Square, Level and Plumb, July 11, 2010

Amos 7:1-10
Luke 10:25-37
According to Luke, a Lawyer tried to put Jesus to the test by asking “What are the rules?” And Jesus replied “What was the Law given by Moses?” “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” “BUT” said the Lawyer, “Theory is all well and good, putting ideas into practice are a different matter, so who is my neighbor?”

In order to succeed, we need to know the rules. A few weeks ago, Kenny Bennett and Joey Meyer came home from college, and after the worship service we were chatting about their most difficult classes, which despite being in different disciplines in different colleges, came down to “Statistics” which in every different discipline be that Economics, or Chemistry, Sociology, or Political Science has different rules, different jargon, different terms to specify their discipline. You have to learn the tools. You have to know the rules and language of that discipline in order to succeed.

About ten years ago, after replacing the roof and windows and siding on our home, I recognized that living in Central New York it would be nice to come out on a winter morning and not have to shovel off the car, to not need to scrape the ice from the windshield, so I set about building a garage. We applied for the permits, drew up the architectural schematics, attended all the Village hearings, acquiring variances, and finally hand-dug and framed and poured the concrete footers, then ordered several pallets of cement block and bags of mortar: scheduling vacation time when my wife and sons were available. We worked together every day for a week, laying the block, smearing it with mortar, setting a piece of rebar and building the foundation walls. As a father I was proud to work beside my family, to share in building something with our labor together. When the foundation walls were seven feet high, completing the perimeter of the garage, we were ready for the masons to pour the concrete floor. But when the Mason took one look at what we had done, he shook his head and said: “That is the worst masonry job I have ever seen! Don't you know the rules of Square, Level and Plumb? I can't in good conscience pour a floor using that, and he drove away. I sat down, crushed, not only that we could not go forward, not only at the expense of materials seemingly wasted, but having used my family's time and labor, not knowing the carpenter's rules of Square, Level and Plumb. About that time, Co Fey stopped over, and told me how we could fix it by setting up frames and pouring a concrete cap over the whole. I learned the hard way, why and how to follow the rules, to use a Square, Level and Plumb-line.

A Plumb-line is what the passage from Amos is all about. Three different times, the prophet found God devising ways to destroy humanity. First there was to be a heat wave and locusts, that would devour all the crops and food. To which the prophet said “No Lord” and God relented. Second, the prophet found God forming an unquenchable fire, as if oil were spilt over the face of the oceans. And the prophet said “No Lord” and God again relented. This third time is different, The Lord found the Prophet, and asked “What do you see?” To which the English translation of Hebrew says “A Plumb-Line set against the walls of the City of Jerusalem.” The point being that the culture is off-center, even more than square or level, the measurement being vertical, is about our relationship with God. When a wall was no longer vertical, it was not stable, and could easily fall, destroying the building and crushing anyone beneath. Over the years, preachers have wanted to preach from this passage of Amos, as if a moral measurement, that if we could have a rule, we would know right and wrong, as if a true absolute. But the difficulty, is that the Hebrew Language of Israel in the Old Testament never had the word “Plumb-Line”. Sometimes in language, we borrow words from other languages to express what we cannot in our original grammar, words like SUSHI, and FACADE and GETHSUNDHEIT, even JOMBO, would all be examples for English of borrowing from another language. There was a a Syro-Phoenician word ANAK (anak) which meant Plumb-Line but it seems strange that the God of Israel would use a thing from a different culture, a different people, not even called by a Hebrew word, as an absolute moral compass of our virtue, of our being in line with God. There is another word in Hebrew ANAH (anah) which looks and sounds a great deal like Anak, recognizing that in Hebrew the difference between an H and a K is a dot in the center of the letter, like our crossing a t, or dotting the letter I. Except, that the Hebrew word ANAH does not mean Plumb-Line, straight and true, and absolute, defining our direct line to God. Instead, the word ANAH in Hebrew means “a SIGH”. SO, this passage, after the prophet witnessing God twice planning the destruction of the people of God, first by Heat and Locusts, then by the unquenchable burning of the seas, lands and air, God demonstrates the “rules” given to God for working with this people (SIGH). As much as to name, that no matter what God would be present with the people, and would care, even as we plot our own destruction.
There is always a difficulty in our accepting what we have at face value, believing this is for us to accept or reject on our terms. We have heard the story of the Good Samaritan so often, we have even included “Good Samaritan” in our language, as anyone who does a good deed, but that was not how Jesus' listeners would have heard this parable. We hear the tale and are suspicious of Priests and Aristocracy, so have no expectations for the Priest or Levite.

