After the handshake and the hug
Commentary
The master brought his disciples into a darkened room with one instruction: "Find the truth." One disciple came upon a table and declared that the truth is flat and square. Another touched the wall and said, "The truth is hard and wide." A third disciple stumbled upon a ball and concluded that the truth was round and bounces. The fourth disciple simply stood in the middle of the room, not impressed with the other statements. He thought and thought, until finally concluding, "The truth is empty." Finally, the master lit a candle, visually revealing the objects and space that gave rise to the various comments, and announced, "The truth is that you have all been in the dark."
Amos, Paul and Jesus each have something to say about perceiving the essential nature of their given situations. As we listen to them, it will be like a candle lit in a dark room, illuminating our reality for clarity in thought and action.
Amos 8:1-12
With another text from Amos this week, we return to the eighth century B.C. If God is going to "never again pass by" (8:2), it would be well and good to understand why. Perhaps in that knowledge there may be found courage for endurance unto the other side of silence.
In his fourth vision, Amos sees a basket of summer fruit. It is one basket representing one fate for the nation. This is in contrast to Jeremiah's two baskets (Jeremiah 24:1-10), one that represents the future of the exiled remnant and the other that represents the lack of future for those who will perish in Jerusalem and Egypt. Israel, i.e., the northern kingdom, has reached the end of its story. Assyria will write the final chapter. The summer fruit has been picked. It is rotting now under the hot sun, never to see autumn.
Judgment will come upon the people because of their oppression of the poor (8:4), their cheating and their greed (8:5). There is more interest for the Sabbath to be over for the sake of gain, than for the Sabbath to come and linger for the sake of rest and refreshment. God will not overlook any of this impertinent behavior, just like one cannot help but notice the floodwaters of the Nile. As the waters outside the banks devastate the land, so shall devastation result from the flood of disobedience, drowning the people in their sin. Instead of songs of victory and praise and thanksgiving in the temple, there shall be lamentation.
Amos visualizes the people in sackcloth and baldness as signs of their wretchedness before the Lord. Whereas Pharaoh mourned for his firstborn son on the day of deliverance generations ago, this generation will enter into mourning as "for an only son" (8:10). When the hearts of God's people are hardened, they too shall know "a bitter day" (8:10).
More penetrating than these images of judgment, is the absence of God that Amos declares (8:11-12). How dreadful for a people who have been blessed by the word of the Lord from their founding days (whether one marks that in Ur or at the foot of Sinai)! The promise will not be repeated; the Torah will not awaken any ear or stir any heart. The people will be left in silence, because they will not be able to find the word of the Lord, as during a famine when no grain can be harvested (8:11). Here is God's wrath at its most horrible expression, for it means that those left in silence will perish! If it is true that mortals do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3), what else but death could result from the silence of God?
This death is applied to the up-and-coming generation, those "fair virgins" and "young men" who will, in fact, "faint for thirst ... fall, and never rise again" (8:13-14). The gods they sought out in their darkness, whether in the shrines of Samaria (see 2 Kings 17:30) or in the calf idol at Dan (1 Kings 12:28-29) or the powers that be in Beer-sheba, will prove impotent. The one true God will stand by in silence and grieve the people of his making, who now reply to him with mocking, substituting hands-on deities for the inscrutable Deity of cosmos and history.
Colossians 1:15-28
When Paul was in Athens (Acts 17:16-34), he found himself in an idol-laden city among philosophers of several stripes who loved to chat about anything new in the world of ideas. When pressed by these talking-heads, Paul seized the opportunity to present the Gospel of Jesus in the Areopagus, a public setting where kings had once been advised by councils. Paul connected with his audience in a most unusual way. He did not address them on what they thought they knew, whether they were Epicurean or Stoic philosophers or religious believers. He started with what they did not know, drawing attention to the altar "To an unknown god."
In Colossians, Paul fleshes out the Christology upon which his very knowledge of God (the unknown, unless God chooses to reveal himself to the world, 1:25-27) is based and upon which his confidence in the resurrection rests. These descriptors of Christ can be better understood against the background of gnostic thought that pervaded so much thinking at the time. Although there are always variations from person to person and between schools of thought within a general outlook, basically, the gnostics relied on "insight" rather than "revelation." Knowledge of God was attained by taking one's self as the starting point.
Typical of gnostic cosmology is a multi-storied universe, filled with emanations upon emanations from God, proceeding from pure spirituality to more material substance. Tertullian (160-220 A.D.) in Adversus Valentinianos 7, characterized the gnostic universe as an apartment building, "with room piled on room, and assigned to each god by just as many stairways as there were heresies: the universe has been turned into rooms for rent!" Though gnosticism surely had pre-Christian roots, it infected Christian tradition with heretical notions that reduced the status of Christ in salvation history and spiritualized the resurrection. (For a more complete understanding of gnosticism and the role it played in the formation of early church doctrine and structure, see Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels.)
