Today’s Scripture Reading (June 18,
2013): Amos 1
I am a
second career pastor. All that means is that there was a time in my life when I
had another job – or as some would call it, a real job. I have been involved in
both the automotive industry and the pharmacological industry for, what seems
to me to be, significant periods of my life. So it should not be surprising
that a few years ago my roles got crossed. I had left the pharmacy for a
position as a youth pastor in a church, when a good friend of mine from the
pharmacy days called me with the news that his wife had died. And the
conversation over the next couple of days was progressive. At first, my friend
asked if I would attend the funeral but over gradually the question changed to
will you be “the Pastor” in charge of the funeral. And of course I said yes. So
a couple of days later my wife and I were making a trip to be at the funeral.
After the funeral, I was talking to a few of the people that attended the
service and one lady was a little confused and came up to me with a question –
who was I? And so I explained my current ministry position and the response was
– then why does everybody I ask say that you work in a Pharmacy. And so I then
explained my previous job in a local pharmacy.
We know
nothing about Amos. The only place where Amos is mentioned in the Bible is in
the book of Amos. No other written account that we have contains the story of
Amos. And the probable reason why is mentioned in the first verse of the book
of Amos. Amos was a second career prophet – in fact it might be that this is the
only moment in Amos career where he fulfills the prophetic office. Amos was not
part of them prophetic school. He had no education that would lead him into
this area of ministry. Amos was a shepherd. And I am sure that someone in
Israel received the prophetic words of Amos and replied with “but he is just a
shepherd.”
As a point
of fact, Amos does not actually use the normal word shepherd in his
introduction. He calls himself a sheep raiser, and it might be that he chose
that description of himself because he wanted to distance himself from any
spiritual connection that his listeners might have with the word ‘shepherd.’ He
was simply a man that spent his time literally with sheep. But God had still
called him to deliver an important message.
One of the phrases
that I hear from people is that they do not know enough to talk to people about
God. And that is not true. If God chooses us to speak a word of truth in any
situation that we might find ourselves – and I believe that this is not an
uncommon experience – we need to speak those words with great humility knowing
that they are coming directly from God, even if we are just sheep raisers fresh
from spending time in the field with the sheep.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 2
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