As a college student in preparation for ministry, I had the opportunity to preach in a rural Kansas church with some friends and relatives in the congregation. After the service as I greeted people leaving the sanctuary, a friend from college shook my hand vigorously and said, “I really enjoyed that! Then he paused, backed off a little, and added, “But I wasn't supposed to enjoy it, was I?” Decades later, I can't remember anything I said in that sermon, nor what part of the Bible I based it on. But I have never forgotten his question. We're not supposed to enjoy sermons. It's the preacher's job to make us uncomfortable. Those implications bother me a great deal. Wrong-doing, oppression, abuse, injustice, of course, need to be rebuked and brought to an end. But lives of self-giving service need to be encouraged and celebrated. We need to sing about the “grace that is greater than all our sin.” But today's readings fall within the category of uncomfortable, unenjoyable sermons.

Amos 8:1-14

The Basket of Fruit

8:1 This is what the Lord GOD showed me-a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me,

“The end has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass them by.

3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”

says the Lord GOD;

“the dead bodies shall be many,

cast out in every place. Be silent!”

4 Hear this, you that trample on the needy,

and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

5 saying, “When will the new moon be over

so that we may sell grain;

and the sabbath,

so that we may offer wheat for sale?

We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,

and practice deceit with false balances,

6 buying the poor for silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”

7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who lives in it,

and all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

9 On that day, says the Lord GOD,

I will make the sun go down at noon,

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10 I will turn your feasts into mourning,

and all your songs into lamentation;

I will bring sackcloth on all loins,

and baldness on every head;

I will make it like the mourning for an only son,

and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD,

when I will send a famine on the land;

not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the LORD.

12 They shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD,

but they shall not find it.

13 In that day the beautiful young women and the young men

shall faint for thirst.

14 Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria,

and say, “As your god lives, O Dan,”

and, “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”–

they shall fall, and never rise again. (Amos 8:1-14, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here with editing and supplement from December 7, 2005 (Wednesday in the week of the Second Sunday of Advent, Year One), when comments were repeated from an email of December 9, 2003, for December 10, 2003.

A basket of ripe summer fruit is the fourth in Amos’ series of visions (Amos 8:1-3, cf. 7:1-9:15). “This is what the Lord GOD showed me,” he says, “a basket of summer fruit” (Amos 8:1). The LORD asks Amos to confirm what he sees. “He said, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit’ ” (v. 2a). And the LORD explains the vision. “ ‘The end has come upon my people Israel; / I will never again pass them by’ “ (v. 2b, c). Gregory Mobley calls attention to “the pun in Hebrew” in this interpretation. “A basket of ripe summer fruit symbolizes the immediacy of Israel’s end. Note the pun in Hebrew between summer fruit, ‘qayits,’ and end, ‘qets’  ” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Amos 8:1-3). The Lord GOD says that at that time the joyous songs of the temple will be turned to mourning. “ ‘The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,’ / says the Lord GOD; / ‘the dead bodies shall be many, / cast out in every place. Be silent!’ ” (v. 3).

Amos turns from the vision of the summer fruit to direct indictments of Israel’s merchants for oppressive, fraudulent business practices and oppression of the poor. He addresses “you that trample on the needy, / and bring to ruin the poor of the land” (v. 4). He rebukes the merchants for saying, “When will the new moon be over / so that we may sell grain; / and the sabbath, / so that we may offer wheat for sale?” (v. 5a, b, c, d). According to Ehud Ben Zvi, “The text clearly implies that days of religious observance (Shabbath, new moon) are supposed to be kept, though observance of the new moon by ceasing from work is nowhere recorded in Torah legislation. The book of Amos is certainly not against cultic observance. The problem here is that people are eager for the holiday to be over so they can get on with making money through dishonest means” (The Jewish Study Bible, 2004, on Amos 8:405). Amos spells out the dishonest practices of the merchants. “We,” they say, “will make the ephah small and the shekel great, / and practice deceit with false balances, / buying the poor for silver / and the needy for a pair of sandals, / and selling the sweepings of the wheat” (vv. 5e, f, 6). According to Ben Zvi, “The measure with which the corrupt merchants sell grain is smaller than it should be, allowing them to sell less than an ephah (a unit of dry measure of perhaps 23 liters) for the full price; on the other hand, the weight with which they buy grain is larger than it should be, allowing them to get more for the shekel (about 11.4f gm) than they should” (Ibid.).

