O seer, go, flee away, Year C, Pentecost 16, Amos 6.1a, 4-7

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

It’s not profitable to be a prophet.

True prophets don’t win a lot of popularity contests.  And rarely are they welcome in the King’s courts.

Amos was one such prophet.

Later on in the book of Amos, Chapter 7, we hear this exchange between Amaziah, the Priest of Bethel, and Amos:

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom."

14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15 and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel. '”

Amos had a very unpopular message.

He preached against the economic injustice in the land of Israel.

And he warned about the judgment that was to come, the destruction of Israel and the deportation of its people. 

One of my college professors posed a question.  “Why do you suppose that we have the book of Amos in the Bible, and not the book of Amaziah?  Why, when Amos had such a harsh word of judgment against Israel and Judah, did they in the end view his words as holy, and not Amaziah?”

The answer is that truth endures.

History is the judge between false prophets and true.

A true prophet’s words stand the test of time and are validated in the events that follow.

The reason we have a book of Amos is that the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed as he said it would be.  His words proved to be true.

What does he have to say to us, today?

And were he here in our midst, would we want to listen? 

Probably not.

Prosperity is one of our gods, afterall.

Bill Clinton once famously declared, “It’s the economy, stupid!”

That’s what concerns us.  Are we doing well?

One sermon that could be preached on this text would focus on issues of economic injustice and inequality in our land, as the rich just keep getting richer and the poor, poorer.

One example:

The average wage of a McDonald’s crew member is between 8 and 9 dollars an hour.

The average profit from owning a McDonald’s franchise is one million dollars a year, per store, per location.

Some would lift that up as a prime example of the disparity in our land between rich and poor.

So there’s one sermon.

And all four of the assigned readings for today deal in some way with the issue of poverty and riches, and economic justice.  Those are hard words for people such as us who live in one of the richest nations in the world.

Many would maintain that economic justice is not an appropriate topic for the Church, in spite of the focus that the Bible has on it.

We want to hear a message about love and forgiveness, not justice and mercy for the poor.

Alas, alas, alas for us.

Another question we might ask when dealing with the prophets is “who are the prophets in our day that we should be listening to?”

There are those of us preachers who would like to think that the message we have is a prophetic voice that needs to be reckoned with. 

I mean what preacher does not in some way want to declare “Thus saith the Lord!”

But the chances are that the true prophets will not be found wearing fine robes and earning a salary and benefits package.  And rather than aspiring to be a prophet, the word they carry is most often a burden. 

Amos said, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15 and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel. '”

I think we may have one such prophet in our midst, though only time will tell.

She might say:
“I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s daughter, but I am a child, a sixteen year old girl with Asperger’s Syndrome, who has been given a word to share that the adults in this world don’t want to hear, but that they need to hear, because everything depends on it!”

I am talking about a Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg.

She began her quest to raise awareness and action on climate change by staging a strike, skipping school one day, and sitting in front of the Swedish Parliament building.

That simple act, and her message has ignited a movement, both of those inspired by her and who share her concerns about our earth, and also of those who hold disdain for all talk of climate change.

Whereas last year she sat alone outside the parliament, this year millions around the world joined her climate strike.

And she spoke at the United Nations.  Here are a few of her words:

"My message is that we'll be watching you.

"This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!

"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!

"For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.

"You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe. . .

"You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.

"We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.

"Thank you."

Is Greta Thunberg, the great grandchild of a well respected Lutheran pastor and teacher from Sweden, a prophet in her own right?  Is her calling to bring to us a message of warning, that we refused to listen to when it was Al Gore carrying that message.

Time will tell.

History will be the judge.

The risk for us all, though, is that we are dealing with serious consequences if the entire globe on which we live is at risk.

There is another issue regarding climate change that resonates with Amos’ prophecy.

Climate change is also an issue of economic justice.

This is the issue:

The poor, who contribute the least toward global warming, will suffer the most, while the rich who consume most of the fossil fuels that result in the warming of our planet, will suffer the least. That’s troubling.

I have firsthand experience with that.

My employer provides the cabinetry for an ocean front development in the Bahamas.  These homes range in value from a few million, to 20 to 30 million dollars.

