2025-09-28 Pentecost 16

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

We’ve got a really cohesive collection of themes today in our Scripture readings. Our Lord highlights the lesson with a parable, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning in the Rich Man and Lazarus. Our Old Testament reading from the prophet Amos gives a historical background to the same problem of ‘unchecked’ opulence and our New Testament reading from Hebrews tells us “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have” (13:5). You can easily connect the dots here today. It’s a broader lesson on Stewardship but more precisely, the proper role of wealth in the Christian life.

We’re going to delve into the Amos reading. Who was Amos? We gather that he was a prophet, called by God for a purpose. Before his spiritual gig, he had mixed farming operation. But instead of canola and black angus he had sycamore figs and was a shepherd. He hailed from Tekoa, some 12 miles south of Jerusalem. He was a southern prophet from Judah but was called to go and preach against the Northern Kingdom of Israel in and around 800-700BC. This meant King Uzziah was reigning in the South and King Jeroboam II in the North. Though the Kingdoms were divided at this time, both Kings maintained peace with each other.

This time was essentially a ‘golden age’ of peace and prosperity, much like the good ol’ days when King David and Solomon lead the united Kingdom. Everyone could see that this kind of prosperity must have meant that God was happy with them! A more true and surer sign of God’s favour and blessing couldn’t possibly exist. The golden age. It must mean that the great and awesome “Day of the Lord” was right around the corner! Everything was going great! Peace was abundant! The politicians and the elite’s extravagant lifestyles — lounging on ivory beds, feasting on choice meats, drinking the finest wines, enjoying music - you name it. They were living large as large could be.

But Amos was able to see straight through this facade by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amos saw all this opulence and wealth and luxury but did not see a sure sign of God’s blessing. Rather, he saw only spiritual rot and decay. When everything seemed to be prosperous and amazing, the Lord calls Amos to go and preach. Sound the alarm! Israel’s current heresy - not unlike the long list of all their other ones - was finally filling the cup of God’s wrath. Repent, ye Kings! Repent, ye prosperous elites! Repent hard and fast or else the wrath of God will be unleashed upon you for your sin!

Say what?! Look around, Amos! We’ve got peace! We’ve got security! We’ve got wealth! We’ve got strong towers! We’ve got everything we need and more! Go back to your flocks and your figs, you little farm idiot! We aren’t giving you even a second of time for your Debbie-Downer, wet-blanket schpiel! Truly, this was the prophet’s cross to bear. In fact, that’s what the name Amos means. It comes from a word meaning “to bear” or “to place a load upon.” Amos, and his heavy message, was not popular. He didn’t get invited to all the lavish parties of the elite. Instead he upheld God’s word and mission, boldly proclaiming the ‘woes’ to the nations and to God’s people alike.

Pshaw, Amos, pshaw! The elites and the ruling classes and priests and even the common folk all basically tell Amos to go pound salt. But Amos remains stalwart and unwavering. Because the nation of Israel has abandoned God’s covenant, it has forfeited its claim to a privileged status before God. And thus, the Divine pronouncement comes crashing down. The nation will be destroyed, leaving only a tiny remnant of the faithful. The Lord presents Himself to His people as a ferocious lion (3:8) that would devour the people in their sin. This would play out in the Assyrian conquest and utter destruction of the Northern Kingdom, much as it would later on with the Babylonians and later after that the Romans.

Truly, this is a message for our time. Our culture and world is guilty of much the same sin as the nation of Israel was back in Amos’ day. We have this extreme wealth and lavish opulence and a nation and government that has turned its back on God and His word. We interpret material prosperity as a sign that we have no need of repentance or humility. Spiritual complacency and moral rot are celebrated and even mandated in the public square. We have become a people who are just as slow to heed God’s Word and equally immoral, if not worse, than the people Amos was railing against centuries ago. Calls to repentance fall on deaf ears. Wealth, prosperity and richness is elevated all the while ignoring the plight of the poor and the impending judgment. Self-indulgence blinds us, just as it did to Israel, to the “ruin of Joseph” - the spiritual and moral decay of the people.

This is a heavy one, folks. God’s word of law smashes like a hammer. But at the same time, His word of Gospel consoles us. Even in the book of Amos, whose message is almost completely a message of hard-hitting law, there is some light in the midst of darkness. The first clue is the remnant - a tiny remainder and reminder of faith and repentance. And, at the very end of the book of Amos, the last verses of chapter 9, God promises to restore the “booth of David” - a Messianic image for the house and lineage of David which is fulfilled by none other than Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Jesus is our consolation. He is our salvation. In Him alone do we have forgiveness, life and salvation. The faithful remnant looks to the cross of Christ in repentance, hope and perseverance. And to this end, the Lord calls us to wake up and wise up. Through the prophet Amos, the Lord roars for justice and faith in the hearts of His people. And unless we ourselves embody it and live it, the same kinds of sinful vices will destroy us. Our Lord calls us always to repentance, that we can avert the shame and sorrow that will inevitably result when we walk the way of lavish selfishness, wealth and greed above all else. He daily calls us to remember our Baptism, and receive anew the forgiveness that Christ Jesus has won for us on the cross. Grace and faith are the true basis for worship and a right relationship to the Lord. And our Lord’s invitation ever stands “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (MT 11:28).

This is where we see that Jesus is our heavenly treasure. He is our pearl of great price. And this is the nugget from His parable of the rich man and Lazarus too. The rich man trusted in his wealth and money in life but then, he died. What help was all the gold and royal clothing and feasts in death?? Contrast to this was Lazarus. Poor. Homeless. Covered in sores. But he had something that the rich man didn’t have. He had the pearl of great price. He had faith to trust in God above all things. It’s a stark reminder that those who find the help they need in God rather than riches will never be disappointed. In death, they will receive a reward that dwarfs even the best things money can buy. Clinging to Jesus might not earn you earthly glory, fame or fortune, but it guarantees that our names will be heard in the halls of heaven for all eternity. Thanks and praise be to God Who gives us true wealth and riches in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen!