"Both And" July 18, 2010

Amos 8:1-12
Luke 10:25-42 All of life is inter-dependent. We began this day in singing of the God of the Sparrow and God of the Whale, of Shooting stars and God of the homeless; who are not so many different Gods, but the one true God who called life into being, forming atmospheres and solar systems, and spider webs and flowers that bloom for a single day who also is the redemption of all of life, and also is the spirit which blows through each of us this day. We have a tendency to choose between pairs of options, rather than imagining that the whole needs all its parts. Imagine a great Concerto, from which you eliminated the G chord.The remainder is all there, the piece is still the piece, but the whole fails for lack of one single sound.

A show of hands this morning. Would you rather have an end to the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and peace with the Taliban,/ or / an end to the International Economic problems and prosperity in the world markets? Would you rather have Oil surging millions of barrels of crude STOP and the Gulf pristine and clear,/ or / the ability to heat our homes in winter, cool them in summer and drive whenever/ wherever we want to go? We tend to choose. We set at odds, as if having one requires that we cannot have the other. What if the balance of the universe is that all things must be?

The Gospel describes that a Lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, asking “What is required for Eternal life?” When pressed, the man responds to Jesus that he already knows, to Love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as your self. And last week we described that the Lawyer responded that theory is one thing and application another, So who is my neighbor? At which Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. We are tempted to move on to the next scene, as a choice between sisters Martha and Mary, to choose which was right and which was wrong, but the Lawyer's question has not been fully answered. The unspoken element after Being a Neighbor is to be like the Samaritan, is and “HOW do we love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength?” If we were simply good citizens, who paid our taxes, voted in elections, worked at our jobs, cared for our young, and even responded to others when they were in need, it would not be enough. For we would be Good Neighbors, without faith in anything beyond ourselves, without loving the Lord with our heart, mind, soul and strength.

Our faith is in a Savior who was both fully Human and fully Divine. In recent generations, we have focused on the humanity of Jesus. The Search for the Historical Jesus, whether he was an actual historic figure who lived. The film the Passion of the Christ, exploring the feelings, emotions, pain and suffering of the Man on the Cross. The book The DaVinci Code, and whether Jesus could have been so human to be in love and father a child. Even The Last temptation of Christ. ALL are focused on the Human side of the Messiah, whether he was, whether it is possible for the Christ, to be real.
How hard it is for Humanity in the 21st Century to be Human, to be neighborly, to believe in the reality of One who would have such compassion for all humanity as to suffer and die and be raised again. Even more difficult to focus on the Divine, to believe in the Spiritual. As entertainment, we have created stories of Magical Worlds of Hogwarts, and Sorcerer's Apprentices, rather than believing in the reality of God. We are pragmatic, we are rational. We like having all of our electronic devices and remotes to control life. How different would life be, if we did not focus on our comforts, on our control, even if the focus were not solely on compassion for others, but on loving God?

The answer to the other half of the Lawyer's Question of Application is BOTH MARY and MARTHA. To love the Love with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is to create a place for the Messiah in our homes, to host others and welcome them, doing whatever is necessary; but also to sit quietly and to listen; to share with one another in conversation what is important to us; to be fed by God's word, to pray knowing that as there are limits to our knowledge, limits to our control, that we are mortal, this allows us to trust and believe in God.

Last week, we began reading together the Prophet Amos. Amos was not a typical Prophet or Priest. He was not descended from Priests or Prophets, not a Levite, actually he was a Southerner from Judah, who had come north to Israel with this word. When challenged Amos described himself as a Herdsman and dresser of Sycamore trees. We used to have a Sycamore tree. They can grow to be great immense trees, but they are also prone to problems and require a great deal of care. The Sycamore are continually peeling their bark, which as it falls blankets the earth creating conditions for pests. The Sycamore continually have branches crossing with and conflicting with one another. When the wind blows and storms come, the branches beat against one another, causing great damage to the tree. A Dresser of Sycamores, carefully prunes branches going in the wrong direction, so the tree can grow straight and tall. In every season there are different kinds of leadership for that time. Some times require Kings, CEOs who rule and judge, and command expecting others to follow. Other eras require Prophets, who come into the place and Call the people to acts of peace and justice and righteousness. Yet others require a Shepherd. Shepherds sit on the hillside, observing the flock, being wary of bears and wolves, who when they threaten personally takes them on, to protect the flock. But a herdsman is different. Instead of being out in front, commanding and judging, or unloading their causes then leaving, or even taking on dangers to protect the flock from harm, the herdsman leads from within the herd, nurturing leaders, encouraging the body to own where they are going, and what is taking place all around them.

Amos had a series of Visions. The first was that God was fashioning Locusts, in the heat of summer to devour and consume everything. Second that God was starting an unquenchable fire, that would burn all the air and land, even burn up the oceans. To each of these the Prophet begs “NO LORD” and God relented. The problem in the story of Amos is that God listens, but the people do not. God Relented, but the people did not repent. SO God showed Amos a third Vision which if we take the English translation of the Text (Anak) was A Plumb-line, straight and narrow determining right and wrong, but the people the people ignored it. Perhaps, not a Plumb-line (ANAH) but a commitment from God to suffer with us. If God could not fashion locusts to consume the earth, or fire to burn it, God could only SIGH for us. But there is then a Fourth Vision, that God will take away God's Word from the people. Dostoevsky in “The Grand Inquisitor” described a time and place, where the institution has life so controlled there is no longer need for Christ. Humanity would be required to be moral, to live ethically, to do what is right, and to live in peace, but with nothing to believe in. They would hunger and thirst, not for food or water, but for the Word of God, and starve for having ignored it. According to Martin Luther, this was the greatest punishment the world could ever face. There have been plagues and Creation healed. There have been fires, that eventually were put out and Creation grew again. Surely there have been times, when God WEPT and God SIGHED at what we had chosen to do. But that God would take away God's Word, that we would so control life as to have nothing to believe in, leaves us utterly hopeless. Like summer vegetables, ripe fruit, we are picked, cut off, all we can do is be consumed or wither and die.

Amos prophecy is that the reason for this END is that we are Religious without Believing. We are in a Recession, and instead of accommodating, changing behaviors, changing institutions, we each wait for this time to end so we can get back to making money. We are in a time of fighting Terrorism, and the insidious nature of this war is that our world has been changed, we are now afraid of strangers, we worry about what our neighbor might be doing and judge one another, in the process we have lost our innocence.

As Mortal Creatures we fear ENDINGS, we keep loved ones and institutions on life-support, long after there is any hope of vitality. Would that we could understand the balance of Life, that everything and everyone is necessary, even precious to our life. Rather than worshipping God because it is Sunday, we would pray to God in our search for meaning, for redemption and hope. Rather than giving to this institution and that, we could find an end to cancer, a change of the world to eliminate starvation and poverty.

What is required for Eternal Life? To Love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and also to love your neighbor. Not simply going through the motions, giving charity to the needy, bowing our heads because someone told us to, but living life thankful, reverent, approaching a grandchild as a gift, a spouse as love claiming our home as home rather than a domicile. Praying to God, not out of routine or dogma, but with sincerity.