"What Do You See?" July 10, 2016

Amos 7 Luke 10:25-37 Look at the persons on your left, now to the right. Actually look at them. Look at the faces of one another. Look at your Pastors. Look at the people on the Other side. What do you see? Strangers or Friends? Colleagues or an enemy? A Woman, a Man, a Child? A Caucasian, a Latino, an African, an Asian? Do you see someone Old or Young? Do you see a Republican or a Democrat? Do you see someone Married or Single, or Single again? Do you see someone carrying a gun? Do you see a Saint or a Sinner? Do you see a Jew, a Muslim, a Christian, or a Samaritan? Do you see your Neighbor? Do you see yourself? Do you see the face of God? When you look in the mirror what do you see? This week, I went to the Eye Doctor for an Annual Physical of the Health of What I See. After taking several pictures of each eye, they asked “What do you see?” and “Which do you prefer #1 or #2?” If we can answer those questions about a chart on the wall in the safety of the Doctor's Office what about in life? When you look at the world around us, What do you see? What would you prefer? Chaos, Fear, Control, Failure, Terror, Hope, Faith, Poverty, Decay, Brutality, Racism, Distrust, War, Avoidance? What is your reaction to what you see? What would it take for us to Change, to change what we see? What would it take for you to tell God, to beg God, to change what is coming? The Gospel has a marvelous story of Jesus, when he was on the Road to Jerusalem to the Cross and Resurrection when a Lawyer stood up and asked the Messiah “What must I do to inherit Eternal Life?” Two months ago, those being Confirmed met with our Session, and they were pressed, What questions do you have of the Session? And one of those exploring their faith and convictions asked: “What does it mean to live a Good Christian Life?” Personally, as someone with both a Masters in Divinity and a Doctorate in Gospel and PostModern Culture in “WHAT I SEE,” I am intrigued by the difference between one Generation's priority being what we must do in order to receive the Reward after death, having faith in Heaven and Eternity; versus a different Generation concerned with the here and now; but far more, I am delighted by those in each generation having concern with having faith in God. Jesus responds to the Lawyer's question, “You have studied the Scriptures, What do you see?” And unique to the Gospel of Luke, the Lawyer responds with the Summary of the Law, which in other Gospels Jesus is the one who says: To love the Lord your God, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. As that is the answer of Jesus elsewhere, he responds to the Lawyer: Do this and live! Before going any further we need to ask ourselves if this is what we see in Our Lives, in Our World? Is the Good Life, the Christian Life, the Way to Inherit Eternal Life? I have committed my life to believing it is; but other people, and other parts of our world have different priorities for the Good Life, and for what Star they follow, what they wish for as an Inheritance, the Goal in Life, for Eternity. I want to pause in Sabbath here for a moment this morning. Because last week you paid me the honor of personal recognition of my birthday. And in two weeks, we will celebrate the 215th anniversary of being this Church. I know I am one of the most blessed people in all the world. What other vocation are you privileged, even required to reflect on your life, to reflect on your faith and trust in God, to stop to question the circumstances all around us in life, seeing these as circumstances of faith, or God in our midst? One of the reasons we enjoy going to weddings, is to hear and witness to the vows of commitment between two, and to reaffirm our our love and marriage... What other job is there, that you are able to reaffirm your own marriage 18 to 20 times a year, every year? More than simply routine, the motivation most of us have for coming to worship is a basic human desire to know that we are loved, that we are held in the arms of God and comforted and corrected no matter what...What other life is there that week after week, I get to hold a child and provide the comforting touch? The reality most of us avoid discussing is when we give up control of this life... What other life is there that you are able to sit with and reflect, and afterward affirm to the world, the meaning of another's life? Thank you for allowing me to see God in you, to see you in God, and being able to speak to God for you. While the Lawyer makes a profound connection in connecting their love of God to their love of Neighbor; the Lawyer then provides the setting for one of the best-known parables of Jesus, by asking “Who do you see is my Neighbor?” Throughout the last 20 Centuries of human development, people have identified with and debated the roles and actions of the Priest and Levite and Samaritan. But few have ever asked, when you look at your neighbor, when you look in the mirror, do you see a Samaritan... do you see a Friend... do you see a child, or someone old, or only a pastor? Do you see God in that