Lectionary 15.09                                                                      Christ Church , York

They are a pair together, these wild men of the Lord. Born centuries apart these two men were nevertheless bound together in a common purpose as they sought to serve their Lord and God in complete faithfulness. But Amos the prophet and John the baptizer are bound together not only in their common ministry but also in showing faithful service to the Lord, a service which was not always easy but rather often called for them to be bold, to take risks, even show a little chutzpa. Yes chutzpa! It’s an interesting Yiddish word, this chutzpa and it means having supreme self confidence, even nerve or gall as in “he’s got a nerve saying that” or “the gall of it all to speak to me in such a manner.” But chutzpa is exactly what Amos had – he had nerve and he gall…lots of it! He started out as an ordinary man - a herdsman and a pruner of sycamore trees. He hadn’t wanted to get into this business of being a prophet but Amos had been called by God and he had answered that call. And so this prophet of the Lord ends up at the sacred shrine of Bethel , to announce the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the very kingdom in which he was standing. Clearly, making such an announcement is never good news for the royal family or the rest of the power structure which lives and governs in that place and, as a result, Amos has a run in with Amaziah, the royal priest of Bethel , who tells Amos to get out and go home. Amos is reminded that he is in the king’s sanctuary and the royal temple and that, while he may be a prophet, he is no better than those other prophets who hung around the royal throne in droves seeking the favor of the king. I am a priest of the royal temple says Amaziah, while you Amos, you are nothing more than a little upstart. So get up, get out of the way and go home.

But Amos responds that he is not a prophet like those others, but rather a prophet sent from God who can say without fear, “and the Lord said to me!” Now that’s chutzpa! In front of royalty and the high priest of the temple, faced with all the power of government and the religious power elite, Amos speaks with boldness and fearlessness and with an unwillingness to allow anything or anyone to block his way. Amos has had a vision and he is on a mission from God and so he can do no other than to proclaim those truths which God had given to him. There is no doubt, no fear; God has given him a task and, as a result, Amos will step out in faithfulness to pursue his mission and he will do it with more than a little chutzpa. Even in the face of the king and the priest Amaziah, Amos does not faint or fade, stumble or stagger, quiver or quake. Amaziah says go; Amos says no; for no is not part of Amos’s vocabulary when he is in the service of the Lord. He will speak that which he has been given to speak regardless of the consequences. That’s chutzpa!

But having chutzpa in following God can sometimes be risky. Many of the prophets of old found that out and John the baptizer, the last of all the prophets was one of them. We know John as that eccentric man who went around the countryside of Judea , dressed in weird clothing and eating strange food, all the while proclaiming repentance and the coming of the Messiah. Now in the religious scene of that day, John was not alone; indeed there were many more like him also out there proclaiming the coming of a messiah. But as long as these wandering prophets stuck to the issue of religion, neither the powers that be, either in the political or the religious realms, were too much concerned. But John doesn’t stay in the safe realm of religion. Instead he crosses the line into politics and starts going around the countryside saying that King Herod was wrong to marry his brother’s wife. Such a challenge to the power structure of the day does not go unnoticed. But John, like Amos before him, does not back away nor does he try to water down what he has to say, with the result that he ends up in prison.

