Pastor Ralph Douglas West - At Ease In Zion | Amos 6:1-2 - The Church Without Walls

0:08 This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice and we are glad in it. Amen. Thank you, choir, for blessing us today in worship for the reading of God's word. How we praise God for that. Amos chapter 6 You know it's never going to be a good day If Amos come to church Anybody that knows anything about Amos knows That Amos is disruptive at best Amos chapter 6 This is a warning. I want to tag this text. at ease in Zion.

1:11 Woe to you who are complacent Some of your translations read it this way Woe to you who are at ease in Zion And to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria You notable men of the foremost nation to whom the people of Israel come. Go to Kalna, look at it, go from there to the great Hamath and then go down to the Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than you two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours?

2:07 This is the word of God. You may be seated at ease as I am. Preachers don't just appear on stage. on certain platforms they're invited. In 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York. The latest society of the abolitionists invited him to come and speak to their gathering on the 4th of July. He came on the 5th.

3:06 and used that day to address the fourth. Frederick Douglass asked the question, what to the slave is the Fourth of July?

3:26 And in poetic and rhetorical and prophetic fashion, he began to rain down a list saying your day, your independence, your freedom. They caught on to what he was doing. It is your day of independence, not mine. Your day of freedom, my day of slavery. Your day of comfort, mine of discomfort. Preachers have a tendency when being invited To succumb to the pressure of the people Who sit in front of them Not Douglas He was a true prophet He spoke the truth To those who were there in power Thank you.

4:27 Preachers with prophetic edges Don't know how to behave When they have been invited the most prestigious pulpit in North America in the 60s for his justice and progressive ministry had been pastored by the Harry Emerson Fosdick. Fosdick is now gone. Robert McCracken is there now. And the guest preacher is Martin Luther King Jr. one of the radical American prophets. this Nobel Peace Prize winner this southern preacher up north named his sermon The Three Evils I'm a student of the presidential historian, Lyndon Bain Johnson.

5:35 I know why he was ticked off. When you help a prophet Rise to where the prophet can get bills passed You don't expect a prophet To throw you under the bus But you can't tame a prophet Three evils, poverty, racism, and militarism, attacking the Vietnam War. One of the reasons why the prophet was failed in Memphis, Tennessee on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. Can't control prophets. They're always opening their mouth.

6:31 That's the reason why, you know, and they don't wait to speak big and bad and bold to you because they know you're going to cheer on that side. Real prophets open their mouth where you say, don't you want to tone it down some? If you can imagine this, then you understand how Amos function. Functions as a prophet with a priestly, pastoral, prophetic message or ministry even. You had a national cathedral church. The national church was down in Samaria. The prophet Amos is a shepherd. He's a pastor over the pastoral lands. He's looking over his nakab sheep, these black-coated, beautiful sheep. He gets a call up from God to go down and preach.

7:29 God called him, not Amaziah. Preachers, be careful. Don't just show up at somebody else's church talking about the Lord told you. And Amos gets invited. Amos looks at the panoramic scene of the nation and says, let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. And he leans in on everybody in the national church. Prophets He was a priestly way He had a priestly ministry That's building bridges between man and God He did that But he was a prophet Edgy Talking Loud Bold And he got out of there as fast as he could too What does Amos have to say, you ask, on the weekend leading up to the 4th of July?

8:42 Amos gives a hint on how to interpret the world. And you may want to try this sometimes when you're reading the Bible. Card Bart says, read with double vision, 20 vision in the Bible. and then 20 vision in the newspaper. This is for all the people that say, you know, I go to church, I don't come to hear all that other stuff. You've never read the scripture.

9:15 Scripture is not some book about people that's living on some distant planet. There are people who lived on earth working with God's agenda to make the world right again. And that calls for participation. Let me say it again. For all of you that's talking about God, go visit him in the sick. You get up and go and visit him in the sick. You go, there you go. You get the idea. I know this shatters some of your image of God because you thought that being a Christian meant that I get to sit at ease And tell God what to do That's the prophet Amos Ain't sent a prophet like Isaiah He gets caught up, he makes his way over to the national church. He looks at the scene and he begins to say this, you have your faith deposited in false security.

10:24 And so he reaches from then to now and says, I'm not just talking to them, I'm speaking to you at the church without walls. Do not put your faith in false security. That's why we read verse one.