Paul claims that Christ is the very image of the invisible God, not a distant emanation from God. Christ is the firstborn of all creation (1:15). This is not meant is terms of a temporal sequence. It emphasizes that Christ stands above and beyond creation in an essential way, such that he is superior to it. This term refers not so much to his relationship to creation, as it does to his relationship to God. For Paul goes on to describe how all things were created "in him ... through him and for him" (1:16). All things hold together in Christ, who is "before all things" (1:17). All these prepositions work together to elevate Christ above the creation, as God the creator is above the creation. Jesus Christ is neither a lesser god, nor is he mere mortal; he is the fullness of God (1:19; see also John 1:14).
His work is "to reconcile ... all things" to God by means of his sacrificial death, "making peace by the blood of his cross" (1:20). This is a work external to humanity and becomes a revelation to humanity for the sake of salvation. It is a work done by God through Jesus Christ. One cannot attain to it through mere insight. It is a gift from the very Son of God (see Colossians 1:3), the mystery of God's heart unwrapped for the whole world to see.
This is the very reason that Jesus Christ is also the head of the church. This is not just a titular distinction, but one in fact, dynamically lived out in time because he is firstborn from the dead (1:18). His pre-eminence is established by the singular event of the resurrection.
This is the faith in which Paul urges the Colossians to remains "stable and steadfast" (1:23; see also Ephesians 4:14, Galatians 1:6-7 and Revelation 2:10). He offers his own sufferings as a sign for the Colossians to take him seriously, an authentic witness to the gospel of Jesus, into whom all disciples are to grow in maturity.
Luke 10:38-42
It is true that in John 11-12:11 we learn of a more intimate relationship between Jesus and the Mary-Martha-Lazarus family. Yet, in Luke we are treated to a scene in which Mary teaches us a very important lesson in life: one thing is needful, and that is to listen to Jesus (10:39, 42).
The same family word is used regarding Martha receiving Jesus into her house and regarding the reception of the Seventy in the outlying villages (Luke 10:8 and Luke 10:38). In this receiving there is implied an openness to hear the message of Jesus. Mary embodies what this means, when she literally sits at Jesus' feet to listen to him.
Jesus sees in Mary a person who has chosen the one thing needful. This is highlighted by Martha's busyness in serving daily bread in contrast to Mary's choice to receive the Bread of Life. This is "the good portion" which will endure beyond the mold of daily bread. The preposition under or beneath attached to the verb "to receive" not only prefigures Mary's posture with Jesus, but also the depth of her devotion. Unfortunately, Martha "was distracted with much serving" (10:40) and gained only anxiety for her efforts, rather than "the good portion."
Jesus can look on an entire crowd and have compassion on them all (Matthew 9:36); yet, for Martha, he can dismiss her anxiety and not lift a hand to help her, but rather lift up Mary as an example to redirect her attentions. That would necessitate a choice for Martha. If John 12:1-11 is a different perspective on the same scene, we still have Jesus lifting up the importance of attention and devotion around him. A choice still has to be made, whether between the poor and an extravagant offering to Jesus, or between feeding others and being fed by the Supplier of all.
Application
Imagine Amos' prophecy applying to us today. It is really not too hard to imagine. There is a growing disparity between the rich and the poor in America, with some suggesting that the middle class is becoming smaller and smaller. (Compound this with the dramatic difference between quality of life in first-world nations and third-world nations.) One out of five children in America, the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth, live in poverty. Every day in most every newspaper there are reports of greed and graft from armed robbery to embezzlement to stock fraud. Court TV shows are filled with claims of deceit, broken promises and meanness -- and we find this entertaining!
Further imagine what it would mean to have the judgment of God fall upon us now. What would we grieve? The loss of our pensions? Our church buildings? Our national identity under the perception of manifest destiny? Would it ever dawn on any one of us to reel at the loss of our salvation? Does anyone dread the silence of God -- or do we think that with the radio and television and Internet so available that we are bound to hear something important along the way? Or even more scary: do we think that as long as our churches are paid for and the appointments kept clean and in place, that we are guaranteed God will remain in our midst?
Look carefully at Amos 8:13-14, although they are not part of the assigned lectionary. They should be. It is very unpleasant to hear these words that cast the future into severe doubt. Dare we consider that the next generation may not rise up, but rather fall? En mass they have already fallen for just about anything and everything that is not holy. Granted they are on a spiritual quest; but they have ventured into the fields of pluralism and relativism, so as to avoid having to be decisive. They only have to select one among many possibilities, any of which could suit their purpose. They do not perceive the choice as singular and a matter of life or death. The only thing that will be sacrificed on the altars of our own making will be ourselves. Such a sacrifice is not strong enough to bond us to God.
The "shifting from the hope of the gospel" that Paul fears may have already taken place today. So much of the language of Christians today has lost it Christo-centric heart. From self-professing Christians when talking about other faith systems, one hears such expressions as: "We all believe the same thing; we are all going to the same place; there's only one God." This seems to be the core of the faith of so many these days, especially in an effort to be conciliatory and inclusive. The result for Christians is a watered-down religiosity that does not shape one's life distinctively but more-or-less sets a mood of spirituality. This mood links one's daily endeavors to factors other than one's specific relationship with the living God or his mediator, Jesus Christ.
