Complacency Syndrome
The prophets point out to the people of God where God is calling us to go when complacency takes root, and we miss the movement of God happening before our eyes.
One of the things that most excites me when visiting a new place is how our senses absorb everything around us. I remember moving into my college dorm at West Virginia Wesleyan College and the smell of fresh paint and the echo caused by the carpet-less floor, cinderblock walls, and slab ceiling in my room. On my first overseas business trip to Yemen, I recall the smell of the dusty airport and the shouting of taxi drivers and skycaps as we were escorted into our embassy-provided vehicles. I can remember the taste of the kabobs delivered by Emily and Alyssa Dozer the day my family moved into the parsonage six years ago over the sound of ambulances passing by and movers wrestling to fit our furniture through narrow staircases.
Good or bad, our senses help us create memories in ways that can be more powerful than simply experiencing an event or milestone.
As we walk down the streets of our neighborhoods in the spring and summer, our noses will alert us to the neighbor preparing barbeque.
The smell of exhaust and the sight of smoke might alert us to the DIY mechanic living down the street who could lend a hand when your car won’t start.
Like many of you, a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, when those in our household were grinding our last nerve, I took up running and walking in my neighborhood. These runs and walks were a welcomed break from co-teaching preschool and trying to keep a first and second-grader on task while in his bed during virtual school. I walked the same route for months: up 16th Street toward Virginia Hospital Center, then left of Edison Street, up and down 15th, 14th, and 13th Streets before going down Washington Boulevard to Abingdon Street to return home.
Every day for months, I took the same route. Sometimes multiple times per day, the same route.
I knew the route so well I did not need to pay attention. Our dog knew the route so well she would pull me along if I was not moving fast enough.
Amos had been called by the Lord and sent to Bethel to prophesy to the people of Israel. Traveling from the Southern region of Judah, from a town called Tekoa, a stone’s throw from Bethlehem – I trust you’ve heard of Bethlehem – Amos headed north to the city of Bethel. Delivering a word from the Lord, Amos had much to say about what Israel was doing (or not doing) and what the Lord planned to do to rectify the situation.
Amos describes the Lord as “standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line”[i] in the Lord’s hand. To ensure what was being built was straight and true, the builder used a plumb line. The plumb line is the symbol for the standard by which the Lord will measure – judge – Israel.
The Lord gave Moses the plumb line on Mount Sinai – the Ten Commandments and 613 Mitzvah to guide Israel. God’s Law is the plumb wall to which the prophet Amos states Israel will be judged. God’s Law is the plumb wall to which all will be judged.
Amos is confronted by the priest of Babel, Amaziah, who does not, as you expected, roll out the welcome wagon for the new-to-town prophet. Amaziah goes to the king and accuses the prophet of conspiring against the king and the nation.[ii]
Amaziah tells Amos to leave Bethel. Eugene Patterson interprets Amaziah’s words in The Message: “Seer, be on your way! Get out of here and go back to Judah, where you came from! Hang out there. Do your preaching there. But no more preaching at Bethel! Don’t show your face here again. This is the king’s chapel. This is a royal shrine.”[iii]
Amos arrived in Bethel, and Amaziah, the head of the religious machine, did not want to hear what the prophet had to say.
Nowhere through does Amaziah declare Amos to be a false prophet. Amaziah names Amos a prophet.
Verse 12 Amaziah says to Amos, “O, Seer.” The same word is used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible (2 Kings 17:13) to identify a prophet. The priest of the king’s chapel confirms Amos is a prophet sent by the Lord but does not want to hear what the prophet has to say. Amaziah opts, instead, to disparage Amos, twisting the prophet’s words in his report to the king.
Amos had been sent by God to do what Amaziah was supposed to do but did not. Because Amaziah was the priest in the king’s sanctuary and in the temple of the kingdom, it was his responsibility to identify if and when the people were not living in accordance with God’s will. Amaziah failed to see how he, along with the nation in his care – including the king – had missed the mark, fallen short of God’s will.
When I returned from my long strolls through the neighborhood, Allison would ask me what I saw, who I saw, or if anything exciting happened.
“Same as last time,” I would reply.
“Same as this morning.”
With Air Pods secured in my ears and music blaring or a podcast squawking, I barely paid attention to what was happening around me. I did not need to pay attention because I had been there every day, sometimes multiple times a day, for months.
Our first experiences in a new place result in memories being created based on what our senses reveal to us, but over time, we can become numb to what is happening in the places where we spend significant amounts of time.
Last Sunday, Pastor Sara invited us to consider the Jewish practice of Midrash to fill in the blanks in our scripture reading. I would like us to do the same this morning.
I have no doubt that when Amaziah first entered the royal sanctuary and temple of the kingdom, his priestly vocation was heightened by the sights, smells, and sounds of the space. But over time, excitement gave way to complacency. This was when Amos stepped in with his diving calling and words.
The prophets point out to the people of God where God is calling us to go when complacency takes root, and we miss the movement of God happening before our eyes. The prophet, then and now, has the task of bringing a word from God to the people. In the case of Amos, this word from God was to return to the will of God.
Amos is one of six minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. “Minor” describes the length of Amos’ writings compared to the more loquacious “major” prophets. Still, it does not diminish the word he brings to the people of God.
The prophet's work disturbs those in power or places of comfort when those in power act in ways contrary to God’s will for all creation. Nowhere is this more evident than in the ministry of Christ. In the church, we believe Jesus to be more than a prophet. Christ is the Word of God Made Flesh, the Loquacious Word of God. We believe Jesus came to inaugurate God’s rule on earth, to set right the human propensity to set ourselves against God’s will and to fulfill all of the requirements of the Law.
The rejection of Christ by the nations was foreshadowed when he was rejected by his hometown, nearly run off a cliff by a congregation made up of his extended family, for proclaiming God’s word.
But the Good News is that no matter how often we reject those called to deliver God’s word, no matter how often we reject the One who fulfilled God’s word, God does not stop sending the prophets. Christ does not abandon us.
Prophets sent to our nation during the civil rights movement of the last century were rejected, even killed. Still, today, people like William Barber and Liz Theoharris call our nation to God’s will.
Prophets are being sent to the church today advocating for the inclusion of people God has already called to ministry, whether we like that calling or not.
“I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycomore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”
God continues to call and equip the prophets today in the same way God calls and equips disciples – calling upon imperfect, untrained, unprepared people like Amos to go to new places and lead the people of God to God’s will. It sounds like an impossible task, and it would be if not for the grace of the One doing the calling and equipping.
[i] Amos 7:7, NRSV
[ii] Amos 7:10
[iii] Amos 7:12-13, The Message
I spent 6 1/2 years in Bethlehem. On the map it may look close, but Tekoa’s pretty far out. Just saying.