God's Plumb Line
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
This week's Old Testament passage offers us the striking imagery of one of the oldest and most venerable tools of the construction trade -- the simple plumb line. God uses it as a metaphor for how those who do evil will be revealed for all to see, and just as the plumb line is still commonly used today to ensure that walls are not crooked, team member Ron Love points out in this installment of The Immediate Word that God's Word remains as a sure and certain test against which human crookedness will certainly be apparent to all who see. Though Amos was a reluctant prophet who notes that he is simply a herdsman, God sends him with a message of judgment for King Jeroboam. The king's reaction is instructive -- he tells Amos to take his unwelcome prophesying elsewhere, and Amos responds by saying, "But God made me do it!" The church today finds itself in much the same role as Amos -- reminding the world of the often unpleasant realities of human crookedness revealed by God's plumb line. No one likes to see the evidence of human frailties (though it is certainly in plain sight in our daily headlines, from the corners cut by greedy corporations in search of ever-increasing profit margins to the peccadilloes of politicians, celebrities, and even religious leaders), and like Amos we are likely to be pilloried for brazenly pointing out that the emperor has no clothes -- but God has set before us the task of measuring ourselves against his teachings. God's Word functions as a plumb line that tells us (before the fact) how the stresses of the world will make faulty human construction doomed to collapse; and though we may see ourselves like Amos as simple herdsmen and unworthy messengers who are subject to the same judgment of the plumb line, it is the church's role to prophecy to the world. Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on the confluence of the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan and this Sunday's final match of soccer's World Cup -- a global sporting event that will bring people together. Dean notes that it's a fitting time to consider the question of "Who is our neighbor?" and how the nation of South Africa (the hosts of this year's World Cup) has radically redefined its notions of one's neighbors in recent years.
The Test of the Plumb Line
by Ronald H. Love
Amos 7:7-17
THE WORLD
We all experience a great deal of frustration as we read the news and watch television reports -- it seems as if we must constantly ask ourselves, "What is the truth?" We receive conflicting reports as to who is ultimately responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The residents who are seeking compensation are in a bit of a bind. They worked off the books in a cash economy, and they are now unable to prove the full loss of their income. We wonder if Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings overstepped confidentiality with his article on General Stanley McChrystal. Having learned the truth about the personal failings of former presidential candidate John Edwards, we are now wondering if it is more of the same with Al Gore. We do not want to prejudge the former vice-president, but haven't the actions of our leaders caused us to be both cautious and cynical? The new prime minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, has a reputation as being a "flip-flopper" in his public addresses. As a recent piece in Newsweek magazine concluded, "You could call it pragmatism, but some Japanese say it's something else: rank opportunism."
Absent of all the facts, we try to let common sense guide us. Then we ask the question: Is what we are reading and hearing a pragmatic truth, an opportunistic truth, or the real truth?
THE WORD
It is a question of not only "What is the truth?" but also a question of "Do we want to hear the truth?" Jeroboam, the king of Israel, had Amaziah as his royal prophet. Amaziah filled his role well, as he told the king what he wanted to hear. There was no need to speak the truth -- just report that which was palpable. Amaziah spoke a pragmatic and opportunistic truth. And thus he was very popular and kept his royal standing.
Amos, on the other hand, was held in disdain, for he spoke a truth that was factual and at times confrontational. It was a truth that Jeroboam did not want to hear and Amaziah wanted to suppress. The most vivid image we have of Amos is when God showed him a plumb line. The plumb line, of course, is a simple lead weight on a string that demonstrates if a wall is perpendicular to the ground and parallel to the force of gravity. If a wall is out of plumb, it is bound to collapse eventually as more weight and stress is added. Here truth is represented as "a wall that has been built true to plumb." It is how Amos was instructed to speak to the king -- straight and to the point. And it is for this reason that Amaziah charged him to leave Israel.
It is important to note the qualifications that Amos had to be a prophet -- he had only a sincere love of the Lord and a knowledge of the scriptures. Unlike Amaziah, he had no royal heritage. Amos was a shepherd and a gardener. Yet he was wise enough to know when what was spoken could stand the test of the plumb line.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
You may want to use the following outline as you prepare your sermon:
I. Discuss the meaning of truth. Share stories from the news that leave you skeptical. Note incidents when the truth has not been spoken and the problems it caused others. Examine how, when the truth is eventually brought to the forefront, disillusionment inevitably follows from having been previously led by a lie. Discuss how when people are forthright with the truth, it is easier to resolve an already difficult situation.
II. Compare and contrast Amaziah and Amos. Discuss how each approached the truth. You may want to speculate what would have happened if Jeroboam had welcomed Amos into his royal court. Discuss what would have been the outcome for Israel if Amaziah was less concerned about his popularity and more concerned about righteousness.
III. Discuss the background of Amos. Share how we, like Amos, do not need a special standing in the community to share the prophetic word of God. What we do need to understand is that the truth of God is like a plumb line -- and that is how we must present it, both straight and forthright. Share with the congregation ways in which we can learn the truth of God. Some avenues at our disposal are the teaching from sermons, attending Sunday school, and private devotions. Emphasize the need for discernment so we can separate pragmatic and opportunistic truth from that which is so factual that it can be measured with a plumb line.
ANOTHER VIEW
Who Is My Neighbor?
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 10:38-42
The coming together of this day and this text are fortuitous and lends itself well to the "parable-as-sermon" form of preaching (also called the narrative sermon). One might begin with something like the following account:
Who is my neighbor?
In Swahili: Jirani yangu ni nani?
In Zulu: Ubani umakhelwane wami?
In Afrikaans: Wei is my nube?