John Dart, news editor of the Christian Century, wrote an article for the January-February 2001 issue of Sojourners Magazine in which he observed that, whereas in the past, religious coverage was conducted on a denomination vs. denomination model, in the future it will pit believer (whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, Mormon, New Age, Hindu, etc.) vs. non-believer (atheist, agnostic, secularist, areligious). He also projects that "if religious literacy continues to slide [in the media] ... religious nuances might seem irrelevant when all one needs to know is if a group's members are believers or non-believers."
The "divine office" (Colossians 1:25) from which pastors work is a gift, through which the pastor makes the Word known so that the believer can be presented mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28). This is the goal of Christian ministry. Parishioners must, therefore, hear over and over again that Christ is pre-eminent, by virtue of his work and his relationship to the Father. Paul writes of a veil that is over our eyes preventing us from seeing God clearly, a veil that can only be lifted through Christ (2 Corinthians 3:14). In worship, the veil is lifted through liturgy, Word and sacrament.
A question every congregation should ask itself is whether it is so focused on people and programs that it neglects the person of Christ. We say we do these things in the name of Christ (hospitality and focus groups and fellowship events, etc.); yet, how easy it is to engage in these activities and not mention the name of Christ. We become a distracted Martha, rather than a needful Mary. We must never forget that the purpose for ourselves and those we would evangelize is to sit at the feet of Jesus, to choose the good portion, which cannot be taken away from us when the handshake and hug are over, the discussion ended or the program folded.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Amos 8:1-12
The end! The end of everything. That word "end" and that thought of a total end dominate this portion of Amos' eighth-century prophecy. The word is found in verses 2, 4 and 10 of this prophecy, and it is implied in verses 11-12. In our text from Amos last week, we heard that God could never again "pass over" the heinous sins of Israel. Now he announces, through Amos, the end of Israel because of her sins. The announcement is given to the prophet by means of a fourth vision that completes the series of 7:1--8:3 and that follows the prose account of Amos' confrontation with the priest Amaziah.
In this fourth vision, the Lord asks the prophet what he sees, and Amos replies "a basket of summer fruit." The meaning of the vision is therefore given by a word play. The Hebrew word for late summer fruit is qayis. The word for end is qes, and both were probably pronounced the same way. Like a basket of fruit, soon to become rotten and spoil, Israel is rotting and will be thrown away by her covenant Lord. The end has come upon her, in which there will be funeral wailings instead of joyous songs in the temple, dead bodies shamefully left unburied and an awful silence throughout a land desolated and deserted because of sin.
Verse 4 actually begins a new oracle that opens and closes with the word "end" (vv. 4, 10), and that spells out the enormity of Israel's sin against God. Besides her idolatrous worship, the northern kingdom of Israel is most guilty of cheating and destroying the lives of the poor. Under Jeroboam II's reign, Israel's society was flourishing and prosperous, with an indolent wealthy class and industrious merchants.
But part of their material prosperity was built on their indifference toward God and their sacrifice of the poor. When sabbaths and feast days at the beginning of each month occurred, the merchants chafed at the law forbidding work -- actually a merciful gift of God who decreed both work and rest -- and could not wait to start selling again. Further, the same merchants were cheats. The ephah, which was a 40-liter container used to measure out grain, was made small, while the shekel, a weight placed on a balance scale to determine how much silver was owed for the grain, was oversized. The result was that the poor could not pay for their food. Some were sold into slavery because they could not even pay for the price of a pair of sandals, or they were driven to sweeping up and paying for the grain leavings, full of chaff, from the threshing floor. God's people, the poor, whom he loves, were being destroyed. Therefore Israel would be destroyed -- a somber warning to our affluent society.
The destruction that the Lord was bringing on Israel is portrayed in verses 8-10 in the figures of the Day of the Lord, the day of God's final judgment of the earth, a day that the Israelites had actually looked forward to, because they thought they would be favored and exalted in it (cf. 5:18-20). Thus, the portrayal in verse 8 is not of a natural earthquake, but of a cosmic catastrophe, in which the land will heave up and fall, and that will be accompanied by darkness over the whole land at noonday (v. 9). The repetition of "I...I...I...I" in verses 9-10 shows it will all be the work of the Lord. Religious festivals, with their songs of rejoicing, will be turned into fasts of lamentation and mourning, as at the death of an only son, in whom the family's name and therefore immortality, lived on. Israel had nothing to look forward to, but bitterness, destruction, the end.
Verses 11-12 that follow actually begin a new oracle in which the Lord announces that toward the end, the people will realize that they need his help. And they will search frantically for his word, like a man dying of thirst seeking water, or like a starving person searching for food. The populace has apparently not listened to Amos, any more than did Amaziah, and when they finally realize that the prophet's words are true, it will be too late. God will withdraw his guiding and forgiving word, and they will find no succor.