The LORD, says Amos, has had enough of such dishonest practice. He has “sworn by the pride of Jacob: / Surely I will never forget any of their deeds” (v. 7). The question that follows is rhetorical, announcing inevitable judgment. “Shall not the land tremble on this account, / and everyone mourn who lives in it, / and all of it rise like the Nile, / and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?” (v. 8). The coming judgment pictured here elicits the picture of “the annual innundation of the Nile (9:5; Jer. 46:7-8)” (Mobley, on v. 8). Amos continues with predictions of judgment. “On that day, says the Lord GOD, / I will make the sun go down at noon, / and darken the earth in broad daylight” (v. 9). He takes up the theme of mourning again (cf. v. 3). “I will turn your feasts into mourning, / and all your songs into lamentation; / I will bring sackcloth on all loins, / and baldness on every head; / I will make it like the mourning for an only son, / and the end of it like a bitter day” (v. 10). Mobley comments, “A solar eclipse portends divine punishment and elicits mourning rituals. Sackcloth and baldness were customary expressions of mourning associated with national disaster (e.g. Isa. 22:12)” (on v. 10).

Amos delivers a further word of the Lord GOD. “The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD, / when I will send a famine on the land” (v. 11a, b). While ruin has thus been predicted, the worst of it will be “not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, / but of hearing the words of the LORD” (v. 11c, d). This absence of God’s words is to be felt as tragic loss and deprivation. “They shall wander from sea to sea, / and from north to east; / they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, / but they shall not find it” (v. 12). “The people will be hungry and thirsty for God’s word,” says Ben Zvi. “Rabbinic sources understand this text as pointing to a time in which the Torah (the words of the LORD) will be forgotten: ‘Our Rabbis taught: When our Masters entered the vineyard at Yabneh, they said, The Torah is destined to be forgotten in Israel, as it is said, Behold the days come, saith the LORD God, that I will send a famine in the land . . .’ b. Shab. 138b [Soncino ET]; and see also t. ‘Ed. 1.1)” (op. cit., on vv. 11-12).

Literal hunger and thirst remains in the predicted judgment. “In that day the beautiful young women and the young men / shall faint for thirst” (v. 13). The chapter concludes with judgment pronounced on idolatrous practices. “Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria, / and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’ / and, “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”–they shall fall, and never rise again” (v. 14). “Ashimah and the way of Beer-sheba are either the names of gods or pejorative titles applied to gods” (Gene M. Tucker, revised by J. Andrew Dearman, HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Amos 8:14). Mobley elaborates:

Ashimah (or ‘guilt’) of Samaria could be a Syrian deity (2 Kings 17:30) or a disparaging reference (‘the guilt’) to the practice of treating the cosmic LORD merely as the patron of a local shrine, whether in the center of Israel (Samaria), the farthest north (Dan), or the farthest south (Beer-sheba)” (on v. 14 [not on v. 13]).

Revelation 1:17-2:7

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades. 19 Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

The Message to Ephesus

2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands:

2 “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. 3 I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God. (Revelation 1:17-2:7, NRSV)

The following uses portions of comments on Revelation 1:4-20 from October 29, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to October l26, Year One), when comments were used from earlier, and also uses comments from December 7, 2005 (Wednesday in the week of the Second Sunday of Advent, Year One):

For the effect, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead” (v. 17a), compare Isaiah’s response to his vision in the temple (Isa. 6:5). But the Lord (Christ) raises him up. “I am the first and the last” (v. 17; cf. God as “the Alpha and the Omega,” v. 8). Christ’s self-description continues: he is “the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades” (v. 18). John is told to write what he has seen (v. 19). It is explained to him that “the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,” that is, the “seven lampstands” (v. 20). As John concludes the report of his initial vision of the glorified Christ (Rev. 1:17-20), and turns to letters to the seven churches of Asia, that is, to the “angel” of each church. According to Jean Pierre Ruiz, the message to each church contains “an address, a descriptive phrase referring to the risen Christ, a commendation, or condemnation of the church addressed, an admonition, and a concluding promise and exhortation to the faithful” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Rev. 2:1-3:22).

The first message is “To the angel of the church in Ephesus” (2:1a), which Ruiz describes as “a seaport city that was the administrative and commercial hub of the Roman province of Asia” (on 2:1-7). The risen Christ is described as the sender of the message. “These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands” (v. 1b). The Lord’s message begins with a “commendation” (cf. Ruiz, above)–what David E. Aune calls “the ‘I know’ narrative’ (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Rev. 2:1-3:22)–“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false” (2:2). Ruiz compares to the “evildoers” mentioned here “the warning to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29-30; cf. 2 Cor. 11:13)” (on v. 2). The commendation continues. “I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary” (v. 3). But the Lord chides the church. “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (v. 4). And so the Lord issues a call to repent. “Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (v. 5). Even so, he offers further commendation. “Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (v. 6). According to Aune, the “Nicolaitans [are] an otherwise unknown Christian sect found in Ephesus and Pergamum (see v. 15), possibly identical to the false apostles of v. 2 and with Jezebel and her followers in Thyatira (vv. 20-23), and often though to be Gnostics (though the evidence is slim)” (on v. 6). Based on verse 15, Bruce M. Metzger identifies the Nicolaitans with those “who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that the would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication” (v/ 14) as he says the Nicolaitans “taught that Christians were free to eat food offered to idols and to practice immorality in the name of religion (v. 14)” (NOAB, 2^nd ed., on Rev. 2:6).