10:50 Notice what he says to these people who have built their lives on a foundation of shallow optimism. He looks at the nation. And look at verse one. He says, don't be at ease in Zion. Don't be complacent with your situation where you are. And in that very line, he says to us, because some of you feel secure on Mount Samaria.

11:25 That one line appears 40 times in this brief book of prophecy. You don't have to know a lot about literature or writing. you don't have to know about literary structure to know if you have a book this short and 40 references with the same line is telling you something's important and it simply says this stop putting your confidence in things that are false insecure that do not matter that will collapse under pressure. Stop putting your faith in the wrong places.

12:11 It is here that he speaks to us in this. He says that because some of you Regardless of what you know You continue to put your confidence In the wrong place in power book three Raising Canaan Jukebox has found her mama Her mama has found religion at best. The charismatic but abusive pastor believes that he can beat physically sin out of jukebox.

13:06 Mama wants to intervene but she doesn't. The lack of intervention is jukebox's interpretation that she never cared. And when a mother says, I'm trying to save, you need to be saved and gives of the religious beach, jukebox says poetically cussing. I don't believe in that stuff. That's just what you tell people. To get them to buy into something after they die. I thought about that because that's how some of you believe in what I'm doing now. He's just that talking stuff. Ain't nothing real beyond this. I'm going to leave that up to you.

13:59 And it is that kind of thinking that the prophet Amos attacked. Because anything that bothers our materiality, our prosperity, our luxury, we want to get rid of it. And the prophet says, before you turn me off, look at the neighboring nations of what happens to them. And he names in verse 2 a list of nations that said they believe that God and this talk is just stuff. and then he says you can't find them on the map Think about the nations in the past 247 years that are no more taken over, reshaped, redesigned because of that same kind of thinking.

15:08 D'Elton Trueblood was a philosopher, a Quaker and he used a beautiful metaphor to describe America and Christianity in America. He says we are a cut flowered generation. In the sunshine we bloom and we are venerated and vegetated and then we'll cut from our roots and then put in a vase and put on a table and we look good for a while but the longer we're separated from our roots we begin to die and to wither away I'm talking to some of you and some of you that are watching you're beautiful now, you're young, you're vegetated You're colorful, you're vivacious But I'm going to tell you The longer you are separated From that which gives you real life Eventually your hopes will dwindle Your dreams will begin to fade away All the vivaciousness of life Will dissipate and disappear That was the nations And that's a word not just for the individual That's a word for America America needs to listen to that We stamp God on everything But then you got to ask What God are they talking about?

16:41 The God of Greenback The God of the Benjamin The God of abuse The God of injustice The God of economy The God of finance You can use God for anything. I hear people always trying, I believe in God. I say this, and I don't mean no harm by this. You want to lose business from me? Tell me you're a Christian. Because some of the crookedest people I've ever dealt with always talk about their Christian. Show me you're a Christian and I'll do business with you. Don't tell me you're no Christian. The Christians who are Christian, it'll show up in their language, their business, their integrity, their attitude, their disposition, the way that they treat you, it'll show up. And I'm not one of them preachers that don't love the church.

17:43 I love the church. You know that. And I love God's people. I do love them. I don't care what people say about y'all. I love you. I do. Oh, yes, I am. And I love my members. And I tell people all the time when they start that business, lean it in. Well, yes, I'm, you know, show me your loving. Don't tell me you love me. I want to know. That's the reason why when you talk about political parties, that's always talking about God and conservative. How in the world can you love God whom you've never seen and hate, mistreat, marginalize, and abuse people who you see every day? Even if they don't look like you, act like you, have the same ideology as you. You see, my job is not to save you.

18:41 I preach a savior who's able to save. And that keeps me on good ground to love you just the way that you are. Priest Pastor West. Now I got to move on from that. but put your faith in the right security, not in false security. Because if you start putting your faith in some political party, put it into some economic system, some military complex, if you put it into society system, it's going to fail. It's designed to fail. It fails because it's human. You need to put your hope and faith and confidence in a God that is able to sustain all of life's pressure. Now look how this works now.

19:40 You move from verses 1 and 2 and you move over really to verses 4 through 6. And it provides for us a big picture of how false security creates indulgent luxury.

