"True Worship" (Amos 5:18-27)

Introduction

Amos was a prophet in Israel during the 8^th century BCE. Amos had an acute eye toward hypocrisy and injustice. Amos, as a prophet, tried to prick the nation’s conscience, condemning those in positions of power or influence, for their ill-treatment of those who could NOT defend themselves (J Barton). At the same time, Amos would ask … how it was … that those who claimed to be God’s people, and who worshipped in the designated places of assembly, could live in ways that were contrary to God’s ways, including the neglect of the most vulnerable?! This would certainly break God’s covenant with the people, as they ignored the major commandment concerning loving their neighbour.

Those who have the ‘light’, are more responsible for living in the ‘light’, than those who are unenlightened! This all speaks to our integrity, being wholistic, and to whether our worship is ‘true’ or ‘false’!! Amos, in effect, argued, that only ‘true’ worship would be acceptable to God, and anything other … would be deemed worthless, and thereby land the people in (unnecessary) danger. Something surely to be avoided! So, how can we ensure that our worship can be described as ‘true’? How can we, as a church, make sure we are within God’s blessing??

Text of Amos 5

Even 28 centuries ago, the people of God had their mind on a particular point in time – a point in time that they considered would be better for them – “the day of the Lord” (v 18); this, rather than concentrating on the day that they were in. God wants us living in the now! When humans get ahead of themselves, they tend to lose the deeper meaning of the present. We desire a different future, without recognising our current responsibilities. The “day of the Lord” was likely the day that God would ultimately intervene in history to vindicate these people against those who were against them – God taking up his own direct sovereign rule in the world. But the assumption being made, which Amos here challenges, was that this “day of the Lord” was, necessarily, going to be good news for these people.

They assumed so, but maybe not! Why not? The credibility of their worship!! Look at verse 18 (again). You are assuming that this will be a “day” of “light” for you … a good experience, when it may well be “darkness”. Why would you want that?! You thought you had escaped one danger, only to encounter another (v 19)! That’s what happens in the dark. This can only be because, having once encountered God, you have now in some way ignored God. It may be subtle – it is probably often subtle … because the people of Israel often missed what God wanted of them, and ended up, surprisingly to them, in exile … defeated by a foreign power (as referred to in verse 27) … in this case the powerful Northern neighbour Assyria.

All this disrupts the true essence of worship – for individuals, AND for the community of believers. Ignoring God in some way, disrupts ‘true’ worship. To deliberately ignore this, once aware of such a deficiency, turns us toward ‘false’ worship. ‘False’ worship, where it is deliberate, is probably worse than ‘no’ worship, because it sends out exactly the wrong message. ‘True’ worship is focussed on engagement with our Creator and Redeemer God, responding to God’s great faithfulness and goodness, with an eye to the change that is necessary in our various lives. ‘False’ worship, on the other hand, seeks to manipulate God (and others) toward our way of thinking, to meet our own goals, to facilitate our comfort. And, ‘false’ worship ignores our (horizontal) social relationships. And so we hear, “I hate your festivals, and take NO delight in your solemn assemblies (v 21) … etc”! Whack!!

For us today, ‘true’ worship centres around Jesus; while ‘false’ worship likely centres around ourselves. When we don’t like or agree with God’s way of going about running His Kingdom, we set up other ‘gods’ to worship, and pretend these are compatible with ‘true’ worship. In Israel’s case, they disobeyed God through neglect (lack of “sacrifice” – v 25) and, in so doing, turned to idolatry (v 26). Any lack of ‘true’ worship leads to new ‘idols’ of many origins and descriptions. We can easily put other things on a pedestal, and build a shrine around them!

This can still happen, even after making a good start in worshipping God. There are forces which would prefer us to fail, and would even provide forms of congratulation so that we might be fooled into complacency. Amos, in those verses 21 to 23, reflects how God reacts to unthinking and hypocritical worship. As Christopher J H Wright puts it, “There was no shortage of religion and ritual in Amos’ day, but the rampant social injustice made a blasphemous mockery of it”. God cannot abide this, can’t watch it, even turns a deaf ear to it; God cannot accept it, indeed rejects it! Indeed, ‘no’ worship would be better than ‘false’ worship!

The Good News

The good news is, ‘true’ worship is NOT difficult – that is the true scandal within Amos’ preaching. It just didn’t need to be this way. God is NOT a strict judge, far from it; God is wholly benevolent. But it is just so counter-productive, and also downright ungrateful, to choose to ignore God. ‘True’ worship is so available, so accessible. We just need to build in two foundational principles: humility and social integrity. Humility will avoid putting our agenda before God’s agenda. And, social integrity will mean that we will treat others as God would have them treated. Clearly NOT rocket science – love God, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; and love your neighbour as yourself – the clearest and most basic biblical principle. This is path to ‘true’ worship – humility and social integrity.

Humility

There is only one path to joy. There is only one way to experience God’s glory coming upon us. As the New Testament book of James puts it, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (4:10). It is only the ‘humble’ that can be lifted up, everybody else is heading for a fall! We can only be lifted up, if we first lay ourselves down. Amazingly and awesomely, this is how Jesus did life; and I think that should be the example we follow (Philippians 2:1-11). As Jesus laid his life down in service, God lifted it up in glory! The one who is open to learn, open to be led, open to change, open to serve others, can be exalted (and truly experience joy).

