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Pizza Edition
It’s always about this time of year, that parents start asking their kids what they want for Christmas. I have found this exercise to be both joyful and dreadful. Some of the things kids ask for get tossed out immediately. Pony? No. Another dog? Absolutely not.
And then some of the stuff they ask for, it’s like, really? You can ask me for anything you want, and that’s what you decided on? Of course, my kid isn’t like this. It’s all those other kids who have had their brains warped by YouTube. I mean, I just googled the best toy for Christmas 2023. The top result, and I’m not making this up, is a game called, “Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.” Really. It’s just that inane. That’s what our kids are clamoring for. Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. That’s what we want. Be careful when you ask your kids what they want for Christmas, it’s both a dreadful and a joyful routine we go through every year.
But it’s those emotions that I want to tap into today. It’s both those feelings the prophet Amos is dealing with. We get Amos, on the emotional level, even if you don’t know much about him. Now for those of you who don’t spend their days and nights pondering the ancient Israelite prophets, I’ll give you the refresher. Amos probably lived around 750 B.C. He was a farmer, but then God calls Amos to be a prophet, to speak God’s truth. Because God is so aggravated by the people of God. And no matter how many times God says to do the right thing, the people of Israel don’t do the right thing. Now, it looks like the people of Israel were doing the right thing. They were saying all the right prayers, they have all the right hymns, they gather on all the right days. But it’s just a big show. They’re not taking care of the widows and the orphans, the rich are getting richer and the poor are starving to death. They have the outward appearance of righteousness but it all stinks.
God says, “I hate, I despise your festivals, I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them…Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps” (Amos 5:21, 22a, 23). Don’t you love that? It’s like, God is putting his hands over his ears because he just can’t take their “holier than thou” racket. God is tired of their showing off.
And to make matters worse, the same people who are doing all of that, say that they want the Day of the Lord. They say they want God to appear. Like a parent dreading that big Christmas shopping trip to Target, God says, “really? That’s what you want?” Because the people don’t know what that entails. The Day of the Lord, Amos says, is a day of darkness, not light (Amos 5:20). The Day of the Lord, it’s like someone fleeing from a lion only to meet a bear. Like someone who leans up against a wall, and is bitten by a snake (Amos 5:19). The Day of the Lord is the Day of Judgment. And God, God is angry at how they spend all their time and energy doing the rituals, but not doing the right thing. You want the Day of the Lord? Amos is warning the p