Zeal or Complacency?

 

Woe to you who are complacent in Zion.

—Amos 6:1

When she hurried into my music classroom at 8:15 in the morning, she looked cold. While other students had arrived earlier for the before-school chorus rehearsal with their parents, or in carpools, she came alone.

When I had the chance, I asked her about it. “Oh,” she said, “my mom goes to work too early, so I walked.” That might not seem like a big deal, but it was.

You see, in order not to miss our rehearsal, this ten-year-old 4th grader had walked clear across town in work traffic. She had walked largely in areas that had no sidewalks. Her route took her through some of the rougher neighborhoods in our town.

I was startled. I realized her early morning walk had taken determination and a fearlessness. Her journey had taken her over an hour to get from her home to school. I could hardly believe she had walked all that way. I set about arranging a ride for her on future rehearsal mornings.

This brave ten-year-old girl revealed her zeal for singing in the chorus, her pride in belonging to the group, and her fortitude against the early morning odds.

I wonder: “How do we fare as adults in the more important matter of church attendance?”

• Do we make it a point, whether difficult or not, to get to the Worship Service, or to the Christian Education hour, despite all the odds?
  
  
• Do we assure our attendance in spite of the bad weather?
  
  
• Do we arrive each week at church in spite of the other activities offered on that day?
  
  
• Do we place church attendance at a higher priority than family expectations?
  
  
• Does our persistent church attendance ever cost us anything?
  
  

In the days before northern Israel was taken by Babylon into captivity, the prophet Amos warned these well-off and contented Jews of the impending doom that was coming for them because of their complacency, their self-indulgence, and their haughty rebellion against God. In Amos 6:4-6, the Prophet reminded them:

You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.

Had these contented people even noticed the sinful behavior that, very subtly over time, had become part of their lifestyle?

• Did they go through the motions of traditional worship, but neglect the poor and plunder them for their own benefit?
  
  
• Did they not notice when the Lord withheld rain from them, or not watch when locusts and mildew struck their crops?
  
  
• Did they wonder why the plagues had come?
  
  
• Did they take note of the increase in the number of floods, the increase in the number of earthquakes, the increase in the number of tornadoes, and the increase in the number of other natural disasters?
  
  
• Did they ignore the increase in violence in their cities, the eroding of the structure of their society, the corruption in their government, and the general decline in the goodness of their people?
  
  
• Did they not see how greed had become the major motivating factor in every level of their society—greed that drove people to lie, to steal, to hide their true motives, to make evil sound good, and to make good sound evil?
  
  
• Did they fail to recognize God’s clearly displayed warning signs?
  
  
• Did they consistently ignore God’s calls for repentance from their many sins?
  
  

As I look around our great nation, I fear that, very gradually over time, the American church has fallen into the same kind of sins as these ancient people did. And, when God sends us a pandemic, a failure in war, violence and destruction of our cities, and a rapidly increasing financial instability and scarcity of our resources because of the greed that motivates so many decisions that people in authority make, do we even consider the possibility that He may be trying to get our attention, and to warn us of a plight similar to the one that overtook His people in Amos’ day?

We need not stand by with looks of surprise on our faces. By studying the events that overtook the people in the days of the Prophet Amos, we can learn from their offenses and God’s pleas.

Through the Prophet Amos, found in Amos 5:4, 6, and 14-15, God spoke these words as an instruction for the sinful nation:

Seek me and live; … Seek the Lord and live … Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say He is.

Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

May we wake up and repent. And, may God be merciful to us!