My House, My Rules. July 15, I don t know what it is about television these days, but it seems that

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1 My House, My Rules July 15, 2018 Amos 7:14-15, Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. I don t know what it is about television these days, but it seems that writers and producers have lost all imagination. There s almost nothing worth watching and that s especially true when it comes to comedy. I love a good sitcom, but there really isn t a single one that s funny. These days, writers don t even try to be witty or clever. They take the lazy way out and rely on shock value, only nowadays it s getting harder and harder to shock audiences. But you can t go wrong with some of the old classic comedies: Andy Griffith, Bob Newhart, Mary Tyler Moore, and another of my favorites, Dick Van Dyke. He was a real comic, genuinely funny, genuinely creative. Every episode is packed with wit and warmth. One of my favorite episodes is called Never Name a Duck. One day, Rob brings home two baby ducks from the office to show their son Ritchie. It was love at first quack. Richie becomes attached to them immediately and his parents yield. As the story progresses, we learn that one of the ducks died and that the other one was sick. It started losing feathers just like the other one had before it died. So Rob takes the duck to the vet. It turns out that there s 1

2 only one medicine that will make that duck better freedom. So Rob takes the duck to a pond and releases it. When Ritchie finds out, he s devastated! He s hurt and he s angry with his father. That was his duck. His and nobody else s! What right did his father have to take it from him?! In our Old Testament reading today, we hear about King Jeroboam and all that he d accomplished for Israel. He was a pretty popular ruler. He had a great head for business. The economy was booming, in part because Israel had become a puppet-state of Assyria. But international trade was on the rise. And his reforms were not just economic. He d transformed the religious landscape too. Altars and high places to foreign gods dotted the city and countryside. And even in the Temple in Jerusalem were idols from Egypt and Assyria. Israel had become a buffet of religions. Pick what you like. Pass over what you don t. Enter Amos. Amos is not an important man. He s a nobody from Tekoa, a shepherd, a fig dresser. And worst of all, he s not even from Israel. He s a foreigner from the backwater nation of Judah. And yet somehow, this nobody has taken it upon himself to go around Israel, preaching against its idolatry. He slams its high places. He condemns its treatment of the poor. He lays into the priests who ought to know better, who ought to be the first to condemn idolatry. But Amos doesn t stop there. The shepherd turned prophet even tears into the king for allowing such things to happen in his kingdom. Apparently, he d been walking around town proclaiming, Behold, I 2

3 am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. Amaziah is the priest of Bethel, a town renowned for all its idols and high places. He s tired of Amos condemning him and Bethel s religious practices. He s tired of this thorn in the flesh who keeps bothering people who want nothing more than to pick through the buffet of gods. And he s no fool. He knows the quickest way to shut Amos big mouth. Go the king and tattle. He drags Amos before King Jeroboam and tells him everything Amos has said. And after the king is good and riled, he turns to Amos and says, O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom. Get out of here Amos! Go back to your land of bumpkins and shoot your mouth off there if you want to. But don t you dare preach in Bethel! Don t you dare darken the door of the king s sanctuary and temple ever again! My house... my rules! King Herod had the same problem with John the Baptist, or rather, his wife did. John wasn t a rabble-rouser. He didn t get a rise out of taking on the most powerful people in the land. John had a message from God to 3

4 proclaim. What he spoke at the Jordan, he spoke to King Herod. No one was above God s Word. And the word to Herod was repent! It is not lawful for you to have your brother s wife, Herod! But the king didn t want to hear it. And to ensure that John would never speak of it again, John s head was delivered to the queen on a silver platter. My house... my rules! We shake our heads at priests like Amaziah and kings like Jeroboam and Herod. We marvel at how they abuse their power, how they get so hung up on themselves. In their inflated sense of self-importance, they even thought they were above God s Word! And this was their domain! Bethel was Amaziah s territory and God had no right to butt in! Israel was Jeroboam s territory and God should mind His own business. My house... my rules! What arrogance, we say to ourselves. And yet, don t you and I adopt that same sense of self-importance? God s Word comes to us. And it makes its demands. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt have no other gods, shalt not murder, shalt not commit adultery, shalt not steal, shalt not bear false witness, shalt not covet. Each command is like a blow to the conscience. And then it speaks again. Thou shalt! Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Thou shalt love your neighbor as yourself. It crushes, it condemns, it kills you. Why should you listen to it? What right does God have to come into your life and tell you how to live it?! Your house... your rules, right?! 4

5 After Amaziah the priest finished his tirade. Amos responded and in two short sentences, Amos uncovered his heart. But not just his, the king s and ours too. I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. Amos just reminded Amaziah and Jeroboam of something they had forgotten somewhere along the way, something they didn t like to think about. Bethel didn t belong to Amaziah the priest. The Temple didn t belong to the king. Bethel, the Temple and the all the people of Israel belonged to the Lord. Amaziah and King Jeroboam were not free to do with them whatever they wanted. They belonged to the Lord. The priest and the king were only stewards. But if these stewards continued on their current path, they and all Israel would suffer the consequences. The duck would die. Neither Amaziah nor Jeroboam realized what they were doing. They had no idea they were headed straight for disaster. They were doing what was right in their judgment. What s so wrong with making an alliance with Assyria? What s so bad about wanting Israel to be a more religiously inclusive nation? When it came down to it, Amaziah and Jeroboam were so desperate to hang on to Israel, their Israel, that they were slowly strangling it to death. They loved Israel with the same type of love that Ritchie had for his ducks... a love that kills the beloved. 5

6 In the end, that s what we do when we try to steal our lives from God s reach and will. We want the power. We want the control. My house... my rules! We so want to save our lives, that in our hunger to stay in charge, we strangle the life out of ourselves. We follow our own will and it leads us straight to destruction. Jesus says, For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Here Jesus invites you into an entirely new existence. Here He invites you no longer to reach out and grasp your life for yourself. You no longer need to clutch it with both fists until you strangle it to death. Let go of your authority. Let go of your desire to rule over yourself. Let go, and remember that your life is not your house to begin with. Your life is God s. It belongs to Him. And He loves you. He loves you, but not with the same love with which you love yourself. That s a deadly love. His is a deadly love too. Only it s deadly for Himself. His is a love which led Him to lay aside His glory to live among those He loved. His is a love which drove Him to endure the scorn and accusations of the Pharisees and Sadducees, Amaziah s in different clothing. His was a love which compelled Him to stand trial before Pontius Pilate, King Jeroboam in different clothing. It was a love that drove Him to the whipping post, to the cross, to the grave, and out again. This is the love that God has for you. 6

7 So hand it over. Your life is not your house. In the end, neither is your money, or your car, or your job, or your family. They all belong to God. And He gets to call the shots. You are the steward, the caretaker. And God has given you instructions on how to live and how to care for those entrusted to you. Don t turn a deaf ear to God s Word. Sometimes it s annoying. Sometimes it s inconvenient. And sometimes it hurts. It can break your heart in two. But if you don t listen, if you claim My house... my rules and lock the door against God s Law, how will the Gospel enter? So open your ears to what God has to say. And God says, Repent! Turn from your sin. Remember who is the real King of your life. And God says, Rejoice, for He has taken away your sin. He has forgiven you and promised you eternal life with Him. For although God s Word wounds... it also heals. Although God s Word kills... it also makes alive, forever. That is how we Christians live our lives. We repent and we rejoice at one and the same time. We repent and we rejoice, all on the way to heaven. 7