All the Things
(Free Version)- The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost- Amos 8:1-12; Colossians 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42
You can find this week’s readings here.
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Our readings this week challenge us in our distractions. What is that distracts us from remembering the God who is at work in our midst?
The leaders of Israel are strongly rebuked by Amos because they have forgotten their identity and mission (Amos 8:1-12). This is illustrated by the fact that they are oppressing the poor and trying to suppress the voice of God through the prophets. They are cheating the system, attempting to squeeze as much as they can out of the poor of the land. These moves are against God’s plans and they are therefore anti-creational. The descriptions of “The Day of the Lord” illustrate what happens when a people move away from who they were created to be. Just like those who persecuted them in Egypt, the leaders have themselves become oppressors. Because of this, songs of celebration become songs of mourning; light will give way to darkness; and God will not speak. This passage illustrates the dangers of anti-creational impulses, oppression, and injustice.
Paul is also concerned about distractions among God’s people, the church in Colossae (Colossians 1:15-28). They are bombarded by images and narratives about “headship.” Paul reminds them of the true image and the true head. What propaganda do we believe today? We may not have an emperor who we worship as god, but there are implicit, all-encompassing stories which attempt to shape everything that we do.
Dallas Willard writes, “The process of spiritual formation in Christ is one of progressively replacing...destructive images and ideas with the images and ideas that filled the mind of Jesus himself...Spiritual formation in Christ moves us toward a total interchange of our ideas and images for his.”1
Materialism is one of those stories. We are defined by what we buy, or by our progress on the American status meter. In much of the United States, we follow a dream of “the good life.” Good families have well behaved kids who all look perfect all the time; the perfect, cute home that never gets messy and is always Instagram-ready; wearing the latest trends but still making it look effortless; have all the nicest stuff; have friends who we can hang out with on Friday nights and see the best bands, taste the best food, know the best wines, all while having plenty of family time, kill it at work, become famous, and do not get into any credit card debt while we do it! This just may be our equivalent of Caesar.
The extreme cultural polarization of our society is due to the fact that our political or cultural ideologies have become gods to us. Much of our political discourse is now based, not in ideas that we believe to be better than other ideas, but only in the perceived ugliness of the other side. We see every cultural event through the lens of our “team.” We are unable empathize with the other; we have no taste for nuance because we are in service to the god of our cultural “team.”
Yet, none of our ideologies have forgiven us! None of our cultural ideologies have rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. It may seem like they hold the world together but they do not! There is a better king. When all of our false narratives prove hollow, God is true.
In our gospel reading, Martha was busy with a lot of good things (Luke 10:38-42). Have you ever caught yourself in this kind of pattern: Not distracted by outright sin, but distracted by good things? God-motivated things? Pure-hearted things? We may be distracted by providing for my family, keeping the house clean, making sure that we have dinner for the week, with patients or clients. We may become distracted with community work. Yet, we have become “in an uproar” about our tasks, forgetting the main thing, the person of Jesus in our midst.
It is the main thing that keeps “all the things” together. As we saw in Colossians, in him, all things hold together. Everything in the world, everything in creation holds together in the person of Jesus.
This does not mean that there is no time to do the dishes, mow the lawn, finish notes, or plan a vacation. All of these are good things. But their alignment matters.
Another way to think of this is, are we living a life that is driven by our work or by the Spirit’s work? Steve Seamands says that the Christian life is not so much a row boat life as it is a sailboat life. In a row boat, we have to provide the energy. In a sailboat, we simply catch the wind.2 Many of us need to put our oars down and trust the wind of the Holy Spirit.
Both involve action. In a last week’s story, both the Good Samaritans and the priests who passed alongside the road were busy. The priests were hurried, afraid, and distracted. The Samaritan’s work was attentive and centered. When we are receiving, we place ourselves in the hands of the one who aligns our work with His. Our call is to receive our identity, not to achieve our identity. Martha, and all of us are invited and reminded to surrender to Christ.
Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ, (Colorado Springs: Navigators, 2002), 101.
Steve Seamands, “What Happened at Pentecost Must Always Happen in the Church,” Seedbed, May 31, 2017, https://www.seedbed.com/what-happened-at-pentecost-church/.