Usually in a sermon series I will give way to the other preachers to select the particular Sunday and the topic and will pick up what is leftover. Most of the time it is the last sermon and I have to round up the series at the end. But something happened this time and there were a number of empty slots and I find myself having to begin this new series dealing with the Minor prophets of the eighth century before Christ. Maybe those who have been preaching are more guarded and afraid of negative criticisms and offending those who disagree with them. But if the people want only to hear what they want to hear, you will never learn anything new and stay stagnant. We must learn from any sermon that is preached so that we can be challenged and not just being endorsed on every occasion.

In this sermon series Sue turned to me and said; "Dad, Why don’t you select a slot this time. How about picking up Amos?" I was a little surprised. Why did she suggest Amos? I wondered how she knew that I would have chosen Amos myself. Knowing my interest she may have sensed that I am akin to Amos in my outlook.

The person that first introduced me to Amos is one of the early Methodist missionaries. Rev Ralph Kesserlring was the Principal of ACS Ipoh and Pastor of Wesley Church who baptised me on Easter Day in 1947. In one of his sermons to the youths he preached on Amos. That one sermon made a deep impression upon me and stuck in my mind till today. He is one of the finest missionaries who endeared himself to the people. He was one who early identified me to be episcopal timber material when I returned from doctoral studies in Boston to serve as Pastor of Wesley Church, Kuala Lumpur in 1961. When he died in Ipoh he was buried in the Christian cemetery in Connolly Road just across the railway tracks from ACS. I went to be one of the pall-bearers and laid him to eternal rest in the town where he loved.

Later when I was elected to the episcopacy the Conference of Chinese Methodist Churches presented me with a calligraphic scroll and they chose a verse from Amos. The photo appears in my book. I found a comparable one in Images. This is the Chinese script is from a verse in Amos. "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream" The Chinese speaking preachers have captured the Biblical verse that accurately defines the nature of my Christian ministry.

Amos is the classical prophet and the earliest of the minor twelve prophets or "writing prophets" recorded in the Hebrew Bible. His ministry began in the 8th century around 760 BCE. It was during the reign of Jeroboam, king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The country then expanded its territory through military conquests of its neighbours. The country was enriched with flourishing trade and prosperous commerce. It was the Golden Age of Israel. It was world-class economy and nation at that period of history.

The Israelites became smug and complacent. Amos 6:4-6 depicted the rich and affluent luxuriating in opulence. But they were indifferent to the plight of the poor. The rich and the powerful appropriated the land of the poor who cannot repay their debts and even subjected them to slavery. Justice was not always seen to be done in the courts and there was flagrant corruption in the market places. The prevailing lifestyle is that of conspicuous consumption and blatant immorality. The anti-gay critics have described the gay lifestyle as hedonistic and promiscuous.

Amos himself was a wealthy sheep-breeder and owner of sycamore fig orchards with his home in Tekoa ten miles south of Jerusalem in the southern kingdom of Judah. He was summoned by God to preach in the north. In 3:8 Amos said: I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dressser of sycamore trees, and the Lord said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel." He was an ordinary man with an extraordinary mission - a holy calling.

The message was that of repentance and the call to return toYahweh’s ways. It was incumbent upon Israel to remember and to be obedient to God’s covenant. The covenant demanded righteousness and justice within her society. Because of their disobedience Amos warned them of the inevitable consequences.

This came into effect. Ten northern tribes were conquered and deported in 721 BCE by the rising Assyrian Empire and they disappeared from history.

Today we claim to be the new covenant people We are God’s elected people for a purpose and a destiny. We in Singapore are aiming to be world class. What about the poor in our midst? What about the growing gap between the rich and the poor? There is widespread reaction on the ground about the increased salaries of ministers and the inadequate payment to the poor and unemployed, lack of concern for the aged living in isolation in the one room rental flats in every constituency in the island. Where is the Amos in our midst today. Do we hear the call of God today. "Go and prophesy to my people in Singapore.

Not so long ago when the blacks were discriminated upon in the United States, it was Martin Luther King Jr and a number of black pastors who led the Civil Rights struggle. The enabled the black people to ride in the front of the bus rather than the back, to play in the sporting field rather than in their backyards in the city slums, to rise to the top of the corporate world rather than running business errands on the streets.

Martin Luther King Jr. was inspired by the prophetic teaching of Amos.

J Deotis Roberts this about Martin Luther King and his mission:

"One observes in Martin Luther King Jr. this blend of justice and love. Amos and Jesus are prophetic models for King. A worthy understanding of the Christian God and God’s moral requirements must include justice and mercy, judgement and forgiveness.

Dr King, I believe, had a sound grasp of biblical ethics – one that will win in the long run. It is my understanding that he leaned too far, at first, towards love as an ethical norm…But, because the shadow of Amos, the prophet of justice, forever haunted him. King never allowed love to become sentimentality. The later King, when confronted with Black Power, became more and more like Amos. He became more militant and thus even love became a means to racial injustice."

