“Tests”
Amos 7:7-17 Luke 10:25-37
In Amos’ day God talked about using a plumb line…as a metaphor for testing His people. Do you sometimes wonder whether God might today….use a laser plumb line? It doesn’t matter whether we think of the old device or the new device as the metaphor….the metaphor still holds. There are tests…tests for each of us.
Jesus made it clear in his response to the lawyer. Clearly the lawyer was a learned man…one who knew the laws. It wasn’t his knowledge of the law that was most important to Jesus. Most important was the relationship that the man had with God and with the people around him. Those relationships are the testing points.
In 1992 Paul Johnson wrote a book called Intellectuals. It was a collection of stories about highly intelligent people who had become thought leaders in their times. It told of the contradictions in their life relationships.
People like Karl Marx…who proclaimed himself the defender of the working class proletariat. Marx never truly knew or had a friendship with a single member of the working class. When he and Friedrich Engels created the Communist League they made sure that none of the positions of influence were held by working-class socialists.
There are preachers who can write and preach beautiful sermons…but don’t spend any time with people outside the worship center…Sunday school teachers whose lessons are provoking…but who are not themselves provoked to relationship with those in need.
The learned lawyer seemed like one of these people…also. He was sure he had the truth…but he didn’t have the childlike openness that Jesus so highly prized. He had the answer in his head…and probably in one of the slips of paper in the phylactery he wore every waking moment.
Jesus knew the lawyer knew the answer. So…he responded with a question. “How do you read the law?” The lawyer gave the correct answer. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…and…Love your neighbor as yourself.”
But…to justify himself…the lawyer asked Jesus to tell him who was his neighbor. Basically he said, “C’mon…Jesus…I can’t love everyone…all the ne’er do wells as well as all the righteous. Tell me where I draw the line.”
Jesus told him a story…the kind of story we might take from today’s newscast or newspaper. The characters included a priest who didn’t want to become ceremonially unclean…a Levite who would not take a risk to help someone else…and a Samaritan.
Before I go further let me tell you about one of my high schools. The high school from which I graduated was a predominantly Jewish public high school. It was just down the hill…about two blocks…from a private Christian high school. Both were populated mostly by highly intelligent children of very privileged families. As competitions approached students’ cars would be ransacked and burned…students would be captured by groups of thugs…beaten and held until the competition was ended. The rivalries that existed on the sports fields and arenas were intense…more because of religious intolerance than the strong tradition of the sports programs at the two schools.
In Jesus’ days the hatred for the Samaritans was just as great. While the Jews had worked hard to keep their ethnic purity the Samaritans had lost theirs by intermarrying with the Assyrians who had invaded their land. And, the Samaritans had built a competing temple on Mount Gerizem.
But…when the Samaritan saw the injured Jew lying on the roadside…without hesitation…he provided an ancient form of first aid…humbly placed the man on his donkey…took him to an inn and paid the innkeeper to care for him. Instead of being the worst thing that could have happened to the battered Jew…unlike his two fellow Jews…the priest and the Levite…the Samaritan was a great help…perhaps a physical savior…who saved the man’s life.
The great power of the message of Jesus’ parable is found in the Shema…basic to the Jewish faith… worn in the phylactery of every Jew in Jesus’ day…and every orthodox Jew who lives today. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.
7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (NLT)
Jesus knew that. Jesus knew the lawyer knew that. Jesus knew the lawyer…and many of those around them that day…did not live it. That’s why he told the story.
How might we react to the same story if Jesus applied it to the world in which we live today? Our nation is engaged in great debate on a number of issues. Jesus’ story and God’s test apply to all of them.
For many of us this was a routine week. We went about our normal activities and we are here in church this morning. One way that I consider appalling it was a normal week across America. Several hundred people died as a result of gunshot violence.
Today, as we leave church and go to lunch with our friends and family let us remind ourselves that many families who would have done the same are instead grieving and mourning. Seven of those people’s deaths made the national news….five law enforcement officers in Dallas…and two young black men one in Baton Rogues and the other in St. Paul.
Some say police did not have to shoot the victims….that there are other ways to subdue suspects.
Some say the black man who killed the law enforcement officers was motivated by police killings of black men. That’s no way to solve a problem that is throughout our nation.
In every group there are some bad apples. You and I know and interact with young black men who wouldn’t think of shooting another person. You and I know police officers of all races and genders who are among the most gentle people we know.
You and I have a role to play in solving this problem. We cannot use the racial stereotypes that are part of the national conversation. We cannot suggest police officers are violent. And, when we hear others doing so we have a responsibility to speak the truth to them…not accept their unfounded allegations.
You and I also have a responsibility to tell our leaders in the community….state and national level…that this new normal is not acceptable…in our neighborhood…in our nation.
Suppose in Jesus’s story instead of the beaten Jew in the ditch there lies an undocumented alien also known as an illegal immigrant….or a highly skilled foreigner who can’t stay in the U. S. because the current laws deny him admission though he could add significantly to the country’s economy…or the very legal immigrant just outside our door who is simply looking for a church home?
God would test and ask, “Who’s your neighbor?”
Or, perhaps instead of the beaten Jew in the ditch…it’s a woman victimized by a rapist…who can’t get an abortion because of the state’s restrictive laws…or another similarly challenged woman who has chosen to give birth to the child and raise it as a single parent…or a woman in the same circumstance who has chosen to give birth to the child and offer it for adoption…or a woman in the same situation who has already had an abortion.
God’s plumb line question would be, “Who’s your neighbor?”
Or, perhaps it’s a homosexual person lying in the ditch… a homosexual person who is legally married to a person of the same sex…or a person who is part of a homosexual couple that wants to adopt and raise a child.
God would let His plumb line down and ask, “Who’s your neighbor?”
God’s plumb line test in Dallas, St. Paul, Baton Rouge and Travelers Rest is not solely your position on the issues being debated and how you debate them…it’s more about remembering in daily life…who truly is your neighbor…and how do you relate with that person.
How straight is your plumb line?