This Sunday [July 11] at 2:30 p.m. EST, the eyes of the world will be focused on Johannesburg, South Africa, where the world's most popular sporting event will come to a climax as the final game of the 2010 World Cup is played to determine the best soccer team in the world. (Predictions are that as many as one of every 10 humans on the planet will tune in to watch this game.) It will be played in a country whose history is, perhaps more than any other, steeped in the question asked by that anonymous lawyer in this week's gospel lesson: Who is my neighbor?
For 80 years, from 1910 to 1990, the government of the Republic of South Africa operated under a system of laws called "apartheid" that was designed specifically to create consistent racial segregation and oppression. The "Mines and Works Act," for instance, limited black people to menial work only, and the "Native Land Act" set aside 7.3% of the country's territory as reservations for black people who were not allowed to purchase land outside of the reservations.
Apartheid reigned nearly uncontested until 1948, when it was challenged by a series of strikes led by the African National Congress. White voters (black and "colored" [mixed race] persons were not allowed to vote) responded that year by electing the National Party, who tightened the apartheid laws even further.
Marriage or any love relationship between people of different races was forbidden by law, and all public buildings were racially segregated, including public restrooms. A system of education for blacks called "Bantu Education," designed to keep black people subservient and ignorant, was introduced to the few schools that existed in the black "homelands."
The black ghettos or townships where people of color were required to live were declared "semi-autonomous homelands," relieving the white government from any responsibility for the miserable living conditions, education, health care, or anything else having to do with black people who were, now, no longer considered citizens of South Africa.
By 1976 the pressure created by these oppressive laws and the economic disparity that they created had built to the boiling point, and the African National Congress had become sufficiently organized to effect change when 15,000-20,000 pupils demonstrated in the township of Soweto against poor schools with racist curricula. Police fired on the demonstrators, killing nearly 200 children and youth. In response, unrest swept through the country and the ANC organized massive strikes.
By 1989, with the country on the verge of financial collapse, Prime Minister Frederik Willem de Klerk announced the end of apartheid and the first open, democratic elections. Nelson Mandela, the president of the African National Congress who had been in prison for 27 years, was released and the ANC was accepted as a legal political party.
Under pressure from the National Party, de Klerk called for a referendum within the party and was given a 70% majority who favored his reforms.
In 1994 Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black president of the new South Africa in the first universal and racially inclusive democratic elections. The whole world watched to see what would happen when the black majority finally took control of a country that had oppressed and brutalized them for nearly eight decades -- and the whole world was surprised, maybe even shocked, when in 1995 the newly elected government passed the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act. The PNUR Act created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was mandated "to bear witness, to record, and in some cases grant amnesty to the perpetrators of crimes relating to human rights violations, reparation, and rehabilitation." The chairman of the committee would be Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The commission was empowered to hear evidence from those who suffered under apartheid and from those who suffered mistreatment from the liberation groups such as the African National Congress. It was also granted authority to offer amnesty to those from both sides who confessed their crimes. The Commission's final report condemned violence and atrocities that were committed by both sides.
From 1996-2001, the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard testimony in over 7,000 cases, and granted amnesty to a total of about 850. But more importantly, the work of the Commission prevented the massive retaliation, revenge, and bloodshed that many feared would happen when the end of apartheid finally occurred.
Another vehicle for fostering unity and reconciliation was sport. During the apartheid era, South Africa had become anathema to the international community, as they were banned from the United Nations, and eventually from most international sports competitions. This was a particularly bitter pill for the Springboks, their national rugby team, traditionally one of the strongest in the world. During the period of their international banishment, the team's quality suffered. By 1995, when South Africa celebrated their return to international competition by hosting the Rugby World Cup, oddsmakers put the Springbok as 7-1 underdogs and gave them virtually no chance of winning the Cup.
It is important to understand that in South Africa, rugby had always been the white man's sport, and soccer the black man's. As a result, to almost all black South Africans the Springboks were a hated symbol of the apartheid regime. Yet Nelson Mandela showed up to wish the team luck, and in a speech the day before the games began, claimed the Springboks as all of South Africa's team. Even more stunning to the nation, Mandela donned the cap and jersey of the once-hated Springboks. The nation became united as never before, and cheered the Springboks on to victory as they went on to win the Rugby World Cup.
Was it the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that made possible the uniting of the country behind a rugby team? Or was it the Springboks who made it possible for the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to gain a foothold across racial divisions and succeed where all predicted they would fail?
As this article details, something of the same dynamic may be at work in the current soccer World Cup, as many whites who were previously ambivalent about soccer have become fans of the Bafana Bafana (as the South African national soccer team is known).
For the past few weeks we have watched the drama of the World Cup Soccer matches unfold. We have seen stadiums filled with people of all races sitting next to each other, cheering, high-fiving, and blowing their vuvuzelas. And we have been witness to a nation of people who have begun to discover the answer to the question: Wie is my bure? (Who is my neighbor?)
For more about the history of apartheid in South Africa, see . For visuals and more information about the 1995 Rugby World Cup, see The 16th Man, a documentary produced as part of the "30 for 30" series by ESPN. The recent movie Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, also tells the story of the same event. For background on apartheid, read the novels of Alan Paton, e.g. Too Late the Phalarope and/or Cry the Beloved Country.
ILLUSTRATIONS
John Updike wrote about a carpenter working on a country house. The floors sagged. The walls leaned. Yet the carpenter went to work with a plumb line and level. He made "a lot of those long, irregular, oblique cuts with a ripsaw that break an amateur's heart." He left a bookcase, kitchen counter, and cabinet that remained straight and level, although the house itself was cockeyed.
