WHOSE AGENDA?
Amos 7:7-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29
7th Sunday after Pentecost — July 11, 2021
Pastor Ritva H Williams
Have you ever wondered who decides what Bible passages are read in church each Sunday? Maybe? Maybe not? Too bad. I’m going to tell you anyway. See there’s this thing called the Revised Common Lectionary. It is a collaborative project of English speaking churches around the world, including Roman Catholics, Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, and other Protestant denominations. The Revised Common Lectionary sets out a three year cycle of scripture readings for every Sunday. Each week the majority of English speaking Christians in world are exposed to more or less the same scriptures. Preachers can choose to focus on one or more of four scriptures: a passage from the Old Testament, a psalm, a New Testament letter, and a gospel. We trust that the team that put together the Revised Common Lectionary was guided and directed by Holy Spirit, even when it presents us with challenging Bible passages like the ones we before this morning.
In our Old Testament reading we meet Amos, a herdsman and arborist, a native of the southern kingdom of Judah, visiting the sanctuary of Bethel in the northern kingdom of Israel. Amos’ message is direct and uncompromising: God is fed up with Israel’s ruling elite and upper classes because
“They buy and sell upstanding people. People for them are only things — ways of making money. They’d sell a poor man for a pair of shoes … They grind the penniless into the dirt, and shove the luckless into the ditch … Stuff they’ve extorted from the poor is piled up in the shrine of their god, while they sit around drinking wine they’ve conned from their victims” (Amos 2:6-8, The Message).
Amos accuses Israel’s leaders of being lazy, pampered and selfish, mean to the poor, cruel to the down-and-out (4:1), turning justice into vinegar, stomping righteousness into the mud (5:7), running roughshod over the poor, taking the bread right out of their mouths (5:10), bullying and taking bribes (5:12).
In a visionary experience, Amos receives the divine verdict. He sees the Lord standing beside a wall holding a plumb line. God declares, “I’ve hung a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I’ve spared them for the last time time.”
In this morning’s reading we see how Amos’ message of social justice was received. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, alerts the king that Amos is conspiring against him. He orders Amos to return to Judah, saying he has no business prophesying at Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary and the kingdom’s temple. Bethel literally means “house of God” but only messages affirming king and nation will be permitted to be spoken in God’s house. Whose agenda is Amaziah the priest following?
In our Gospel lesson, we jump ahead 800 years to the time of Jesus. His whose fame is growing, his name is becoming known even in the halls of power. The gospel writer gives us a glimpse into the mind of Herod Antipas, the governor Galilee, son of son of Herod the Great who ordered the massacre of the children of Bethlehem and other atrocities. Herod Antipas is convinced that Jesus is John the Baptist come back to life. Herod remembers how John called him out for marrying Herodias, his sister-in-law and step-niece. Herod both feared and respected his accuser. Herodias was insulted, enraged, and wanted John dead. To please his wife, Herod had John arrested and jailed under protective custody where he could enjoy listening to him. But Herodias was not satisfied. At a state dinner their young daughter danced and dazzled the guests so much Herod promised her whatever she wanted. Guided by her mother, the girl asked for John’s head on a platter. Publicly out maneuvered and trapped by his oath Herod orders John’s execution. Now he fears that John the Baptist has come back to haunt him in the person of Jesus.
Although there is no good news in Herod’s story, there are lessons to be learned especially when paired with our reading from Amos. In both cases, a prophet calls out rulers and governing elites for injustice and immorality. In both the cases the prophet’s message is not well received. Amos is accused of conspiring against the king at Bethel, the house of God, whose priest insists it is the sanctuary of king and country. Political agendas take priority over loyalty to God. John the Baptist is murdered in the midst of a birthday party on the orders of a ruler manipulated by their royal spouse who exploits their child to do so. Purely personal, selfish agendas create a highly dysfunctional family that, in total disregard for God’s laws, destroys those who cross them.
Pastor John van de Laar sees three questions emerging from these scripture readings: How do we use power? How do we speak truth to power? What do we do when we are both “power” and “prophet”? (sacredise.com)
Priests like Amaziah are not supposed to use their power to promote the king’s agenda when it is in opposition to God’s agenda. Rulers like Herod and Herodias are not supposed to use their power to promote their own personal agendas in violation of the law. God wants people in power to be held accountable to God’s standards. When rulers and leaders don’t live up to God’s standards, God sends prophets to call them out. The challenge Christ-followers today is that all of us have power and all of us are called to be prophets. Each one of us has power in some situations whether at home, school or work, in our neighborhood, community and country. At times each one of us may be called to challenge those who have power over us. This is made clear in our reading from Ephesians.
Writing in the name of the apostle Paul, the author of this letter reminds us that God has blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing, chosen us in Christ to be made whole and holy by his love, and decided to adopt us into God’s family through Jesus Christ. In Christ we are redeemed, forgiven, free. In Christ we have obtained an inheritance. We have been marked signed, sealed and delivered by the Holy Spirit as a first installment of that inheritance. Why? To empower us to praise and celebrate God’s freely given grace. To empower us to live for the praise of God’s glory. To empower us to praise God, and to give glory to God.
I have summed up this message many times along the following lines: each one of us is a beloved child of God, created in God’s image with gifts, talents and strengths to make a positive contribution to the worlds in which we live. Yes we all have power. But what do we use it for? Our agenda or God’s agenda? Yes we are all capable of calling out those in authority over us? But what we call them out for? Our agenda or God’s agenda?
Please pray with me in this words borrowed and adapted from Pastor John van de Laar (sacredise.com)
We like our agendas, Jesus,
we like to set priorities and plan outcomes;
and we want the world to follow.
But, too often our agendas are not yours;
and that can’t be good for us or for our world.
So we pray, that your agenda would prevail
in our hearts, in our words, in our priorities,
in our relationships, in our actions.
May our world be captured by the beauty and gracethat flow from your purposes;
wherever there is violence, wherever there is division,
wherever there is disease, wherever there is need,
wherever there is grief, wherever there is despair,
may human experience be shaped
by your awesome, creative, grace, mercy and love.
Amen.
