August 3, 2015

“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. 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; 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.”   Amos 7:7-15 (NRSV)

“If we’re really honest with ourselves…When the truth hurts, we deny, deflect, and defend ourselves. Like a bug hiding from the light, we scurry to find the safety of dark corners so we can hide from the change to which we are being called. But even the darkness is as light to our Lord Jesus who followed us to the very depths of death itself that we might yet be freed to walk in the light.”
(Krista Vingelis, Pastor, Trinity Lutheran Church of Porterville, Calif.)

Let me tell you my friends, I pray every day, every day that G*d might give me the wisdom and the insight about what G*d would want us to do in this or that scenario. And often I feel like our friend the prophet Amos, who knows that he is just a vessel for G*d — and that unpopular topics can result in unpopular sermons — and yet, like Amos, pastors are just regular Joes and Janes, called by G*d, trying to hear the voice of G*d through a cacophony of voices ranting opinions, claiming to “know G*d’s mind”, views of political correctness, and secular humanism. And still I am trying to decide, in this place, in this world, in this community:

Is G*d dropping a line to say “enough is enough”?

or,
Is G*d once again trying to tell us or remind us how G*d decides to draw a line in the sand?

As a Lutheran, I believe that the word of G*d is a living, breathing word that speaks to us through all times and places, and can help us see what G*d is doing in an ever-changing world. We Lutherans struggle through such issues, reading G*d’s word and remaining engaged in the conversation praying that the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us so that we might get a glimpse of the lines in the sand that G*d is drawing. But it will not be easy, nor will it be immediate. It might even be painful, because change is never easy, especially when we think we have a grip on life, the universe and everything, and then G*d decides to challenge us. That is exactly what G*d did to first century Judaism in the person of Jesus Christ. And then the Holy Spirit came to embolden a rag tag group of disciples who risked life and limb to spread the word about Jesus. Why should we believe that G*d wouldn’t do that to us today — send the Spirit to us to help us each achieve a new life in Christ. Just like Christ came to change our understanding of how G*d works in the world, this same word still points us to a G*d who is still surprising us, still teaching us, and still leading us to new possibilities.

Pastor Dave