Nathan Detweiler

July 15, 2018

PRAYER

  • Prophetic voices, where are they? Are there even any prophetic voices out there anymore? Was MLK the last prophetic voice? How should one be a prophetic voice?
  • These are all questions that both liberal and conservative Christians have really wrestled with in the past couple of years (notwithstanding many years prior).
  • Today’s text from Amos, and in fact the whole book of Amos, are really a response to many of those questions.
  • Amos not only sets an example for how to be prophetic but he challenges each of us, that daily choose to live as Christ did, to discern how we can be prophetic - because let's face it being prophetic is deeply, and oftentimes painfully, counter-cultural and counter-normative.

ANALYSIS

  1. Amos describes some instrument, called a plumb-line, which the Kingdom of Israel has not measured up to. And because Israel has not measured up to this plumb-line Amos prophesied that “the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” (Verse 9)
  2. And who will destroy Israel? God.
  3. For many of us this vision of God’s wrath or violence is deeply disturbing to our conceptions of God. Amongst Christians that I have been with I find that people often find themselves in two opposing camps. God is either entirely love or God is entirely judgement.
  4. But why is God being so judgemental of Israel?
  5. Amos describes God’s frustration with the surrounding kingdoms, Israel and Judah - so it isn’t just Israel, but Israel seems to have really peeved God off.
  6. Why? God seems to be particularly perturbed by how the poor, innocent, orphan, widow, and other disadvantaged groups are being treated.
  7. And notably Israel, even as the one of the chosen people, still draws God’s wrath.
  8. Amos, the prophet, announces God’s judgement, but also God’s hope.
  9. At the end of Amos we read Amos describe God’s hope for a new restored creation

THE RESTORATION OF DAVID'S KINGDOM

11 On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its[d] breaches, and raise up its[e] ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, says the Lord who does this. The time is surely coming, says the Lord, when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps, and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed;the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them,says the Lord your God.

  1. Amos conveys, as prophet, both God’s judgement and hope. And we see this combination replicated throughout the Bible and embodied in the literal crucifiction and resurrection of Christ. - Walter Brueggemann
  2. Prophetic voices always start with our present situation not reflecting the God’s desire for human and creation’s flourishing. They don’t start with creeds or doctrine, but they start with the oftentimes painful diagnosis that God’s creation is suffering and that it shouldn’t be that way. You don’t have to be Christian, Muslim, liberal or conservative to feel deeply in your bones the suffering of others. Prophetic voices recognize the power of making each of us ache with the suffering of creation.
  3. A prophet recognizes the predicament that we find ourselves in and encourages us to co-participate with God in the production of a new creation - Kenyetta Gilbert
  4. I work with LVC, an organization that actively believes that each of us has a role in working for peace with justice. And radically we believe that a year, or two, of service can irrevocably change the way you see the world. And in a similar fashion the Festival Center encourages the same sort of ministry through Discipleship Year.
  5. Because of my work with young adults I hear more frequently the groanings of their hearts and what burdens them. Burdens that I believe God has oftentimes placed on their hearts.
  6. Many of us have felt the stirrings of injustice and have marvelled at the way young, and old, folks have spoken bravely, and fiercely, to the many injustices that they see around them (Stories)
  7. The book of Amos asks us to take seriously these “non-traditional” voices. Afterall Amos, as he so pointedly says, was but a shepherd that God called to deliver a message. How often do we ignore the divine voice of God because it comes from a source that makes us uncomfortable?
  8. Amos also should provoke self-reflection. Who is Amos denounced by? The religious leadership of his day. Leadership that actively supported the will of King Jeroboam, not of the God. Amos asks us have we traded the Sermon on the Mount for Enlightenment ideals or American Exceptionalism?
  9. How do we daily embody prophets who are grounded in God?
  10. The decrying of our present situation seems like the first step but the next is to offer hope.
  11. Becoming a prophetic voice always starts with silence. Leaving the busyness and loudness of life to listen to God and to hear a voice, not our own, expressing what a new creation could look like. I find Jesus’ preparation for his ministry as an example of taking time to find the source of hope - God.
  12. And if we truly seek a hope that goes beyond all understanding we must encounter God because only God can avail us of a vision of new creation that looks so drastically different from our present reality that it is worth pursuing.