Return to Center.....July 14, 2024

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it…..”
Beloved, let me give you some context for this reading from Amos today; this rather “famous” passage when God declares They shall place a plumbline in the midst of God’s people.
Another name for God’s people was Israel. We often think of Israel as a country, but that’s because we demand to live within geographical borders and boundaries. First and foremost, Israel was a people, God’s People, who God then placed within a land.  If you remember, they started out with elders and judges as leaders after Moses died. But then, seeing all the other powerful nations who had Kings, the Hebrew people asked God to give them a king. This kinda bummed God out because God thought they understood that God was their king, but God, being God, didn’t force Their way onto the people. God allowed Israel to have a king. But, Beloved, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  There hasn’t been a time in history when Kings and monarchs haven’t abused their power in order to gain wealth. And the Hebrew people are no exception to this. From this corruption comes injustice, and injustice leads to division, and so the people known as Israel, who lived in a land also known as Israel, became divided. The Northern Kingdom was called Israel and the Southern Kingdom was called Judah.
And then, yep, it went just the way God knew it would.  You see, having a King that wasn’t God made the people citizens of another Kingdom.  And in any Kingdom there’s gotta be someone at the top—political leaders.  And since this was the Hebrew people, the religious leaders also had power.  So at the point of today’s prophecy from Amos, we are about 150 years into this divided Kingdom. And the political leaders (in our story it’s King Jeroboam the Second– who was often written about as the “worst king ever”) and the religious leaders (in our story Amaziah, the priest of Bethel) liked their power. And their wealth. In fact, Jeroboam used his power to make him (and his cronies) wealthier and wealthier, striving to gain more and more power, leaving most  of the people of Israel in the dust of poverty. Jeroboam allowed the poor to become sold into debt slavery and he then denied them legal representation. And Amaziah and the other priests did nothing to prevent or stop this from happening. Collusion between state and religion. In this corrupt system, the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. The number of elite at the top was small while the number at the bottom in poverty was large. And the disparity between the two was great and always growing.  Because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. 
Amos comes into this situation to warn Israel; to urge them to turn back to God’s ways, but the leaders have been swayed by power, wealth, and corruption.  They have moved from” we and us” to “me and mine.” No longer is Israel a collective; it is a divided and broken kingdom with rulers and leaders who believe that some people deserve everything while other people are only worth whatever they can be exploited for in order to gain more wealth and power for the few. 
Beloved, let those who have ears to hear, LISTEN: Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
That brings me to our Gospel reading today. In the Jesus story, we hear again this deadly mixture of religious leaders walking in step with political leaders—all for the sake of power.  In fact, Episcopal priest and preacher Barbara Brown Taylor describes it this way:  “Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion, which is always a deadly mix. Beware those who claim to know the mind of God and who are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform. Beware those who cannot tell God's will from their own.”
In today’s reading, we have a Hebrew leader, Herod Antipas, who has power and authority because he has bowed to the Roman Empire. Herod Antipas is the son of Herod the Great—who was ruler at the time of Jesus’ birth, the one who killed innocent children out of fear of losing his power. It seems humans can become egregiously inhumane when it comes to maintaining power. And the fruit did not fall far from the tree. For Herod Antipas has made a silly public promise, all because of an entertaining dance, that leads him to kill someone he admires all for the sake of saving face. Anything to keep his power. His elite life. His wealth. His authority—even if it is a puppet authority at the whim of the Empire.
Jeroboam, Amaziah, Herod the Great, Herod Antipas: they all had something in common. They were all concerned first and foremost with self. Even though they held positions that were designed to provide for the common good. Leadership positions had been entrusted to them—either because of their familial lineage or because of their Roman connections—leadership positions that were meant to serve the community, the collective, and instead, they used it to serve themselves. They used their position to grow in power, influence and wealth—-no matter what it cost their people, their community, the nation.
Jeroboam, Amaziah, Herod the Great, Herod Antipas: they all had something else in common. Their plumbline was fear. Now, fear is a necessity. Fear is what prevents us from making disastrous mistakes. But fear cannot be our plumbline. Fear contorts our hearts, skews our vision, misleads our spirits. Greed comes from fear, as do lust for power and control. Fear creates smaller and smaller circles of concern and inclusion. Beloved: Fear cannot be our plumbline. Love must be our plumbline. Sacrificial Love. Agape Love, which is communal love, collective love.  As we are told over and over again in Scripture, Christ is our exemplar of how to be a human made in God’s image because Christ encompasses all. Not just some; Not just the elite or the top of the pyramid—but all. All of humanity and all of Creation are encompassed in the Christ. Colossians 3:11: “There is only Christ. He is everything and he is in everything.” Christ is our exemplar because his steadfast and immovable plumbline is Agape Love.
Like the Christ, our plumbline must be love. Radical Love. Inclusive Love. Collective Love. Anything else is not Christianity. Anything else is not the Way of Love.
And Beloved, no matter your fiscal beliefs, your political leanings, your governmental or economic concepts, as a Christian—literally as one who follows Christ—-as a Christian, let us elect leaders and demand leaders who have Agape Love as their plumbline. Who understand the worldview we see lived out in the Christ: where the outcast are brought into community, the sick are healed, the poor—-even the last ones who only spend an hour in the fields—are deserving of a living wage. Because anyone’s worthiness comes not from their productivity but from the fact that they too are God’s Beloved, made in God’s image.
And when the world around us forgets who they are, who WE ARE, then let us be a shining beacon. A light on the hill—-refusing to be dimmed. Refusing to be covered or silenced or forgotten.  Let us still believe and trust that sacrificial Love is the power that will win out. Let us act on this trust, this belief, let us invest our gifts and wealth into this belief. This us vote from this belief. Let us trust that Love will outlive hate; Love will reconcile division; Love will overcome fear. And let us band together—in the words of the Christ—become One as God is One. A trinity of holiness and the holiness of unity. Let us become Beloved Community, pulsating with the radiance of Love—the power that transforms and reconciles all. Because Beloved: 
​Those who fail to learn from history are those who are doomed to repeat it.