Sunday 20th July 2025
Amos 8: 1-12
Psalm 52
Colossians 1: 15-28
St. Luke 10: 38-42
“The end has come upon my people Israel.” Amos 8: 2
Would you like to hear a really terrible joke?…
- Did you hear about the new corduroy pillowcases?
- They’re really making headlines.
The joke works in the English language, because there’s a parallel between newspaper “headlines,” and the lines which can develop on our skin (say, on our face), when we rest on ribbed fabric – like corduroy…
But what if we tried to tell that joke in the French language, it would fall flat. Someone, please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe “corduroy” in French is “ velours côtelé.” A newspaper headline is “le titre.” That pun or play on words doesn’t work in different languages…
Now, the reason I share this is not because I want to share a really, really bad pun…
Instead, I want to make a point about “prophecy” in the Old Testament…
We understand prophets had a message from God to communicate to God’s people. Sometimes prophecies were about the future. Sometimes, the prophecies were about God’s people needing to change their ways in the present – right now…
It seems that sometimes a prophet would see a very ordinary item, and it would become an important spiritual lesson… The natural item helped a prophet discern a super-natural truth…
(Now, God has given all kinds of gifts to God’s people. In the event that God has revealed something to you to share to others, my counsel is to follow good order, and share it with lay or ordained leadership in the Church. If this is indeed a message from God, then it’s appropriate to share – always being motivated by love… However, we don’t focus on the material thing around us – the focus needs to be on how we are being pointed toward God…)
Today’s first reading is from the prophet Amos, chapter 8. A basket of summer fruit comes to the prophet’s mind. In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament, it’s “qayits.” Then God reveals a concluding judgement on his people. In Hebrew, that’s “qets.” “Qayits” and “qets” sound very similar in Hebrew…
When we read Amos 8: 2 in English translation, we can easily be puzzled. What on earth is the significance of a fruit basket? How do we get from a fruit basket, to God’s final judgment?… It’s understandably puzzling to us!… In the original language, it’s a kind of word play: A natural thing is being used by God to reveal a super-natural truth to the prophet…
It’s not only in the Book of Amos that we see these natural items revealing a super-natural truth… The prophet Jeremiah uses wine to show the obedience of the Rechabites; the prophet Zechariah sees a measuring line to see God’s glory in the city of Jerusalem; and so on… Particularly in the Old Testament, God sometimes uses ordinary things to reveal a supernatural truth… Sometimes, these come across as kind of word plays, which can’t be translated easily into English…
Let’s notice that throughout the scriptures – and throughout the history of the Church among the great people of faith, saints of every persuasion – God is regularly trying to get people’s attention… God is always calling us home; communicating to us by the Spirit of his Son, so that hard hearts will be turned, so that we may be inflamed with God’s priorities in our lives, so that we will walk together in joyful obedience along the narrow path that leads to eternal life…
God is always aiming to communicate with us. The canon of scripture is a key way for God to reveal his priorities and our responses – but the Bible is not the only way God reveals himself… God is constantly trying to get our attention! – persistently; graciously; lovingly; faithfully…
Our problem, I strongly suspect, is that we are all too often a bit deaf… We get caught up in the everyday – even in pursuits which dull our focus and distract us from the priorities of eternity… My plea for us all – and I certainly include myself, as well as you – is that we seek to be open to the direction of God, even in the ordinary world we inhabit day by day…
So, our God is a communicative God. After all, the Prologue of John calls God the Son the “Word…” When we are open to God’s revealing word, we need to take heed what is being revealed to us… Through the prophet Amos, God has harsh words for his people. They have been outwardly religious, but it was an immoral society, and full of injustice…
When there are poor around us; when we fail to be good stewards of the land; when we are frequently drunk; when we are no longer honouring the marriage bed; when we are pursuing our own interests while trampling on others so they are crushed in spirit – Amos reveals, this brings about the wrath of the Lord…
God doesn’t want us to be broken and miserable. He wants to make us great, and to enjoy the life which never ends. God’s messages for us are holy and life-giving… May we pay attention, and then live in response – for our eternal good, and for God’s greater glory. Amen.