Sunday, September 28th 2025
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C (Proper 21)
Text: Amos 6:1–7
Sermon Audio
As we gather… In our readings today, we see stark warnings as to what happens when we are living for earthly indulgence. “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion.” It is easy for us to want to live our lives resting in the pleasures and comforts of this world. We love to be at ease. We like to be comfortable and we strive to protect our comforts. These comforts can lull us into a state of self-centered complacency which ultimately ends in Hades. We shouldn’t let our desires for the finer things in this life become a substitute for the place of eternal comfort. The truly finest thing, peace in Christ, is in his extravagant meal that will never end. There is no pleasure on this earth that can compare. When you look to Christ’s rest you are able to let earthly indulgence be what it truly is, pleasures that are but for a moment. Feast on Christ’s abundance, and His rest will surely flow from you to those around you. Indulge in Christ and your feast will be eternal.
I don’t know about you, but I have started to notice a theme to this particular part of the church year. Earthly riches, and our love of them. Whether that be money or mammon, we like things. We are prone to make gods out of our stuff, our leisure. Maybe that is why the inspired prophets and apostles spent so much time warning us against idle pleasures of the world. Our sinful flesh loves to indulge. We will continue to indulge, that is until God shakes us out of it. So He sends His messengers to do just that. Our reading from Amos begins, “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria.”
This term, at ease, is rich with meaning. It carries the sense of an undisturbed and carefree self-confidence. In other words, these people are so self absorbed in their own desires that they can’t see past the tip of their nose; and they like it that way. They can’t be bothered with anyone around them, their own personal desires are all that matters to them. Amos describes them further as lying on ivory beds, stretched out on couches, over indulging in celebratory food, idly singing, drinking wine in abundance, and anointing themselves with the finest oils. Yet, while they feast in their own desires they can’t even be bothered to grieve the fall of Joseph. The Northern Kingdom, Samaria, is engulfed in idolatry and will soon be sacked by Assyria and they go on like nothing is happening. They don’t care. They go on draping themselves over their couches like a tablecloth hangs over a table; feasting on earthly desires. I can’t help but imagine a scene in ancient Rome where Caesar and company lounge around being fanned and fed grapes by servants. Or maybe even the image of Homer Simpson half asleep on his couch with a hand in a donut box and the other on a remote.
“O you who put far away the day of disaster and bring near the seat of violence?” Can the Northern Kingdom not see that they are Joseph? They will soon be destroyed if they don’t turn from their ways of self-worship. Samaria and the descendents of Joseph have been removed from God’s Truth, His Word, for so long they can’t see how close their own destruction is. They can’t see that Amos is telling them that their overindulgence has made them blind to their own fall. They should be grieving, yet they are not. Judah must open their eyes as well. They should grieve what has happened to Joseph and repent. They’re from Zion! God’s holy city. They’re supposed to be God’s chosen people yet they act no better than the pagan nations around them and their younger brother Joseph who has been led astray. All will be judged the same because they would rather ignore Judgment Day and indulge in their flesh. We will be judged and the pleasures that our sinful flesh wants to revel in will pass away. “Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.” Hear the words of the prophet of the LORD lest we suffer a similar fate.
The ancient hearers of the prophet Amos might as well be us here in the 21st Century. The world around us is completely enthralled in the worship of self-indulgence. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes. That is what the world does. Amos is addressing Israel in our text; God’s holy church, His special people who ought to know better. We have the prophets and the apostles who bear witness to the Christ. We have been baptized, making us God’s children, and covering us with Christ’s righteousness. We know that Jesus is the only place to turn to for comfort, joy, and feasting beyond any measure this world can dream up. The desires of our sinful flesh pale in comparison to God’s riches.
Yet our sinful flesh has itchy ears. We want what we want, and self-justification of our deepest desires is always top on that list. Everywhere we turn we see Christian denominations embracing the sinful desires of the world. They declare peace against sin when there is no peace. Rather than pointing to Christ as the source of forgiveness and the slayer of sin; they twist Scripture to point to Christ as the source of embracing whatever sin fits their indulgence of the day. They turn love into tolerance of sin, trampling over the Gospel and the aching soul of the sinner who is laid at their gate. The sacrificial love of Christ on the cross shows no quarter to sin. Our crucified LORD is lifted up to be our sumptuous feast for the forgiveness of sins, not the excusal of them. In Christ we get the crumbs that Lazarus from our Gospel reading longed for. In Him, we are cleansed and brought to His eternal feast. How could we desire anything else?
