Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, July 11, 2010
“I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but … the Lord said to me…” (Amos 7:14a, 15a).
BCP: Deut. 30:9-14; Psalm 25 or 25:3-9; Col. 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37
RCL: Amos 7:7-17; Psalm 82; or Deut. 30:9-14; Psalm 25:1-9; Col.1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37
Today’s lessons are about people who appear to be following the Lord but who are in fact resisting him.
Amos is predicting the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel, which will include the death of its king, Jeroboam II. The year is about 750 B.C. and the end of the northern kingdom is less than 30 years away. The prophet Hosea, a contemporary of Amos, has been pressing the nation and its leaders for some time with a similar message, but neither prophet is heeded. The “professional” prophets, whom Amos refers to as “the prophets and the prophets’ sons,” are merely “yes-men” to the nation’s leaders, not ministering the word of God. With this avenue for prophecy closed, God bypasses the oblivious professionals and calls Amos (“a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees”) to deliver the word that the nation and its leaders continue to reject. Today’s lesson begins with the vision of a plumb line. Structures built with a plumb line rest securely on their foundations; those that are built askew are in danger of collapse. The image is apt for Amos’s message. Amaziah, a priest who is thoroughly in cahoots with the sycophantic religious establishment, urges Amos to flee to Judah to earn his bread there by prophesying. Ensconced as he is in his worldview that prophets only do what they do to earn a living, Amaziah is unable to recognize the genuine word of God.
The gospel tells the well-known and much-loved account of the Good Samaritan, which Jesus provides as the answer to the question asked by the expert in Jewish law: “Who is my neighbor?” The implication of the question is to learn what are the boundaries of obligation to other people, i.e., “Whom must I include and whom may I exclude from my duty to love my neighbor?” The lawyer’s question is not about genuine love at all, about which he is as oblivious as Amaziah is to genuine prophecy; it is about his own “safety” as he tries to determine his minimal religious obligation. Jesus’ answer is a calculated “in your face” parable that identifies the hated Samaritan as the one who is faithful to God when even the priest and the Levite are not — though they think that they are. Jesus’ answer blows a legalistic definition of love into smithereens, and therefore cannot possibly leave the lawyer where he had been in his relationship with God before he asked the question.
Look It Up
How does the lesson from Colossians connect the other lessons as it addresses the theme of “letting God into one’s life”?
Think About It
Has there been a time in your life when you were determined to a course that you knew was at variance with the will of God? How did you know that was so, and what did you do? Most importantly, what did God do?
Next Sunday
The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 11C), July 18, 2010
BCP: Gen. 18:1-10a(10b-14); Psalm 15; Col. 1:21-29; Luke 10:38-42
RCL: Amos 8:1-12; Psalm 52; or Gen. 18:1-10a; Psalm 15; Col. 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42