As strangely mixed as our world is with the straight and the crooked, the level and the out-of-plumb, God's standards are as certain as gravity. As surely as your shadow follows you and the mirror reflects your face, as predictably as winter precedes spring, just as certainly the plumb line shows true up and down. Although they might seem to break our heart with their perfection, as long we live on this globe absolute standards of justice and righteousness remain, and they also are set by almighty God.
* * *
"If it's not plumb, it won't run." Those were the words of advice from my father-in-law when I was trying to get a large cuckoo clock to run. So I used my level, made sure the clock was "plumb" straight up and down, and it ran accurately.
With God's direction, Amos was attempting to line up the Israelites so they would run according to God's direction. God's accurate plumb line showed how crooked things were. The political leadership and the religious leadership had failed. They were following their self-centered way instead of God's way.
God had warned them: "Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord of hosts will be with you... Hate evil and love good and establish justice within the gate" (Amos 5:14-15).
Amos lived at a time when many things were as they are today. The rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. Let's pray that God's plumb line will be evident and that we will be serious about measuring up to God's guidance.
* * *
Amos stepped on to the stage at a great time in Israel's history. Under King Jeroboam II Israel reached a level of prosperity they had never achieved before or since. Surely God smiled down on the almighty's prosperous people. Yet this unlikely prophet, Amos, disturbed his audience. He told of coming judgment. He told of the locusts that would come and eat everything in sight. He warned of a terrible day when the sun would go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. He told his successful people that their feasts would be turned into mourning and their songs into lamentation (Amos 7:1-2; 8:9-10). Those in the audience, well-fed and properly dressed, yelled back to the prophet on stage: "Why would God do this? Why?" Amos talked about a plumb line that was used to build a proper wall. And he answered the people's questions by saying that God measured the walls of Israel and these walls were sadly lacking. They had forgotten the plumb line as they built -- and the walls would soon break down and give way.
A little boy one day told his teacher, "We have ten kids in our family and one bathroom -- you gotta have rules." Israel had forgotten that there are rules which, if broken, would break them. We hear much talk today of a post-modern age. Post-modern people talk about a world in which the old standards do not apply. They say there are no plumb lines -- the standards change and none are set in stone. Yet the little boy reminds us that without some rules, some plumb lines, chaos always ensues. Israel was outwardly successful. Yet under the surface it was an unjust age. "They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes -- they... trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the afflicted" (Amos 2:6b-7). When we pay attention to the plumb lines that are inherent in the construction of any society -- the walls will hold. Justice will prevail. And all ten kids will be treated equally.
* * *
Gus was one of the most respected construction engineers in the business. He had been on the crew of Kilver Construction Company for 27 years. He had a reputation for being a stickler for details. He earned that reputation by bringing his projects as close to perfection as humanly possible. His current project involved the old Crowell building, a familiar and cherished landmark in the little town. Noticing some structural problems, the owners of the building had contracted Kilver Construction to make an evaluation of the structure and come up with a plan to bring the building into compliance with the local safety codes. As Gus made note of leaning walls, cracked ceilings, and signs of old age and maintenance neglect, his plan for the building was formulated quickly. In his submitted report he advised the owners that their money would be better spent tearing down the old building rather than attempting to patch up such a dangerous, crooked, old building. Gus knew his report wasn't popular, but it was the truth.
* * *
In the rear of Christ Church, Cincinnati, is a plumb line hanging down from the ceiling and a plaque on the wall with some of these verses listed. This section of the prophet Amos' visions tells of the hostility between the organized religion of the day and God's appointed wandering prophets. As the Shepherd of Tekoa, who is harsh and sarcastic, found opposition to his mission at the National Cathedral, so the apostolic dozen sent by Jesus might find rejection by the royal chaplains and other sophisticated ecclesiastics.
The prophetic ministry is not easy anytime. It upsets the status quo and can lead to martyrdom. God calls the prophet in days past, and today, and says, "Go and prophesy." To be a Christian is to be a witness for God; often we must face the agonies of decision in difficult situations of conscience.
* * *
The love for equals is a human thing -- of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.
The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing -- the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.
The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing -- to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.
And then there is the love for the enemy -- love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer.
This is God's love. It conquers the world.
-- Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat (HarperSanFrancisco, 1985)
* * *
The challenge, then, is to recognize that the world is about two things: differentiation and communion. The challenge is to seek a unity that celebrates diversity, to unite the particular with the universal, to recognize the need for roots while insisting that the point of roots is to put forth branches. What is intolerable is for differences to become idolatrous. No human being's identity is exhausted by his or her gender, race, ethnic origin, national loyalty, or sexual orientation. All human beings have more in common than they have in conflict, and it is precisely when what they have in conflict seems overwhelming that what they have in common needs most to be affirmed. James Baldwin described us well: "Each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other -- male in female, female in male, white in black and black in white. We are part of each other."
-- William Sloane Coffin, from The Heart Is a Little to the Left: Essays on Public Morality
* * *
Some parables come from real life. A pastor tells of one such parable that came from a surprising source: a man of about 30 who lives in a boarding home for the mentally ill.
One Monday morning this young man rang the doorbell of the manse, looking to return something he'd borrowed. Because the pastor was busily engaged at the time with drinking coffee and reading the previous day's paper (it was his day off, after all), his wife answered the door. She invited the man in and left him standing in the front hall while she went back to the kitchen to get her husband.
The pastor came out, and he and the man finished their business in a moment or two, still standing there just inside the front door. The visitor turned to leave, but before he did he stopped and said something that made an impression on the pastor. "Tell your wife she paid me a great compliment," he said, beaming a smile of genuine gratitude.
