The 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
This is what he showed me: the
Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in
his hand. 8 And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I
said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "See, I am setting a
plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; 9
the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel
shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the
sword." 10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of
Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the
house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos
has said, 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away
from his land.'" 12 And Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away
to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; 13 but never
again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of
the kingdom." 14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am no prophet, nor a
prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15 and the
LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy
to my people Israel.' 16 "Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. You
say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of
Isaac.' 17 Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Your wife shall become a prostitute
in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your
land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'" (Amos 7:7-17
NRSV)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and
Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in
Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. 3 In our
prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 for
we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for
all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard
of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6 that has come to
you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been
bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended
the grace of God. 7 This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant.
He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has made known to
us your love in the Spirit. 9 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, 10 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. 11 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 12 giving thanks to
the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in
the light. 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us
into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:1-14 NRSV)
“BLUE
RIBBON”
Here we are again at the county
fair. It has been a memorable week for
many. People were honored for their
contributions to our communities and for their achievements. Together we have celebrated our history. There are the rides, the games, and many good
things to eat. People have shown us
their talents. And there are people who
are going to be taking home those coveted blue ribbons for the animals they
showed, or the food they prepared, or the produce they grew. That blue ribbon is the sign of being the
best. It is a source of well-earned
pride.
To get the blue ribbon, something must be the best. To win it, a person has to learn how to do
things. To get that prize, a person has
to be willing to try things. To produce
the best, a person must be willing to know where they have gone wrong, see what
is not up to standard, and correct that which is not. For some, this is the beginning of a way of
life. It can become the direction for
our lives. It becomes part of how we
live, seeking to produce the best. Shanyn
Silinski of Brandon, Manitoba, talks about the lifestyle of the farmers and the
ranchers in her family in a poem. The
joke behind its first line, of course is, “What is a farmer? A man outstanding in his field.”
Farmers are their own breed to be sure.
Growing boys, and girls, strong and true.
Raising food, caring for the land – in their blood.
Outstanding in their fields, doing what they love.
Farmers are true to one thing, and one thing only.
Growing it better, one eye to the sky and one to
ground.
Raising hopes, raising dreamers – in their hearts.
Out standing in their fields, eyes to those they
love.
Farm wives washed in blood, sweat and tears.
Growing it at home, in the field and in their souls.
Raising it generation after generation – in their
DNA.
Outstanding and insane, outstanding and obscure.
Farmers are a special breed, and so it should be.
Growing it started in God’s own first garden after
all!
Raising hands deep in soil, blooded on the land.
Forever.
The first reading this morning is
from one of the prophets to Israel in the Old Testament. Prophets, too, have one eye to the sky and
one to the ground. They heard what God
told them and then relayed it to the people.
They had faith to listen to God and then make that message known among
God’s people as they actually lived, right or wrong. They saw both worlds. The prophets simply reminded the people of
what God had already said and done. It
is necessary because people forget those things.
In the reading we hear about Amos. He was a farmer, not one of the career
prophets, and God took him and used him.
In the reading, God gives him a vision.
It is of a plumb line. God tells
him the meaning of what he saw. It is
that judgment will come upon Israel.
They have forgotten how they are supposed to live. The plumb line tells you whether your walls
are straight and here it says that their lives are not right. If you have a bad wall, that wall will
fall. The point of the plum line is so
that you can correct the mistakes to make a good wall. The prophet is the reminder to those who have
become careless about faith and life.
In the Letter to the Colossians, Paul,
addresses the saints in Colossae, not those of special honor or accomplishment,
but as the word ‘saints’ is used in the New Testament, those who have entrusted
their lives to Christ. Paul has heard of
their faith, and is overjoyed that it is bearing fruit and growing in the world. It began when they experienced the grace of
God, God’s forgiveness of our sins and favor towards us. It started with the gospel, God’s good news
of this favor, and will continue in their lives and good works, because they
are willing to live what they believe.
We are reminded by these words that we, too, are
called to grow in faith, in understanding, in following the Lord, all
throughout all our lives. We sometimes
begin to think in our churches that learning and developing character, and
gaining greater faithfulness in our lives, is something we are supposed to do until
Confirmation, and then it is all forgotten.
Or we do it until it becomes difficult, or until something more
entertaining comes along. To have a
living faith it should not be forgotten; it should be part of daily life. The true blue ribbon winner has more than an
award, they have a way of approaching life that seeks the best always, not just
in the summer or for the fair judges.
The way to growth begins by trying. Not all our efforts are successful at first;
that’s where forgiveness comes in, as Daniel Schantz found out when he ended up
upside down in his dentist’s chair. The
new assistant did not know how to work the controls. This led to thoughts about all the things he
tried and how they led to similar mistakes: knee scars from roller-skating; a fishhook
in the neck; -nick from an errant; a white, numb spot on my forefinger from woodcarving. He concluded that they all happened because
he was trying to learn new things. He
writes this: “As a college teacher, I daily watch my students fumble while
learning projects. The ones who laugh
and try again are the ones who eventually graduate with pride. They know that mistakes are lessons.” The
prophets and apostles call us to remember God’s direction for our lives. Sometimes that requires that we renew our
determination and efforts to have growing lives.
Those who win the blue ribbon at
county fairs are those who work hard and with intelligence to make the best
product possible. That requires an
attitude of dedication. Without it, our
efforts are half-hearted or we might not even try at all. That is a danger with the life of faith as
well. Amos warned the Israelites about
forgetting their faith. Paul praised the
Colossians for their growing faith. That
is an example to us, too. The story of
the church is filled with such women and men, who had that conviction and
attitude. Their goal was to follow God’s
direction for life through all their lives.
Today, July 14, is the birthday of Francis of Assisi. He, too, stood in two worlds; he could see
both the glory of God and reality of life among the poor of the earth. That defined his faith. He is an example for all Christians of the
life of faith. Here is a thought from
Brenda Grace from Celtic Daily Prayer:
There have been thousands of footsteps
around
Assisi, but through them all
the footsteps of Francis seem freshly there,
unaltered,
calling
out for us to walk in them,
and
learn.
