Bible Passage: Amos 7:10-15
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: July 18, 2021

Bulletin July 18, 2021

See if you can relate to this:  imagine a culture in which the people are for the most part living the good life.  Politically things are stable; they are not a nation at war.  Economically things are really quite nice.  Many people are making a very comfortable living.  The standard of living is high.  Many homes are decorated with high-end finishes and “upgrades.”  The very well-to-do even have a couple homes, a summer and a winter residence.

All is not great, though.  There are issues where matters of “social justice” are concerned.  There seems to be a “two-tier” system of justice where people who have power and privilege are treated one way and the underclass are treated another.

There is something else that is not so good in this culture.  The religious condition.  Oh, the people talk a good game about being “religious.”  There is even the appearance that this is a religious people.  They have their places of worship and their “clergy.”  But it’s all sort of a facade.  It’s not worship of the true God.  And in this culture, those who call for repentance and a return to the Lord, “conservative” theologians, are not welcome.  They are told to “cease and desist,” to hold their tongues and be gone.  It is a “cancel culture” where those who do not say the right things, things that are popular and pleasing, are censored and “cancelled.”

Sound like a culture near you?  You may be surprised to know that the culture just described is the culture in the Northern Kingdom of Israel at the time of Amos, about seven and a half centuries before Jesus was born.  That’s right.  We are not the first to deal with “cancel culture.”  In our text, A Prophet Faces “Cancel Culture.”

Amos is a long way from home.   He is a “southerner.”  He is from Tekoa, a little village in Judah about six miles south of Bethlehem.  That is where he was a shepherd and a fig-nipper.  But now he found himself in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, in Bethel.  Why did he make the trip?  Very simply, as Amos puts it:  …the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.” (v. 15)  And so he did.

Amos preached.  He preached a message of God’s coming judgment.  He told the people they would be carried away into exile by a hostile, foreign nation.  It was judgment they had coming; they had turned from the Lord and were worshipping idols.  Amos’ message is marked with this repeated phrase,  כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה, “Thus says the LORD!” (Amos 1:3; 1:6; 1:9; 1:11)  Amos wasn’t there proclaiming “Thus says Amos!”  He was simply there telling the people what the Lord said about things!

Not everybody liked it!  Our text tells us about a priest named Amaziah.  Amaziah was priest in Bethel at one of the idol-shrines in the Northern Kingdom.  He sends a message to King Jeroboam II.  To paraphrase his message, he said, “Hey, King!  This outsider Amos is in your kingdom conspiring against you right under your nose!  He’s telling everybody you’re going to be killed and your people are going into exile!”  Then Amaziah went directly after Amos. “Hey, prophet, get out of here!  You’re not welcome here!  Go back to where you came from and do your prophesying there!  And never, ever, ever, come preaching around here again!”  Amaziah was “canceling” Amos.

A hostile culture is nothing new.  It is the “culture” into which Jesus has sent his followers with his Word.  Think of the culture in Jerusalem after Pentecost.  The apostles are preaching the resurrected Jesus and salvation through him.  This is great news!  And what happens?  We are told the leaders summoned them and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:18).  “You can’t say that any more!”  They tried to “cancel” the apostles!  Sometimes opposition to the Word bubbled up to “ultimate cancelation.”  Those who spoke God’s Word were killed for the words they spoke.  When John saw the vision we call the book of Revelation, he saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the Word of God. (Rev. 20:4)   

In our “cancel culture” today we hear more and more voices saying that the Bible and the message of Christianity is “hate speech.”  God’s Law is called “hateful” because it judges and condemns certain human thought and behavior.  God’s Gospel is called “hateful” because it presents Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life to the exclusion of all others. Now I will confess as did Amos, I am neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I believe this pressure on Christians to “cease and desist” will only increase.  I believe we will see more, and more  intense, efforts to “cancel” Christian speech, whether on social media platforms or even pressure and intimidation to control and limit what is said from this pulpit on Sunday mornings.  I would be surprised if we did NOT see increased pressures, based on what the Bible tells us we can expect in the Last Days.

It kind of makes you wonder, though, where does all the hostility for God’s Word come from?  I mean, finally it is a message of grace and salvation.  It is a message of love and rescue for ANY and EVERYone who believes!  The opposition to the Word in our, and every culture, is evidence of two things:  the devil’s wild, ungoverned hatred of God and evidence of the perversity of man, who by nature loves sin, not God, and would rather die in hell than listen to God tell him how he can avoid it.

So what to do when we feel the hot breath of opposition?  Let’s listen to Amos.  He calmly responds to Amaziah’s message:  I was not a prophet nor was I a prophet’s son.  Rather, I was a sheep breeder and I took care of sycamore fig trees.  But the LORD took me from tending flocks, and the LORD said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”    He responds with resolute faithfulness.  He says he talks the way he does because God told him to.  And in the verses after our text he repeats what he had said earlier about God’s coming judgment.

Sometimes we may all feel a little like Amos.  We’re just going about our business of shepherding or picking figs, and the Lord brings us to a moment, a moment when we feel the pressure from our “cancel culture” to swallow our words, not speak them.    It is a moment for resolute faithfulness.  Our Savior Jesus has given us a mission:  to make disciples of all nations by teaching everything he has commanded.  To say no more, and to say NO LESS than what he has said to us.  To have the resolute faithfulness of Amos.  To have the resolute faithfulness of the apostles who, when told to stop preaching Jesus, said, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved…We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. (Acts 4:12, 20) 

When the early Christians were threatened by their “cancel culture” we are told they prayed this prayer:  Lord…enable your servants to speak your Word with great boldness. (Acts 4:29)  And two verses later it says:  And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.  (Acts 4:31)  So may we pray, and so may God graciously answer our prayer!  For Jesus’ sake!

Amen.

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