Whose Sanctuary?

Ordinary Time XV; July 15, 2007

Amos 7:7-17

It’s almost more temptation than the preacher can resist: the priest at Bethel tells the prophet to go away and stop proclaiming the word of God at the Temple, because “it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.” (v. 13) What a great opening to start ranting, “Whose sanctuary? This isn’t the Lord’s sanctuary, but the king’s sanctuary?” It sets some bells ringing in my head: T. S. Eliot’s play Murder in the Cathedral, at the end of which the actors playing the conspirators talk about the necessity for the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket. After all, he was interfering with the government’s prerogative over religion. Another bell: Hitler’s consolidation of German Christianity under his nationalistic banner and the resistance by those Christians who agreed to the Barmen Declaration. A third, more hopeful, bell: the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which begins, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Amaziah’s protest to the prophet provides a pretext for a rant about Church and State, attempts to replace loyalty to God with loyalty to the nation, and so forth. You might enjoy that, since most of you have never seen me turn red in the face and get hot under the collar. Even if what I said disagreed with what you think, you would at least have a good time.

But the Holy Spirit has convinced me that that is not the best use of the preaching time this morning. Although less exciting, it is more respectful of you to amplify the Scripture for your understanding and enjoyment and allow you to draw your own conclusions. Most of this may sound more like a Bible school lesson than a sermon, but it is necessary for you to be able to understand the story I just read to you. That way you can use your insight and imagination to apply it to your lives and to our life together.

The Biblical nation that we think of as Israel was actually two kingdoms, one in the northern part of the territory and one in the southern. The northern kingdom is traditionally called “Israel” and the southern kingdom “Judah.” Sometimes, just so we don’t confuse this northern kingdom Israel with the whole people of Israel, we call the northern kingdom “Samaria” or “Ephraim,” but since Amos calls it Israel then I will call it Israel. Just realize that when Amos says “Israel,” he is not talking about the entire Hebrew people, but just the northern kingdom.

For over a century Israel and Judah were united as one kingdom, during the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon (ca. 1051 – 931 B.C.). After Solomon’s death, they reverted to their former status as two different countries and continued that way for the rest of their history. But they had a single religion, the worship of the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For centuries the worship of the Lord had been decentralized, but as part of his campaign to unify the country and create a strong power center, David unified the worship of the Lord in Jerusalem. Before the kingdoms split, they were accustomed to thinking of Jerusalem as both the religious and political center.

So the first king of Israel, Jeroboam I, had a problem. Although he easily established his capital in the central city of Samaria, he could not have his people traveling to Jerusalem to worship. Israel and Judah were not enemies; from time to time they fought each other, but for most of their history they were allies. But Jeroboam I did not want his people having any allegiance to a foreign city or having to leave the country to worship the Lord. So he hit upon a solution: he built two new temples, one at the north end of his country in the city of Dan and one in the south in the city of Bethel. Bethel had been a religious center for a very long time: that was the place where Jacob had his dream of the ladder to heaven and he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place!” He was the one who named the place Bethel, which means “the house of God.” So Jeroboam was simply turning to ancient tradition when he built a temple at Bethel.

Now, the story of Amos is about 175 years later. Another Jeroboam is king and to prevent confusion, biblical scholars usually call him Jeroboam II. Amaziah is the king’s priest at Bethel.

The presentation Bible I was given in third grade summarizes the reign of every ruler of Israel and Judah with one word: either “good” or “evil.” It says Jeroboam II was “evil.” That doesn’t begin to give you a full picture, however. For a long time, a great power had been growing in the north, the Assyrian Empire. It had been swallowing smaller kingdoms on a regular basis and making hash of their national traditions and identities. About fifty years before Amos, they had conquered the neighboring country of Syria, which turned out to be a good thing for Israel. In their last border skirmish – does this sound familiar? – Israel had lost some cities to Syria, so after the Assyrians destroyed Damascus Israel seized the opportunity and took them back, and a little more land besides. Fortunately, the Assyrian Emperor died, and was succeeded by weaker rulers, so Israel was left alone.

And the economy boomed. The major trade route between Egypt and the Fertile Crescent went right through Israel, so Israel controlled who could carry goods through the country and what sort of taxes they paid. Plus the merchant class in Israel grew amazingly wealthy: suddenly the middle class had as much money as the aristocracy. They started buying up land from poor farmers, who found themselves dispossessed and homeless, and the merchants built themselves great estates. For those with land, businesses or titles, the reign of Jeroboam II was party time.