Jesus' listeners would have been different. First, in hearing this parable, there is “a man”, without identification by age, race, parentage, or story, he is stripped naked, so we cannot even identify him by his clothing. Having watched far too many Forensic Television Shows, we want to examine his teeth and DNA to learn who he is, but the point of the parable is that without identification, he is like any of us, and represents every one of us. Stripped, Beaten and Robbed, he is Vulnerable and in need, if something is not done by someone, he will die. Basic to human culture, especially Jewish Law, is the understanding of HOSPITALITY, of COMPASSION for a Stranger in Need. So when the Priest and the when the Levite each saw this man, their humanity would have compelled them to offer aid. But like the Priest, we each have responsibilities, had he touched this bloodied body the priest would have been ritualistically unclean, unable to hear confessions, to offer sacrifices and offerings. By caring for one, the priest would be unable to care for and minister to the whole community of faith. The Levite was busy, all our devices, computers, cell phones, iPods, were designed to give us more leisure time, to allow us to slow down, take time and relax. Instead, these devises have enabled us to compulsively do more, to multitask, always being in communication, always being connected, always being needed and busy. At times I wonder whether we try to keep ourselves so busy as to not have time to care, to be too busy to be compassionate. So the Priest who by training and ordination was to be compassionate, and the Levite who by direct bloodline was to be the Royal Priesthood, the most spiritual of the People of God, both saw the person who like all of us is vulnerable, and yet they each walked by on the other side.

Suspending what our language has done with the term “Samaritan,” generations before, during the Assyrian invasion of that part of Israel known as Samaria, the Assyrians and Samarians had intermarried, muddling ancient religious practices of Israel with those of Assyria. To the Jewish people of Israel, the Samaritans were heretics, out-casts, as described in Harry Potter “MudBloods”. Ironically, perhaps why we as Americans have adopted the Good Samaritan, we are an entire population of people from Europe and Africa, Korea and Australia who have mixed genetics and cultures, to become Americans. When Jesus' audience heard “A Samaritan” they would have booed and jeered, expecting the worst from this dreg of society. But Jesus' parable changes the rules and expectations to what is most basic. Where the Priest of the Temple and the Levite descended as a Sacred race, saw him and crossed over to the other-side, the Samaritan stopped, and had compassion, picked up the stranger, put him on the Samaritan's own horse, cleaned and moistened his wounds, and paid for his care.

A few years ago, we came out of a Committee Meeting one evening, and found a homeless man asleep on the couch in the Gathering Space. I woke him, telling him it was time to leave, and being lost and confused and out of his normal, the man took a swing at me. While I dodged, the other members of the committee were offended that this dirty, homeless stranger would try to punch their pastor, so pursued him as he ran into the Sanctuary. Suddenly, I found myself trapeed between this man, and the members of the church, each trying to punch the other. We got him to the doors where a State Police Officer arrested him. A few days later, I was at the Police station, and saw a wanted poster, for this very man.
About a month ago, a man came to the church looking for gas money for his red Volvo. I provided him a full tank of diesel, and some canned goods for food. Two days later, there was a report on the news of a red Volvo having been stolen in Ohio and the thief preying on people in Syracuse.
So this week, when a man showed up at the door, sweating profusely, a small voice whispered “What are you doing?” But the man was in serious need. He described that he was walking to Pennsylvania, that he was 64 years of age and diabetic. The Bird's Nest Motel was filled up with no vacancy. So I got the man a glass of cold water, walked him out to my car and drove him down Route 20 to Finger Lakes Mall, believing that at least he could wait in the air conditioning, and if nothing else he was 10 miles further on his journey.
The point being not only, What are the rules, and how do we apply the rules, ie Who is my neighbor? But also, when you have been burned several times, do the same rules of loving neighbor as ourselves still apply?