After each church is addressed in turn (chaps. 2, 3), the message (or book) is addressed to one and all among Christian believers. “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God” (v. 7). The Book of Revelation as a whole closes with the Lord’s open-ended invitation, “‘Come!’ / And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come!’ / And let everyone who is thirsty come. / Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift” (Rev. 22:17).

Matthew 23:1-12

23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; 3 therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 6 They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, 7 and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. 9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father-the one in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. (Matthew 23:1-12, NRSV)

On July 10, 2006 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to July 6, Year Two), comments were combined and revised from July 5, 2004 in an email sent July 5, 2004, for July 5-11, and from December 7, 2005 (Wednesday of the week of the Second Sunday in Advent, Year Two), where there was some repetition from an email sent December 9, 2003, for December 10, 2003. The combined comments are repeated here.

For recent comments on Mark 12:38-40, where Mark presents a warning about scribes which comes as close as anything in Mark to corresponding to Jesus’ extended and repeated woes against the Pharisees, see the Archive for August 24, 2007 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 17, Year One). Recent comments on Luke 20:45-47 (cf. Mt. 23:5-6) are included within comments in Luke 20:41-21:4 in the Archive for June 21, 2007 (Thursday in the week of the Sunday closest to June 15, Year One).

to “you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” as reported in Matthew (Mt. 23:13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29; cf. various parallels in Lk.). “Beware of the scribes,” says Jesus in Mark, “who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets!” (vv. 38-39). To this “craving for honor,” Jesus adds, “a concrete example of their exploitation of the poor” (Horsley, on vv. 38-40). Jesus says, “They [the scribes] devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation” (v. 40). Luke follows Mark here and repeats these indictments almost verbatim (Lk. 20:46-47; cf. Mk. 12:38-40). Matthew adapts them somewhat (Mt. 23:5-7) as part of his long list of Woes.

Matthew, chapter 23, presents exceedingly harsh criticism of Pharisees by Jesus. We are reminded that it was criticism of “some Pharisees, not all Pharisees” (E.E. Tilden & B.M. Metzger, NOAB, 2^nd ed., on Mt. 23:13; emphasis [bold print] added). Krister Stendahl asks, “Is the criticism in this discourse aimed at actual hypocrites among the Pharisees or against 'Pharisaism' as a system which is wrong in its basic principle?” (Peake's Commentary on the Bible, sec. 691b, p. 792 on Mt. 23:1-36 ). He answers his own question by implying the former for Jesus himself, though Matthew's church was perhaps “on its way to such a clear-cut identification.” But, according to Stendahl, Jesus “did not enunciate principles, nor did he aim at a new approach to religion, but he taught with prophetic consciousness in a nation where he found the strongest resistance among those who were its spiritual leaders. This must have sharpened his eyes for their shortcomings--most of which they would admit themselves, at least when they were among themselves, as the Talmud shows quite clearly” (Ibid.). On the last point, Stendahl cites I. Abrahams' book, Studies in Pharisaism and the Gospels (1924).

It would not be hard to find similar shortcomings among the Christians. However, since it is Jesus who criticized some Pharisees, we, as Christians, must respect his judgment. But we must also remember that it was not an indictment of all Pharisees–not to mention all Jews, then or now. We have learned that misuse of material from the Gospels by so-called Christians to support anti-Semitism has had horrible effects again and again, but especially in the last century. And, for that matter, some of the same inconsistencies are probably found in Christian groups. Scholars have pointed out criticism of Pharisees by Pharisees in the Talmud. William C. Varner says (“Jesus and the Pharisees; A Jewish Perspective,” http://www.pfo.org/pharisee.htm, accessed again December 11, 2007):

There is a passage, appearing in slightly different forms in both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, that sheds an abundance of light on the self-perception of the Pharisees. This passage describes seven different types of Pharisees. A paraphrase of the difficult Talmudic language describes the following seven: (1) The “shoulder” Pharisee wore his good deeds on his shoulder so everyone could see them. (2) The “wait a little” Pharisee always found an excuse for putting off a good deed. (3) The “bruised” Pharisee shut his eyes to avoid seeing a woman and knocked into walls, bruising himself. (4) The “humpbacked” Pharisee always walked bent double, in false humility. (5) The “ever reckoning” Pharisees was always counting up the numbers of his good deeds. (6) The “fearful” Pharisee always quaked in fear of the wrath of God. (7) The “God-loving” Pharisee was a copy of Abraham who lived in faith and charity.

Most Christian groups probably have some of these kinds of people.

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net