Humility (or becoming humble) means that we decide that we are NOT self-sufficient – that we WILL seek out the One we were created to have a relationship with (the One … we will be ultimately bereft without a relationship with). Humility means that we accept that we will NEVER be complete without Jesus in our lives (because of the guilt and shame that we often carry). Humility means that we admit that we have fallen well short of best and need grace and forgiveness. Humility means that we have come to know that life is way too complex for us to survive it, without the guiding and comforting presence of the Holy Spirit.

Humility means that we make the determination that we are NO more important than anyone else. Humility means that we won’t seek to dominate or control. Humility means deciding that serving is more important than being served. Where we continue to struggle, humility means allowing God space to work in. Humility then means that we are prepared to be seen as we are, which is an okay work-in-progress, rather than pretend to be what we are not.

Social Integrity

Verse 24 gives us a big clue as to why the people copped such a barrage as we see in verses 21-23, as well as the regrettable outcome in verse 27. Amos’ passions have been aroused. This could all been seen as a particularly brutal half-time spray. Not getting in after the ball, not picking up your opponent, creating too many turnovers – heading for a bad defeat – sorry, football talk … but there was high level passion here! And verse 24 tells us why. Verse 24 reveals a (prevalent) lack of social justice and right living.

Where God is being truly honoured, “justice” and “righteousness” should flow freely. [This might sound a little idealistic, but at least it is biblical!] On the other side, where justice and right living are ignored within community relationships, that shalom, that desirable peace and well-being, will be missing. Nations cannot expect, nor receive, God’s blessing, while they ignore justice and righteousness, and anyone is being oppressed or ignored. And there was no excuse in Amos’ time, as this was a time of economic prosperity in Israel.

However, this was also a time when power was being misappropriated! Loans were being offered to the struggling, with interest charged; leading to debilitating debts for some, and huge profits for others. The poor lost their land and were sold into slavery, while the rich felt good about themselves. Now, when it comes to responsibility for this level of oppression – whether this was deliberate behaviour, or whether people were just allowing it to go on without due critique, makes little difference! Either way, this neglects God’s covenant relationship with His people. People should be treated … the way they were designed to be treated! All people should be afforded the opportunity to participate in society with dignity.

It is the ‘fruit’ (or, the output) of our lives that indicate the seriousness of our devotion to God! Without love, our worship is just clanging symbols and noisy gongs (1 Corinthians 13:1). Why should we ever expect a blessing … if we ignore the basics of being in a relationship with God?! The lack of response to those in need is a consistent biblical theme. This might not be us … there is a whole load of caring people in worship today; but we still need to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through His Word – to say anything that needs to be heard.

From the various prophets’ call to look after the foreigner, orphan, widow and poor person, and to give hospitality to strangers … just like Boaz did in his ministry to Ruth (Ruth 2), to Jesus’ teaching about our responsibility of welcoming children (Matthew 19:14) and caring for the ‘least of these’, right through to Jesus identifying himself in the face of the hungry and thirsty – that what would we do for them and him are synonymous and inseparable (Matthew 25:40) – the Word of the Lord needs to be heard. I think the words in Deuteronomy chapter 10 (v 17-21) capture the intertwined and indivisible connection between ethics and worship:

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, ¹⁸ who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing. ¹⁹ You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. ²¹ He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen.

In the New Testament, along similar lines, James 1:27 reads:

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Repentance

God dwells wherever there is love – neighbourly love, shown especially through courageous and compassionate care for the poor. Our worship will never be ‘true’ while we act in ways inconsistent with God’s will and ways. Yet there is a remedy close at hand. We are never stuck for an answer … change is very possible. Our confession and God’s forgiveness leads to different outcomes.

Whenever the people of Israel heeded God’s words, and changed their hearts, they were brought back into a place of intimate relationship. They would again worship … with God present to bless them. This process is called ‘repentance’. And, ‘repentance’ comes from a place of humility, and leads to lives of integrity. It is a heart attuned to ongoing ‘repentance’ … that will mean a life is being transformed toward ‘true’ worship.

Conclusion

 

So, this is where, today, we need to wholly focus on Jesus – because it is Jesus who ‘fuels’ our ‘repentance’, our cleansing, our transformation – and prepares us for true worship. Jesus does this in his teaching, through the life that he lived, in his sacrifice, and through his gift to us of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, that if our worship is really to be ‘true’ – we will need to worship in ‘spirit’ and in ‘truth’. As we read in John 4:24, “God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth”. This means that God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, coheres with our ‘spirit’, so that we CAN worship in a way that is consistent with Jesus – our whole life then properly reflects the ‘truth’ about who God is.

And, it is Jesus, in his very life, who is the ‘truth’, for Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This means, that if we ‘insiders’ … want to truly worship God, we will need to allow for the change … that will see our lives wholly aligned with Jesus’ life. So it is, that ‘true’ worship centres around the sort of humility and social integrity that Jesus models, made possible on the cross, and brought to His church through the work of Holy Spirit. Let us NOT resist; let us NOT wander, let us be true instruments of worship!! It’s all about you … Jesus!! Amen!