A message like this one from Amos finds no acceptance in our lives any more than it did in Israel, because we do not believe the God of judgment portrayed here is the God we know through Jesus Christ. In fact, our society tends to believe that God judges no one. As someone remarked, "Of course God forgives. That's his business" -- forgives even our neglect and ruin of the poor in our time, even our greed for material gain, even our indifference and impatience with things godly, even our turning to every refuge except him. But perhaps it should give us pause to realize that at the crucifixion of our Lord, there was indeed an upheaval of the land and a darkness at noon day (cf. Matthew 27:45, 51-53), and the entire New Testament tells us that the Day of the Lord is coming (cf. Mark 13; Romans 2:5; 1 Corinthians 1:8, et al.).
When we read the scripture in our church services, the reader often ends with the announcement, "This is the Word of the Lord," and we automatically reply, "Thanks be to God." But perhaps our task is to listen and to heed that Word before it is too late.
Lutheran Option -- St. Mary Magdalene -- Ruth 1:6-18
Apparently this Old Testament text is linked with the Gospel reading in John 20:1-2, 11-18, because it memorializes the persistent faithfulness of a woman. Naomi, the wife of Elimelech, lives in the country of Moab across the Jordan River, because there is a famine in Judah. She bears two sons, who marry Moabite women. But when Elimelech and the two sons die, Naomi sets out to return to Judah where she will be supported by her own family in her widowhood. Her daughters-in-law intend to go with her, but when Naomi points out that they need to remain in Moab, where they will be cared for by their relatives, one of the daughters-in-law turns back. Ruth, however, will not leave her mother-in-law. In an assertion rather familiar to us, Ruth vows, "Entreat me not to leave you." Where Naomi goes, Ruth will go; where Naomi lodges, Ruth will lodge; Naomi's people will be her people, and Naomi's God, the Lord, will be her God. In the short story of Ruth, that faithful daughter-in-law becomes a forbear of the great king David of Judah, and finally an ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is Ruth's faithfulness to her mother-in-law that is to impress us from this text, if we would use it for the remembrance of St. Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene, in popular tradition, has been the victim of a very bad press. Many believe that she was a prostitute, whom Jesus saved from her life of degradation. There is no scriptural warrant for such a belief. The Magdalene is described in the Synoptic Gospels only as one from Magdala from whom Jesus cleansed seven demons (Luke 8:2; cf. Mark 16:9). But having been cleansed, Mary Magdalene is faithful to her Lord through his entire ministry. She and other women followed Jesus and his disciples from Galilee to Judah, ministering to their needs (Mark 15:40; Matthew 27:56). Unlike the other disciples who denied their relation with Jesus (cf. Peter) and fled from the scene of the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene and some other women watched as their Lord died on the cross, and as his dead body was laid in the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea (Mark 15:47; Matthew 27:61; John 19:25). According to Matthew 28:1, Mary Magdalene went with another Mary at dawn on the first day of the week to visit the tomb. But Mark 16:1 tells us that a number of women went to anoint Jesus' dead body, while our gospel lesson of John 20:1 recounts that Mary Magdalene went alone. Even in a time of death and sorrow, the female followers of our Lord would not desert him, any more than Ruth would desert Naomi.
Then the Gospels give to Mary Magdalene a very high status. In Luke 24:1-12, she is among the group of women who find Jesus' tomb empty, who are told that he has risen, and whose excited discovery is discounted by the apostles when the women tell them of it. But in our gospel lesson from John, Mary Magdalene not only is the first to discover the stone rolled away from the tomb, but she is the first to see the risen Lord. That is, Mary Magdalene is declared by the Fourth Gospel to be the first apostle, because she is the first witness of the resurrection and given the mission of announcing that joyful news to the other disciples. Mary Magdalene ranks with the Twelve and with the Apostle Paul.
But it is the Magdalene's faithfulness to Jesus Christ, isn't it, which deserves her sainthood? She would not leave the Lord who saved her from the demons of this world. Instead she journeyed with him. She was not deterred by the blood and cruelty of the cross, nor the seeming cold finality of the grave. Her loyalty drove her to try to do any act she could to honor her Lord, even if it consisted only in anointing his lifeless body. But to such faithfulness, the Lord answers with life and joy and the glad news of the resurrection. So it can also be with you and with me.
A Greeting, Prayer and Blessing for Proper 11
Greeting
Leader: Jesus once said to Martha, "You are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing."
People: Lord, we come from busy days and hurried lives. We too are worried and distracted by many things. We often lose our way and forget what is central to living.
Leader: Then come into the presence, the silence, the quiet peace of Christ.
Prayer
God who speaks to patriarchs, prophets and seers, God who sends our word to kings and carpenters, priests and peasants, God who sends Jesus Christ to teach with words and miracles, with dying and resurrection, God who sends your Holy Spirit to whisper your will to every man, woman and child, tear us from our many worries and distractions. Settle us down, quiet our souls, focus our attention, and speak to us again with that voice we know from birth. Remind us of the joy of quietly listening to you, and being formed and shaped by the words you speak to us. Rekindle in our crowded hearts the love for hearing your words, and let it grow in the actions that determine our lives. Amen.
Commissioning and Blessing
Mary chose the better part of life by sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to what he was saying. May you use the better part of your days, praying, reading God's Word and listening to what the Spirit of Christ whispers in the quiet of your hearts. And throughout your instruction, may the living presence of Jesus Christ bring you peace and joy in eternal love. Amen.
