Prophetic Insults

Prophetic Insults

Amos 4:1-13

Amos is not a happy prophet.  Of course, few prophets are happy.  That’s not their job.  God didn’t call prophets to deliver messages of sweetness and light—although sometimes they do speak words of hope.  Isaiah is a good example.  Writing and preaching during the Babylonian exile he tells the people that God will redeem them—but not immediately.  God will bring them home—but not right away.  There is hope—but they will have to wait for its fulfillment.

Prophets are by nature angry, and that’s probably the way it should be.  God sends prophets to address problems.  God doesn’t send prophets when times are good, but only when things are going wrong. 

One of my seminary professors told us we didn’t want God speaking directly to us.  That had happened to her.  She said she was a very practical person, and not open to hearing God.  The only way God could get through to her was through a vision.  She said it wasn’t pleasant.

So it is with prophets.  They come when God can’t get through to us any other way:  Nathan to David; John the Baptist to the rulers of Judah in league with the Romans; Martin Luther to the Church that had wandered from its first love; Martin Luther King to a nation hopelessly mired in racism; and Amos to a people who had earned God’s displeasure.

How did Amos express his anger?  He indulged in a little name-calling.  His real target was the leaders of Israel, who were oppressing the poor, taking the little they had to enrich themselves.  Instead of calling them names, he attacked their wives.  “Cows of Bashan,” he called them, referring to a mountain in Samaria which was good pastureland.  Amos says these women demand of their husbands more food, more drink—more of everything.  Not satisfied with what they have, they urge their husbands toward even greater greed.

“You cows of Bashan,” he rails, “who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’”  He then lists all the things that God promises to do to them as retribution.

Now, seminary students and prospective preachers are not taught to openly insult any members of our congregations, male or female.  I’m sure those who fill the pews each Sunday would be upset to hear nasty names used to describe them, even though they might be accurate.  Surely we could find a kinder, gentler—but still effective—way to let our members know they were not meeting God’s expectations.

Perhaps one reason we speak with some decorum is financial.  These people, after all, are part of the group that pays our salaries.  Perhaps we are more sensitive to the needs of our congregations than Amos and the other prophets.  Perhaps.  Still, part of the role of preacher/pastor is to be prophetic.  Like the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures we have a word from the Lord, and we have been commissioned to deliver it.  We don’t do our congregations any favors if we soft-peddle the truth.

How do we strike the right balance?  How do we get our message across without being so insulting that no one will listen—or perhaps entirely lose the opportunity to deliver that message?  For deliver it we must.  Like Paul in the New Testament, we have an obligation to let our people know when they are straying into dangerous waters.  Like Paul we have to deliver that message in ways that will get their attention.  Our first obligation is to do the work God calls us to, even if by doing so we displease those to whom we have been sent.