RCL Readings Sunday 11 July 2010
Amos 7:7-17
Psalm 82
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37

You would think that a message of living lovingly and compassionately would always be a welcome message. We all want others to show us love and compassion, yet showing love and compassion is personally costly and often involves taking a strong stand against injustice and hypocrisy.

Amos has a vision of the Lord standing by a wall with a plumb-line in his hand (Amos 7:7-17), a stark image of God in the midst of his people ‘measuring’ them against his ways and finding them wanting. It is an uncomfortable message that Amos delivers and the priest at Bethel seeks to persuade him to take his message elsewhere. How do we measure up to the divine plumb-line? Do we think the uncomfortable message always applies elsewhere and for others rather than a challenge to us? Do we prefer to ignore the challenge or are we prepared to live in ways that reflect the Kingdom of God? I think confession is called for and the mark of true confession is the willingness to live differently. Are we also willing to be the Amos’ and not be persuaded to take the message elsewhere but to challenge a society that in so many ways accepts attitudes and policies that don’t build relationships that enable community?

The Gospel reading (Luke 10:25-37 – the Good Samaritan) is so familiar that there is a real danger of thinking we know what it is all about. We see ourselves as being the Good Samaritan, but are we? This is a subversive story told against the religious leaders and those who thought themselves to be godly people. By holding up a Samaritan as being the truly godly person in the story Jesus is challenging national stereotyping. There is a great danger today in the current national and international crises that confront our society to fall into the trap stereotyping – it is always the ‘bad’ stories and examples that lodge in the mind. Where are the ‘good’ stories and examples, who are the ‘Good Samaritans’? What would it mean for you to be a ‘Good Samaritan’?

Our reading from Colossians (1:1-14) is a model for our prayer. Thanksgiving for all signs of faithfulness to Christ (v.3); sharing and delighting in the testimony of faithful discipleship (v.4); recognising and rejoicing in the fruit of God’s Spirit at work in the world and within the Church (v.6). Take time to look for and recognise these things within the life of the Church – they are there and we should rejoice in them. Then pray for the Church using verses 9-12 as the words of your prayer and as you do so visualise yourself and members of the Church.

“For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.”