"Oh really?" the pastor answered. "What did she do?"
"I've lived in this town for four years," he said, "and today is the first time I've ever been invited inside any of the houses."
And who is my neighbor?
* * *
In the novel Shoeless Joe (the basis for the movie Field of Dreams), Ray Kinsella explains why baseball should be a good metaphor for life. It is because the rules are simple and the game is beautiful. He is convinced that if everyone could make life into such a game, it would be a wonderful world. Such a suggestion belies the fact that God has made simple rules for the game of life, but people mess things up and do not want to play the game as God has designed it. We all know how complicated people can make things.
Whether we are talking about the people we love, our relatives, strangers, neighbors, or the people making today's headlines, we know how inexplicable human behavior can be. Some behavior is easy to explain. Some is not. However, what we know is that not everyone will measure up to the easy and plain set of rules God has given.
* * *
The parable of the Good Samaritan forces us to wrestle with the answer to the question: "Who is my neighbor?" The priests and the Levite had no time to help the beaten traveler. Only a hated Samaritan stopped and aided the battered victim of street crime who laid alongside the dusty road from Jericho to Jerusalem.
Kenneth Bailey says in Through Peasant Eyes, "The priest only goes down the road. The Levite comes to the place. The Samaritan comes to the man."
Good Samaritans are anyone we meet who extend help when needed. A while ago a Good Samaritan told me I had dropped a valuable letter in the department store parking lot. Last summer a Good Samaritan helped me to find my directions in a strange city. Good Samaritans are not only from Samaria. They are people who love people and who are able to climb the barriers built by prejudice and hatred nations and cultures have built to keep God's children apart.
Our neighbor in need may be down the block, across the tracks in shantytown, or across the globe. Our neighbor is anyone in need who cries out to us for help and hope.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God demands that we give up injustice and partiality.
People: We must give justice to the weak and the orphan.
Leader: We must maintain the right of the lowly and destitute.
People: We must rescue the weak and the needy.
Leader: Rise up, O God, and judge the earth.
People: All the nations belong to our God!
OR
Leader: God calls us to worship in spirit and in truth.
People: We are ready to hear the truth of God.
Leader: God calls us to hear the truth about ourselves.
People: We are not so ready to hear that truth.
Leader: When we accept the truth about ourselves, we are freed.
People: We shall listen to the truth and it shall set us free.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Holy, Holy, Holy!"
found in:
UMH: 64
H82: 362
PH: 138
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
Renew: 204
"Holy God, We Praise Thy Name"
found in:
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"
found in:
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
Renew: 46
"Breathe on Me, Breath of God"
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
"I Want a Principle Within"
found in:
UMH: 410
"Lord, I Want to Be a Christian"
found in:
UMH: 402
PH: 372
AAHH: 463
NNBH: 156
NCH: 456
CH: 589
Renew: 145
"Take My Life, and Let It Be"
found in:
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
Renew: 150
"Take Time to Be Holy"
found in:
UMH: 395
NNBH: 306
CH: 572
"Sing Unto the Lord a New Song"
found in:
CCB: 16
"Refiner's Fire"
found in:
CCB: 79
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is Truth: Grant us the courage to hear the truth about ourselves and to act on that truth; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into the presence of Pure Truth and we know that we are people who play fast and loose with truth. Help us as we worship you, O God, to let go of our deceitfulness and to be open to your cleansing Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways in which we so easily bend the truth to our advantage.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are a people who talk about valuing truth, and yet we are quick to bend the truth for our own purposes. We rationalize our lying and tell ourselves that we are really honest people who just need to shade the truth for a really good reason. Open our eyes that we may see the truth about ourselves, and so fill us with your Spirit that we are able to truly repent and become people of truth. Amen.
Leader: God is Spirit and Truth, and desires us to be the same. Step into the truth of God and live from there.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, for you are the one who is whole and complete. There is no deception in you and your actions mirror your nature.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are a people who talk about valuing truth, and yet we are quick to bend the truth for our own purposes. We rationalize our lying and tell ourselves that we are really honest people who just need to shade the truth for a really good reason. Open our eyes that we may see the truth about ourselves, and so fill us with your Spirit that we are able to truly repent and become people of truth.
We give you thanks for showing us the way of truth in Jesus Christ. You invite us to live in the truth of who we are and of who we are to become. We thank you for the good creation and the ways in which it reveals its truths to us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for ourselves and all who live in self-deception. Free us from the need to lie about ourselves to others and to ourselves. So fill us with the knowledge of your love and grace that we accept ourselves and one another and grow in your likeness.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Visuals
a picture of Jesus with the words "I am the truth, the way and the light"; surround this picture with images of people in the news lately who have been caught in their lies
Children's Sermon Starter
The story of the boy who cried wolf comes to mind once again. Review the story with the children and talk about how people come to know us as someone who will tell the truth or as someone who will tell a lie. As Christians we are called to be people of truth.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Who Is My Neighbor?
Luke 10:25-37
Object: a picture of several houses together and a globe
Good morning, boys and girls! Who can tell me what a "neighbor" is? (listen for responses) Okay, a neighbor is someone who lives near you. (hold up the picture) The people who live in these houses are neighbors because they all live near one another. We call several houses that are close together a "neighborhood," right?
Can a neighbor be someone who lives far away from you? (Get their responses and ask them why or why not. Now hold up the globe.) This is a globe of the world. We live right here. (point to where you live) Are we the neighbors of people who live around on the other side of the world in Australia? What about the people who live in France?