They were hit hard by Hurricane Dorian, that category 5 hurricane.

But they were not the ones that are truly suffering.

People who can afford to build a 20 million dollar home, can afford to rebuild it.

It’s the poor people on the island that lost their lives and homes, and livelihoods.

The poor are also the most vulnerable to climate change.

Others will suffer as well.  I talked with a farmer back in my home town of Wessington Springs lately.  “How’s it going?” I asked.

“Well, if the rains would just stop.  .  .”

Climate change is affecting the weather in the Midwest, the bread basket of our country, and in turn, the productivity of the land.

But why talk about such things in Church?

The reason is simple:  God cares about our lives and our well being.

God created this world, and God cares for this world, and God has given us dominion over this world.

It’s a God thing to be concerned, then, about the health of this world. 

A few final thoughts:

I don’t know all the answers.

But I know I am part of the problem.

I also know, that all those windmills that dot the landscape across eastern Washington are not causing me to suffer, but are part of the solution to global warming.

I know that I need to repent.  And to do my part to improve the world in which I live.

I also know that the Church has obsessed over many things.  But perhaps nothing is more important than the health of our planet.

And finally, this may be the one thing that we are judged on, both by history and by God, for so much is at stake.

Is Greta Thunberg a real prophet, or a false prophet?

If what she says is true, we damn well better listen because the future of the world depends on it.

If not, what harm will have been done if we have devoted time and energy to development of clean energy and healthy environments?

That’s the thing.  We can care for the planet that God has created, and still thrive.  If fact, our wellbeing and the planet’s wellbeing go hand in hand.

To care for the world in which we live, will in the end, benefit those of us who live in this world.

Amen

"A Dog’s Life", Year B, Pentecost 16, Mark 7.24-37

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

“Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

There are some statements of Jesus that just seem out of character.

This is one of them.

An immediate response is to hear Jesus calling this woman, a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin, a dog, and to find this offensive.  I don’t know if being called a dog, in Jesus’ day, was as much as a put down as it is in our day, but I suspect it was. 

Did Jesus put her down because she was a woman?  Or a Gentile?  Or Both.

“And really, Jesus,” we ask, “couldn’t you be nicer?”

A few  words of background.

Jesus had withdrawn into the Region of Tyre hoping that nobody would know he was there, and apparently seeking some down time, a time to rest from all that he was doing.

But even there, in the region to the north of Israel, in today’s Lebanon, Jesus is known and he could not escape notice.

This woman was one of the locals.

The second thing, is that the word Jesus uses for ‘dog’ is actually diminutive, which would mean, likely, puppy.

I don’t know if that lessens the impact of what Jesus was saying, namely that the children get fed first and then, the puppies, but it definitely sounds better than Jesus calling this woman a dog.

But beyond our concern that Jesus would call this woman a dog, there is an image of something any dog owner has seen, time and time again.

We have a dog, Kinzie, a very lively labradoodle.

And we have our grandson, Jasper, a delightful little child, the joy of our life.

One of the things about children and dogs is they have a special relationship at the table.

The dog’s favorite place is at the children’s feet.

Every crumb that falls is quickly gobbled up. 

And then, children delight in this, often throwing morsels of food to the puppy, much to the chagrin of their parents.  And of course, the dog delights in this even more than the child.

Jesus sounds like the mother, here.  “No, don’t throw your food to the dog.  That’s for you!  Eat it.”

But we all know, children will drop the crumbs off their plate for the dogs, and the dogs will eagerly eat every morsel that falls their way.

We’ve all seen that played out, time and time again.

That’s the image I’d like for you to consider, this morning.

Not that Jesus is referring to a woman, or a Greek, as a dog, but the relationship of sheer delight between the child and the dog in this scenario. 

Pure grace.

I say that because the dog, in this example, knows, really knows, that they are getting something that they are not supposed to. 

In our own house, there is a certain irritation that no matter how hard we try, Kinzie, the dog, will not go away.  Given the chance, she will always be right there lapping up the crumbs.

Grace:  receiving a gift that we don’t deserve, but which comes to us, nevertheless.

“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

It is reported that Martin Luther’s last words were “We are beggars, this is true.”

