The Rev’d Devin McLachlan
Remembrance Sunday 2026, St Bene’t’s Cambridge
Amos 5.18–24
“Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord!”[i]
Amos was the first of the prophets to write his prophecies down, setting the model for the other prophetic books which were written just before, during, and after the Exile.
Amos does not pull his punches; he is unrelenting and devastating in his words, (although his prophecy ends on a note of hope, restoration and new life — words key to the early church realising the full inclusion of the Gentiles, Amos’ cry making way for the coming of the kingdom of God).[ii]
Again and again, Amos’ words are a clarion call, a trumpet sharp and bright, sometimes painful.
While we might be tempted to assume that whenever a prophet is feeling particularly cranky, it is because of the lack of religious piety amongst God’s people, throughout the Book of Amos the problem wasn’t a lack of religious practice.
Amos made clear that people of Israel were outwardly pious — there was no loss of religiosity, no diminution in festivals and sacrifices and penitential fasting.
But they were, to take a phrase of Jesus’ not quite 800 years later, painted sepulchres “which on the outside look beautiful but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of uncleanness.”[iii]
The fruit of the Spirit was not in them; indeed the harvest of their hearts was rotten.
And that rot was most apparent in how the poor and the vulnerable were treated:
“You that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground!
…who trample the poor…and push aside the needy at the gate.”[iv]
Trampling and pushing and grinding down — we can hear the rhythm of those boots in Amos’ words.
“They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.”[v]
Jeroboam II, the king of Israel in Amos’ time, was a ruler of great military and economic success, the longest-reigning king of the Northern Kingdom.
He built a small empire, conquering kingdoms until the northern borders extended some 200km beyond present-day Damascus.
The wealthy men of the kingdom were wealthy indeed, the armies proud of their conquests and the houses of worship well-appointed and fair.
It must have been very tempting indeed for women and men — including Amos’ fellow prophets — to feel nothing more than self-satisfaction and pride.
It made Amos unpopular, to say the least and in time he was driven out from the sanctuary at Bethel by those same trampling boots.
The temptation to triumphalism continues today. Many of you will remember Richard Ames-Lewis’ powerful Remembrance Sermon two years ago; leading up to his call to repentance in remembrance, he first shared this story:
“In my years as a vicar in parishes I was always expected to join in Remembrance Sunday parades,…
I never knew whether, as a priest of God, I should march in step or deliberately walk out of step.
I have to say that I usually walked out of step. Because the danger is, the Church is seen to bless militarism, to convey the blessing of God on the sabre-rattling of war.”[vi]
In the time since Richard’s sermon, his words have become increasingly prophetic:
Tommy Robinson and Russel Brand’s church-washing of abhorrent abuse are but two examples among many where the trappings of religion have been used like lime-wash on a sepulchre of bones; you don’t have to look beyond the Divinity Faculty to see that sin at work.
And though I pray for them, as for myself, true repentance & the fruits of the spirit, I’ve yet to see much repentance in the rise of Christian nationalism.
Amos warns them — and us — to be careful what we pray for. Inviting God into your ideology is dangerous stuff!
They are like someone who went into the house and rested a hand against the wall and was bitten by a snake. They have called on God to endorse a message of violence, misogyny, and racism and, fleeing from the bear of their own cowardice and fear, they will be met by a lion.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good.”[vii]
Beware the Day of the Lord — for God is Good. :||
God’s justice will roll down like waters and God’s righteousness will wash away all powers and principalities like an ever-flowing stream.
It is the warning, and a trumpet call of both doom and joy, given to all of us — especially on this Remembrance Sunday, when we will grieve the fallen and the terrible cost of war.
Last night in Krakow, a young man who we currently believe was inspired by far-right extremism and dressed in homemade military fatigues, opened fire, killing six strangers — one of them British — in the market square in front of St Mary’s Basilica.
It is at this church where on the hour, every hour of every day for the last seven centuries and more, a trumpeter plays the Hejnał mariacki, [hey-now mah-ri-ats-ki] the Dawn of the Virgin Mary. [viii]
I am certain that even as first responders brought aid to the wounded, a trumpeter still climbed to the tower to play the Virgin Mary’s bugle call.
As we prepare for our Act of Remembrance at the end of this service, may we hear the trumpet call us to God’s justice, despite and even in defiance of all sabre-rattling.
Weary of all trumpeting, the anti-fascist Lutheran pastor and hymnodistMartin Franzmann wrote:
weary of all killing,
weary of all songs that sing
promise, non-fulfilling,
we would raise, O Christ, one song,
we would join in singing
that great music pure and strong,
wherewith heaven is ringing.
Captain Christ, O lowly Lord,
Servant King, your dying
Bade us sheathe the foolish sword,
Bade us cease denying.
Trumpet with your Spirit’s breath
Through each height and hallow:
Into your self-giving death,
Call us all to follow.
To the triumph of your cross
Summon all the living
Summon us to live by loss,
Gaining all by giving.
Suff’ring all, that we may see
Triumph in surrender;
Leaving all, that we may be
Partners in your splendor.[ix]
[i] Amos 5.18
[ii] See Acts 15.16-17. The Book of Amos is alluded to throughout Acts, as well as in the synopitc Gospels, several of the epistles and throughout Revelation
[iii] Matthew 23.27
[iv] Amos 5.7,11, 12
[v] Amos 2:6-7
[vi] Canon Richard Ames-Lewis, 10th November 2024, Remembrance Sunday https://www.stbenetschurch.org/sermons/remembrance-sunday-2024
[vii] C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
[viii] cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary%27s_Trumpet_Call
[ix] Martin Franzmann, ‘Weary of all “Trumpeting’ For more background on this powerful hymn, and complicated — musically and historically — hymn tune, see https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-weary-of-all-trumpeting