Amos.8.4-7; The Fifteenth Sunday
after Pentecost; September 22, 2019;
Life in Christ Lutheran Church,
Grand Marais, MN;
Hear this, you who trample on the needy
and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying,
“When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that
we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel
great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that
we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the
chaff of the wheat?” The Lord has sworn by the
pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. (Amos 8:4-7, ESV)
Grace and peace to you from our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
“Oh, come, let us sin unto the Lord!” No, I didn’t forget the “g”. I really did say, “Come let us sin to the Lord.” Well, it’s what the prophet Amos is saying
here. He tops his list of the sins of
God’s people with not caring for the needy and preferring business to
worship. “Let’s get church over with so
we can get back to business. Let’s cut
this stuff short so we can do what’s important.
Let’s minimize our obligations to God, so we can spend our time doing
what we want to do instead. Time is money. Let’s get back to what life is really all
about… the pursuit of happiness!” And what’s worse the business practices they
want to get back to are less than beneficial to the customers. Crooked scales and high prices combine for
great profit margins, but poor customer service. They were coming to church, but it was the
last place they wanted to be. Amos was point blunt. “You’re only here to get credit for being
here. You want God to notice that you
are doing your part, paying your fair share, but your mind is in the
market. God’s Word is far from your
heart when you are far from His house.
You think that you are entitled to pursue happiness because you’ve parking
in the pew.”
Well, it’s a good thing that
Amos isn’t talking to us. This moldy old
prophet couldn’t possibly have anything relevant to say. How could words scratched out 3,000 years ago
mean anything to you and me? God really
couldn’t be speaking to me. Could he? Oh
come, let us sin unto the
Lord! Watching your clock already? How long is the sermon going to be
today? Week three Vikings vs Radiers. The roast is in the oven. I don’t want to spend my whole day here. Twice a month Communion would be better if it
didn’t take so long. My time is
valuable… Time is money… Ah, that’s what
it’s about, isn’t it? We are not so far
from God’s people who were hit between the eyes by Amos’ words. We do just what they did. We want put God in church and leave Him here. We grudgingly set aside this hour for God and
no more. We pretend that God gets enough
of us if we look like we are enjoying
our time. If we fool the pastor, we must be fooling God too.
If Amos’ words are harsh, he
means them to be. His hearers were
confident in their place before God. We
do our part and God will do his part. We
give God his due and our businesses will grow and prosper. Our thoughts are not any different. If we put our time in at church on Sunday, we
can live any way we want to for the rest of the week. God doesn’t belong out there.
But God says differently. He sends prophets and pastors to make it
clear. You cannot serve God and
money.
…this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me… (Isaiah 29:13, ESV)
Oh, come, let us sin to the
Lord, is not something God will tolerate.
Sin is serious business to Him. His
beautiful creation is corrupted by it. His
creature’s lives are set to ruin by it. Greed
provokes God’s righteous anger. Amos
speaks God’s law very clearly. “I will
not forget their sin, ever! I will not
forget your sin, ever!”
Well we are in trouble if God
won’t forget. We have a difficult time
on our own forgetting sin and the sins of others against us. But we count on God’s forgiveness. We cling
to Jeremiah’s words as he speaks for God.
For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
remember their sin no more.”
(Jeremiah 31:34b, ESV)
But Amos goes on to describe the
consequences of God not forgetting our sin.
“And on that day,” declares the Lord God,
“I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your
songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every
head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a
bitter day. (Amos 8:9-10, ESV)
So how do we reconcile what Amos
says? We know our lack of faithfulness
in worship; we see our sin and know we need God’s forgiveness. Amos writes about a darkened day, a day when
there will be mourning for an only son. It
reminds us of a dark day we call “good”; Good Friday. That is a day when God does exactly has, He
says, He doesn’t forget our sin. In
fact, He remembers them in full, by placing them on His only Son. Jesus, on the cross, is the focus of God’s
wrath and anger. God is true to His
promise of not forgetting sin. All human
sin is heaped on Jesus; everyone remembered; every lackluster worship service;
every selfish thought; every time we watch the clock; every time our mind is
somewhere else; every time we set out for our own gain at the expense of
others. Jesus is nailed to the cross to
carry them all, to suffer God’s punishment.
Jesus dies with our sin, so we are dead to it, too. Jesus takes the curse of God remembering
sin, so that we can receive God’s forgiveness.
Oh, come, let us sin unto the
Lord… let us place our sin on Him and
receive from God the forgiveness He gives though faith in Jesus.
So, does that make a difference
in our worship today and in the future?
Shall we continue, Oh, come, let
us sin unto the Lord? Saint Paul
What shall we say then? Are we to continue
in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1, ESV)
He answers the question, too:
By no means! How can we who died to sin
still live in it? Do you not know that all of
us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into
death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:1-4, ESV)
God remembers his promises. He places our sin and punishment on Jesus and
gives us Jesus resurrection to new life.
We walk in newness of life! We live and act and worship differently. What God has done for us in Jesus turns that
turns our sin into sing.
Oh, come let us sing unto the
Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the
God of our salvation. He turns our
sin into song. We rejoice. We celebrate.
We sing about what God has done for us.
From the hymn: Jesus Thy Blood and Righteousness.
Jesus,
be endless praise to Thee,
Whose
boundless mercy hath for me,
For
me, and all Thy hands have made,
An everlasting ransom
paid. (LSB 563:6)
And not only that but it changes
everything else, too. Worship becomes
the center point of our lives. We
receive from God, His wonderful gift of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus,
in Word and Sacrament, and it bleeds through us to the world out there. Our lives become ways of serving others
because God serves us. Our lives don’t
need to be about gaining things for ourselves with crooked scales and false measures;
instead our work becomes a way of giving God’s gifts to people who need them.
Now it won’t be to long and
we’ll be thinking about stewardship in our church. Yes, I’m talking about the budget. God would not have us use the budget for the
motivation we would work with. God gives
to us so that we can give to and help others.
God’s blessings to us are for our blessing other people. One way we do that is through the work of the
church. We can do so much more than we
do through our own congregation. But
we’ve got to start with Oh, come let us
sing unto the Lord.
Oh, come, let us sin to the Lord? No! We are forgiven sinners. We do not live in sin anymore. God will not punish us for our sin because of
Our Savior Jesus Christ. Instead, Oh,
come, let us sing to the Lord. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all
understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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