All of us are like dogs, begging for any morsel of food that might fall our way from the master’s table.  And if we’re lucky, there’s a child at the table willingly dropping those crumbs for us.

At the risk of pushing this metaphor too far, what if Jesus is not the master in the tale, but the child?

The child who delights in throwing those morsels and crumbs to the dogs eagerly waiting below.

”Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.”

From that place, in the Region of Tyre, Jesus went on to the Decapolis, another Greek region, and there too he healed, this time a deaf person with an impediment in his speech, as most deaf people do.

More crumbs from the Master’s table.

Grace.

And then in the next passage in Mark’s Gospel Jesus is at it again, feeding 4,000 people with a few loaves of bread, seven loaves Mark says, and after everyone had eaten, they gathered up seven baskets full of crumbs.

More crumbs from the Master’s table.

An abundance of crumbs.

There’s one other thing I think about this image of children, crumbs, and the dogs below.

No child has ever starved to death, because of the crumbs that fell to the dogs below.

There is an abundance of grace.

Now if you listen to the parents, and how they chastise the child for throwing their food to the dogs, you’d think that there is simply not enough food for both.  But, there is always enough.

We have this tendency to live with a mindset of scarcity.

Our sinful side tends to believe that if we don’t hoard what we have, we won’t have enough.

That’s not how grace works.

Grace is about God’s abundance.

One of my memories from childhood is about hoboes. 

These men, homeless, would travel from community to community, and would come to the back door of a home, knock, and ask if they could have anything to eat.  Often, they’d even offer to do some task to earn the meal.

Noone ever starved because they shared a meal with a hobo.

One of the things hoboes did was to mark houses.  Somewhere, visible from the alleys they traveled down, they’d put a mark indicating that this was a house where they had received a meal.  Then, other hoboes would know that they would also be able to get a meal there.

Grace is about abundance.

Grace is “one beggar telling another where to find bread.”

What is this story about Jesus really about?

Is it about Jesus being uncharacteristically rude, and politically incorrect, calling this Gentile woman a dog?

Or is it about grace, and each of us being beggars dependent on the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table?

I think the latter.

And I love the thought that Jesus, as God’s son, is like the child who delights in dropping morsels of food to the dogs below.

And then there is the image of communion.

A little bread, a crumb.

A few drops of wine.

This is my body, this is my blood, given and shed for you.

And we like puppies, kneel below the table eagerly waiting for the morsels to fall from the Master’s table.

Martin Luther, in his small catechism explains that all that is required to receive communion is a simple faith that these words, ‘for you’, mean us. 

This is my body, this is my blood, given and shed “for you” for the remission of sins.

Do you believe that indeed, Christ’s gifts are for you?

As I think more about this image of dogs at their master’s table, I think about faith, and a dog’s understanding of ‘for you’.

One of the unwritten rules that governs this scene of dog’s eating the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table is that the food that falls to the dogs on the floor is ‘for them’.

Our dog knows that the food on the table is not free for the taking.  And she’s been good about that.

But food on the floor is for her, whether it’s in her dish, or below Jasper’s chair.

A dog understands “for you”. 

Crumbs from the master’s table.

Given and shed “for you”.

It’s a simple concept, but one we get so wrong so much of the time.

Going back to the story of Jesus and this woman, one of the immediate ways of interpreting it is that Jesus sees his mission as being to the children of Israel, and not to foreigners, or possibly, not even to women.

That’s our human sinfulness.

We like to make rules about who is worthy of God’s grace.

Who is welcome at the Lord’s Table?

When we do that, we tend to think of ourselves as the honored guests with a place at the table.

And in our human sinfulness we look at other’s as being unworthy, and not welcome. 

I will leave you with another image.

If we are actually like dogs devouring the crumbs from our Master’s table, what dog is not welcome??

The thing about grace is that there is more than enough for all.

Race doesn’t matter.

Gender doesn’t matter.

Sexuality doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been a ‘faithful’ one all your life, or if your story is like the prodigal Son.

It doesn’t matter who you are.

It doesn’t matter how much you know.

It doesn’t matter how good you are.

We are all dogs below the Master’s table, eating the crumbs that fall from the Child’s plate.

That’s grace.

Amen