20:03 You see, when Amos is looking at the world, he's looking at the world. He's not looking at just one thing. He's looking at the world. and so when he's looking at the world he's looking at the lifestyle of the people in the world and he begins to paint a picture descriptively of the people who live in this world. You see the outlining of the picture beginning in verse 4 and the images that he uses It takes a little interpretation only because you don't want to draw the wrong conclusion about God and your life. And so he begins to talk about how people live. He says, here you are.

20:58 People living out on the streets and you in your ivory beds. Lounging. The word would be sprouted out. your couch, dining on the choices pieces of food and fattened calf, sitting over at some five-star restaurant, strumming your harp like you David. now come come with me now because this is one of them points you'll leave and say i'm never coming back unless you get what he's getting to now any one or two of these things is not enough to condemn anybody i mean because the the the reply would be well i work I have a right to invest my resources in my stomach, in my house if I want, and you're right.

22:04 And this is why it takes a little time to understand what Amos is getting at. I started off, I said, he's painting the big picture. So he's saying, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not saying anything about you because you live in that million dollar house. Or drive that hundred thousand dollar car. I didn't say anything about that. I am creating a world of luxury without God. And a world of luxury without God is when you're trying to, okay, keep up with the Kardashians. You're trying to be the housewives of Atlanta. You're trying to be the basketball wives.

23:01 You're trying to live your life through the luxuriance of somebody else. Nothing is never good enough. It has to be stamped with a Manhattan logo. You give your life away chasing after stuff that don't matter. Some of y'all in here and watching are miserable trying to keep up with somebody else. You don't know what some folk got to do to get what they got. Here the prophet is drawing this great picture in verses four through six of self-indulgence.

23:56 That's all he's getting to. Your life is bigger. Jesus would say it this way. Your life is bigger than the things of what you eat and what you drink and what you wear. So look at the birds. Look at the flower. If your father can take care of a bird and a flower, surely our God can take care of his own children. Alexander Shosinitsen is one of my favorite writers. And when Shosinitsen was invited to speak at Harvard's commencement,

24:56 he'd been released some years earlier from the archipelago. and he said that you can resolve to live a lie. he said you can resolve to live a life with integrity you can let a lie come in you can let a lie triumph but the lie can't exist through me you and I are people of truth we know what truth is even when truth nags at you gnaws at you and you shall know the truth Jesus said and the truth will make you free And so the truth is that God does speak to the nation, but he reminds America, hold on, wait.

26:05 You ain't my chosen people. that this hurts religious conservatives because this morning they are chomping and pumping up and walking around with banners hold on that term choice people belong to Israel and now it belongs to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ not any ethnic group preach Pastor West The flag is not the cross. The Constitution is not the Bible.

26:55 You better learn where we stand. No, no, I'm above the flag. Above that, I stand on the BIPLE. That's the book for me. I'm done now I don't care nothing about your patriotism being offended the cross and the flag are not the same Jesus didn't die on the American flag he died on the whole rugged cross I don't care how that senator in that hearing cried and talked about how much he loved God and said, and I look at the Constitution as if it is the word of God.

27:51 No, no, no, because if you did, you would not mistreat, you would not marginalize, you would not abuse people because of their color because of their sex because of their affiliation you wouldn't do it Let me sit down now. Y'all can't handle it. Yeah, but I tell you, the word of God is what makes the difference for us. I'm through now, my time. I got two minutes, 32 seconds. Let me wrap it up with one thing. No nation can survive making odds with God. Let me say it one more. I don't care if your name is America. You cannot survive if you're going to make God your enemy.

28:49 You ain't going to do it. Several years ago, Jeremiah Wright, in his church, preaching to his people. He's a prophet. And I told you, prophets always getting in trouble saying something. He didn't say nothing worse than what Amos said. Oh, no, he did not. And all Jeremiah Wright made one comment. He said, God bless America. He said, no, not God bless America. And he went down the list of Amos. Economy. Education. Health benefits. Equality of living. He said, no, no, no, not God bless America. God damn America And oh everybody went crazy And I knew then I said Lord the church Has been starved From reading the prophets Because you ain't never met no prophet That said anything that was nice For instance can you imagine How the sisters felt When Amos opened up his mouth And said you cows a bay share that ain't the word he really used i'm not gonna use that word that that preacher used in the bible because we can't handle it and that's the point of truth truth stings truth has a way of gnawing truth it's supposed to get you upset have a good day may god bless you but on my way to heaven But no nation can survive when it makes enemy with God.