other person? When lying in the ditch, having been attacked and beaten and robbed, being left to die, when One comes to save/ goes out of their way to care for you, restoring you to life, and vowing to return for you, you do not see the other as a Stranger or as a Samaritan, this is “Your Savior” sent by God to minister to you. The great power of this Parable is not only that the Samaritan, whom people saw as a hated population in the culture, cared, when the Priest and the Levite did not; but that in Judaism, when One demonstrates compassion, particularly limitless compassion, like getting down off his animal AND cleaning his wounds AND pouring oil on them, AND bandaging his wounds AND putting him on his animal instead of himself, AND taking him to an Inn AND also caring for him for three days, AND making a promise to return for him, that person represents not simply a Good Life or a Christian person, or a Holy person, that One represents GOD. Jesus asked the Lawyer, and which one served as Neighbor to the one who was abused, the Lawyer did not say “The Samaritan” the Lawyer said, “the One who showed Compassion, the One who acted as God, acted as Neighbor.” The Book Amos is not to be read when you want Psalm 23. Amos is a Prophet of Judgement. Amos is hard. The Nation of Israel was living in prosperous times, a time of peace and affluence, and Amos was Called from the Southern Nation of Judah to come to Israel to preach the Word of God to their sisters and brothers: to have compassion on the poor, to care for the earth, to open their eyes to see the effect of their actions, and to change. On my first day of Seminary, I recall being picked by Jim Forbes to act out the role of the Preacher before our entering Class. He had half of the students act as the People of Israel, and the other half collectively act as the Voice of God. The Voices of Israel read aloud the story of the Golden Calf, when the Nation sinned. And the Voices of God threw a Bible into my arms, saying “Here is all the Law and the Prophets.” Then I was to read this passage from Amos 7. When Sept 11th happened Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart and Oral Roberts, claimed this was punishment for the sins they named in others. As a Preacher, judging others, condemning others has never been my faith. But as a Modern-day Prophet, when the Bible says God created a plague as Locusts attacking and creating destruction all around us, I see terrorism and hate and racism, all around us, destroying us. And when the prophet looked and the prophet saw God creating a terrible Fire, I see Global Warming, this drought, bringing a devastation drying up all the waters, polar icecaps. And what we have Not Done, is what the Prophet cried to the Lord, “God Forbid!” And God relented and God repented of what God was going to do. But the prophet looked, and the voice of God said “Son of Man what do you see?” There are several word plays here, because the word in Hebrew for TO SEE sounds like the word for TIN, and an inverted tear-drop piece of tin tied to a string creates what was called a Plumb bob and Plumb-line. So what the prophet was to “SEE” was a Plumb-line and a Plumb-line was an ancient device in Masonry and Carpentry to determine how straight, or how out of alignment and how crooked is a wall... in this case the Wailing Wall, the Wall of the Temple of Solomon. The role of the Preacher/ Prophet is to witness the Visions of God to the People, and also to plead for the people to change God's heart. The problem of the Visions of Amos, are that the Prophet SEES and the prophet pleads to God to not punish but instead to act with Grace...and doing so, does not say that the people change. If we knew God was creating A Plague of Locusts against us to punish us for our neglect of the poor, what would it take to cause us to change? If God was creating a horrible Fire consuming the Earth, what would it take to make us change our behavior and care for Creation? If the world does not change, what would the Prophet See when a Plumb-line is held up to the Wailing Wall? That we are not upright, not straight, but falling apart. We mentioned that there were several word plays here. Not taking anything away from the Prophecy of Needing to be Straight as a Plumb-line, but a second word play adds dimension and depth to the Love that is God. The difficulty is that the Hebrew Language did not actually have a word for Plumb-line! The word used for Plumb-line in the Book of Amos is “ANAK.” Anak is actually a word borrowed from the Syria-Phoenician language, much as we do not have the word “Sushi” and we adopted this into English. Hebrew did have the word “ANAH” the only difference in writing being that a K looks exactly like an H but does not have a dot in it, like the crossing of a T or dotting of an I. Except that ANAH does not refer to a Plumb-line, instead, ANAH refers to a “Sigh.” So what do you see, when God holds a Plumb-line up against the Wailing Wall at the Holy of Holies of the Temple of Solomon, witnessing how far out of True, how Humanity is Crumbling, and God SIGHS?