Archive
RSS Feed
DonateJuly 15, 2007 |
See also: [Year C Archive] |
Amos 7:7-17
Psalm 82
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37
Love God with your whole being, and love your neighbor as yourself. Today’s scriptures move from abstract ethical and theological reflection to concrete action. They call us to go from words to deeds, to truly experience the persons whose lives are shaped by our decisions on a daily basis.
Dorotheos of Gaza once spoke of our spiritual journey to God in terms of a circle in which each of us is initially situated on the circumference with God at the center. The goal of life is to progress toward the divine center. As we move closer to the center, we move closer to others; as we move closer to others, we move closer to God. We cannot love God without loving creation. Our love for God cannot be separated from our love for others in the concreteness of their daily lives. We cannot be “saved” unless others are also “saved.”
Loving God is a whole person enterprise, involving mind, body, and spirit. What we do with our lives truly matters for others as well as ourselves. There is no ultimate privacy in a relational universe. As Paul says to the Corinthians, glorify God with your bodies. As temples of God, we are called to recognize and affirm our own unique beauty, that is, to love ourselves, as we shine our light for others. Spiritual centeredness leads to and is strengthened by acts of compassion. Self-love and other love are united in a relational world.
We cannot blame too harshly the priest and Levite for their avoidance of one in need. No doubt, they had responsibilities at the temple that required their timely arrival. They knew that stopping to help this wounded man might render them unclean and unable to complete their appointed religious tasks. In their first century version of the “purpose driven life,” they were so clear about their religious responsibilities that they failed to see God’s call right in front of them. Pondering their decisions without judgment invites us to explore our own personal decision-making process. We can surely see the nature of our own choices and decisions as we look at the lives of the priest and Levite. To decide, as Whitehead says, is to cut off certain possibilities just as every choice brings forth new possibilities. Surely we have passed persons in need in order to fulfill our duties as church leaders, pastors, friends, and family members. We have been “prudent good Samaritans,” giving enough, but not too much, so that we might provide appropriate care for our families and congregations as well as persons in need. While we may continue to choose the well-being of our families and the need for self-care over the needs of others, we must cultivate an “uneasy conscience” as means of enabling us to discern God’s call in the concrete moment.
The story of the Good Samaritan reminds us of the importance of our otherwise “unimportant” choices. It does not provide a scale for decision-making, but challenges us to live in the tension of choices that both include and exclude. It calls us to a life of prayer and spiritual discernment that opens our eyes to the needs of those around us, including the “enemy” or the “other,” as we seek God’s guidance in responding ethically and compassionately one moment at a time. God’s vision, and aims for each moment, invite us to gentle self-awareness that balances self and other, family and community, nation and world.
The man who stopped by the roadside to respond to God’s call to compassion lets go of any division between clean and unclean, giver and receiver, and Jew and Samaritan. He recognizes the essential unity of life found in the insight that there is no ultimate dividing line between my well-being and the well-being of others. As Whitehead notes, peace is the expansion of the self from narrow self-interest to global interest that joins my self-interest and the interests of others in a greater whole.
Amos portrays the negative consequences of living in an interdependent world. While interdependence may be graceful and supportive, the intricate and dynamic process of cause and effect can also lead to destruction and dislocation. The people’s injustice toward the poor and neglect of authentic worship will eventually lead to the nation’s destruction. The handwriting is on the wall. Injustice, conspicuous consumption, and greed cannot be maintained forever. We see this in the threat of global warming, in terrorist acts and ongoing strife in Southwest Asia, Israel, and Palestine, and the loss of the post-9/11 good will toward the United States. Our own moral failures and neglect of the poor lead to the potential of our undoing. This is not divine punishment, but the reality of interdependence. Many of us ask, as we look at our times, “is it too late to change and go from empire to healthy interdependence?” Only prayer, sacrifice, and commitment to justice can turn us around at this point, I believe.
Colossians speaks of a life that is truly bearing fruit. A great harvest is on the horizon as a result of their commitment to God and the prayers of Paul and the Christian communities. God’s reign is bearing fruit in the whole world and in the small Colossian church. Their opening prayerfully and patiently to God’s reign has awakened them to an array of Christ-like possibilities. Not conformed to the world, they have experienced divine transformation and now divine abundance! This transformation and abundance is not just an individual matter, but a community harvest. They are reaping a great harvest as a result of their commitment to practices of transformation.
Today’s scriptures join promise with challenge. Our values, embodied in spiritual practices of prayer and hospitality, truly matter – they nurture vitality in our congregations, but more than that, they enable us to become God’s partners in mending the world. Our own acts of generosity, kindness, and compassion – our willingness to embrace the interdependence of life – creates a field of force that may lead to a “tipping point” from death to life for ourselves, our congregations, our denominations, and the world.
Bruce Epperly is Professor of Practical Theology and Director of Continuing Education at Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is the author of twelve books, including God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus (Westminster/John Knox) Healing Worship: Purpose and Practice (Pilgrim), and Walking in Light: A Jewish-Christian Vision of Healing and Wholeness (Chalice). These books are available from Flux Books.
If you found this lectionary helpful, please consider contributing to Process & Faith by making a donation or becoming a member.