Complacency. It is easy for us to become complacent in the gifts that God has given us. Having times of leisure and feasting in this earth are actually good and gracious gifts of reprieve for us as we go through this fallen world. The problem with the people of Zion from Amos and the rich man from Luke was they made earthly reprieves the only thing of importance. They forgot that God gives times of rejoicing and times of sadness and there is a season for both. In both you are to trust in the LORD as the source of your reprieve. A Christian rarely wakes up one morning and decides that their hobbies are going to be their god. The devil is trickier and more patient than that. This evil world never rests. Often this fall into self-indulgence is a slow lull into numbness. Maybe Sunday is the only day that it won’t be raining this weekend and the trout are jumping… The Packers play at noon and I won’t be able to get home in time if I go to church today… I spent all night playing video games with my friends and I’m too tired… Sunday brunch is the only time that our group of friends can gather… the mindless scroll of social media takes me away from the needs of my neighbor. None of this seems bad at first glance. The acts themselves aren’t sins, right, and it rarely happens. Then more excuses come up and it gets easier to make the feast of your own indulgence more important than Christ’s feast. Pretty soon your earthly feast is the only feast you know. If it is the only feast you know, then anyone else might as well have their own feast; to each their own. Self-satisfaction becomes our source of rest. Eat, sleep, and be merry becomes the motto of overindulgent people who have removed themselves from the table of the LORD. A person who has become so entrenched in his own leisure has turned a good gift of God into his god. This person has become blinded to God and the needs of His people: the people whom God has placed at his gate.
Only the God who can open the eyes of the blind and heal the sick can open the eyes of a person who has fixed their gaze solely on their own leisure. He sends His modern Amos’ to call His people to repentance; to seek rest outside of themselves; to seek the rest that can only be given in Christ. The only way to seek His rest is through the eyes of faith that comes from the Holy Spirit. We want earthly rest so bad because this world is full of hardships. The Holy Spirit, given you in your baptism and strengthened in the hearing of God’s Word, leads you to see the rest that can only be found in Christ. The same Jesus who came into this world took those hardships to the cross. He bore our sins so that those who are given faith in Him can have a rest that the world can never give. You, who have been united to Him in baptism, have been brought to life and had your eyes opened in His resurrection. You have died to sin and given the ability to live a new life in His Spirit. Your eyes now see from our Gospel reading that the crumbs that Lazarus begged for, what He truly needed, are given in the very crumbs that fall from Jesus’ Holy Altar. Lazarus feasted sumptuously at the marriage feast of the Lamb in the bosom of Abraham. He may have not received an earthly feast, but He received a heavenly feast. This is the same feast that you partake in at this altar. This is where you come to find rest in this world. Here in God’s house in the words of Christ and the eating and drinking of His flesh and blood you have all you need to be filled in this life. You now can go from this place, eyes opened, bringing this very Gospel to the people that God has placed at your gate. You don’t have to look far. This world is filled with weary souls who are searching for the rest that we have here in Christ.
Stand guard against the devil and the world who wants to lull you into a false sense of comfort. “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” You are being trained in righteousness when you come to Christ. Proverbs 13 says it best, “The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the belly of the wicked suffers want.” You who have been made righteous in Christ are satisfied beyond measure. Don’t let the wicked wants of the world entice you. You are grieved over the fall of your brother Joseph. Go forth from here with your bellies full. Show others where they can truly be satisfied. You, who believe and are baptized, bear His image and truth in this world. Cravings of the world have caused so many to wander from His truth. Stand fast in the hope, rest, and comfort that is yours in Jesus Christ. He will come again in judgment, and you who cling to His feast here will forever feast with Christ in the bosom of Abraham. Christ is your eternal rest. Thanks be to God!