Sermon Cloud

September 21, 2008

Amos 8:4-12 Family Trait #4- Social Justice

            This passage is obviously about the neglect and abuse of the poor by God’s covenant people.  Their failures illustrate our final family trait: concern for social justice.  Imbedded in our desire to contribute to social justice is a passion for crossing over cultures.  We talk quite a bit about the cross cultural part of this trait, but we will mostly look at the social justice issue by itself. To start, I want for us to think about the approaches over the past 100 years that the church has taken with the poor. 

1.  The conservative “spiritual only” approach.  The thing that defines outreach is evangelism.  There is not much, if any, social ministry…unless it is connected to an explicit gospel presentation (think of the soup kitchens that you have to hear a sermon before you can eat). The authority of Scripture is affirmed and they tend to believe that Christ is the only way of salvation for all people.  This community’s key identification point is what they believe.

2.  The liberal “social gospel” approach- The thing that defines outreach is social action.  There is not much, if any, evangelism. The authority of Scripture is questioned and there is significant backpedaling on the exclusive claims of Christ.  You’ll hear lots of talk about God’s kingdom on earth. Its community’s key identification point is what they do.

            What I am saying that over the past 100 years or so, people who take the name of Christ tend to only do one of these things.  Either they care about the gospel OR they care about the poor.  There are lots of notable exceptions, but I think that you will see that it is true for the majority.  Let’s look back at our passage now and see how the people of ancient Israel made a mistake that we tend to repeat today:  We don’t think that loving God and taking care of the poor go together. 

Israel’s Mistake (4-6)

            The superficially religious Israelites seek to put end to the poor.  How?  Mass extermination?  No!  They are so greedy that they will gradually eliminate the poor because of oppressive exploitation. They can’t even wait for festivals to be finished and for the Sabbath to be done so they can pick up with their dishonest treatment of these people.  Verse 5 shows that the wealthier folks would have either unfair scales or illegally heavy shekels that would tilt economic “balance” in their favor.  This seems to be one of the main means of the systematic exploitation that Amos is so hot about!  Don’t forget that Amos serves as a covenant prosecutor, so he has plenty of ammunition from the Law on his side.  Leviticus 19:35-36 is clear enough.  35"You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. 36You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.  Why that last bit about God identifying Himself?  He wanted His covenant people of all time to know who was giving the law and that it flowed out His desire for justice within the land that He was giving them.  Remember, God was partially restoring the paradise that had been lost at Eden with this land He had given to this people.  It was supposed to be a place reflecting God’s rule and a light to all of the nations watching! 

Instead, the poor are so hopeless that they end up selling themselves into slavery because of the unfair practices (v. 6). 

The Real Question(s)! (7-12)

            This begs the question. God where are you?  Do you care about the poor?  The problem of poverty makes us ask this.  So how does God respond to our question?  7The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: "Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 8Shall 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?"  God swears by the land that he promised, the pride of Jacob, that he will not forget the deeds of those who have mistreated the poor, regardless of what sacrifices they have brought or what festivals they have attended.  They will pay primarily by going into exile. They have turned the land of justice representing God’s rule into a joke.  God will do something even worse. 

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.  God will stop speaking…in verse 12 to the far reaches of the Assyrian empire (where Israel will be going to exile) they will not hear from God.  There is nothing more horrible in the world than that!  God told His people in Deuteronomy 8 that they don’t live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from God…and that is about to be removed.  What a horrible punishment! It’s almost like athletics. I didn’t like being corrected by my coaches, but at least I new I was on their radar!  Silence means a final verdict about your future with the team. Bottom line:  God cares about the poor!  This is important because this is the reason that love for God and care for the poor go together.  The greatest demonstration of this is Christ.  God cared enough about human poverty (physical and spiritual) that He sent His Son. He taught spiritual truths and He healed people’s physical problems.  Jesus loved the Father and cared for the poor.  You should always remind yourself when you see enormous human suffering that God cares about their pain and their plight or mistreatment much more than you will ever know. 

But who are these people?

Its homeless people, but it’s not just them.  It’s anyone that can tend to be marginalized by society.  Maybe it’s an ethnic group in America that doesn’t carry much political might.  It could be a victim of a crime.  It might be the unborn.  It might be a single mom struggling to make it.  It’s the blue collar worker caught in cycle of poverty with revolving debt and living paycheck to paycheck.  Spiritually, it might be people groups or regions with no access to the gospel…these are maybe the most vulnerable people anywhere and tend to also be the poorest of the world’s poor physically.  We choose to speak for those who are vulnerable!  This is the reason why part of our passion for social justice simultaneously makes us passionate about crossing over cultures.  Many of these people are likely not in many of our social circles and to serve them, we have to be willing to cross over.  But just knowing this isn’t enough. We need to change!