Now let me ask you another question. Do you have to know a person to be a neighbor? In our reading today Jesus tells a parable about a man who is beaten and robbed while walking down a road. The robbers leave him wounded and lying on the side of the road. Several people walk by the hurt man, but they do not stop to help him. Why? Because they don't think that the man is their problem. After all, he isn't their neighbor. They don't know him, so why should they help him? That's mean. Finally someone does stop and help him. This man, a Samaritan, cleans him up and takes him to a safe place where he can get better.
This is the lesson Jesus teaches us: our neighbors are everywhere. You don't need to live by your neighbor, you don't need to look like your neighbor, and you don't need even to know your neighbor. In God's eyes, everyone is your neighbor. The last part of our verse today says that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We should love all people and treat them in the same way we would like to be treated. Neighbors are everywhere. Today, try to find a way to help one of your neighbors.
Prayer: Thank you, God, for today's lesson. Please help us learn to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 11, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
The Test of the Plumb Line
by Ronald H. Love
Amos 7:7-17
THE WORLD
We all experience a great deal of frustration as we read the news and watch television reports -- it seems as if we must constantly ask ourselves, "What is the truth?" We receive conflicting reports as to who is ultimately responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The residents who are seeking compensation are in a bit of a bind. They worked off the books in a cash economy, and they are now unable to prove the full loss of their income. We wonder if Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings overstepped confidentiality with his article on General Stanley McChrystal. Having learned the truth about the personal failings of former presidential candidate John Edwards, we are now wondering if it is more of the same with Al Gore. We do not want to prejudge the former vice-president, but haven't the actions of our leaders caused us to be both cautious and cynical? The new prime minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, has a reputation as being a "flip-flopper" in his public addresses. As a recent piece in Newsweek magazine concluded, "You could call it pragmatism, but some Japanese say it's something else: rank opportunism."
Absent of all the facts, we try to let common sense guide us. Then we ask the question: Is what we are reading and hearing a pragmatic truth, an opportunistic truth, or the real truth?
THE WORD
It is a question of not only "What is the truth?" but also a question of "Do we want to hear the truth?" Jeroboam, the king of Israel, had Amaziah as his royal prophet. Amaziah filled his role well, as he told the king what he wanted to hear. There was no need to speak the truth -- just report that which was palpable. Amaziah spoke a pragmatic and opportunistic truth. And thus he was very popular and kept his royal standing.
Amos, on the other hand, was held in disdain, for he spoke a truth that was factual and at times confrontational. It was a truth that Jeroboam did not want to hear and Amaziah wanted to suppress. The most vivid image we have of Amos is when God showed him a plumb line. The plumb line, of course, is a simple lead weight on a string that demonstrates if a wall is perpendicular to the ground and parallel to the force of gravity. If a wall is out of plumb, it is bound to collapse eventually as more weight and stress is added. Here truth is represented as "a wall that has been built true to plumb." It is how Amos was instructed to speak to the king -- straight and to the point. And it is for this reason that Amaziah charged him to leave Israel.
It is important to note the qualifications that Amos had to be a prophet -- he had only a sincere love of the Lord and a knowledge of the scriptures. Unlike Amaziah, he had no royal heritage. Amos was a shepherd and a gardener. Yet he was wise enough to know when what was spoken could stand the test of the plumb line.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
You may want to use the following outline as you prepare your sermon:
I. Discuss the meaning of truth. Share stories from the news that leave you skeptical. Note incidents when the truth has not been spoken and the problems it caused others. Examine how, when the truth is eventually brought to the forefront, disillusionment inevitably follows from having been previously led by a lie. Discuss how when people are forthright with the truth, it is easier to resolve an already difficult situation.
II. Compare and contrast Amaziah and Amos. Discuss how each approached the truth. You may want to speculate what would have happened if Jeroboam had welcomed Amos into his royal court. Discuss what would have been the outcome for Israel if Amaziah was less concerned about his popularity and more concerned about righteousness.
III. Discuss the background of Amos. Share how we, like Amos, do not need a special standing in the community to share the prophetic word of God. What we do need to understand is that the truth of God is like a plumb line -- and that is how we must present it, both straight and forthright. Share with the congregation ways in which we can learn the truth of God. Some avenues at our disposal are the teaching from sermons, attending Sunday school, and private devotions. Emphasize the need for discernment so we can separate pragmatic and opportunistic truth from that which is so factual that it can be measured with a plumb line.
ANOTHER VIEW
Who Is My Neighbor?
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 10:38-42
The coming together of this day and this text are fortuitous and lends itself well to the "parable-as-sermon" form of preaching (also called the narrative sermon). One might begin with something like the following account:
Who is my neighbor?
In Swahili: Jirani yangu ni nani?
In Zulu: Ubani umakhelwane wami?
In Afrikaans: Wei is my nube?
This Sunday [July 11] at 2:30 p.m. EST, the eyes of the world will be focused on Johannesburg, South Africa, where the world's most popular sporting event will come to a climax as the final game of the 2010 World Cup is played to determine the best soccer team in the world. (Predictions are that as many as one of every 10 humans on the planet will tune in to watch this game.) It will be played in a country whose history is, perhaps more than any other, steeped in the question asked by that anonymous lawyer in this week's gospel lesson: Who is my neighbor?
For 80 years, from 1910 to 1990, the government of the Republic of South Africa operated under a system of laws called "apartheid" that was designed specifically to create consistent racial segregation and oppression. The "Mines and Works Act," for instance, limited black people to menial work only, and the "Native Land Act" set aside 7.3% of the country's territory as reservations for black people who were not allowed to purchase land outside of the reservations.
