Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen
Is there anyone
in our land capable of speaking truth to power?
Or has truth
itself fallen victim to appeasement?
Have we come to the point that all that matters is that we tell people
what they want to hear?
“What is truth?” Pilate asked Jesus.
“What is truth?”
Instinctively, I
think we know what we are doing.
Within the
political realm, and throughout the news organizations of our day, we sell as
truth what is purely bias.
We know, don’t
we, that we will hear one thing if we listen to MSNBC, and quite another if we
listen to FOX. So we tune into that
which we want to hear.
Who will speak
truth to power?
When I ask that
question, one way to hear it is “Who will speak the truth to our politicians?”
But this is a
land in which the government is not one person who holds the reign of power.
Abraham Lincoln
said it best when he concluded the Gettysburg Address with the words:
“and that government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
If Lincoln’s
words are true, that ours is a government by the people, for the people, and of
the people, then the question is who will speak the truth to the people?
The problem with
democracy is that people hear what they want to hear, and believe what they
want to believe, and rarely does anyone concern themselves with the question of
truth.
We know our bias,
and embrace it, but will we listen to the truth when it is spoken?
Even if it is God
who speaks that word of truth?
Case in point:
One example.
Scientists are
alarmed at the rate at which the world is warming, and the melting of the polar
ice caps. They warn of a drastic rise in
the sea levels, and other calamities of nature that will result. Of this there is almost universal agreement
among scientists.
Now when we hear
that, we are divided. We see it as a matter
of bias, and believe what we want to believe, and are content with that.
But truth is
truth.
Either the ice is
melting or it is not.
Either the oceans
are rising or they are not.
Will it take
Miami being underwater for us to recognize this truth?
Will we heed the
words of the prophets in our midst? Or
for that matter will it be the scientists themselves that will look like fools
in the end?
This is not a new
problem.
Prophets have
never been welcome.
In our Gospel
lesson John the Baptist is beheaded.
Herod had thrown him into prison because John had spoken the truth to
Herod, a word of judgment against him.
And yet Herod had
grown somewhat fond of John.
Mark tells us
that “Herod feared John, knowing that he
was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was
greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him.”
I’d suggest to
you that Herod was attracted to John, because at a very deep level, he recognized
that John spoke a word of integrity, of truth, God’s word.
And even though
John’s words were sometimes against Herod, himself, Herod found the truth to be
somewhat satisfying.
When you’re
surrounded by “Yes men” having someone who speaks the truth can be refreshing.
Yet that did not
prevent Herod from beheading John in the end, for his wife was not fond at all
about hearing John speak the truth.
Amos is another prophet
who spoke the truth.
His word was not
welcome.
Amaziah, the “King’s
prophet”, the preacher who the king liked to hear, said to Amos:
"O seer, go, flee away to the land of
Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at
Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the
kingdom."
It is a temple of
the kingdom. Civil religion.
One of the rules
of civil religion is that you tell the people what they want to hear, not what
they need to hear.
In our country,
the civil religion that we all adhere to in one way or another is best
expressed in the simple phrase: “God bless America.”
Likewise, we
outright reject the words of anyone who speaks otherwise. For example, when Pastor Jeremiah Wright,
Obama’s pastor for some twenty years, used the phrase “God damns America” to
express the judgment of God against our sinfulness, there was outrage across
the nation, and even Obama had to severe his ties with Wright.
Wright had
violated one of the tenants of American Civil religion, namely that “God
blesses America”, by suggesting that God was judging America for its sins.
Amos answered
Amaziah: "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a
dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and
the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel. '
The word Amos prophesied
was hard for Israel to hear:
Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for
four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for
silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals—
7 they who trample the head of the poor into
the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way;
And again Amos
writes:
Take away from me the noise of your songs; I
will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-
flowing stream.
A prophet, a true
prophet, speaks the truth to power, and most often is rejected. It’s hard to make a living as a prophet. You are more likely to get fired or killed.
Amos’ word that
he spoke to Israel was one that called for justice and righteousness,
especially for the sake of the poor in the land.
More than any
other theme in the Bible, God’s concern for the poor and outcast is one that
the prophets constantly return to.
It’s a word that
the rich and powerful in Israel refused to listen to, and the result, according
to the prophets, was the demise of the nation.
The Kingdom which
they thought would last forever was destroyed and its people taken into
captivity.
If “God bless
America” is one tenant of American Civil religion, “It’s the economy, stupid!”
is another.
In other words,
we understand God’s blessing of America in terms of economic prosperity.
To an extent, I
think we are all guilty here.
I know I am.
Many of you know,
for example, that I am not one of Donald Trump’s biggest fans. I didn’t like him as a reality TV star, and I
certainly don’t like him as a president.
But you know what
I do a lot, these days.
I check the stock
market. I have a pension, and so I watch
the stock market.
And you know what
will really make me happy in the end?
I’d be delighted
if the stock market rose another 20 to 25% by the time I retired.
The most
difficult question for me to ask myself in this regard pertains to this:
I’m sixty one,
and most likely won’t retire fully until 70.
Eight years. Trump maybe
president for 6 more of those years.
What will concern
me the most?
Will the way we
treat the poor, or the immigrant, or minorities, or any other group really
matter?
Or will
everything be cool if I can retire comfortably?
American civil
religion is all about God blessing America with prosperity.
And to a degree,
most of us buy into that.
But who are the
prophets in our midst?
Are there people
like John the Baptist whose call to repentance would prepare the way of the
Lord?
Are there people
like Amos, not a religious professional by any means, but a herdsman, and a
dresser of sycamore trees that was called to speak the truth to power?
Many a pastor
would fancy themselves to be a prophet.
I mean, after all,
we are called to speak God’s Word, are we not?
You’d probably be
concerned about my humility if I began every sermon with “Thus saith the Lord.
. .” but at the same time, we believe that pastors should not be speaking
anything but God’s word. Kind of a
tension there.
Yet we are kind
of like Amaziah. We are paid
prophets. And that means that we are
hesitant to speak the truth, because, among other things, we are concerned
about our pay checks and the status of our pension account.
But the truth is
the truth. It’s not a matter of personal
bias.
God is either
concerned for the poor, and for justice and righteousness, or he is not.
God’s will
matters. Or it does not.
Will we heed the
words of the prophets God sends to us or will we ignore them?
And if we hear
God’s word, we will act according to it?
It’s this last
question that is the most difficult.
I may believe
that global warming is as dire as they say, but does that belief change the way
I live?
I may believe
that God’s concern is for justice and righteousness for the poor, but does that
affect my own pension account and checkbook?
I may believe
that God speaks a word of judgment to his people from time to time, but will I
hear that word of judgment as a word spoken to me, and will I repent?
When we hear God’s
word, are we willing to consider changing our lives to conform to it?
That’s the
question.
Belief apart from
action is rather meaningless.
And yet to continue
to do the same thing and expect a different result is insanity.
If we want to
experience the blessings of God we need to conform our lives to his will.
Otherwise it will
be a word of judgment that we hear from the likes of Amos or John.
And that’s a word
we don’t want to hear, none of us.
Amen
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