The Adventurous Lectionary – The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – July 20, 2025
Amos 8:1-12, Psalm 52, Colossians 1:15-28, Luke 10:38-42
This week’s lectionary is a gold mine of theological, spiritual, and homiletical riches. There are almost too many possibilities for the adventurous preacher, and the integration of the varied and yet interconnected themes will take all the imagination of the preacher. Will you combine three messages into one, choose one theme, or preach these on three successive Sundays?
This Sunday’s scriptures join the cosmic and the local, the macro and the micro, divine universality and the divine intimacy, and faith and justice. They point to a deep Christology, a deep incarnation, that embraces every aspect of life, joining theology, mysticism, social transformation, and personal and political ethics. Colossians affirms that Christ is the Life of All Things and Each Thing, the infinite is the infinite, creating in us and with us, and calling us to abundant life and creative transformation for ourselves and all creation. To affirm the cosmic Christ is to embrace an ethic of restoration and reconciliation in which the Christ in all things is the Christ in each thing – in which Christ is present in the undocumented resident hounded by ICE and the conscience ridden ICE agent, who needs a job and yet knows he is doing the work of the “devil” in dehumanizing God’s children.
I always take not of bumper stickers, sometimes a great distraction when I’m driving. I often wonder, “what kind of person would put that message on their car? Or, what does that sticker say about their values?” No doubt you’ve seen the battle of bumper stickers. A popular evangelical bumper sticker proclaims, “Honk, if you love Jesus.” To which a contrasting bumper sticker responds, “If you love Jesus, seek justice. Any fool can honk.” Amos would have appreciated the theology of the second bumper sticker. Amos challenged his listeners – the wealthy elite of government and business, to embrace a holistic spirituality, one that puts justice above wealth and power. Amos imagines a “theospirituality,” embracing prayer and protest, head and heart, study and social involvement, and contemplation and creative transformation.
Amos’ words are clearly addressed to those who have wealth and power, and not to the vulnerable of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. While Amos’ words also apply to the working class and vulnerable, they are first directed to those whose actions can promote life or death, and who often escape the ethical consequences of their actions by claiming, “it’s just business, nothing personal.” But, to Amos, everything is personal. Everything touches human experience, bringing joy or sorrow, or life or death. A stroke of a pen can lead to the death of millions, the hounding of undocumented residents, the loss of healthcare, and the dismissal of loyal governmental employees. Seemingly civil, the decisions made by white collar business and political leaders are often more dangerous and violent than those whom we describe as street thugs. Faith and ethics are intimately connected. Worship is dead – in fact, deadly – if it is divorced from concern for the poor and from practices that promote the well-being of society’s most vulnerable members, so says the prophet Amos, who proclaims that God blesses our worship when we “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24) This is surely a matter of personal ethics, but for Amos and the prophetic tradition, it is much more than individualism. It also involves citizens committing themselves to creating a just political and economic order. Individual decisions by governmental and business leaders are never individual – they privilege love or hate and life or death. To Amos, you can’t delight in Alligator Alcatraz and go to church on Sunday!
Amos 8 is terrifying in its prophetic realism. It is an indictment on those who prefer profits to the words of prophets. Those who trample on the needy and bring ruin to the poor of the land will experience a “famine of hearing the word of God.” They will have beautiful worship services, lively praise music, jumbotrons, mega-buildings, properly performed sacraments, and think themselves orthodox, when in fact God has abandoned their houses of worship. Such words leave me feeling, as Thomas Merton notes, like a “guilty bystander.” Like most Americans, even among many of those who think they are disenfranchised, I benefit from unjust business and investment practices, taxes that benefit wealthy corporations and individuals, and practices that destroy the ecological infrastructure.
Recently controversy emerged about Donald Trump was saved from death to make America great again. Trump points to the heavens, noting that God had chosen him to deport undocumented residents and pass his big beautiful bill. While I am in no position to judge Trump’s inner spirituality, it is appropriate to ask if his faith has changed his attitudes on race, gender, economic justice, and refugees. In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, I have seen no ethical changes reflected in his tweets, public comments, or governmental policies. If anything, his brush with death has made him more adamant in his hate, incivility and bullying – perhaps the reflection of his belief that God is on his side, and not on the side of those he bullies and demeans.