30:36 Let me say it again. You can say God with everything else. I hear people, bless the Lord and praise the Lord. And I don't pay no attention to none of that. Because I don't need a shout with your lips. I need a shout with your lifestyle. Have a good day. May God bless you. all we all we are there's a whole lot of talk just talking loud James Brown said and saying no I gotta sit down you can't make enemy with God what that makes me think of something what a prophet and I'm done I'm closing where I started I said the property has to have two visions 2020 sighting Bart in the Bible and and then in the newspaper. And you know why you got to have it?

31:30 It's because when you look at it, you don't want to make enemy with God. I believe God is angry this morning at the Supreme Justices. I really do. But now you got to give credit to the other president. Got to give him credit. he said what he was going to do and some of us we started talking about where he's doing a good job and just the other day on the stomp he said you see what our three conservative supreme justices done they said we're doing what we promised we're making America white again that's what they're doing Yeah, and they're doing a good job at it They're turning our schools white again When you start taking books written by Credentialed men and women That have been on the shelf for 40 years And saying now we don't want our children to read it We're rolling back We're rolling back Time clock Yes we are And here we are Here we are Now affirmative action Roe versus Wade gone Now affirmative action And they just announced last week That we got three or four other big items That we coming after And they probably gonna get them Yeah because when you stack the deck Politically without justice Anything might happen These people in that confirmation they said Oh we see no need And turning this back and turning that back Anybody can say anything To get elected to the position Once you get to the position That's what we ought to know what you're going to do I'm just having fun now But I'm telling the truth

33:36 So that means when election time get here You better get your I know you are You better get your friends up And get your family up and get your children up and get your grandchildren up and tell you, you better march on down there. Because people marched too much and fought too much for somebody just to take back what people have worked for. And by the way, and by the way, affirmative action, talking about affirmative action ain't giving black people or brown people or Mexican people or women people are giving Asian people, they ain't giving you nothing. Affirmative action is this, in the words of that great poet, Jane Brown, I don't want nobody to give me nothing.

34:31 Open the door. I'll get it myself. Have a good day. May God bless you real good, but oh my, way to heaven, we got work to do. we got things to do we got a job to do we gotta get out here and work to make the world a better place a safer place a more peaceful place a joyful place now i started talking about A cut flower generation. So let me close with that. How then do we get the world and the church back on track? I know you know the answer. If you cut the flowers, then they put it in a vase and separate it from its roots. It'll die that way.

35:26 So we need to go back and replant ourselves and reconnect to our history. Reconnect to our roots. Reconnect to our heritage. Go back to God. Go back to Jesus. Go back to the Holy Ghost. Go back to the scriptures. Go back to the church. Go back to fellowship. What a fellowship. What a joy divine Leaning on the elbow Lasting on Oh what blessed peace Yeah leaning leaning leaning safe and secure from all along I'm leaning leaning on the everlasting the everlasting on Lord.

36:40 forgive those of us as I look at my own members who have not visited the prophets or like the prophets been bold enough as not to scare people I'm looking at my own people teach us that we have a responsibility that you have already come from glory in Jesus Christ. Redeemed us at Calvary and now have empowered us to change our institutions, to challenge indifferences and racisms and ideologies in institutions and systems. Change our schools and change our communities. Help us grab a hold of our sons and daughters Who are out of control Mamas and daddies That have abandoned their responsibilities Help us Lord to challenge policing in this country And Lord help us to do something with the politicians Help us remind them That they are elected to serve That they're not little kings and little gods and little potentates.

38:03 May we like Amos be like the lion that roars. and I know we should be because you're from the lion the tribe of the lion of Judah So help us raise our voices even when people don't want to hear it, when they don't like it, to say that I have called a church into existence not just to clap and dance and praise, but to change the world, to change the communities, change the environments that they're in. I know you're doing it, Lord, around the world.

38:56 Keep doing what you do. Give the church what the church needs to make that happen. In the name of Jesus. And all God's people say, Amen. Give God praise today, church.