Sermon for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, September 18, 2022. This week was my first true multi-point pastor experience, as we have begun having services each week at both the Christ the King and Living Hope buildings.
This week’s lectionary readings are Amos 8:4-7, Luke 16:1-13, and Psalm 113. Portions of this sermon are similar to my sermon from 2019 on these texts.
Here’s the livestream from the first service at CTK and the audio of just the sermon.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
Last Sunday, I started the sermon by wondering how you’d answer if someone asked you who God is, what God is like. I said there were a lot of different places you could start to answer that question.
You could start with creation, or the church, maybe with a philosophical argument, or you could start where Jesus often does, with parables, stories revealing something of God’s character.
Last week’s stories were about God seeking us out and finding us, about God being persistent and rejoicing like a shepherd who finds his missing sheep, or a woman who finds her lost coin. The message is that God cares about you, personally. God loves you and rejoices when you are found. Love is foundational to who God is.
Today, we’re going to look at a different aspect of who God is, or maybe not exactly different, but a particular aspect of God’s love. Today’s message is God cares about justice.
Now, that’s not particularly clear in this parable from Luke 16. In fact, I think this story about a dishonest, scheming manager is one of Jesus’ most confusing parables. There are lots of interpretations out there. It could be criticizing the practices of charging oppressive interest rates; or it could be about a stereotype in Jewish literature of praising trickster figures, people who get out of tricky situations by cleverly using their wits.
If you have a favorite interpretation, I’d love to hear it, because I think this story is confusing.
The Amos reading, on the other hand, is much more straightforward. Not easy to follow, but straightforward to understand. Amos, like much of the Bible, is concerned with the just treatment of the least of these.
Several times recently, we’ve heard Jesus talk about paying special attention to those who are poor, crippled, lame, or blind.
The world says these people are not valuable. Our society says they don’t matter, that their voices don’t need to be heard. But throughout the Bible, we hear that God has a different idea.
Like we learned last week, God cares even for one missing sheep, for one lost coin. God seeks out those who are lost, who are suffering, those who are oppressed, or alone.
In Psalm 113, we hear that God is the one who raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap. The Lord gives the barren woman a home. These people, the ones that our world overlooks, God sees. God cares about justice.
Now, I’m guessing most of us don’t know a whole lot about Amos. Amos was a prophet during a time of prosperity in Israel. The farms were producing, and many were prospering. Life is good. Inflation’s low, no recessions. But people were starting to value money more than God, trusting in their wealth.
And when you start to trust in wealth, you realize that you don’t have enough of it. There’s never enough wealth to be satisfied.
So the rich got richer, and they mistreated the poor. They forgot about justice and treating others right, and instead only worried about getting wealthier.
Along comes Amos, who sees the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, and he writes, “Hear this, you who trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land.”
These are people who are supposedly religious, supposed to be God’s chosen people, and they celebrate the religious festivals, but not sincerely. In Jewish tradition at that time, the last day of the month was celebrated as a Sabbath day.
The point of a Sabbath day is for everyone to have a day of rest and worship, but it was also established as a tool for justice. On a Sabbath day, no one works, not even the poor laborers. Having a Sabbath gives those who need it most a chance to breathe. Isn’t it sad how much we’ve lost this idea of Sabbath rest?
Amos points out that for the rich, though, the Sabbath is mostly just an obstacle. It’s something that gets in the way of their money-making. Instead of looking to help the poor as God desires and commands, instead of resting on the Sabbath and celebrating God’s goodness and generosity, they ask “When will the new moon—that end-of-month rest day—be over, so that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?”
Think the Bible doesn’t have much to say to us today? Look at who has to work on the Sabbath in our society. Of course, we always need some people to be working, like doctors and nurses, police, caregivers, and others.
But look who else is working, who doesn’t get regular time off. Often it’s the people who can’t afford not to work. The wealthier you are, the more likely you are to be able to have a job with vacation time, regular hours, and fair pay.
These aren’t easy problems to fix, and I’m not proposing any particular solution, but pay attention and notice who is exploited. We’ve come a long way since Amos’s day, yet love of money is still one of our biggest problems.
Amos goes on to accuse the rich of only caring only about money and profit, so much so that they’re willing to cheat. People are often at their most creative when money and profit are at stake, right?
They say, “We will make the ephah small, and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances.” In a society based on trading, measures are really important. The only way fair trade happens if everyone knows how much a shekel is.
Today, we deal with this through government regulations, and say what you want about big government, I do appreciate the government checking that weights and measurements are accurate.
When you go to the gas station, you can see the little blue sticker stating that the pump’s been inspected by weights and measure, from the state department of “Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection.” We need to know when we pay for a gallon of gas, we get a gallon of gas. Selling a bushel of corn only works if you can trust you’re not being cheated on the size of a bushel.
That’s what these people in Amos’s day are doing. They’re looking for more ways to cheat the poor, because they don’t see them as people, but as profit sources.
And God does not approve. Amos comes to give a warning, to call for the nation to repent. Within just a few decades of Amos speaking against these practices, the northern kingdom of Israel will fall to the Assyrian empire.
Their actions have consequences. This selfishness, only looking out for themselves rather than caring about the fortunes of their neighbors, ultimately leads to their downfall.
Does any of this sound familiar? Any of this sound at all like life today?
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before in a sermon, but I’m a bit of a news junkie. I pay pretty close attention to politics, current events, the NFL, business news, and especially technology news.
Let me share with you a few stories I saw this week (actually, these are all from just Wednesday). Amazon is being sued by the state of California for raising prices by forbidding sellers from selling at a lower price elsewhere. (source)
The guy behind the Fyre Festival who defrauded thousands of people in 2017 is out of jail and talking about starting some new tech business to pay back the $25 million he owes in restitution. (source)
The European Union is fining Google 4.1 billion Euros for bundling Google Search and Chrome with Android phones. (source)
Texts released in a lawsuit reveal Brett Favre might know more than he claimed about millions of dollars intended for welfare—for helping the poor—in Mississippi that instead went to build a new volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi. (source) That one hurts—I grew up with a poster of Brett Favre in my room as a kid.
A teenage human trafficking victim in Iowa who fought back and stabbed her accused rapist to death has been ordered to pay $150,000 to his family, as required by state law. (source)
Again, these are all just from Wednesday. There is plenty of injustice in our world. What would Amos say?
I don’t have answers to those situations. Some of them are political questions, but I’m skeptical of political solutions to human greed. I do believe our faith should influence the way we vote, and I think God cares about how we approach structural issues.
But ultimately, this is a challenge to us. As followers of Jesus, it starts with us. We are called to care for what God cares about. Reflecting God’s love includes working for God’s justice.
We are called to treat others—the rich, the poor, our friends, and our enemies—as children of God. We are called to use all our wits, all our energy to engage in the same work God is engaged in.
I think that’s what that confusing parable in Luke is about. Jesus isn’t saying we are to act dishonestly, but rather, if people can be this clever in pursuit of money and wealth, we can be even more clever, even more wise, even more shrewd acting with integrity and working for justice.
As we’re exploring what God is like, these readings feel like a bit of whiplash from last week’s message of a loving God seeking us and bringing us home by grace. But justice is part of love. God’s love changes us; knowing we are loved sets us free to work for justice.
We are called to be creative, passionate, persistent in working for God’s mission, building God’s kingdom, serving God who loves us, rather than serving wealth, shining God’s light.
May God bless the work we do in Jesus’ name, and may our work be always for God’s glory, not for ours. Amen