David Orendorff, Amos 5:1-15

This is Amos. (turning to a scruffy unkept, poorly dressed man with a lapel mic) Welcome Amos. (Amos returns the greeting.)

Amos is from the 8th century B.C. He was out of place then and it would appear that he is out of place now. But then, he had no right to say the things he said to the people to whom he said them, except that God demanded it.

(Amos begins walking among the congregation, examining people)

Amos was from the southern Kingdom, near Bethlehem, but God told him to go to the northern Kingdom, to Galilee. Amos was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamore trees, that it, he was uneducated, poor, and a transient, but God told him to preach to the educated and the rich. He was to tell them, in no uncertain terms, that the Lord was very angry with them; that they were in trouble because they did not feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the widow or the orphan, and that a time of judgment was coming in which they would suffer the consequences of their faithlessness.

Amos preaches what he is told to preach to those who do not want to hear:

Seek the Lord and live,
lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
and it devour with none to quench it…,
O you who turn justice to wormwood,
and cast down righteousness to the earth!”1 Amos 5:6-7

It is meant to be a friendly warning of divine doom. Amos knows it is a message that will not be well received:

They hate him who scolds in the city gate,
and they despise him who speaks the truth.”2 Amos 5:10

But it is a God given message which must be delivered:

Therefore because you trample upon the poor
and force from him payments of wheat,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you shall not dwell in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.
For I know how many are your transgressions,
and how great are your sins -
you who afflict the righteous,
who take a bribe,
and turn aside the needy in the gate.”3 Amos 5:11-12

Amos may be poor, ignorant and unkept, but he is not stupid. He knows it would be better if he were silent:

Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time;
for it is an evil time.”4 Amos 5:13

But by God’s command he must speak before it is too late:

Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be with you, as you have said.
Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”5 Amos 5:14-15 (Amos exits)

Amos brings a simple message, “Choose justice or choose death.” But though it is simple to hear, it is hard for the rich to comply and most of them die poor in spirit and very sad in the soul.

A thousand years later, in the sixth century, a young Irish girl was born and named Brigid. Brigid was a bright child, full of life and intelligence and her father was very proud of her, with two exceptions. She wanted with all her heart to live a religious life and she was uncontrollably generous. When someone came to their home with a need, she granted the need. She gave away the family food, the family horse, the family silver. Her father tried to correct her, but she would not be corrected.

In desperation her father took her to the King of Leinster, hoping to sell her into his servanthood. There she could live in the house of a king, she would want nothing, but she would have nothing to give away. It seemed a reasonable solution.

But while Brigid waited outside the castle, a leper came to beg for alms, and when her father returned, he found she had given away his sword. The King of Leinster, being no fool, recognized that this young girl would be great trouble for him, and therefore declared that Brigid’s goodness was untamable, and that he was therefore unwilling to hinder her service to God; a wise king indeed.

Brigid entered the religious life, founding a monastery in Kildare which became the largest settlement in Ireland and was fondly known as “the City of the Poor’ because of Brigid’s generous hospitality to all. It is said that her cows could be milked three times a day to feed the hungry.

And yet another thousand years and a girl named Erika is born. She is bright, hardworking, a college student with a pretty good job, and she likes her car. She is now 20 and facing the difficulty of being rich. She has discovered the law of diminishing discretionary funds. It goes like this, “The more money you earn, the more bills you have.” Now she must decide, will she be like those people in Galilee with her wealth, or will she be like Brigid?

You recognize the dilemma, of course. We have needs, true needs for cars, for school, for housing, for food, for clothing, for entertainment. And only money will be able to meet our needs. And we have fears; fears of poverty, illness, rainy days. It seems that only wealth will calm our fears. People may say that money can’t buy you love, but the truth is that without money, we fear being very unlovable and very unhappy.

You know as well I as do that our needs grow. What used to be a want, (I would like a bicycle), grows of its own accord to be a need (I need a new car). It is trap. Because of this trap some folks have concluded that having any money is evil; that the rich are evil, and so they take vows of poverty so that demon cash will spare their souls.

John Wesley, I think, had a better idea.

Wesley said, “Earn all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.” Here, I think, is a reasonable way to be rich that satisfies Amos and leads to soulful joy. First, “Earn all you can.” Notice that the word is earn. It is not steal, embezzle, or cheat. There is a pride in honest work and in earning our money. To work, to earn, is good for the soul.

