15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Amos 7:7-17; Psalm 82, Luke 10:25-27
July 15, 2007

On Hearing the Whole Word

If, after hearing and singing today’s readings from scripture, you were left scratching your head, I don’t blame you. The first two passages reveal a just and angry God who has had it with sinners. The last two reflect a warm and gracious God who creates community and redefines the meaning of "neighbor." How is it that all these passages are in some sense "the Word of God?"

In the first reading God drops a plumb line in the midst of his people and finds them far off plumb. God’s spokesperson is the Amos the untouchable, who makes Eliot Ness seem like a sycophant. Amos stands at Bethel, the king’s own sanctuary, and thumbs his nose at Amaziah, the presiding priest.

"Go home, boy." Amaziah tells Amos. "We don’t need no outside agitators round here. Peddle your prophecies back in Judah where you came from."

"I am no prophet nor a prophet’s son," Amos replies. "Don’t accuse me of having been to seminary. I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, but the Lord told me to speak the truth, and that’s what I’m going to do."

Amos then describes in no uncertain terms the terrible future that lies ahead for Israel. Because their worship of the Lord is a meaningless show, because they have replaced compassion with cruelty and greed, and especially because their rich and powerful citizens exploit or ignore the poor, their nation will be conquered and their people sent into exile.

Grim words from a reluctant prophet who, unlike his professional counterparts, draws no government salary and expects no government pension.

The psalm of the day, Psalm 82, is equally confident that a just God will not be mocked. To our ears this is one of the strangest psalms in the Psalter because it is so steeped in the imagery of ancient Canaanite religion. In Canaanite mythology, it was the high God El who convened a council of the gods. (Picture the City Commission presided over by a leadership mayor, writ very large.)

In Psalm 82, however, the god with the gavel is not El, but Yahweh, the God of Israel. What’s more, the council meeting has turned into a trial. Yahweh, the Lord God, is both prosecutor and judge. The gods of Canaan turn out to be frauds and scalawags.

    How long will you judge unjustly
            and show partiality to the wicked?

The divine Judge decides that these so-called "gods" have "neither knowledge nor understanding." They walk around in the dark, bumping into each other, just like us sinful, fallen human beings.

The psalm ends when the psalmist throws down his quill and lifts his hands toward heaven, screaming:

Rise up, O God, judge the earth;
         for all the nations belong to you.

Next we turn from the front of the Bible to back, and what do we find? We find a letter from an old apostle and his young assistant Timothy, full of warmth and gratitude for the congregation of saints in a place called Colossae.

The writer, who identifies himself as the apostle Paul himself, goes on to praise the Colossians’ pastor, whose name is Epaphras (Imagine seeing that name on a calling card). He calls Epaphras calls "a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf." The salutation goes on and on, culminating in an apostolic blessing for all the saints in Colossae:

May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. (Col. 1:11-12)

One can imagine Amos sitting on the back pew as this letter is read, mumbling to himself, "Soft-hearted old poop. These people are no more saints than the children of God back in my day. What they need is a bit more fire and brimstone. Stiffen their backbones. Put the fear of the Lord into them."

And then, as if to assure that the preacher’s job this morning will be totally impossible, the Gospel lesson is nothing less than the story of the Good Samaritan, perhaps the most familiar story in all of holy writ. This is, of course, the story that supplies us Christians with two things essential to the church’s mission: a working definition of who a neighbor is, and a perpetual warning never to foreclose on the gracious potentialities of outsiders.

One could be forgiven for thinking that each of these readings pictures a different God with a different set of characteristics. Amos and Psalm 82 reveal a stern, judgmental God who punishes the sinful and judges the nations. Colossians and Luke reveal a warm, fuzzy God who enjoys Jello salads at church potluck suppers and binds up the wounds of fallen travelers.

Which God do we worship this morning? Which text is normative for our lives together? Which of these passages contains the Word of the Lord?

The answer sounds more simple than it is: All these texts contain the Word of God, because they all reveal the same God.

His anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime.
         Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. (5)

The Bible contains some terrible stories, stories of murder and mayhem and revenge. In some passages that revenge in laid at the feet of a jealous God. It also contains some wonderful stories of patience, forbearance, and reconciliation. We find both kinds of passages in both testaments, and God can speak through all of them, so long as we read them all through the lens of God’s living Word, Jesus Christ.

Borrowing that metaphor from Amos, Jesus Christ is the plumb line which must be held alongside every text, the standard which brings us back to the center of God’s self-revealing.

We need the whole of scripture, not just the easy texts, to guide us on the path of faithfulness.

Without Amos to guide him, how could Martin Luther King, Jr. have stood before the high priests of segregation and called for "justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-rolling stream"? We need the prophets to call us to account.

How, for instance, do you think Amos would have assessed the state-wide tax cuts that threaten local programs for the poor? I think he would stand in the mezzanine between the state House and the Senate and call not merely for tax relief, but for genuine tax reform. He would remind us that Florida is not a high-tax state, that we rank 18^th in per capita income, and spend less per capita on human services than all but a handful of states.

I strongly suspect that Jesus, who was also a prophet, would have agreed with Amos. It’s not that Floridians can’t afford to help our neighbors. It’s just that it’s hard to see them from the other side of the road, down in the ditch were so few of us spend our time.

The God who summons governments to account in the book of Amos is the same God who blesses the saints in Colossae, the saints who so obviously love one another. The God who judges the fakes in Psalm 82 is the same God who whispers to the Samaritan:

He’s over there. In the ditch. If he were conscious, he wouldn’t want to have anything to do with you, but don’t let that stop you. He’s your neighbor. Show him mercy.

Each one of these four texts reveals the God who loves the world in Jesus Christ, the God whose justice and mercy will endure forever.

We have heard the Word of God is spades this morning. Now we must go out and live it.