This was obviously a sign of God’s favor. Right? When things go well for you, it is because God is favoring you. Well, that’s what the TV preachers say. That’s nothing new; the priests at Bethel and Dan were no doubt saying that to the good people of Israel as they showed up at the temples with their tithes and offerings, giving thanks to the Lord and his servant Jeroboam II. Too bad about all those poor people; if they would just work harder, surely the Lord would favor them too.

Anyway, that’s the setting for the story. Read the book of Amos and see what he has to say: he calls the merchant class “cows of Bashan” (4:1) and says that the Lord will judge Israel for its neglect of the poor. In particular, God will destroy the House of Jehu – Jeroboam’s family, that is – as well as the priesthood of Bethel and Dan and, by the way, the whole country. It took about another forty years, but the Assyrians found their strength again and destroyed the Kingdom of Israel, erasing it from the map and from history. What we think of as Israel now is actually the remnant of Judah.

The priest Amaziah protests – and rightly – that the temple is the preserve of the King and exists to support the nation. He does not forbid Amos from speaking, just that the prophet should not say such things in the temple. You’re not allowed to criticize the nation or the government in the temple.

Well, one of the commentators points out that not every person who denounces the institutions of religion and State is necessarily a prophet; that person might just be a crank. In fact, you cannot know that such a person is actually speaking on behalf of God until much later, when you see whether warnings come true. It makes prophecy a risky business; you have faith that what you are saying really was revealed to you by God. Amos’ vision of the plumb-bob may well have been a bad dream, rather than a revelation, and then where would he be for his denunciations of the government? To top it off, Amos was a foreigner; he was not from Israel, but from Judah, and who likes to have foreigners come in, announce the judgment of God on your country, your country’s prosperity, and your country’s government, and do so right in front of the national cathedral?

That’s the story, but why bother with all this? Don’t give me, “It’s in the Bible,” because that’s just circular reasoning. It’s in the Bible because it’s worth dealing with, and for two reasons. One: it happened. If Amaziah had been right and Amos had no business saying what he did, then Amos’ words would not be in the Bible. God was judging Israel, because the government’s policies favored the increased concentration of wealth in the hands of merchants and aristocracy, destroying the traditional dispersed wealth that used to prevail. God was also judging Israel for presuming to create its own national religious practices, rather than remaining true to the decrees of God, simply to bolster the kingdom’s political position. About the year 722 B.C. – 25 to 50 years after Amos – the Assyrians destroyed Israel, just as Amos had warned. He was right.

But that’s still not enough reason for our lectionary to trouble us with the story this morning. The words of the prophets are not in the Bible simply because they were right and – oh, isn’t it interesting to see what God did 2800 years ago? The words of the prophets are in the Bible because they continue to reflect the wishes and expectations of God with respect to his people. We mostly don’t have nations organized along religious lines any more – and I thank God and the Framers of the Constitution for the First Amendment – but God still expects his people to pay more attention to the words of the prophets than we do to the pretensions of nations or the policies of governments, including our own.

Amos’ words are still the Word of God to the people of God: “I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people.” How do we measure up?

That would be a good place to stop, a good, strong ending. But I have to conclude with another thought, something more encouraging. For all the doom and judgment in Amos’ book, even he has his moments of comfort and encouragement. Let’s go back to the first question: Whose sanctuary? Remember that you are God’s Church. We all have other loyalties and we all juggle our loyalties to family, to work, to church, to nation, to friends and others as well. Where it really matters, sisters and brothers, you and I belong to God. It is the Lord’s sanctuary, this building and every house of worship is the Lord’s temple, you and I are the Lord’s temples, thanks to the work of Jesus Christ. You folks of Trinity Presbyterian Church, whose minister is leaving you in a few weeks while you continue to seek a called pastor, always remember: You are God’s Church. God has looked after you for a very long time and God will continue to look after you.

Jeroboam and his clones can try to bolster their political position by using religion; there will always be clergy like Amaziah who think the temple belongs to the nation and nobody should ever denounce government policy, especially no foreigner. They are in the Bible only to be scorned by the Word of God, in the words of his servant Amos, who reminds us: it is the Lord’s sanctuary; it is the temple of God.

Sovereign God, in Jesus Christ you have made us your people and made us living temples of your Holy Spirit. Give us grace to be true, by the plumb line you have given us, Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Robert A. Keefer

Trinity and Westminster Presbyterian Churches

Clarinda, Iowa