Apartheid reigned nearly uncontested until 1948, when it was challenged by a series of strikes led by the African National Congress. White voters (black and "colored" [mixed race] persons were not allowed to vote) responded that year by electing the National Party, who tightened the apartheid laws even further.
Marriage or any love relationship between people of different races was forbidden by law, and all public buildings were racially segregated, including public restrooms. A system of education for blacks called "Bantu Education," designed to keep black people subservient and ignorant, was introduced to the few schools that existed in the black "homelands."
The black ghettos or townships where people of color were required to live were declared "semi-autonomous homelands," relieving the white government from any responsibility for the miserable living conditions, education, health care, or anything else having to do with black people who were, now, no longer considered citizens of South Africa.
By 1976 the pressure created by these oppressive laws and the economic disparity that they created had built to the boiling point, and the African National Congress had become sufficiently organized to effect change when 15,000-20,000 pupils demonstrated in the township of Soweto against poor schools with racist curricula. Police fired on the demonstrators, killing nearly 200 children and youth. In response, unrest swept through the country and the ANC organized massive strikes.
By 1989, with the country on the verge of financial collapse, Prime Minister Frederik Willem de Klerk announced the end of apartheid and the first open, democratic elections. Nelson Mandela, the president of the African National Congress who had been in prison for 27 years, was released and the ANC was accepted as a legal political party.
Under pressure from the National Party, de Klerk called for a referendum within the party and was given a 70% majority who favored his reforms.
In 1994 Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black president of the new South Africa in the first universal and racially inclusive democratic elections. The whole world watched to see what would happen when the black majority finally took control of a country that had oppressed and brutalized them for nearly eight decades -- and the whole world was surprised, maybe even shocked, when in 1995 the newly elected government passed the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act. The PNUR Act created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was mandated "to bear witness, to record, and in some cases grant amnesty to the perpetrators of crimes relating to human rights violations, reparation, and rehabilitation." The chairman of the committee would be Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The commission was empowered to hear evidence from those who suffered under apartheid and from those who suffered mistreatment from the liberation groups such as the African National Congress. It was also granted authority to offer amnesty to those from both sides who confessed their crimes. The Commission's final report condemned violence and atrocities that were committed by both sides.
From 1996-2001, the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard testimony in over 7,000 cases, and granted amnesty to a total of about 850. But more importantly, the work of the Commission prevented the massive retaliation, revenge, and bloodshed that many feared would happen when the end of apartheid finally occurred.
Another vehicle for fostering unity and reconciliation was sport. During the apartheid era, South Africa had become anathema to the international community, as they were banned from the United Nations, and eventually from most international sports competitions. This was a particularly bitter pill for the Springboks, their national rugby team, traditionally one of the strongest in the world. During the period of their international banishment, the team's quality suffered. By 1995, when South Africa celebrated their return to international competition by hosting the Rugby World Cup, oddsmakers put the Springbok as 7-1 underdogs and gave them virtually no chance of winning the Cup.
It is important to understand that in South Africa, rugby had always been the white man's sport, and soccer the black man's. As a result, to almost all black South Africans the Springboks were a hated symbol of the apartheid regime. Yet Nelson Mandela showed up to wish the team luck, and in a speech the day before the games began, claimed the Springboks as all of South Africa's team. Even more stunning to the nation, Mandela donned the cap and jersey of the once-hated Springboks. The nation became united as never before, and cheered the Springboks on to victory as they went on to win the Rugby World Cup.
Was it the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that made possible the uniting of the country behind a rugby team? Or was it the Springboks who made it possible for the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to gain a foothold across racial divisions and succeed where all predicted they would fail?
As this article details, something of the same dynamic may be at work in the current soccer World Cup, as many whites who were previously ambivalent about soccer have become fans of the Bafana Bafana (as the South African national soccer team is known).
For the past few weeks we have watched the drama of the World Cup Soccer matches unfold. We have seen stadiums filled with people of all races sitting next to each other, cheering, high-fiving, and blowing their vuvuzelas. And we have been witness to a nation of people who have begun to discover the answer to the question: Wie is my bure? (Who is my neighbor?)
For more about the history of apartheid in South Africa, see . For visuals and more information about the 1995 Rugby World Cup, see The 16th Man, a documentary produced as part of the "30 for 30" series by ESPN. The recent movie Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, also tells the story of the same event. For background on apartheid, read the novels of Alan Paton, e.g. Too Late the Phalarope and/or Cry the Beloved Country.
ILLUSTRATIONS
John Updike wrote about a carpenter working on a country house. The floors sagged. The walls leaned. Yet the carpenter went to work with a plumb line and level. He made "a lot of those long, irregular, oblique cuts with a ripsaw that break an amateur's heart." He left a bookcase, kitchen counter, and cabinet that remained straight and level, although the house itself was cockeyed.
As strangely mixed as our world is with the straight and the crooked, the level and the out-of-plumb, God's standards are as certain as gravity. As surely as your shadow follows you and the mirror reflects your face, as predictably as winter precedes spring, just as certainly the plumb line shows true up and down. Although they might seem to break our heart with their perfection, as long we live on this globe absolute standards of justice and righteousness remain, and they also are set by almighty God.
* * *
"If it's not plumb, it won't run." Those were the words of advice from my father-in-law when I was trying to get a large cuckoo clock to run. So I used my level, made sure the clock was "plumb" straight up and down, and it ran accurately.
With God's direction, Amos was attempting to line up the Israelites so they would run according to God's direction. God's accurate plumb line showed how crooked things were. The political leadership and the religious leadership had failed. They were following their self-centered way instead of God's way.
