Journey with the Prophets | Complacency Syndrome - July 10, 2022

Amos 7

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.