What We Need to Change

1.  Change in Business: While poverty is not your fault in most cases, I do think we need to give some thought here and see where we might be systemizing poverty for some in our country.  I would discourage someone from bringing a business in to a poor community and exporting the profits to another part of town or the world.  If you make your money in a community, do your best to spend it in the community…which creates jobs and brings cash in.  Your low end workers will often tend to have the hardest lives, so pay them well.  Business owners, give this some thought.  The thing I love about this sort of change is that it isn’t a handout.  People receive something and keep their dignity.

2.  Change in Social gospel crowd: I do want to mention the second group of liberal churchgoers or even secular activists. Some of you might be super active in trying to be an advocate for the marginalized.  I have known people who were non-believers that would put all of us to shame for their concern for those with no voice in our society.  I want you to know that I am grateful for their contribution in relieving suffering and making the world a better place.  Christians need to recognize they aren’t the only ones who do this!  These folks, are being used by God to relieve suffering.  That’s a good thing.  The big downside, whether someone claims a Christian title or not, is that if the gospel…love for God made possible through Christ’s death and resurrection…is not connected to the social help, people are still left in need at their most sensitive point!  There are many wings in the Christian church that would oversimplify the gospel of Jesus and say that the gospel IS social help.  Wrong.  The gospel is Jesus’ transformation of souls secured by His death and resurrection that causes us to love and enjoy God and to make His kingdom’s values a reality on this earth as it is in heaven…like justice! The big correction for this crowd: Love God!

3.  Change in Spiritual-only crowd: Consider Derek Webb’s song. “More than just your cash and coin I want your time, I want your voice I want the things you just can’t give me/So what must we do here in the west we want to follow you/ we speak the language and we keep all the rules even a few we made up/ come on and follow me but sell your house, sell your suv sell your stocks, sell your security and give it to the poor/ what is this, hey what’s the deal i don’t sleep around and I don’t steal/ I want the things you just can’t give me”

            I don’t actively mistreat anyone!  I don’t sleep around!  I do all of the right things!  I even throw some money at the problem from time to time.  Let me repeat to you the correction that God offers His people a long time ago: love God, care for the poor.  You can’t say that you love Him if you don’t care about the poor.  What God did for you spiritually, you are demonstrating physically. "When a Christian sees prostitutes, alcoholics, prisoners, drug addicts, unwed mothers, the homeless, the refugees, he knows that he is looking in a mirror...He thinks 'spiritually I was just like these people, though physically and socially I was never where they are now. They are outcasts. I was an outcast.'" Tim Keller.  We see that it needs to happen and some things need to change.  But how?  Let’s get practical.

Practical Suggestions

1.  Involve yourself in consistent giving and prayer.  One of my favorites is Compassion International.  You can give $35/mo. to feed, educate, provide medical necessities, and bring the gospel to a child and family.  You can pray for this kid and even write to them and hear back from them.

2. Scale back your lifestyle to enable more giving and relief.  Many of you can’t really give much because of maxed credit cards from irresponsible decisions.  This is where our third family trait of simplicity comes in…we don’t hoard the gospel or resources that speed its progress!  We speak the gospel and we also give it away in physical form by giving resources instead of constantly spending our excess (or even what we don’t have) for those in tremendous need. By the way, this doesn’t eliminate entertainment, it just puts it in the right orbit.

3. Consider an extended service of a few years or a career.  What a beautiful thing it is to use your gifts to the poor.  Bring the gospel to the unreached.  Bring health care to the sick.  Bring food for the hungry.  What great news! 

4.  Involve yourself in an established local mercy ministry. I highly recommend using an established organization for this sort of thing.  You don’t need us to hold your hand. Help out with My Father’s house.  Serve at the Bridge.  Serve our apartment complex ministry with kids (we are way short on workers).  Teach ESL.

5.  Be an entrepreneur.  We have people all of the time come up and say, “Why don’t we have something going with X kinds of people?”  My answer?  You tell me.  Pray and dream.  (Read some examples from CT’s September 08 issue)

My goal today isn’t to make you guilty. My experience is that guilt just immobilizes us anyways.  Instead, consider Christ’s life and death and how He sought out a broken humanity and then restored it…and then give that away in word and action.  Surely this will cause repentance individually and corporately here at Redeemer, but let’s push on not out of guilt, but out of love for God who pitied us when we were strangers!