Most of us as Christians in this day and age and particularly living in this nation don’t think that speaking the truth about our faith is going to land us in prison and for that we can be immensely grateful. But speaking the truth about our faith can still cause us difficulties especially when we challenge and confront the power structures of our day. And sometimes that needs to happen. For while it is true that Christianity is always about showing us the face of God in the love He has for us and the love we are called to share with all around us; and Christianity is also about proclaiming God’s peace and shalom to the world, the forgiveness of sins and new life in Christ, our faith is not just about warm mushy feel good emotions. Rather there are times when our faith calls for us to show a little chutzpa and to take a few risks. You may remember Reggie White who was a famous football player for the Green Bay Packers and a man known to be a strong Christian. When asked about how he could live his Christian faith while playing such a violent sport as football, White answered by saying “I’ve never seen any conflict between Christianity and football. I don’t see football as a violent sport but rather one which is aggressive. And I see Christianity as an aggressive faith. To a lot of people,” White went on to say, “being a Christian means being a wimpy, mild mannered, non confrontational person. We read in the Scriptures about the meek inheriting the earth but we have the wrong idea about meekness. In the Greek, being meek doesn’t mean being weak; it means controlled aggression, the same aggression showed by Jesus when He confronted the religious authorities of His day. Jesus wasn’t tame or weak; He was tough and aggressive, more tough and aggressive than anyone who plays football…and that,” says Reggie White, “that got Him nailed to a cross!” In short Reggie White saw Christianity as calling for us to exercise a little chutzpa and to take a few risks.

I’m not advocating that we return to that form of muscular Christianity which said it was alright to ram our faith down other people’s throats regardless of whether they liked it or not. But in our world today, a world which finds itself torn from its moral and ethical roots, which is lost and confused, which has admitted to corruption and the abuse of power at the highest levels of business, politics and yes even the Church itself, it is to this world and to these institutions, that we may need to speak the truth in love…and we may need to do it with a willingness to take some risks and with a lot of chutzpa. The great American novelist Flannery O’Connor says, “People have it all wrong when they think of our faith as a big fuzzy electric blanket when it is, of course, the cross.” Or as Daniel Berrigan, the Jesuit priest who opposed the Vietnam War put it even more succinctly, “When you follow Jesus, you need to be willing to look good on wood.” Serving as a prophet of the Lord, seeking to speak the truth in love even when others don’t want to hear it, these are risky ways of living but they are also the cross filled ways of our faith and they call for us to live that faith with some chutzpa.

Amos and John spoke out against the powerful social, religious and political structures of their day. Amos spoke forcefully against the gross and widespread corruption that existed in his day. John spoke out forcefully against the lax moral and ethical standards of his day, declaring that even the king was wrong for what he had done in his so called marriage to his brother’s wife. And in our own time we have had those whose faith has led them to take great risks and show a great deal of chutzpa. There was Martin Luther King and all those who marched with him on the road to freedom for the African Americans in this nation, for which some died and many suffered. Or paving the road before him were Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth for fought for equal rights for both woman and blacks and were castigated for it. There was Daniel Berrigan who helped lead the opposition to a war which he believed was unjust and there are those today who have spoken out against other wars and who are still willing to go to prison for their beliefs. Or there was Mother Theresa and Pope John Paul II who both spoke out against the catastrophe of abortion in our world for which both were roundly condemned and criticized. None of these people made themselves popular by speaking out in the way they did. All of them made enemies in the political, religious and power structures of their day. But in the end their faith drove them forward, led them to take risks as they spoke the truth and to show a lot, a lot of chutzpa.

Following in the footsteps of Amos, John, Martin, Theresa, John Paul and so many others who have been willing to show their faithfulness to God with some real chutzpa and risk, our call as prophets of this age, is to be willing to stand up and speak out when there is grave injustice in our land, when the poor are not fed or the weak not cared for. Our call is to speak the truth when we see religious authorities fail to address situations of abuse in the Church such as the priestly sex scandals or when leaders of the Church seek to compromise the truth by changing the moral and ethical standards of our faith or promoting doctrines that are contrary to the true faith. Witnessing to such truth should be the rule and not the exception in our lives but that may mean showing some chutzpa in the face of those who would seek to silence you and a willingness to take a risk that others may dismiss you as being old fashioned, outdated or just plain wrong. But if our faith is stronger than mountains, mightier than the sword and more powerful than any of the lies told by this world and if our call as baptized children of God is to speak that truth, then we will not be afraid to proclaim that faith and, when need arises to confront those who do not want to hear either truth or faith. Called like the prophets of old then, may we like Amos and John proclaim such faith and truth…with a willingness to take great risks and with a lot of chutzpa! Amen