On our recent midwest trip, after church and a Sunday lunch at my brother's farm home, we went to an auction in the neighboring small town.  A hundred or more folks were milling about the items of the estate when Carol brought to my attention the many men dressed in bib overalls.  For some reason, and even though she grew up on a farm, seeing heavy men in bib overalls still gives her the giggles.  Most of the folks were dressed in Sunday casuals, but there were perhaps a dozen big guys, hands in their pockets, wearing bib overalls.  They looked sorta dumb and hokey.  Later, though, my brother told me they were some of the richest farmers in the area.  They wore old bibs, but they were anything but dumb.

          Maybe that's the image we should keep in mind as we picture Amos, the farmer from the south, coming to preach to the well-dressed, comfortable folks up North.  Here were all these respectable folks in fine linen clothing, and Amos shows up, a farmer in his bib overalls.  Israel had achieved something that Americans can relate to:  full social calendars, but hollow hearts.  They had military security.  They were spoiled.  Life was easy, but they were neglecting the poor and even taking advantage of them.  One wonders how the prophet Amos would respond to our culture -- a world that always seems to have enough money to build new sports arenas and gambling casinos, but never enough money to feed the hungry, cure diseases, stop fighting each other or even educate our children in lasting truths.

          Sometimes it takes someone like Amos to shake us up.  Sometimes we get too big for our britches.  We get educated beyond our intelligence.  We forget God's Word and think our own ideas better.  That's when God has to send us a preacher in bib overalls, someone who can make the truth plain and simple.

          Take for example the business of "tolerance."  Our modern world has elevated that word to the heights.  Everyone must tolerate everyone else's ideas, no matter how foolish or perverse.  And if you talk against something that's just obviously wrong or evil, you're condemned in the name of tolerance.  Somehow, we've allowed tolerance to be elevated to the level of ultimate truth.

          But it's not.  God doesn't tolerate other gods.  He doesn't tolerate His name being trashed or His Word being diluted.  And God doesn't tolerate His church changing the Gospel into a feel-good philosophy.  Whenever God's message has been perverted by His people, their world comes crashing down on their heads.

          Take out your Bibles and turn to Amos 7.  This is what the preacher in bib overalls was saying:  "If you don't build your life right, it will fall down around your ears."  In verse 7, God showed him walls built true to plumb.  That means they were level and straight, the way they should be.  In verses 8-9 God told Amos He was setting a plumb line among His people, one that would show how crooked they had become.  God told Amos to tell them their trophies would be pulled down, their fine churches wrecked, and their people would die by the sword.

          You can imagine how well that went over!  Amaziah, the court preacher, blasted him.  He got into Amos' face and accused him of insurrection, of being unpatriotic, of being intolerant.  He said, "You hay seed!  What does a hick like you know?  Go back where you came from!"

          It should be noted Amaziah was on the government payroll.  We learn a great deal more about a church's soul when you see what influences it most.  Can you see what mischief comes when the church isn't ruled by God's Word alone?  Amaziah lost all objectivity because he was influenced by the word of society instead of the Word of God.

          When the church gets too cozy with society, it becomes a lackey, a domesticated beagle, to fetch and run errands for whomever has the latest idea or fad.  Today in Sweden and Denmark, pastors are prosecuted for speaking against homosexuality.  In some American cities, churches are told whom they can hire.  Our churches must not change according to the dictates of a fickle and changeable society.  We must be guided by the Word of a holy and changeless God.  God's holy truth trumps every clever hand that mankind can deal.

          Amaziah, the educated smart guy, took Amos to task.  So how did Amos react?  He didn't blink an eye.  He said, "I'm no preacher and my daddy was no preacher, but God called me here to tell you His word."  That's the right approach.  When the world attacks you, go back to God.  When you're assaulted by smart guys, go back to the Word!  When you're insulted for your faith, hold fast to the truths of God.

          God calls people into His service, to spread His Word.  Amos was a farm boy and so was I.  During my youth, people encouraged me to be a pastor.  I enrolled in college as a music major, but during the summer before my second year, God finally called me to the pastoral ministry.  I figured I had the talents, and I thought that if all those other guys I'd seen enrolled in the ministerial program could do it, so could I.  That summer on a bale wagon, I surrendered to the call.  And today when the load gets heavy, remembering that Call is what keeps me going.

          But let's not forget that we are all called to ministry.  Amos was what we call a worker-priest.  He was a lay minister, an untrained but clear witness to the Word of God.  God calls all of us to share the Good News, to share our talents.  Last week in a meeting for Epiphany's Future Staffing Committee, I felt an excitement about how God is going to bless our congregation in the future.  He will do it, not so much through more called workers, as through called members, people like all of us here today, called to use our time, talents and treasures to our faith in word and deed.

          I don't often enough encourage people to consider fulltime ministry.  Whether as pastor, teacher, or a host of new careers in the Lutheran Church, God still calls men and women into fulltime ministry.  St. Paul says in Ephesians, "It was [God] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up." (Ephesians 4:11-12)   I look forward to the day when our first member will be called to attend Seminary or college.  One day soon, Epiphany congregation will call another worker to help our growing flock to be prepared for ministry.

          Christ calls all of us first to follow Him, to trust Him as our Savior, to have faith He has done all needful for us to gain heaven.  We cannot through our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him.  The Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel, He enlightens us with His gifts and brings us into the Christian faith.  And from there we can all share the Good News.  And people out there won't care how much we know;  they'll come to Christ only when they know how much we care.

          Like Amos, we're called to spread the News, even if the news is bad.  People don't like to hear bad news - we avoid it if we can.  There are all sorts of things we'd rather not hear.  But bad news in the long run it is for the best if we're on the wrong track.  Remember, Jesus was rejected.  He wasn't loved by all.  But He loved us all.  He gave Himself for us all.  In Jesus God reconciled the world to Himself.

          In today's Gospel, Jesus sent His disciples out, giving them authority over unclean spirits and instructions to preach the news.  If they saw evil, they were to cast it out.  If they saw sin, they were to call people to repentance.  If people were unwilling to listen, the disciples were to "shake the dust off their feet" and move on.

          God called Amos, preacher in bib overalls.  He told him what to do, where to go, and what to say.  May we all heed God's call to share the Gospel.  Amen

Copyright © 2003 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.