Reprinted from Worship Workbook For The Gospels, Cycle C, by Robert D. Ingram, CSS Publishing Co., (0-7880-1023-9).
Amos, Paul and Jesus each have something to say about perceiving the essential nature of their given situations. As we listen to them, it will be like a candle lit in a dark room, illuminating our reality for clarity in thought and action.
Amos 8:1-12
With another text from Amos this week, we return to the eighth century B.C. If God is going to "never again pass by" (8:2), it would be well and good to understand why. Perhaps in that knowledge there may be found courage for endurance unto the other side of silence.
In his fourth vision, Amos sees a basket of summer fruit. It is one basket representing one fate for the nation. This is in contrast to Jeremiah's two baskets (Jeremiah 24:1-10), one that represents the future of the exiled remnant and the other that represents the lack of future for those who will perish in Jerusalem and Egypt. Israel, i.e., the northern kingdom, has reached the end of its story. Assyria will write the final chapter. The summer fruit has been picked. It is rotting now under the hot sun, never to see autumn.
Judgment will come upon the people because of their oppression of the poor (8:4), their cheating and their greed (8:5). There is more interest for the Sabbath to be over for the sake of gain, than for the Sabbath to come and linger for the sake of rest and refreshment. God will not overlook any of this impertinent behavior, just like one cannot help but notice the floodwaters of the Nile. As the waters outside the banks devastate the land, so shall devastation result from the flood of disobedience, drowning the people in their sin. Instead of songs of victory and praise and thanksgiving in the temple, there shall be lamentation.
Amos visualizes the people in sackcloth and baldness as signs of their wretchedness before the Lord. Whereas Pharaoh mourned for his firstborn son on the day of deliverance generations ago, this generation will enter into mourning as "for an only son" (8:10). When the hearts of God's people are hardened, they too shall know "a bitter day" (8:10).
More penetrating than these images of judgment, is the absence of God that Amos declares (8:11-12). How dreadful for a people who have been blessed by the word of the Lord from their founding days (whether one marks that in Ur or at the foot of Sinai)! The promise will not be repeated; the Torah will not awaken any ear or stir any heart. The people will be left in silence, because they will not be able to find the word of the Lord, as during a famine when no grain can be harvested (8:11). Here is God's wrath at its most horrible expression, for it means that those left in silence will perish! If it is true that mortals do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3), what else but death could result from the silence of God?
This death is applied to the up-and-coming generation, those "fair virgins" and "young men" who will, in fact, "faint for thirst ... fall, and never rise again" (8:13-14). The gods they sought out in their darkness, whether in the shrines of Samaria (see 2 Kings 17:30) or in the calf idol at Dan (1 Kings 12:28-29) or the powers that be in Beer-sheba, will prove impotent. The one true God will stand by in silence and grieve the people of his making, who now reply to him with mocking, substituting hands-on deities for the inscrutable Deity of cosmos and history.
Colossians 1:15-28
When Paul was in Athens (Acts 17:16-34), he found himself in an idol-laden city among philosophers of several stripes who loved to chat about anything new in the world of ideas. When pressed by these talking-heads, Paul seized the opportunity to present the Gospel of Jesus in the Areopagus, a public setting where kings had once been advised by councils. Paul connected with his audience in a most unusual way. He did not address them on what they thought they knew, whether they were Epicurean or Stoic philosophers or religious believers. He started with what they did not know, drawing attention to the altar "To an unknown god."
In Colossians, Paul fleshes out the Christology upon which his very knowledge of God (the unknown, unless God chooses to reveal himself to the world, 1:25-27) is based and upon which his confidence in the resurrection rests. These descriptors of Christ can be better understood against the background of gnostic thought that pervaded so much thinking at the time. Although there are always variations from person to person and between schools of thought within a general outlook, basically, the gnostics relied on "insight" rather than "revelation." Knowledge of God was attained by taking one's self as the starting point.
Typical of gnostic cosmology is a multi-storied universe, filled with emanations upon emanations from God, proceeding from pure spirituality to more material substance. Tertullian (160-220 A.D.) in Adversus Valentinianos 7, characterized the gnostic universe as an apartment building, "with room piled on room, and assigned to each god by just as many stairways as there were heresies: the universe has been turned into rooms for rent!" Though gnosticism surely had pre-Christian roots, it infected Christian tradition with heretical notions that reduced the status of Christ in salvation history and spiritualized the resurrection. (For a more complete understanding of gnosticism and the role it played in the formation of early church doctrine and structure, see Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels.)
Paul claims that Christ is the very image of the invisible God, not a distant emanation from God. Christ is the firstborn of all creation (1:15). This is not meant is terms of a temporal sequence. It emphasizes that Christ stands above and beyond creation in an essential way, such that he is superior to it. This term refers not so much to his relationship to creation, as it does to his relationship to God. For Paul goes on to describe how all things were created "in him ... through him and for him" (1:16). All things hold together in Christ, who is "before all things" (1:17). All these prepositions work together to elevate Christ above the creation, as God the creator is above the creation. Jesus Christ is neither a lesser god, nor is he mere mortal; he is the fullness of God (1:19; see also John 1:14).