Secondly, Wesley said, “Save all you can.” By this he meant to live with frugality. He didn’t mean the stinginess of a Ebenezer Scrooge, he meant to examine what our real needs are, and to live using as little of the abundance for ourselves as possible. By living simply, the gifts of God can be saved.

Wesley gave this third piece of advice, “Give all you can.” Give it to the poor. Give it to schools. Give it to the naked. Give it to the hungry. Give it to the children. Give it away.

John Wesley lived earn all you can, save all you can and give all you can. He worked hard traveling 40-60 miles a day on horseback, preaching as many as 16 sermons a week. And he was an entrepreneurial genius. He started the first “Reader’s Digest” in England condensing news articles, science breakthroughs, philosophical works, health news into pamphlet form, written in common English, and mass produced by the printing press. He sold thousands of these at very low cost and became very rich. He earned all the money he could.

And John Wesley saved all he could. He lived very simply even though he had the wealth to live extravagantly. He gave his wealth to start orphanages, schools, savings and loans, a pharmacy, to free those in debtor’s prison, to cloth and feed the poor. When he died he had just enough funds to pay his pallbearers.

Wesley saw God as incredibly generous and life’s resources as unlimited and abundant. When others were talking about how little they had, how scarce what they needed was, Wesley was seeing an extravagantly benevolent God.

A person who believes that resources are limited and scarce is afraid of not having enough. This fear leads to collectoritis, the compulsory need to have more things, better things, bigger things, in order to feel safe. The sad part of collectoritis is that the more you have the more you believe you need. The statistics indicate that the more resources a person has at their disposal, the lower percentage of those resources they give away; which means, oddly, that rich people are usually less grateful and more frightened by life than poor people.

On the other hand, people like John Wesley who see life as abundant and who recognize that God has made this abundance and offers it to everyone with love, are not afraid. Why should they be afraid? God is extravagantly generous.

When we know and trust this truth, then we can’t help but walk around grateful for all the gifts of our lives. No matter how humble, we have places to live. No matter how simple, we have food to eat. No matter how plain, we have clothes to wear. We are rich, always have been rich and always will be rich. Gratitude cures collectoritis. Our security is in God’s generosity, and so we don’t need a bunch of stuff.

So, we earn a heap of money, and we don’t spend it. What do we do? Invest in the stock market? Save it for a rainy day? Yes, we do those things, but we still have more money than we honestly need. We are called to be generous as God is generous with us.

Research indicates that generosity lowers stress and extends life. Generosity feeds the joy of the soul. The more you give, the more your soul will do the jig, kicking up its heals, laughing, smiling, rejoicing in the goodness of life. We give our abundance away because to make life better for children. The gift of earning makes for the gift of generosity.

Now, here is the amazing part of this truth. Your gift doesn’t have to be a billion dollars to make you happy and to improve the world. It only has to be generous. When you are down sometime, feeling blue, a little hopeless or useless to the world, go to your wallet, take out a few ones, walk out onto the street and give it away. Give it to a woman who is struggling with her children. Give it to a stranger in the grocery line. Give it to the first person you see. It doesn’t matter; your body and your soul don’t care. They will dance because of the simple generosity. You will feel just as good as Bill and Melinda Gates.

The more you earn, and the more you save, the more generous you can be. Your body and soul will love it. And when your feet dance and your soul jigs, it will be infectious, and the life of the woman or stranger will get up and dance with you. Random generosity spreads happiness, inside and out, and makes the world new.

Amos was critical of the people of the north because they were missing their chance to be really happy with life. In their fear of scarcity they were making themselves and everyone else, miserable.
Brigid’s generosity was untamable because it made her very happy to give. As long as she knew this joy, she was not going to quit giving.

Measure your resources? How much do you earn? How can you earn more? Then measure your frugality. How much and where do you spend? Can you save on some of that? And then give all you can away. If you haven’t done so, start with proportional giving setting a percent goal to give. If you are new to proportional giving then start with a manageable goal of two or three percent. If you have been at it awhile then up your frugality and up your giving by a point or two. If you are truly poor now then a dollar a week may be very generous. If you earn more, then ten percent may not be enough. Whatever you do, you will notice an immediate response of joy in your soul.

Shalom and Amen

1 Amos 5:6-7

2 Amos 5:10

3 Amos 5:11-12

4 Amos 5:13

5 Amos 5:14-15