Those black preachers could have stayed in their churches and just worshipped. They could have prayed and blessed those who subscribed to the unjust policy of racial discrimination. They could have just appealed to God to make the change while they sit comfortably in their pews and sing vigorously to their God. But they from their leading the worship in the churches were also leading the people to demonstration on the streets. The call of God is more than to come to worship God in the Church but also to go and establish justice and righteousness in the land.

When the people were spending all the time in the sanctuary and performing their acts of worship he lashed out to them. My Old Testament professor who taught me in the course on Amos He paraphrased the central message of justice Amos 5:21-24 in his book and put these words in the mouth of Amos:

"But the Israelites to whom I was speaking could not think of any other way to seek Yahweh than through the great pilgrimage feasts with their sacred assemblies, and their sacrifices, such as whole burnt offerings, meal offerings and peace offerings of fatted beasts, in the feastings upon which the worshippers shared. And all this was accompanied by boisterous songs to the music of the harp. It took courage to criticise these practices at the very time and place where they were performed. But I could see all this as a tragic mistake and an utter misconception of the true way to seek him. So I felt myself to be Yahweh’s very mouthpiece as I said in utter solemnity, weighing every word."

Amos is not against wonderful worship services. Worship just cannot be reduced to songs and rituals or rites. Worshippers cannot please God when they delay and deny justice and basic human rights to people. His point is we worship God better when we do justice and protect the rights of the poor. We are to worship God in the world as well as in church. True religion and morality joined in genuine worship. Cultic rituals could not be substitute for moral and upright lifestyle. The covenant with God required "devotion and not devotions." Religion is a wholesome lifestyle and not holy activities.

Through Amos, the voice of God is not heard as a still small gentle voice, or as a whisper in the wind, or as a whistling in the wilderness. It is the roar of a lion who finds injustice running wild. The book of Amos in a number of instances images God roaring. The lion has roared who will not fear (3:7). He boldly declared our God is a God of justice and a God of judgment.

When the poor in Calcutta were left to die on the streets and needed Mother Teresa to help them to die in dignity, the people did not heed the call of their poet Tagore who reflected the same sentiments of Amos when he wrote:

Leave This
Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads!
Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?
Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones.
He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust.
Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!

Deliverance?
Where is this deliverance to be found?
Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation;
he is bound with us all for ever.
Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense!
What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained? Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.

We do not meet God in the sanctuaries of our Temple if we do not want to meet God who is with the people in the streets and establishing justice and righteousness. Israel at that time was merely engaging in the ritualistic worship of God thinking that is the most important thing that God wants from the worshippers and that they are fulfilling their total obligation to God. In fact, worship by itself is not sufficient for God values personal responsibility and community caring above formal worship. Amos had harsh words to say about ritualistic religion when its performers are interested only to make themselves right with God, in the absence of personal and corporate morality. God does not tell us to stop worshiping, but to allow worship to flow into right living. What honors God: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." What God despises is empty worship, devoid of concern for holy living in the world.

The book of Amos tells us how God became furious with Israel when they forgot the questions of justice. When Israel abandoned the needs of the marginalized, and particularly the poor, God would always call a prophet to remind the people of how indignant God is. "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

Justice and righteousness are to be considered together. Justice is the establishment of God’s order in society. Righteousness in the fulfillment of God decrees in human relationships. Righteousness means getting our personal lives in order before God. Justice means getting our public lives in order before God.

Let me end with this report:
In Riverside Church in New York City on May 5, 1985 Dr Channing E Philips (Black

Associate Pastor preached on the theme: "On Human Sexuality." His text was Genesis 1:27 Male and female (God) created them. His conclusion was that heterosexuality if the model. Any deviation from heterosexuality is contrary to God’s will and it is a sin. It is the word of God.

At the end of the Communion, a young straight man stepped forward and said that he could not agree with the words of the preacher. He declared that stand beside the Table in support of gays and lesbians and invited others to join him. About 500 stood with him during the singing of the last hymn.

The other three pastors subsequently preached the following Sundays. William Sloan Coffin the Senior Pastor declared: "I do not see how Christians can define and then exclude people on the basis of sexual orientation." The other two pastors and one of them was a woman who affirmed inclusiveness of the Church and pastoral concern for all.

The Church officially voted to be an Open and Gay Affirming Church in the United Church of Christ. Lately the Cathedral of Hope which is largest gay church joined the same denomination.

Members and the Church cannot just simply pray and bless those who condemn homosexuality and sit back and hope they will change and that God will do it for them because they in faith in prayer. The silence could be interpreted as acceptance of their teaching that homosexuality is a sin. When they charged that the gay lifestyle is hedonistic and promiscuous it was Jerry Seah who reported on the work of Spaces where the gays were involved in serving the poor and the disabled. We have a responsibility to change the perception of the anti-gays that the gay lifestyle is hedonistic and promiscuous. They must write their letters and let their views be known to the government and the public. They must step forward to demonstrate and to speak out to denounce injustices. They must stand up and pursue justice and establish righteousness in their private and public life. This is in the spirit of the Prophet of Justice – Amos.