Amos 7:7–17; Luke 10:25–37
Amos has a
vision in which God shows him a plumb line. Plumb lines are used in
construction to make sure the building is on a true vertical. If the vertical
line is off, we get a building that leans like the Tower of Pisa. God is using
this image because everyone knows what it means: it’s a measuring line, and the
people of Israel aren’t measuring up to God’s expectations.
It’s important
to know that this event occurs in the time after King David and King Solomon.
The United Kingdom David built has split into two parts, the Northern Kingdom
called Israel, and the Southern Kingdom called Judah. King Jeroboam has not
trusted in God, and his priests and prophets are yes-men, telling Jeroboam
whatever he wants.
God chooses an
unusual person to be a prophet to Israel. Amos lives in Judah, the Southern
Kingdom. He is a farmer; he knows what to do with sheep and with sycamore fig
trees. He has no business – in the eyes of Israel – telling the king and his
priests and prophets what to do. Yet he has been sent to deliver a message:
Israel will be destroyed, and the king will die by the sword.
A prophet’s
message is not always a welcome one, and Amos himself is not welcomed by the
priest and the King, and they reject his message. A few years later, the
Assyrians invade Israel and destroy it. The people refuse to try to measure up
to the plumb line.
… About 700
years later, Jesus is spending his own lifetime setting a plumb line for his
people. In today’s reading, the plumb line relates to caring for the neighbor,
and to redefining who the neighbor is.
This story is
so familiar, we could all tell it. A man is on his way down the mountain from
Jerusalem to the town of Jericho. He is mugged and beaten. Two religious
leaders, who should have stopped to help him, walk right past him, and even
cross to the other side of the road to avoid him. A Samaritan stops, bandages
his wounds, takes him to an inn, and pays for his room and his care.
We know that
the Samaritan is a foreigner, but it’s easy to forget that the Samaritan is an
unwelcome foreigner. Jews and Samaritans not only don’t want to have anything
to do with each other, they consider each other to be enemies.
… If anyone
has the right to consider someone to be her enemies, and not her neighbors,
it’s Malala Yousafzai. She is the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head last
October for insisting that girls have a right to an education. We expect her to
be bitter and resentful but instead, she has no contempt for them, and is not
against anyone. Her parents taught her to love everyone and be peaceful.
Her role
models are Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and Jesus. She
wears a scarf that once belonged to Benazir Bhutto, the slain former president
of India. Malala continues to press her country for education for all children,
including the children of the extremists, especially the Taliban. At the same
time, the people who tried to kill her still want to silence her. Who is Malala’s
neighbor? Everyone!
This Muslim
girl has a plumb line, formed by our own Christian heroes. I know we all would
have trouble with that attitude. It’s easy for us to think other people,
certain types of individuals are the enemy, and therefore not our neighbors. If
they are not our neighbors, we don’t have to care for them.
In the US, we
have a history of having trouble remembering that all people are our neighbors.
We have not measured up to God’s plumb line.
·
We considered the Native Americans to not be our
neighbors when they got in the way of what European Americans wanted.
·
We considered people forcefully imported from Africa
to not be our neighbors, to not be fully human, and therefore not deserving of
our care.
·
Today, we consider people who came to America
illegally as not good neighbors, and therefore not deserving of our care. They
should go back home where they came from, and take their children who were born
in the US with them.
·
Today, we are not so sure people who are
homosexual are really our neighbors.
·
Today, we have a tendency to believe that all Muslims
are our enemies, and definitely not our neighbors.
·
Today, we are afraid that the beggar on the
corner is earning $200 a day with his activity, and spending it on drugs and
alcohol. He is not, therefore, our neighbor.
·
Today, still, women are considered less than
men, in employment, in God’s calling, in car-buying, in politics. Women are not
equal to men as neighbors, in many circumstances.
This week, I
challenge you to be aware of those you consider to be not your neighbor, and
try to figure out why they are not your neighbor. Imagine they are really Jesus.
Are they your neighbor now? How can you
care for them?
I am not suggesting
you donate to the beggar, but that you bring food for the food pantry. I also
suggest that you pray for him, and that you are kind to him. He is God’s child.
I am
suggesting that you remember that people with different colored skin, people
with different sexual preferences, people from other places, are all God’s
children and our neighbors. They are all deserving of our care and our respect,
and our Christian love. That is God’s plumb line, and Jesus command, to love
one another.
As Jesus said
to the legal expert, “Go and do likewise.”
Please pray
with me. Gracious God, you created us to be neighbors to one another. Help us
to recognize you in each person we encounter. Amen