It is also appropriate to look in the mirror, as the preacher, to explore our own apathy, hopelessness, or contentment with political and economic practices that destroy families and communities and our delicate ecosystems. We can ask ourselves, “Is there a famine on hearing God’s word in the United States and in our congregations?” Despite our numerical religiosity, some of the most self-proclaimed religious among us are also the most racist, sexist, polarizing, and hateful toward outsiders or members of the LGBTQ communities. At the very least, we need to live in the pathway of Jesus, beginning with a respect for those with whom we differ and a willingness to recognize the finitude of our own positions. (For more on Amos, see Bruce Epperly, “The Prophet Amos Speaks to America.”)
Psalm 52 challenges those of us who take refuge in our riches. Again, the Psalmist, like Amos, is aiming his invective toward the elites, powerful, and wealthy, and those who aspire to be like them. The Psalm does not exalt poverty, but in anticipation of Jesus’ words about how difficult it is for the wealthy to enter God’s realm, the Psalm reminds us to put God’s way first and let it be the standard for our personal and political lives. Economics matter to the poor, and they matter to God. While our quest for justice will be messy, we can look for ways to be faithful citizens in a religiously pluralistic society.
The deep Christology of Colossians connects theology, ethics, and hope. Christ is the creative and unifying power in the universe, whose energy joins height and depth and everything in between. The reality present in Jesus reveals the moral order of the universe, an order that seeks to reconcile and unify all creation in its wondrous diversity. In Christ, we are reconciled and have left behind evil. Living Christ-like lives involves for us behaviors that reconcile others. The wall of separation has been broken down: words and actions, whether by politicians, in daily life, or Facebook, that polarize are not worthy of those who proclaim the fullness of God in Christ. But, in the midst of messiness and our imperfect efforts at creative transformation, there is hope – there is a great mystery, “Christ in us – the hope of glory.” God’s glory is ours, not just in the future but now. Let us live as saved persons committed to saving the world as God’s healing companions.
What is the hope of glory toward which we yearn and toward which we work? Our hope involves bringing God’s realm to earth, embodying divinity in our finite lives. Christ wants to be born in us; Christ was to empower and enliven, yes, enlighten us so that we can be lights in the world.
The story of Mary and Martha is almost too well-known and requires the preacher to go beyond superficial interpretations that polarize these two beloved friends of Jesus. Mary is the contemplative, listening to Jesus, giving Jesus her full attention. Martha is busy about many things, feeling anxious and alienated from her sister. Yet, there is more to the scripture than this. The activist Martha is in need of a Sabbath. She needs to let go of perfectionism to welcome her friend Jesus. Yet, Martha also needs to be applauded, Our churches need “worker bees.” Martha is absolutely necessary to healthy spirituality and social concern: Martha gets things done! Martha is on the picket line and protests injustice. We need Martha’s in church and community. We need hands to hammer and voices to protest; we need to challenge and care. Mary is near to God, but there is the temptation that “she will be so heavenly minded that she is no earthly good.” Mary needs to leave her meditations to clean up after dinner.
Mary and Martha together represent a holistic spirituality. Faith and works go together. Faithful spirituality embodies daily life with holiness. Committed works brings holiness to our social and personal relationships. We would benefit from the wisdom inscribed on a bench at Kirkridge Retreat and Conference Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania, “picket and pray.” Each of us has gifts, and our spiritual orientations need to be honored. Still, spiritual maturity invites us to deepen both aspects of the Christian journey – contemplative prayer and acts of love. We need, in our congregations, to nurture the Mary within the busy Martha and encourage Martha to come forth in contemplative Mary as we join head, heart, and hands, and create thin places joining heaven and earth wherever we find ourselves.
There is no “cheap grace” in today’s scriptures. God’s love is global and unmerited and God’s love call us to action. Justice and earth care require prayer and action, and the willingness to hear the cries of the poor, and sacrifice for the well-being of all creation. Today’s passages challenge us to move from self-interest to world loyalty for our own good and for the good of creation.
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Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD (https://www.westmorelanducc.org/) and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 80 books including: “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America’s Mystics” (Amazon.com: Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries: 9781625249142: Epperly, Bruce: Books) “Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet “(Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet: Epperly, Bruce: 9781625248732: Amazon.com: Books), Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet”( Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999215: Amazon.com: Books), and his most recent book, “God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality and Social Change.” (The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books) His latest book is “A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians.” (A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999413: Amazon.com: Books)
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