God had warned them: "Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord of hosts will be with you... Hate evil and love good and establish justice within the gate" (Amos 5:14-15).
Amos lived at a time when many things were as they are today. The rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. Let's pray that God's plumb line will be evident and that we will be serious about measuring up to God's guidance.
* * *
Amos stepped on to the stage at a great time in Israel's history. Under King Jeroboam II Israel reached a level of prosperity they had never achieved before or since. Surely God smiled down on the almighty's prosperous people. Yet this unlikely prophet, Amos, disturbed his audience. He told of coming judgment. He told of the locusts that would come and eat everything in sight. He warned of a terrible day when the sun would go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. He told his successful people that their feasts would be turned into mourning and their songs into lamentation (Amos 7:1-2; 8:9-10). Those in the audience, well-fed and properly dressed, yelled back to the prophet on stage: "Why would God do this? Why?" Amos talked about a plumb line that was used to build a proper wall. And he answered the people's questions by saying that God measured the walls of Israel and these walls were sadly lacking. They had forgotten the plumb line as they built -- and the walls would soon break down and give way.
A little boy one day told his teacher, "We have ten kids in our family and one bathroom -- you gotta have rules." Israel had forgotten that there are rules which, if broken, would break them. We hear much talk today of a post-modern age. Post-modern people talk about a world in which the old standards do not apply. They say there are no plumb lines -- the standards change and none are set in stone. Yet the little boy reminds us that without some rules, some plumb lines, chaos always ensues. Israel was outwardly successful. Yet under the surface it was an unjust age. "They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes -- they... trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the afflicted" (Amos 2:6b-7). When we pay attention to the plumb lines that are inherent in the construction of any society -- the walls will hold. Justice will prevail. And all ten kids will be treated equally.
* * *
Gus was one of the most respected construction engineers in the business. He had been on the crew of Kilver Construction Company for 27 years. He had a reputation for being a stickler for details. He earned that reputation by bringing his projects as close to perfection as humanly possible. His current project involved the old Crowell building, a familiar and cherished landmark in the little town. Noticing some structural problems, the owners of the building had contracted Kilver Construction to make an evaluation of the structure and come up with a plan to bring the building into compliance with the local safety codes. As Gus made note of leaning walls, cracked ceilings, and signs of old age and maintenance neglect, his plan for the building was formulated quickly. In his submitted report he advised the owners that their money would be better spent tearing down the old building rather than attempting to patch up such a dangerous, crooked, old building. Gus knew his report wasn't popular, but it was the truth.
* * *
In the rear of Christ Church, Cincinnati, is a plumb line hanging down from the ceiling and a plaque on the wall with some of these verses listed. This section of the prophet Amos' visions tells of the hostility between the organized religion of the day and God's appointed wandering prophets. As the Shepherd of Tekoa, who is harsh and sarcastic, found opposition to his mission at the National Cathedral, so the apostolic dozen sent by Jesus might find rejection by the royal chaplains and other sophisticated ecclesiastics.
The prophetic ministry is not easy anytime. It upsets the status quo and can lead to martyrdom. God calls the prophet in days past, and today, and says, "Go and prophesy." To be a Christian is to be a witness for God; often we must face the agonies of decision in difficult situations of conscience.
* * *
The love for equals is a human thing -- of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.
The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing -- the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.
The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing -- to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.
And then there is the love for the enemy -- love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer.
This is God's love. It conquers the world.
-- Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat (HarperSanFrancisco, 1985)
* * *
The challenge, then, is to recognize that the world is about two things: differentiation and communion. The challenge is to seek a unity that celebrates diversity, to unite the particular with the universal, to recognize the need for roots while insisting that the point of roots is to put forth branches. What is intolerable is for differences to become idolatrous. No human being's identity is exhausted by his or her gender, race, ethnic origin, national loyalty, or sexual orientation. All human beings have more in common than they have in conflict, and it is precisely when what they have in conflict seems overwhelming that what they have in common needs most to be affirmed. James Baldwin described us well: "Each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other -- male in female, female in male, white in black and black in white. We are part of each other."
-- William Sloane Coffin, from The Heart Is a Little to the Left: Essays on Public Morality
* * *
Some parables come from real life. A pastor tells of one such parable that came from a surprising source: a man of about 30 who lives in a boarding home for the mentally ill.
One Monday morning this young man rang the doorbell of the manse, looking to return something he'd borrowed. Because the pastor was busily engaged at the time with drinking coffee and reading the previous day's paper (it was his day off, after all), his wife answered the door. She invited the man in and left him standing in the front hall while she went back to the kitchen to get her husband.
The pastor came out, and he and the man finished their business in a moment or two, still standing there just inside the front door. The visitor turned to leave, but before he did he stopped and said something that made an impression on the pastor. "Tell your wife she paid me a great compliment," he said, beaming a smile of genuine gratitude.
"Oh really?" the pastor answered. "What did she do?"
"I've lived in this town for four years," he said, "and today is the first time I've ever been invited inside any of the houses."
And who is my neighbor?
* * *
In the novel Shoeless Joe (the basis for the movie Field of Dreams), Ray Kinsella explains why baseball should be a good metaphor for life. It is because the rules are simple and the game is beautiful. He is convinced that if everyone could make life into such a game, it would be a wonderful world. Such a suggestion belies the fact that God has made simple rules for the game of life, but people mess things up and do not want to play the game as God has designed it. We all know how complicated people can make things.
Whether we are talking about the people we love, our relatives, strangers, neighbors, or the people making today's headlines, we know how inexplicable human behavior can be. Some behavior is easy to explain. Some is not. However, what we know is that not everyone will measure up to the easy and plain set of rules God has given.
