So, you have God’s generosity on the one hand and the greed of the elite on the other. Which would you rather have? Unjust scales or a scale breaking generous God?
During the reign of King Jeroboam II in the eighth century, God sent Amos with a message for the wealthy who oppressed the poor in Israel. The message was clear; God was against them! The rich were trampling over those in need (8:4), driving the market by raising inflation and human trafficking. The oppressive rich were so greedy for gain that they even saw the gift of Sabbath rest as something which got in the way of their ability to do more business. They wanted every waking moment to be a chance to make more money. They would dope the wheat with chaff and use dishonest scales to get more money for less product (8:5-6).
If you have a hard time finding something to compare this to, it is very much like the experience of opening a fully inflated bag of chips only to find it is mostly air and a third of the bag is filled with crumbled chips at the bottom. You have been duped, robbed, and left wanting.
“Surely, I will never forget any of their deeds” (8:7), declares the Lord. The striking thing about the way they were acting can only be found in contrast to how God behaves in verses 1-3. You really need the context of this pericope to get the contrast for preaching the Gospel. The stinginess of the elite compared to the absolute generosity of God is the whole point (verses 1-3). God is so generous, bringing in blessings by the basketful. So, you have God’s generosity on the one hand and the greed of the elite on the other. Which would you rather have? Unjust scales or a scale breaking generous God?
The solution seems simple, I will take what the Lord God is giving, and He gives so generously to us in His Son, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5-6). To illustrate that point you can bring in Jesus’ feeding of both the five and four thousand. What would appear to be scarcity and need becomes, in Jesus’ hands, a demonstration of God’s superabundant generosity. We come to Christ burdened by the world and impoverished because of sin, and He gives us grace through the forgiveness of sins. We can bank on the generosity of God in Christ.
This actually leads to an interesting connection for our Gospel lesson for today. When Jesus praises the unjust manager, it seems He is contradicting our reading from Amos. Which is it? Does God hate dishonesty, or does He praise it? We seem to be in a pickle with our pericopes.
The truth is the master is not endorsing the dishonesty of the manager in the parable of Jesus. God does hate dishonesty and will never promote it; just see the Seventh Commandment. Notice, however, that the master commended the manager’s shrewdness (16:8a). It appears the manager knew something about his master. He knew him to be a generous man. So, he counts on that. He banks on the generosity of the master so that when he, in turn, is generous with his master’s debtors, they will have gratitude for the manager’s shrewdness and, by extension, gratitude for the master himself. This act of generosity makes it so others will be grateful to the master and then become generous to the manager if he was ever in need. Generosity is contagious in all the good ways. The manager is generous like his master, and he knows his master will never go back on that. The manager was wise to trust in the generosity of his master.
Generosity is contagious in all the good ways.
Jesus’ teaching is consistent with Amos’ message. Jesus would have everyone trust in our generous God (The Master) rather than anyone else who supports an undertaking with money to secure surety by greed. The only guarantee worth having is from God and not from man! Jesus is right, “No one can serve two masters” (Luke 16:9), and given the circumstances of Amos 8:4-7, I will trust in God who gives so generously on account of the resurrected Jesus.
Since we are comparing the generosity of God to the greed of the world, I suggest using a Compare and Contrast Structure.
“This structure systematically explores relevant similarities and/or differences between two topics in order to accomplish a purpose for the hearer. In this sermon, the purpose of comparing/contrasting is crucial. While proverbial wisdom says that you cannot compare apples and oranges, the preacher responds that you most certainly can, depending upon what your purpose is. The sermon, thus, does more than simply inform hearers of similarities and/or differences. It uses that information for a purpose, and that purpose often makes a difference in their lives. For example, one could compare/contrast the teaching in an adult bible class with the teaching in the Sunday sermon for the purpose of encouraging hearers to attend both worship and bible class.
In presenting this information to the hearers, the preacher has a choice of two approaches. He can work whole-to-whole (in other words, offering all of the individual items of one topic before proceeding to a listing of the individual items of another topic: A1, A2, A3 and B1, B2, B3). For example, the preacher may compare and contrast Mary and Martha or the Pharisee and the Publican. Or the preacher can work part-to-part (in other words, offering one item from each topic and then proceeding to the next item: A1/B1, A2/B2, A3/B3). In part to part, a larger theme will be present for the hearers that slowly unfolds through the comparison. For example, the preacher may articulate the theme of repentance by comparing and contrasting Peter and Judas or he may articulate the theme of preaching the Kingdom of God by comparing and contrasting John the Baptizer and Jesus.
The choice of approach is often based upon the balance of information you have and what you desire your listeners to remember. Whole-to-whole encourages them to remember the topics (like Mary and Martha); part-to-part encourages them to remember the items that compose the topics (like the stages of temptation found in both the fall of Eve and the fall of David into sin).”[1]
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Amos 8:4-7.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Amos 8:4-7.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
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[1] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/thematic/comparisoncontrast/
