master, your instructions have been followed and there is still room.’ 23 The master said to the servant, ‘Go to the highways and back alleys and urge people to come in so that my house will be filled. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

It is those who are most in need who are most grateful, those who live in the fringes, in the gutters, in the pain and heartbreak of being cast aside. These are the ones that God, the certain man, the host of the feast, has sent word to. It is these who have the greatest need, the greatest pain, these are the ones that Jesus has come for, first. The Pharisees, heirs of Israel, refused him, would not hear his message, would not heed the call to follow. They refused the “poor, crippled, blind, and lame” in the name of protecting the status quo. They have sought out “religious meetings…conferences and conventions…religion projects…pretentious slogans and goals” to the detriment of their fellow Israelites and to their own self-satisfaction and desire.

Strike two.

New Testament View (Holy Spirit) – Acts 2:14-41

One of the greatest moments in Christian history is without a doubt the day of Pentecost. As a rag tag band of followers sit and wait, the promise of Jesus comes to be fulfilled. The fire of the Holy Spirit falls on Jesus disciples as they gather in Jerusalem and the team that was once looking at being shut out is turning around their rally caps. As the Spirit of God begins to make its presence known, Peter, the mouthiest disciple, the one voted most likely to trip over his own sandals while trying to put his foot in his mouth, stands and delivers.

The writer of the Gospel of Luke continues his story in the Book of Acts. If you wanted to, you might call this extra innings, where the disciples seem to get their act together and understand what’s at stake when it comes to following Jesus. Peter offers a very brief but pointed sermon on the life and person of Jesus saying,

“32 This Jesus, God raised up. We are all witnesses to that fact. 33 He was exalted to God’s right side and received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit. He poured out this Spirit, and you are seeing and hearing the results of his having done so… Change your hearts and lives. Each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 This promise is for you, your children, and for all who are far away—as many as the Lord our God invites.” 40 With many other words he testified to them and encouraged them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”

Peter is basically saying to the crowd gathered in Jerusalem, “Everyone gets a turn of the plate. Fair is going to be fair, foul is going to be foul, no one is going to be cheated.”  Jesus has come and leveled playing field now no one has to worry about being left out, leftover, are left on the bench.  As Paul with later put it, “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

And yet we see throughout the Book of Acts, the Israelites continuing to refuse to hear the message of Jesus. Whether they were jailed, beaten, starved, or killed, the disciples of Jesus continued to share the message of hope and love that Jesus had taught them. Some Israelites would in fact believe, but those who remained an in authority in the synagogues generally turned away from the words of life. They did not want justice. They did not want fairness. They just wanted to win their game.

Strike three.

So what do we do about it?

I think at this point, the question looms large, “what are we do about it?”

Often, we preachers use our children as object lessons and sermon illustrations. I try to make a point of asking my kids before I throw them out into public discourse. So I did ask my son if it was okay to tell you this story.

I was taking my kids out for a little dad time so that Heather could have a little mom time to herself. I decided that it would be fun to feed an 11-year-old and a six-year-old ice cream before I took them home. Because all moms like for their children to come home hyper, right? As we began to turn on our way to Sonic, we noticed a man standing on the corner holding a sign.  Without thinking, my son piped up and said, “We have to give him some money. If we don’t, he’ll be hungry.”  Since we live in a largely cashless society, I didn’t have any cash to give him. We were however, going to get food. So in addition to our ice cream, we bought the man a bag of food that would at least give him enough for one maybe two meals that day. It didn’t solve all of his problems. It didn’t fix his homelessness. But it did let him know one thing: that guy and his two kids in the Kia saw me. They saw me as a human being. They saw me is worth taking the time to recognize, to acknowledge that I was here.

We can’t solve everyone’s problems all the time. But we can solve some of their problems, some of the time. We can do the little things, the basic things that Jesus called us, showed us, how to do.  We can be his hands and feet. We can step up to the plate and move the runners. It’s not always the homerun wins the game, sometimes it’s the sacrifice. Amen.