* * *
The parable of the Good Samaritan forces us to wrestle with the answer to the question: "Who is my neighbor?" The priests and the Levite had no time to help the beaten traveler. Only a hated Samaritan stopped and aided the battered victim of street crime who laid alongside the dusty road from Jericho to Jerusalem.
Kenneth Bailey says in Through Peasant Eyes, "The priest only goes down the road. The Levite comes to the place. The Samaritan comes to the man."
Good Samaritans are anyone we meet who extend help when needed. A while ago a Good Samaritan told me I had dropped a valuable letter in the department store parking lot. Last summer a Good Samaritan helped me to find my directions in a strange city. Good Samaritans are not only from Samaria. They are people who love people and who are able to climb the barriers built by prejudice and hatred nations and cultures have built to keep God's children apart.
Our neighbor in need may be down the block, across the tracks in shantytown, or across the globe. Our neighbor is anyone in need who cries out to us for help and hope.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God demands that we give up injustice and partiality.
People: We must give justice to the weak and the orphan.
Leader: We must maintain the right of the lowly and destitute.
People: We must rescue the weak and the needy.
Leader: Rise up, O God, and judge the earth.
People: All the nations belong to our God!
OR
Leader: God calls us to worship in spirit and in truth.
People: We are ready to hear the truth of God.
Leader: God calls us to hear the truth about ourselves.
People: We are not so ready to hear that truth.
Leader: When we accept the truth about ourselves, we are freed.
People: We shall listen to the truth and it shall set us free.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Holy, Holy, Holy!"
found in:
UMH: 64
H82: 362
PH: 138
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
Renew: 204
"Holy God, We Praise Thy Name"
found in:
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"
found in:
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
Renew: 46
"Breathe on Me, Breath of God"
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
"I Want a Principle Within"
found in:
UMH: 410
"Lord, I Want to Be a Christian"
found in:
UMH: 402
PH: 372
AAHH: 463
NNBH: 156
NCH: 456
CH: 589
Renew: 145
"Take My Life, and Let It Be"
found in:
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
Renew: 150
"Take Time to Be Holy"
found in:
UMH: 395
NNBH: 306
CH: 572
"Sing Unto the Lord a New Song"
found in:
CCB: 16
"Refiner's Fire"
found in:
CCB: 79
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is Truth: Grant us the courage to hear the truth about ourselves and to act on that truth; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into the presence of Pure Truth and we know that we are people who play fast and loose with truth. Help us as we worship you, O God, to let go of our deceitfulness and to be open to your cleansing Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways in which we so easily bend the truth to our advantage.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are a people who talk about valuing truth, and yet we are quick to bend the truth for our own purposes. We rationalize our lying and tell ourselves that we are really honest people who just need to shade the truth for a really good reason. Open our eyes that we may see the truth about ourselves, and so fill us with your Spirit that we are able to truly repent and become people of truth. Amen.
Leader: God is Spirit and Truth, and desires us to be the same. Step into the truth of God and live from there.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, for you are the one who is whole and complete. There is no deception in you and your actions mirror your nature.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are a people who talk about valuing truth, and yet we are quick to bend the truth for our own purposes. We rationalize our lying and tell ourselves that we are really honest people who just need to shade the truth for a really good reason. Open our eyes that we may see the truth about ourselves, and so fill us with your Spirit that we are able to truly repent and become people of truth.
We give you thanks for showing us the way of truth in Jesus Christ. You invite us to live in the truth of who we are and of who we are to become. We thank you for the good creation and the ways in which it reveals its truths to us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for ourselves and all who live in self-deception. Free us from the need to lie about ourselves to others and to ourselves. So fill us with the knowledge of your love and grace that we accept ourselves and one another and grow in your likeness.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Visuals
a picture of Jesus with the words "I am the truth, the way and the light"; surround this picture with images of people in the news lately who have been caught in their lies
Children's Sermon Starter
The story of the boy who cried wolf comes to mind once again. Review the story with the children and talk about how people come to know us as someone who will tell the truth or as someone who will tell a lie. As Christians we are called to be people of truth.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Who Is My Neighbor?
Luke 10:25-37
Object: a picture of several houses together and a globe
Good morning, boys and girls! Who can tell me what a "neighbor" is? (listen for responses) Okay, a neighbor is someone who lives near you. (hold up the picture) The people who live in these houses are neighbors because they all live near one another. We call several houses that are close together a "neighborhood," right?
Can a neighbor be someone who lives far away from you? (Get their responses and ask them why or why not. Now hold up the globe.) This is a globe of the world. We live right here. (point to where you live) Are we the neighbors of people who live around on the other side of the world in Australia? What about the people who live in France?
Now let me ask you another question. Do you have to know a person to be a neighbor? In our reading today Jesus tells a parable about a man who is beaten and robbed while walking down a road. The robbers leave him wounded and lying on the side of the road. Several people walk by the hurt man, but they do not stop to help him. Why? Because they don't think that the man is their problem. After all, he isn't their neighbor. They don't know him, so why should they help him? That's mean. Finally someone does stop and help him. This man, a Samaritan, cleans him up and takes him to a safe place where he can get better.
This is the lesson Jesus teaches us: our neighbors are everywhere. You don't need to live by your neighbor, you don't need to look like your neighbor, and you don't need even to know your neighbor. In God's eyes, everyone is your neighbor. The last part of our verse today says that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We should love all people and treat them in the same way we would like to be treated. Neighbors are everywhere. Today, try to find a way to help one of your neighbors.
Prayer: Thank you, God, for today's lesson. Please help us learn to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 11, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