His work is "to reconcile ... all things" to God by means of his sacrificial death, "making peace by the blood of his cross" (1:20). This is a work external to humanity and becomes a revelation to humanity for the sake of salvation. It is a work done by God through Jesus Christ. One cannot attain to it through mere insight. It is a gift from the very Son of God (see Colossians 1:3), the mystery of God's heart unwrapped for the whole world to see.
This is the very reason that Jesus Christ is also the head of the church. This is not just a titular distinction, but one in fact, dynamically lived out in time because he is firstborn from the dead (1:18). His pre-eminence is established by the singular event of the resurrection.
This is the faith in which Paul urges the Colossians to remains "stable and steadfast" (1:23; see also Ephesians 4:14, Galatians 1:6-7 and Revelation 2:10). He offers his own sufferings as a sign for the Colossians to take him seriously, an authentic witness to the gospel of Jesus, into whom all disciples are to grow in maturity.
Luke 10:38-42
It is true that in John 11-12:11 we learn of a more intimate relationship between Jesus and the Mary-Martha-Lazarus family. Yet, in Luke we are treated to a scene in which Mary teaches us a very important lesson in life: one thing is needful, and that is to listen to Jesus (10:39, 42).
The same family word is used regarding Martha receiving Jesus into her house and regarding the reception of the Seventy in the outlying villages (Luke 10:8 and Luke 10:38). In this receiving there is implied an openness to hear the message of Jesus. Mary embodies what this means, when she literally sits at Jesus' feet to listen to him.
Jesus sees in Mary a person who has chosen the one thing needful. This is highlighted by Martha's busyness in serving daily bread in contrast to Mary's choice to receive the Bread of Life. This is "the good portion" which will endure beyond the mold of daily bread. The preposition under or beneath attached to the verb "to receive" not only prefigures Mary's posture with Jesus, but also the depth of her devotion. Unfortunately, Martha "was distracted with much serving" (10:40) and gained only anxiety for her efforts, rather than "the good portion."
Jesus can look on an entire crowd and have compassion on them all (Matthew 9:36); yet, for Martha, he can dismiss her anxiety and not lift a hand to help her, but rather lift up Mary as an example to redirect her attentions. That would necessitate a choice for Martha. If John 12:1-11 is a different perspective on the same scene, we still have Jesus lifting up the importance of attention and devotion around him. A choice still has to be made, whether between the poor and an extravagant offering to Jesus, or between feeding others and being fed by the Supplier of all.
Application
Imagine Amos' prophecy applying to us today. It is really not too hard to imagine. There is a growing disparity between the rich and the poor in America, with some suggesting that the middle class is becoming smaller and smaller. (Compound this with the dramatic difference between quality of life in first-world nations and third-world nations.) One out of five children in America, the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth, live in poverty. Every day in most every newspaper there are reports of greed and graft from armed robbery to embezzlement to stock fraud. Court TV shows are filled with claims of deceit, broken promises and meanness -- and we find this entertaining!
Further imagine what it would mean to have the judgment of God fall upon us now. What would we grieve? The loss of our pensions? Our church buildings? Our national identity under the perception of manifest destiny? Would it ever dawn on any one of us to reel at the loss of our salvation? Does anyone dread the silence of God -- or do we think that with the radio and television and Internet so available that we are bound to hear something important along the way? Or even more scary: do we think that as long as our churches are paid for and the appointments kept clean and in place, that we are guaranteed God will remain in our midst?
Look carefully at Amos 8:13-14, although they are not part of the assigned lectionary. They should be. It is very unpleasant to hear these words that cast the future into severe doubt. Dare we consider that the next generation may not rise up, but rather fall? En mass they have already fallen for just about anything and everything that is not holy. Granted they are on a spiritual quest; but they have ventured into the fields of pluralism and relativism, so as to avoid having to be decisive. They only have to select one among many possibilities, any of which could suit their purpose. They do not perceive the choice as singular and a matter of life or death. The only thing that will be sacrificed on the altars of our own making will be ourselves. Such a sacrifice is not strong enough to bond us to God.
The "shifting from the hope of the gospel" that Paul fears may have already taken place today. So much of the language of Christians today has lost it Christo-centric heart. From self-professing Christians when talking about other faith systems, one hears such expressions as: "We all believe the same thing; we are all going to the same place; there's only one God." This seems to be the core of the faith of so many these days, especially in an effort to be conciliatory and inclusive. The result for Christians is a watered-down religiosity that does not shape one's life distinctively but more-or-less sets a mood of spirituality. This mood links one's daily endeavors to factors other than one's specific relationship with the living God or his mediator, Jesus Christ.
John Dart, news editor of the Christian Century, wrote an article for the January-February 2001 issue of Sojourners Magazine in which he observed that, whereas in the past, religious coverage was conducted on a denomination vs. denomination model, in the future it will pit believer (whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, Mormon, New Age, Hindu, etc.) vs. non-believer (atheist, agnostic, secularist, areligious). He also projects that "if religious literacy continues to slide [in the media] ... religious nuances might seem irrelevant when all one needs to know is if a group's members are believers or non-believers."
