God’s Call In Your Life

Amos 7:10-17; Acts 4:13-22

Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah

November 19, 2023

Amos is one of the minor prophets.  The minor prophets aren’t called by that name because they were less significant.  They are called “minor” because we have less of their words and writings. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are called major prophets.  If you look at those books that are very large.  They are major because we have a lot of their writings.  We have a lot of their preaching.  We know more about their lives. The minor prophets are those smaller books at the end of the Old Testament with sometimes hard to pronounce names.

Amos was a prophet in Israel during the reign of a king named Jeroboam.  It was a good time for Israel, at least in terms of its political power and economic prosperity.  People were working.  There was no war.  Many people were doing well.  On the surface things looked good.

But on the inside things weren’t so good.  Israel was like a rotten apple.  Pleasant on the outside but terrible at the core.  Israel’s happiness and prosperity often came at the expense of others.  Much of what Israel enjoyed came by way of unjust practices.  Not everyone was treated equally.  Not everything was done honestly.

There’s nothing wrong with a country prospering.  That is what most nations want.  There is something wrong when a nation prospers by injustice, favoritism and wrongdoing to the very people who are citizens of that place.

Not only were there unjust political and economic practices, but the religious life of Israel was unhealthy.  What people said they believed in worship on the Sabbath didn’t line up with how they lived the rest of the week. At one place in the book of Amos the Lord tells Israel to stop bringing their sacrifices and acts of devotion. And then God says,

“Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.  But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an every-flowing stream.”[1]

God had had enough of their noisy ego-music.  He wanted justice – oceans of it.  God wanted fairness – rivers of it.  He still does.[2]

But things in the nation looked good on the surface.  Israel believed that God must be blessing them.  They believed they were in his favor. All was well. Amos was the Lord’s microphone through which he let it be known that this was not the case.

At this time Israel had split into a northern and southern kingdom.  Israel was the northern part and Judah was the southern part.  Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom and was home to the Temple.  But a temple had been built for the northern kingdom in a city called Bethel.  This was the national cathedral of Israel.  When the king went to church this is where he went.

And Amaziah was the chief priest at Bethel.  This was a position of power and influence coveted by other priests in the land because the chief priest was part of the king’s cabinet.  You had the ear of the king.  It was right smack dab in the middle of the temple at Bethel that Amos confronted the complacency of King Jeroboam and the nation of Israel.

Amos came to the priest Amaziah with a message to Jeroboam that the king would die by the sword and Israel would lose its land and be taken into exile somewhere else to be slaves.  Talk about a tough message to bring to the top. This would all happen because of the injustice that permeated the land, and their empty worship of God.  You can say “One nation under God” but God knows if that is true or not.

To say this to the king doesn’t fit with the national plan for greatness.  Amos and Amaziah both know this. When Amaziah gives Amos’ message to the king Amaziah says that the land is not able to bear the words of the prophet.  The land can’t handle this kind of message.  It isn’t good for morale.  It doesn’t feed the national spirit.

You know, the Bible is full of classic showdowns: Moses and Pharaoh.  David and Goliath. Jesus and Pilate. Certainly Amaziah and Amos are one of these.  Amaziah, the chief priest and religious head of Israel, comes to the prophet Amos and tells him to get lost and go earn his bread in another land. In essence, Amaziah talks down to Amos.  He implies that Amos is only doing this for the money.  He sees Amos as a traveling road show that stops wherever people are willing to listen. He certainly doesn’t see him as being sent by God.

Amaziah refuses to take Amos seriously and forbids him to ever preach again at Bethel.  For, as he says, “it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”  Right there is a clue to where Amaziah is coming from.  It illustrates what happens when the church and the state get confused and mixed up together.  You see, to the chief priest Amaziah, it wasn’t God’s sanctuary, it was the king’s sanctuary. He didn’t see it as a temple of the Lord but of the kingdom of Jeroboam.  Whenever the worship of the Lord is seen as belonging to any human authority we are in dangerous territory.  And the Lord will not stand for it.

When Amaziah tells Amos to shut up and go away, Amos says, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I am a herdsman, and a dresser (farmer) of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”

In other words, Amos says, “Look, I didn’t ask to be doing this.  This isn’t what I was raised to do.  I know about sheep and farming, not speaking for God.”  Amos knew that he was only an amateur. But beware of amateurs.

Amaziah is the priest of the national temple and probably came from a family of priests. He is a “professional.”  Possibly very eloquent, in with the powerful of Israel, educated, knowledgeable and influential.  But Amos was the one to watch out for.

Amos says, “I am not a prophet…”  What did he mean he wasn’t a prophet?  He was acting like one.  What he meant was that he didn’t presume God’s call to speak for God.  It wasn’t a matter of his human capacity or anything he had in himself.

Furthermore, Amos says, “I’m not even the son of a prophets.”  Prophets were often raised up from families of prophets.  Amos knew that his ministry was not a matter of human choice.  It wasn’t a matter of study, human preparation or conditioning.  He had no background.  No resume.  Nothing to prepare him for this. Amos says, “The Lord took me from following the flock…”  Amos stands there speaking the will of the Lord because the Lord laid it upon him. He was a farmer.  That is what he knew.  But one day, and we aren’t told how, the Lord said to Amos, “leave this flock and you go speak for me to my people Israel.”

