Sermon for September 21, 2025 (Amos 8:4-7) by Rev. David Domanski
The Lord had His prophet Amos speak directly to the people who trampled the needy and the poor in order to secure personal gain: “Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, ‘When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?’ ” (vv 4–6). These oppressors had made commerce their god; they dealt deceitfully with their fellow man and practiced extortion against the vulnerable in society.
That sounds like the evils hidden away in some corporate headquarters—or perhaps in the backstreets and alleys of downtown, the shady shops around the corner, and the deals made under the table. It doesn’t sound like anything that we could be doing as we go about our weekly routines.
But in competitive economy, businesses and individuals look for every opportunity to increase profitability. Perhaps like those condemned by the Lord through his prophet, your own words could be used by God against you in this regard? Have you ever asked, “When will the religious celebration be over that we may get back to business?”
Are we as eager to receive the gifts of God as we are with making monetary profit? A few generations ago, we could point to people who did not want businesses to close on Sundays when people were expected to be in church. But today, even we who regularly attend church expect that businesses will be open and running at full capacity so that we can go out for lunch, stop at the store, or even pick up a shift at work. Just about everyone feels they need to take every opportunity to work and to be open for business, whether it be on Sunday, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Christmas, or Easter.
We have come to expect that the market (the supermarket and the stock market) will continue daily, uninterrupted by religious observances. This is part of what it means to despise preaching and the Word of God, which the catechism has taught us to recognize as a violation of the Third Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” We do not want to be so occupied by the church, her missions, or the poor and needy who receive her assistance—that an opportunity for worldly gain might be missed. The desire for personal gain pushes all of these churchly concerns to the side, and in so doing, our hearts begin to push people aside. “When will the service be over, that we may get back to our business?” These are the words of those who trample the needy and do away with the poor by seeking worldly gain above all other concerns. These are our words.
If we are willing to cheat the Lord out of the Sabbath attention that he has commanded, then it will seem a much smaller thing to cheat our fellow man as we pursue wealth. Corporations can package items in smaller quantities, and governments can alter the value of the dollar. While consumers don’t like it, these are considered good economic practices. In the same way, employees can find all kinds of ways to cut their work output and look for every opportunity for a wage hike. That is just the way our society operates. These are generally acceptable transgressions of the Seventh Commandment, getting our neighbor’s money and goods by any dishonest way.
It is not right to live and work in this way, even when our employer or our customers can afford to be victims of such deceitful practices. But the ones who are hurt the most from this manner of commerce are the needy and the poor. We force our deceitful framework upon those who cannot afford it. They cannot survive under these practices, and so are trampled by the economy and pushed out to the fringes of a society that accepts these things as the normal cost of doing business.
Additionally, we put great pressure on the needy not to be a burden on society. Some in need look to theft to ease the financial stress, others remove themselves from society, leaving their homes or even seeking ways to end their lives as they think they will relieve the burden on those they love. Many communities are happy to see the poor and needy disappear from their streets, not really caring where they go, as long as they are out of sight.
And when it comes to our hardness of heart against the needy among us, the word of the Lord through his prophet Amos echoes in our ears. “I will never forget” (v 7). God will never forget the poor and needy who have been pushed away. He will never forget the sins that were committed against them and against Himself. He will never forget that people choose worldly commerce over the grace and blessing He wishes to pour out upon them. God will never forget to punish fully those who have sinned against Him and His most vulnerable people.
By this word of the Lord, people who think they are doing well economically are brought to the sudden realization that things are going badly. Like a bowl of succulent, ripe fruit left too long displayed on the dining table, the beauty of prosperity goes from ripe to rot. As with fruit, so with mankind: The brown spots of exploitation and oppression become visible and the once-hidden sin is brought to light, fit only to be thrown out as stinking, rotten compost. And the end of the time of bounty suddenly proclaims that the time of God’s judgment is now.
This judgment of the Lord against the exploitation and oppression of the needy and the poor also reveals His compassion and grace for the same. He cares about what happens to them. That is good news not only for the economically poor and physically needy but also for those who find themselves to be spiritually poor in sin and deeply in need of forgiveness and reconciliation with God.
While there is no more to be spoken to those who brazenly continue in their self-serving pursuit of commercial gain, the Lord still has a word for those who confess their poverty of spirit. As He exalts the value of the poor as precious in His sight, so He holds you in your spiritual poverty to be of more value than any earthly treasure. He gave all He had in order to make you His own, reconciled to Him, forgiven of all your sin. He gave His Son into this life of economic oppression, to die stripped and humiliated on the cross, buried in a borrowed tomb, having given Himself as the price to ransom the needy and the poor—those who know they cannot pay the price for themselves.
This justice of God, which necessitates that He condemns those who oppress the needy and the poor, is the same justice that pays the full price for those sinners to be reconciled and saved. The holy, precious, priceless life of His eternal and divine Son is what it cost to redeem you from each and every sin and trespass, from every deceitful and uncaring act that you have ever done in order to advance yourself in this economy of sin in which we live and have so willingly participated.
The time is ripe for the judgment of God to show the true value of all things. God’s last word to you is not a word of condemnation, followed by a heavy and foreboding silence, but a word of forgiveness and grace, of life and blessing, of reconciliation and peace. A word that proclaims that you are dearly valued by God. His word to you is that you will never be forgotten. You will never be cast off, pushed aside, or put to an end like our society would do to the needy and the poor.
God’s word of forgiveness to you is something that He will not forget. It will stand forever as one of His divine judgments. He cannot forget His Son, and so He cannot forget those whom He has bought at the price of His Son, those whom he has covered with the righteousness of His Son. The time is ripe to confess your sins to this gracious God and to hear how precious you are to Him. He has paid dearly to love you and set you free. Amen.