Your Teeth are Clean Is that a Good Thing? Text: Amos 4:6 Third Sunday in Lent March 3, 2013 Rev. David P. Mumm

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1 Your Teeth are Clean Is that a Good Thing? Text: Amos 4:6 Third Sunday in Lent March 3, 2013 Rev. David P. Mumm I gave you clean 1 teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. When I read those words they sounded odd to me: clean teeth and lack of bread in the same sentence? How does that work? When you or I think about clean teeth, we think about a tooth-brush and tooth-paste, and maybe some good mouthwash to go alongside. Were we living in some of the more primitive parts of our world, the lack of good dental hygiene may well lead us to other thoughts or conclusions. For example: I remember, as a child, studying about the life of the Alaskan natives. In their culture, due to lack of dental care, teeth would wear down to the gum-line. When the teeth were worn out, that was a sign that a person s time on earth was drawing to a close. They would, take a few possessions, and go out into the wilderness, there to die of hypothermia or of attack by wild animals. We are truly blessed! Often we don t even realize what wonderful blessings we have, living in a society with all the medical advances available to us. Looking back to Biblical times, there is nothing to indicate that people knew of any type of dental care. If you knew 1 ESV says Cleanliness of teeth. The point is the same either way.

2 T o o t h b r u s h e s P a g e 2 nothing of dental care, you could very easily come to different conclusions about what was good and what was bad. Let s start with this question, Is it good to have clean teeth? Our obvious answer, based on the knowledge we have been given is, Yes, clean teeth are good, in fact, it s important to brush regularly. But, let s drop back a couple thousand years, and consider what God is saying through Amos. From their perspective, when the teeth weren t doing anything. when there was no food to chew, the teeth stayed clean. Can good be bad, and bad be good? As I studied this text, the question crossed my mind, Can good be bad, and bad be good? How often is our understanding of good and bad culturally conditioned? But the real important question is, Why the illustration of teeth? Let me read the text and the verses after this text. See if you catch the message which underlies the comment about teeth. I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. 7 I withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; 8 so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord.

3 T o o t h b r u s h e s P a g e 3 9 I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. 10 I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. 11 I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. You did not return to Me Five times the Lord repeats the same phrase: yet you did not return to me. Who was at fault who failed Whom? Man failed his Maker, yet man s Maker continued to call out to the man. Hard as the word sounds, the cry of the Lord and of His prophet is Good News. [Our Lord Jesus Christ] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Look at the outcome, the prophetic Word: Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel! The text reminds me of an old western. The bad guys get caught, and as they are about to be hanged, the sheriff says to them, Prepare to meet your Maker. 2 1 Tim 2:4

4 T o o t h b r u s h e s P a g e 4 And I come back to the question, Can bad be good and good be bad? Our world confuses these two all the time. Meet Your Maker Heaven or Hell Ezekiel, whose comments you heard a few moments ago, was very clear in his words: Say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. 3 When the good are bad they cannot receive the reward of the good; and when the bad are good they will receive the reward. A little later, he writes: When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. 19 And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by them. 4 Paul adds in today s Epistle: Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 5 If you think it doesn t matter what you do, or that God won t really do anything about you, beware! Meeting your Maker can be a terrifying reality. 3 Ezekiel 33: Ezekiel 33: Corinthians 10:12-13

5 T o o t h b r u s h e s P a g e 5 Jesus said: Unless you repent, you will all perish. 6 Today, many people have decided they believe in heaven, but not Hell. People will say of any and every person who dies, no matter the cause, no matter their faith (or lack thereof), They ve gone to a better place. If this were true, if everyone, at death, goes to a better place, what purpose is there for a Savior? The words of Jesus, The Son of Man came to seek and to save those who are lost, 7 mean nothing unless there is a bad, as well as a good outcome possible. The better place mentality undermines and destroys God s Law and Gospel. The truth is, apart from faith in Jesus Christ hell is the outcome many will face. Hell is real, and it is not a better place. Thanks be to God, we are not sucked-in by such a misguided mentality. We know the Savior, Jesus, who died and rose again for us. We know the beautiful message of the Gospel, the promise of life forever in the perfect bliss of heaven. Imagine how the wonderful hymn would sound, I m but a stranger here, a better place is my home. I won t sing that, would you? I will gladly sing, I m but a stranger here, HEAVEN (in all its radiance and glory) Is (by the grace and mercy of Jesus my Savior) my home! So, how about you? We appreciate clean, white, shiny teeth. We would not appreciate it, if clean teeth meant being without food. 6 Luke 13:3 and 5 7 Luke 19:10

6 T o o t h b r u s h e s P a g e 6 We have the good Word, we have food that feeds heart and soul, we dine richly on that food, we dirty our teeth on the Word & Sacrament, for there and there only do we receive cleansing for our the heart. As our missionaries teach children and adults the benefit of physically clean teeth, pray that they would also teach the benefits of spiritual repentance, of faith in Jesus who forgives, who cleanses us from all our sins. Amen.