Just an amateur.

It’s interesting how the Lord seems to prefer amateurs, those you wouldn’t bet your money on, to often speak and minister for him.  Think of Moses, who never did make it to priest like his brother Aaron.  Moses was not very eloquent.  The Lord even said so.  Yet he was used by God to speak to the great Pharoah and lead the Hebrews out of slavery and through the wilderness.  Think of David the shepherd boy, who wasn’t even considered as a realistic possibility when Samuel came around looking for who God wanted to anoint king.  Yet David became God’s king.

And then there were Peter and John.  Originally fishermen.  Chosen by Jesus to be disciples.  In the reading from Acts we hear about how they prayed for and healed a lame man in the name of Jesus.  When they are questioned by the temple authorities about this – the religiously powerful – it says that Peter and John speak with great and impressive boldness.  This surprises the high priests who recognize Peter and John as, we quote, “uneducated and common men.”  How can uneducated and common men do what they do and speak as they speak?  How it is that God’s power is more real in them than those who were in charge of religion?  Is it possible that if the Lord can take Amos from his flock and his sycamore tree farming and use him, that he can take us from wherever we are and use us for his purposes?

The Lord’s power is not limited to those with formal seminary training, or any theological training for that matter.  Training is good.  I’m all for training.  I think it is good to be educated and have some practice.  But beware that the Lord might choose and use an amateur.  The Lord can take a chef and use him or her to be a Sunday School teacher. He can take a farmer and make him or her a preacher.  He can take a mail deliverer and make her or him someone who influences young people in the paths of the Lord.  The Lord can take a high school dropout and make that person a pillar in his church.

Some of you already got this memo.  That is why you are doing what you are doing in this church and elsewhere.  For all of us, Amos is a correction to thinking, “Well, we better always leave it up the minister.”  This isn’t to dismiss the call to ordained ministry.  I don’t want to talk myself out of a job. We need people who have a special calling to preach, teach, pray and lead for the sake order in our churches.  The Bible affirms that. But we might think again what it really means to be ordained.

It is formal training?  Is it having a “Reverend” before your name? Or is there something more?

Serving the Lord is a matter of God choosing and activating us by his Spirit. The Lord raises people up to speak for him or do his work. Like Amos, maybe not much or any training.  We may not be a “professional” but that doesn’t mean the Lord won’t call us to serve.

Scripture tells us that it is the Holy Spirit who gives gifts to people to serve God.  The Spirit gives gifts to people as he chooses and determines. Now no one is a Lone Ranger just declaring themselves called by God without the wise confirmation of others.  But just because some Amaziah says someone isn’t called by God doesn’t disqualify someone.

I’m willing to bet that for many of us the people who were most influential in our Christian life were not pastors.  There were probably Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, parents, other family or friends.  There were mothers, truck drivers, coaches, secretaries and laborers; people the Lord used in our lives.

One of the failures of the entire church over the years has been to give people a sense that the only way to really serve God is by becoming a minister.  That couldn’t be farther from the truth.  In fact, you might be able to serve the Lord better by not being a church “professional.”  Don’t be surprised if the Lord calls you from the flock, just as he called Amos, to do something for him.

You can argue that you don’t have the qualifications, but that argument goes all the way back to Moses and it never works with God.  Moses came up with excuse after excuse. When God lays a calling on someone he just does it. It may not matter if we have much experience, training, or background.

Imagine a hiring agency in Jesus’ day. Let’s call them Galilee Management Consultants Imagine them interviewing the twelve apostles.  Imagine the twelve men that Jesus have picked are submitted to these consultants.  The twelve take a battery of tests, the results are run through the computer, personal interviews are arranged with a psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of the tests of the twelve apostles are provided and Jesus is told to study them carefully.  The consultants send back general comments for his guidance.  They lend their professional opinion.

The consultants send back a report that says: It might be something like this:

To: Jesus, Son of Joseph

Woodcrafter's Carpenter Shop

Nazareth 25922

From: Galilee Management Consultants

Dear Sir:

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Then the twelve are named:

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew had been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely,

Galilee Management Consultants[3]

Amos said he wasn’t a prophet or the disciple of a prophet.  “But the Lord took me…”

“But the Lord took me…and said ‘Go, prophesy…”

Sometimes we don’t know why us, but the Lord just takes us. He gives us a prompting, a call, a mission, a ministry.  And he says “Go…” But if he does he will also give us his Spirit.  And if God has sent us, then let the hearer and Amaziah’s beware.

Be alert for the calling God has for you.

Prayer: Father, it is amazing that you will use farmer’s like Amos, and common, uneducated folk like Peter and John.  You seem to be trying to tell us something.  Let us let you use us.  Make us open to your call in our lives.  Amen.

[1] 5:23-24

[2] See The Message

[3] From Eating Problems For Breakfast, Tim Hansen, Word Publishing, 1988, 194-95