Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Old Testament, Amos 6:1-7                        

Amos 6:1-7 

Amos the prophet is a tough read. Amos is honest. Amos proclaimed the Word of the Lord eight centuries before the first advent of Jesus. EIGHT! We need to grapple with numbers like that, if for no other reason than to realize the more things change, the more they stay the same. Mankind has a heart issue.

Twice in our Old Testament reading for the week Amos declares, “Woe to you.” First, “Woe to you who are at ease in Zion and trust in Mount Samaria” (v.1). While the focus of Amos preaching was primarily the northern kingdom of Israel, here he takes aim at both north and south. Zion (Judah) and Mount Samaria (Israel). And the corruption lies in pretended worship. He names the places where the people have put their trust and their crime is “ease.” In other words, they are lazy, and most likely lazy in the act of worship. Material gain, leisure, and arrogance drives this lot. And neither their acts, nor the hearts from which they come escape the notice of the Lord.

The second woe comes, “Woe to you who put far off the day of doom” (v. 3). Denial of the inevitable. While they go on with their religious gaming, they mistakenly believe there is no accounting. They think they will never see the anger of the Lord.

Lazy worship and holding on to a god who really has no “teeth.” Dangerous ground. Dangerous because their choices deny what is already known and what has already been declared as the Word of the Lord. 

Amos the prophet is a tough read. Amos is honest. Amos makes me tremble.