The "divine office" (Colossians 1:25) from which pastors work is a gift, through which the pastor makes the Word known so that the believer can be presented mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28). This is the goal of Christian ministry. Parishioners must, therefore, hear over and over again that Christ is pre-eminent, by virtue of his work and his relationship to the Father. Paul writes of a veil that is over our eyes preventing us from seeing God clearly, a veil that can only be lifted through Christ (2 Corinthians 3:14). In worship, the veil is lifted through liturgy, Word and sacrament.
A question every congregation should ask itself is whether it is so focused on people and programs that it neglects the person of Christ. We say we do these things in the name of Christ (hospitality and focus groups and fellowship events, etc.); yet, how easy it is to engage in these activities and not mention the name of Christ. We become a distracted Martha, rather than a needful Mary. We must never forget that the purpose for ourselves and those we would evangelize is to sit at the feet of Jesus, to choose the good portion, which cannot be taken away from us when the handshake and hug are over, the discussion ended or the program folded.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Amos 8:1-12
The end! The end of everything. That word "end" and that thought of a total end dominate this portion of Amos' eighth-century prophecy. The word is found in verses 2, 4 and 10 of this prophecy, and it is implied in verses 11-12. In our text from Amos last week, we heard that God could never again "pass over" the heinous sins of Israel. Now he announces, through Amos, the end of Israel because of her sins. The announcement is given to the prophet by means of a fourth vision that completes the series of 7:1--8:3 and that follows the prose account of Amos' confrontation with the priest Amaziah.
In this fourth vision, the Lord asks the prophet what he sees, and Amos replies "a basket of summer fruit." The meaning of the vision is therefore given by a word play. The Hebrew word for late summer fruit is qayis. The word for end is qes, and both were probably pronounced the same way. Like a basket of fruit, soon to become rotten and spoil, Israel is rotting and will be thrown away by her covenant Lord. The end has come upon her, in which there will be funeral wailings instead of joyous songs in the temple, dead bodies shamefully left unburied and an awful silence throughout a land desolated and deserted because of sin.
Verse 4 actually begins a new oracle that opens and closes with the word "end" (vv. 4, 10), and that spells out the enormity of Israel's sin against God. Besides her idolatrous worship, the northern kingdom of Israel is most guilty of cheating and destroying the lives of the poor. Under Jeroboam II's reign, Israel's society was flourishing and prosperous, with an indolent wealthy class and industrious merchants.
But part of their material prosperity was built on their indifference toward God and their sacrifice of the poor. When sabbaths and feast days at the beginning of each month occurred, the merchants chafed at the law forbidding work -- actually a merciful gift of God who decreed both work and rest -- and could not wait to start selling again. Further, the same merchants were cheats. The ephah, which was a 40-liter container used to measure out grain, was made small, while the shekel, a weight placed on a balance scale to determine how much silver was owed for the grain, was oversized. The result was that the poor could not pay for their food. Some were sold into slavery because they could not even pay for the price of a pair of sandals, or they were driven to sweeping up and paying for the grain leavings, full of chaff, from the threshing floor. God's people, the poor, whom he loves, were being destroyed. Therefore Israel would be destroyed -- a somber warning to our affluent society.
The destruction that the Lord was bringing on Israel is portrayed in verses 8-10 in the figures of the Day of the Lord, the day of God's final judgment of the earth, a day that the Israelites had actually looked forward to, because they thought they would be favored and exalted in it (cf. 5:18-20). Thus, the portrayal in verse 8 is not of a natural earthquake, but of a cosmic catastrophe, in which the land will heave up and fall, and that will be accompanied by darkness over the whole land at noonday (v. 9). The repetition of "I...I...I...I" in verses 9-10 shows it will all be the work of the Lord. Religious festivals, with their songs of rejoicing, will be turned into fasts of lamentation and mourning, as at the death of an only son, in whom the family's name and therefore immortality, lived on. Israel had nothing to look forward to, but bitterness, destruction, the end.
Verses 11-12 that follow actually begin a new oracle in which the Lord announces that toward the end, the people will realize that they need his help. And they will search frantically for his word, like a man dying of thirst seeking water, or like a starving person searching for food. The populace has apparently not listened to Amos, any more than did Amaziah, and when they finally realize that the prophet's words are true, it will be too late. God will withdraw his guiding and forgiving word, and they will find no succor.
A message like this one from Amos finds no acceptance in our lives any more than it did in Israel, because we do not believe the God of judgment portrayed here is the God we know through Jesus Christ. In fact, our society tends to believe that God judges no one. As someone remarked, "Of course God forgives. That's his business" -- forgives even our neglect and ruin of the poor in our time, even our greed for material gain, even our indifference and impatience with things godly, even our turning to every refuge except him. But perhaps it should give us pause to realize that at the crucifixion of our Lord, there was indeed an upheaval of the land and a darkness at noon day (cf. Matthew 27:45, 51-53), and the entire New Testament tells us that the Day of the Lord is coming (cf. Mark 13; Romans 2:5; 1 Corinthians 1:8, et al.).
