Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 13 July 2025.
• First Reading: Amos 7: 7-17 (Vision of the plumbline – ‘I will spare my people no longer’)
• Second Reading: Colossians 1: 1-14 (Thanksgiving and prayer)
• Gospel: Luke 10: 25-37 (The parable of the good Samaritan)
Part of my misspent youth was engaged in studying law – and I did this for a year, before deciding that this was not really for me.
Even so, I learned a few legal concepts and as a planner was able to speak to lawyers without being intimidated. That was quite useful.
So it strikes me as strange that the lawyer speaking to Jesus was asking a rather unusual question:
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“No problem. Keep the law.”
“Ah, but who is my neighbour?”
A very lawyerly question. Define your terms – please. Just what do you mean by this? Who and what is included and who and what is excluded?
This may be rather nit-picking but an inheritance cannot be earned. It is not a wage or contract obliging the testator to make any kind of bequest. It is all at the discretion of the testator. So how on earth can one expect to be able to earn an inheritance? It looks like a contradiction of terms.
Then came the legal distinction: just who is included and who is not? On what grounds can I refuse assistance to another person? How far should that assistance extend?
And so came the parable of the Good Samaritan.
The priest and Levite may have had their reasons for refusing aid to the injured traveller. If he died then they would have been ritually unclean and unable to officiate at any formal religious proceedings.
Formally they may have been correct, but where was the compassion? Could they have rendered aid anyway? Or at least sent word from their destination that this roadside casualty was in need?
But it was the traveller who was under no legal or ritual constraint to give the aid and assistance that was needed. That was the nature of compassion and of love – to put himself out on behalf of another who could not return the favour.
That is what Jesus did when dying on the cross and reconciling humanity with God in a way that humanity could never, ever repay.
The only response to the gift of salvation is to love and to serve Jesus above and before all others.
And as a response of love then there can never be any hint of expecting a reward for services rendered. That is not love. It may be transactional, or have a feel-good rush, but that is it.
Now look at the Old Testament lesson from Amos.
It is a word of judgment against Israel. They had the law and the court prophets. They had the Psalms of David. They had the tradition of worshipping God according to the law of Moses.
But it had become unhinged. When Israel separated from Judah, they established their own cult with places of worship in the extreme north and south of Israel. So no need to go to Jerusalem. And the kings had set up their own loyal clergy as well.
But God had not given up on them, sending Elijah and then Elisha, and then Amos and Hosea to reprove, to correct and where necessary to pronounce judgment.
Elijah had done it and while Elisha had a more pastoral role in a more settled era. Amos saw and denounced the godlessness of the land, its people and governors. And no, this was not received very well by the king’s court. But the message was plain: a plumb line would show how misaligned the people of Israel were.
God could see and having sent His prophets, would visit the people with a much more violent judgment. The Assyrians would see to that.
And the church, living under the rule of Rome, wanting to live honest and godly lives?
Paul’s answer was to praise what was strong and to urge them continue in it. They were not alone, for with God on their side then He would keep them, close to His own heart and mind and purposes through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s confidence was in God rather than the institutions that the Colossian church had contrived. It was the life of faith and hope in the things of God and the agenda of God that mattered.
That was the point: not manoeuvres and strategies. Not manipulation and deviousness. It was as they remained close to the gospel of Jesus and to the fruitfulness of His life that they would be steadfast and would prosper.
Our days are also uncertain. Our national values and institutions are more and more founded on sentiment and appearance, on feeling and emotion.
But the death and resurrection of Jesus are facts, even though we now receive them and respond to them in faith.
For the Lord is indeed close to His people. In fact, He has already spoken: “Fear not, little flock.”
