July 13, 2025 ☩ The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
on
Amos 7:7-17; Ps 82; Colossians 1:1-14; & Luke 10:25-37
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“Bear Fruits of Mercy”
Today’s portion of the letter to the Colossians opens with a familiar form that we also echo at the beginning of our services deepening the awareness of God’s presence and Spirit with and through every interaction and shared experience. The author then continues with prayerful words asking of God to imbue the Church in Colossae [pron.: kuh-LOSS-see] with “all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” [Col. 1:9] What follows is the inspiration for the traditional blessing at funerals which includes encouragement to “lead lives worthy of the Lord,… as you bear fruit in every good work.” [Col. 1:10] While the strength and wisdom of God is prayerfully requested for the reader, and for us today, ease of life is not guaranteed. Rather, we hear additional prayers for endurance, patience, and joy. Endurance and patience suggest one might face difficulties, while ‘joy’ alludes to the hope that lies ahead for the faithful – the “inheritance of the saints in light” [Col. 1:12] that is in our future. That joy is our redemption. That hope is the forgiveness of our sins.
Now if we seek the same ‘hope,’ the same ‘Good News’ that the Colossians knew, we can carve out a portion of it from our readings from the prophet Amos [pron.: AY-muhs] and the Gospel of Luke appointed for today. Bear in mind, in the letter to the Colossians, the named author “Paul” explains that “the word of truth, the gospel” [Col. 1:5] is not only bearing fruit among the faithful community of Colossae but also “is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world” [Col. 1:6].
This point is paramount to the message conveyed through Amos and the Gospel of Luke – that the Gospel is not only meant for the whole world but is already bearing fruit in the whole world, in addition to individual communities.
The premise we have is that if the Gospel is universal, the people of God, the ‘faithful’ or the ‘saints in light’ or ‘Christians’ or whatever term you prefer to use for believers in God and Christ, are united in the same hope. The message of redemption is not just for the elite, the wealthy, the powerful. The message of hope is not just for a specific nation or region. The Good News is not just for a singular congregation. We ALL share in the Good News through belief in our hearts, and the faithful conveyance of the same Good News outwardly to the whole world.
Amos had a specific worldview, and thus a particular view of what redemption might look like for his community. Amos lived in the eighth century B.C. Gregory Mobley, a biblical commentator, shares that Amos was a shepherd and farmer in an era when an enormous economic wedge separated the elite from the poor who clawed and scratched their way through survival. [Mobley, Gregory. New Oxford Annotated Bible. Fully Revised Fourth Ed. Pg. 1282-83]
Interestingly, this was also the peak of the expansion and growth of Israel. In this era, of the original twelve tribes of Israel at large, only two remained. Israel to the north was the largest, and Judah, the smaller, was thought of with significantly less regard. Amos was a poor shepherd from the lesser country of Judah.
In a condemning speech toward Israel, the wealthier territory, Amos advocated for fairness. Through a vision Amos had, he shares a message from God about justice with the image of a plumb line to metaphorically represent God’s assessment of human culture, whether it be ‘straight and true.’ For masons of the time and any builder in Amos’ time and even today, nearly 3000 years later, the plumb line is a vital and crucial tool for proper construction – to know whether what is being built will stand the test of time, or if something is ‘off’ from ideal form. Amos reminds the wealthy nation of Israel that God can see injustice with clarity, like a simple plumb line, and no matter what economic structures are put in place to cheat poor farmers out of their lands and sustenance, God will know what they do and how they do it.
Amaziah did not like this unsettling condemnation and sent Amos back to Judah to prophesy there. Amos retorts as a reminder of his social location, that being a prophet is not his work nor generational calling passed from his parents to him. [Amos 7:14] He is a herdsman and collects from the wild fig trees, by means of scratching the fruit to expedite ripening of this lesser, wild fig. In a literal sense, he scratches out a living, barely surviving. Amos, though, does not earn a profit through the work of being a prophet.
As such, Amos explains his worldview and becomes a generous advocate for justice for the poor. From among the poor himself, we see the Good News at work, surfacing with confidence and endurance to strive to provide a literal earthly redemption for the downtrodden – a theme also elevated in today’s Psalm.
Amos strove for justice, even boldly speaking out in protest to the neighboring territory of Israel for the sake of those oppressed in Israel AND those of Judah. Amos provides a connection to the letter to the Colossians that the hope in God is for the whole world and not just for the benefit of his own community. Amos helps us to look beyond ourselves, our immediate congregation and see that those outside of our homes, our trades, our parish, are also partakers of the same urge to live into and toward the hope of redemption and justice that lies ahead – both our inheritance with the saints in light AND the unfolding of God’s kingdom breaking forth into the world today.
Jesus offers us the same encouragement to break the narrow bubbles of shared faith. In chapter 9 (two Sundays ago), Luke shares the story of Jesus sending messengers ahead to Samaria. The Samaritans did not want Jesus to come and James and John wanted to “command fire to come down from heaven and consume them” [Luke 9:54]. Jesus rebuked them and simply moved on. Jesus affirmed his practice of ‘moving on’ and not getting caught up in vengeance in chapter 10 of Luke telling his apostles to shake the dust from their feet and remain steadfast to sharing the Good News that “the kingdom of God has come near” [Luke 10:11]
Subtly, Jesus is telling us not to develop stigmas and stereotypes against other groups, and specifically in this case, other nationalities.
To emphasize this message, Jesus changes the perception of the Samaritans who just denied receiving him into their towns by making the Samaritan the effective hero of the Parable of the Good Samaritan in today’s Gospel. A priest and a Levite, a member of the tribe from where priests came, were considered the most pious. Of them, one would expect them to not only know the Law, but to live it. Jesus even has the lawyer recall the Great Commandment that leads one to inherit eternal life. The lawyer rightly responds: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” [Luke 10:27] In the follow-up question of ‘who is one’s neighbor?’, Jesus does not simply say it is our fellow believer in God. Jesus makes clear it is not simply a person with our same outward practice of faith. However, it is someone who lives out ‘mercy’ and whose heart thus belongs to God.
Mercy is the message Amos strove for on behalf of the poor while the economic wedge of the powerful drove the poor to become poorer. Mercy is a message of hope and redemption in which the oppressed and oppressor can both embrace, share, and spread in the fruits they bear.
This message of mercy was crucial 2800 years ago in Judah and Israel. The message of mercy was vital as it pertains to following the Great Commandment with one’s heart, soul, strength, and mind. And this message of mercy is one that knows no bounds, be it cultural or national.
As the lawyer in Luke’s Gospel rightly identifies the Good neighbor as “one who showed… mercy,” [Luke 10:37] we must now also hear Jesus’ directive to “Go and do likewise.” [Luke 10:37]
Mercy, compassion, and love can often be exhausting. Remain steadfast through patient endurance while giving of your whole heart, soul, strength, and mind to God. Keep your hearts and minds strengthened in the spiritual wisdom of the joy that not only lies in our inheritance with the saints, but also in the unfolding of God’s kingdom as we participate in the work of Christ Jesus in mercy, justice, and compassion. Amen.