When we read the scripture in our church services, the reader often ends with the announcement, "This is the Word of the Lord," and we automatically reply, "Thanks be to God." But perhaps our task is to listen and to heed that Word before it is too late.
Lutheran Option -- St. Mary Magdalene -- Ruth 1:6-18
Apparently this Old Testament text is linked with the Gospel reading in John 20:1-2, 11-18, because it memorializes the persistent faithfulness of a woman. Naomi, the wife of Elimelech, lives in the country of Moab across the Jordan River, because there is a famine in Judah. She bears two sons, who marry Moabite women. But when Elimelech and the two sons die, Naomi sets out to return to Judah where she will be supported by her own family in her widowhood. Her daughters-in-law intend to go with her, but when Naomi points out that they need to remain in Moab, where they will be cared for by their relatives, one of the daughters-in-law turns back. Ruth, however, will not leave her mother-in-law. In an assertion rather familiar to us, Ruth vows, "Entreat me not to leave you." Where Naomi goes, Ruth will go; where Naomi lodges, Ruth will lodge; Naomi's people will be her people, and Naomi's God, the Lord, will be her God. In the short story of Ruth, that faithful daughter-in-law becomes a forbear of the great king David of Judah, and finally an ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is Ruth's faithfulness to her mother-in-law that is to impress us from this text, if we would use it for the remembrance of St. Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene, in popular tradition, has been the victim of a very bad press. Many believe that she was a prostitute, whom Jesus saved from her life of degradation. There is no scriptural warrant for such a belief. The Magdalene is described in the Synoptic Gospels only as one from Magdala from whom Jesus cleansed seven demons (Luke 8:2; cf. Mark 16:9). But having been cleansed, Mary Magdalene is faithful to her Lord through his entire ministry. She and other women followed Jesus and his disciples from Galilee to Judah, ministering to their needs (Mark 15:40; Matthew 27:56). Unlike the other disciples who denied their relation with Jesus (cf. Peter) and fled from the scene of the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene and some other women watched as their Lord died on the cross, and as his dead body was laid in the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea (Mark 15:47; Matthew 27:61; John 19:25). According to Matthew 28:1, Mary Magdalene went with another Mary at dawn on the first day of the week to visit the tomb. But Mark 16:1 tells us that a number of women went to anoint Jesus' dead body, while our gospel lesson of John 20:1 recounts that Mary Magdalene went alone. Even in a time of death and sorrow, the female followers of our Lord would not desert him, any more than Ruth would desert Naomi.
Then the Gospels give to Mary Magdalene a very high status. In Luke 24:1-12, she is among the group of women who find Jesus' tomb empty, who are told that he has risen, and whose excited discovery is discounted by the apostles when the women tell them of it. But in our gospel lesson from John, Mary Magdalene not only is the first to discover the stone rolled away from the tomb, but she is the first to see the risen Lord. That is, Mary Magdalene is declared by the Fourth Gospel to be the first apostle, because she is the first witness of the resurrection and given the mission of announcing that joyful news to the other disciples. Mary Magdalene ranks with the Twelve and with the Apostle Paul.
But it is the Magdalene's faithfulness to Jesus Christ, isn't it, which deserves her sainthood? She would not leave the Lord who saved her from the demons of this world. Instead she journeyed with him. She was not deterred by the blood and cruelty of the cross, nor the seeming cold finality of the grave. Her loyalty drove her to try to do any act she could to honor her Lord, even if it consisted only in anointing his lifeless body. But to such faithfulness, the Lord answers with life and joy and the glad news of the resurrection. So it can also be with you and with me.
A Greeting, Prayer and Blessing for Proper 11
Greeting
Leader: Jesus once said to Martha, "You are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing."
People: Lord, we come from busy days and hurried lives. We too are worried and distracted by many things. We often lose our way and forget what is central to living.
Leader: Then come into the presence, the silence, the quiet peace of Christ.
Prayer
God who speaks to patriarchs, prophets and seers, God who sends our word to kings and carpenters, priests and peasants, God who sends Jesus Christ to teach with words and miracles, with dying and resurrection, God who sends your Holy Spirit to whisper your will to every man, woman and child, tear us from our many worries and distractions. Settle us down, quiet our souls, focus our attention, and speak to us again with that voice we know from birth. Remind us of the joy of quietly listening to you, and being formed and shaped by the words you speak to us. Rekindle in our crowded hearts the love for hearing your words, and let it grow in the actions that determine our lives. Amen.
Commissioning and Blessing
Mary chose the better part of life by sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to what he was saying. May you use the better part of your days, praying, reading God's Word and listening to what the Spirit of Christ whispers in the quiet of your hearts. And throughout your instruction, may the living presence of Jesus Christ bring you peace and joy in eternal love. Amen.
Reprinted from Worship Workbook For The Gospels, Cycle C, by Robert D. Ingram, CSS Publishing Co., (0-7880-1023-9).
