Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (OT)

Amos 8:1-14

This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. ² And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,

       “The end has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them.

³    The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”

declares the Lord God.

       “So many dead bodies!”

       “They are thrown everywhere!”

       “Silence!”

⁴    Hear this, you who trample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land to an end,

⁵    saying, “When will the new moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

       And the Sabbath,

that we may offer wheat for sale,

       that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great

and deal deceitfully with false balances,

⁶    that we may buy the poor for silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

⁷    The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

       “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

⁸    Shall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who dwells in it,

       and all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

⁹    “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,

“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

¹⁰    I will turn your feasts into mourning

and all your songs into lamentation;

       I will bring sackcloth on every waist

and baldness on every head;

       I will make it like the mourning for an only son

and the end of it like a bitter day.

¹¹    “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,

“when I will send a famine on the land—

       not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the Lord.

¹²    They shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

       they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,

but they shall not find it.

¹³    “In that day the lovely virgins and the young men

shall faint for thirst.

¹⁴    Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria,

and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’

       and, ‘As the Way of Beersheba lives,’

they shall fall, and never rise again.”

God surely threatens (and fulfills) the people with a picture of dead bodies everywhere. God has seen the way they treat his holy day. People are just waiting for the new week to begin so they can sell their goods. This concept is lost in a day, when most stores are opened on Sunday and Saturday. They are more concerned about having midweek sale prices or discounts to get people through the door.

Big Business pushes people through the work week, even factories no longer shut down on the weekend. Restaurants long for the weekend, and small shops look to the weekend to bolster sales. But everyone's mind is on their pocket book. They are concerned about making enough during the week for a little extra beer money on the weekend.

This extra beer money turns into bankruptcy and debt. The back breaking labor during the week, that turns into sore muscles and knee replacement, even heart disease. We see the effects of our life style. This is not to say a Pastor or church worker who devotes himself to bible study, devotions, and church activities can't have the same problems. He is still devoted to work.

Rather enjoy work, don't labor at it. Enjoy time of rest, and give thanks to God. Do not rush through your next meal, but pray for everyone you know, or can think of. Make sure that when you are at church, be at church and not thinking of all the things still to do later in the day or week. When we fail, open your ears, to hear the word of forgiveness. Christ has died for all your sins, and he continues to be with you whether you recognize him or not.