Amos, the third of the Minor Prophets, not only speaks a word from God to the people of Israel, but also gives us a glimpse into the mind of a prophet and into the kind of reception the prophet receives. The word from God through Amos is harsh, leading many in Israel to respond with skepticism that the chosen people of God should be subject to such judgment. But Amos assures them that they do indeed need to hear a word of judgment. “Hear this word the Lord has spoken against you. You only have I known of all the families of earth; therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.” (Amos 3:1-2) Israel does not receive judgment in spite of how special they are – but precisely because of how special they are! As God’s covenant partner, they have failed and need to know it. “Hear this,” the prophet begins. Before anything else can happen, Israel must be still and quiet enough to actually hear what God has to say. Israel is a people who have forgotten how to listen. Israel has become a people whose behavior is born out of something other than what they have heard from God while in a posture of listening.
Amos continues: “Does a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey?… Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?… Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid?… The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?” (3:3-8) Is there any effect, without first a cause? Would there be a word from God to receive if God did not first have something to say? These eight verses begin and end with, “The Lord has spoken.” God has something to say, and nothing else happens until then.
Later on in Amos, the prophet is confronted by a priest named Amaziah. Amaziah strongly objects, on behalf of the king and the priesthood, to the prophet’s words of judgment. These people are too special to be criticized like this, the priest implies to the prophet. Amos should either stop prophesying, or at least go prophesy somewhere else, be a nuisance to someone else. But Amos replies that he never asked to be a prophet, and doesn’t even consider himself one (oh, the beautiful irony of the prophet who denies being a prophet). Amos was a shepherd, and content with being just a shepherd. But God called him from his daily work and told him to go and prophesy. And so, prophesy he did. Amos has no desire to have his own words heard. For Amos, to be a prophet is not to have something to say, but to be quiet, still and patient in anticipation of God having something to say.
I wonder, is that what is means for us the be the Church – to be quiet, still and patient in anticipation of God having something to say? Like Amos, we are called to speak, but not because we like the sound of our own voices, nor because we sit in righteous judgment of someone else. When we have something to say, it is only because God has something to say, because the lion has roared; the Lord has spoken. Let us be content to say nothing before then.
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