July 23, 1995	Needful Things	Amos 8:1-12

Colossians 1:15-28

Luke 10:38-42

There's nothing like a nice basket of ripe summer fruit: pears, apples, plums, grapes, and cherries. These are the things we begin to look forward to as we live here in Michigan with the orchards the grace the countryside. The time is soon coming when we can all have a nice basket of ripe summer fruit.

Of course, the thing about ripe summer fruit is that it is ready to eat. You don't want to let ripe fruit sit very long or it will begin to spoil. So, if the fruit is ripe you want to eat it quickly. But, then, who wouldn't want to?

As nice as such a sight may be to us, though, such a sight was not something that made the prophet Amos happy. For as he looked at a basket of ripe summer fruit, it only reminded him of his own nation and of how quickly God was going to bring down judgment upon that nation, like someone ready to devour a basket of ripe summer fruit. The time was coming quickly for the people of Israel. And, so Amos began to warn his people, going through the countryside bringing to light their hypocrisy, their lack of concern for the poor and the needy, their willing participation in a system that was full of corruption.

As I read Amos' words this morning, it is interesting to note his criticism of the merchants who participated in worship activities during the holy days and on the Sabbath but yearned for the sun to go down on those days that they could go out and do things that cheated the poor. Here Amos says, "Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, 'When will the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?'--skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, . . . selling even the sweepings with the wheat."

Of course, Amos' words to his people, the Israelites, weren't just meant for them, alone. The words in the Bible are for us to pay attention to, as well. And so there are some questions that we might ask of ourselves from having heard his words. And maybe three of those questions are: (1.) How important is worship and our observance of a day of rest and devotion to us? Or are there other things we would rather do? And (2.) when we're not worshiping God, does our lifestyle reflect the ethics and love that our faith requires? And, finally, where does Jesus fit into all of this?

As we look at what Amos was saying to his people about how they yearned for the Sabbath to be over so that they could cheat the poor, we should be very concerned, indeed. For most Americans have even quit worrying about keeping the Sabbath, let alone the hour or so they might spend in church. A few of us can remember when there wasn't a store, a gas station, nor hardly a restaurant open on Sunday. Back when I was a kid, if people wanted to go somewhere in their car on Sunday, they learned to fill the tank on Saturday, because the guys in the filling station took Sunday off. If you wanted to eat Sunday dinner, you remembered to hit the market on Friday or Saturday because you knew where the folks who worked in the store would be on Sunday – at church in the morning and then home with their families in the afternoon and evening.

But all of that is gone now. The stores and gas stations and restaurants are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Gone are the days when people stayed home with their families, at least one day a week. Instead, those days have been replaced by days of loneliness for children who hardly know what it means to be part of a family because moms and dads have to work. Gone are the days when a whole community could stop and take a deep breath and take an account of itself. Instead, those days have been replaced by a rush to the freeways and to the isolation of weekend hideaways in the far reaches of a place called "Up North."

No, I would venture to say that we have actually gone even farther than the people of Amos' day. At least they waited until the Sabbath was over before they cheated the poor. Now, we are allowed to do it seven days a week! Folks don't have to worry about being hypocritical! Now, they can be just plain bad and not feel guilty about it, at all!

And, so we need to ask our society, our neighbors, ourselves, how much longer we can go on like this? If Israel was like a basket of ripe summer fruit, what are we? Sometimes I seriously wonder whether or not things have gone beyond ripe to rotten. As a people have we forgotten what is important? Have we have turned our back upon truly needful things in the pursuit of an illusion of material things?

That's an interesting phrase, isn't it? – "an illusion of material things." Most people think that material things are pretty concrete, not abstract, at all. Things we can touch, things we can possess, things we can hold on to, things we can keep and store up for ourselves, we usually call "concrete" and real. On the other hand, things that we don't think we can touch – things like ideas, and faith, and God, and Jesus, we call "abstract." And maybe we don't even include those abstract things – things of the Spirit, things of the intellect – with the other things that we consider real. But, then, perhaps such thinking is a part of our problem. If we don't think that spiritual things are at least as real as things we can touch, how can we ever expect our lives to be affected by the spiritual things? For, whether we know it or not, it is the spiritual that is far more basic and real, far more lasting and permanent, than any material thing that ever existed.

Our epistle lesson for today talks about this. In fact, as the writer of Colossians talks about Christ he says, "By him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

What is that saying? In Christ all things hold together! In other words, somehow, mysteriously, Christ is the very glue that holds those things that we think are real together. If it wasn't for that which we consider to be an abstraction – Christ – there couldn't even exist those things that we consider to be real! How long will we continue to pay more homage than we do to Christ to those things which cannot exist without him?

And, so, the question that I asked at the beginning of this sermon becomes all the more important: "When we're not actually worshiping God, does our lifestyle reflect the ethics and love that our faith requires?" If we profess a faith in Jesus Christ, do we live our life as though Christ is real? Does our lifestyle reflect our belief that what Jesus taught is true? Our do we spend our time in pursuit of things that don't really matter, forsaking the needful things of the Spirit?

Our Gospel lesson for today was short, only five verses. But in those five verses we see very clearly what I've spent the last fifteen minutes or so talking about. Jesus makes a visit to the home of two women, Mary and Martha, who were the sisters of Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead.

And as Jesus is visiting them, he taught about the kingdom of heaven – spiritual things – things that most people would consider to be abstract and unreal. And as he taught these things Mary sat at his feet taking in every word that he said, enraptured by the eternal reality and concrete truth of his words. And Martha, Mary's sister, gets upset with Mary. Martha wanted to be the perfect hostess. So, she was busy doing everything she thought she had to do to have things the way she thought things ought to be. And she thought Mary should be helping with all these things and told her so. But Jesus answered, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things. But only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Let's hear those last words one more time, because they are the very crux of how we need to understand the very universe, itself. What did he say? He said, "Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Think about it. You and I make our choices in life. And as we look at life's choices we choose those things that we consider to be more real, more permanent, and therefore more important than the things we do not choose. Notice here that what Mary chose, what Mary considered more real and more permanent, and therefore more important, was Christ. As she sat there listening to him, she suddenly realized that he was the very glue that holds the universe together. She realized that without him there is nothing. Without him everything else that everyone thinks is so important would disappear.

There is the story of the great violinist, Paganini, who came out before his audience one day and made the discovery, just before the audience ended their welcoming applause, that there was something wrong with his violin. He looked at it a second and then saw that it was not his famous and valuable violin.

He felt paralyzed for a moment, then turned to his audience, and told them there had been a mistake and he did not have his own violin. He stepped back behind the curtain thinking that it was still where he had left it, but discovered that some one had stolen his and left an inferior one in its place. He remained back of the curtain a moment, then came out before his audience and said:

"Ladies and Gentlemen: I will show you that the music is not in the instrument, but in the soul." And he played as he had never played before; and out of that inferior instrument, the music poured forth until the audience was enraptured with enthusiasm, and the applause almost lifted the ceiling of the building, because the man had revealed to them that music was not in the instrument, but in the soul.

Are we a little more like Martha than Mary? Then let us hear Christ calling us into account: "Martha, Martha! You are worried and upset about so many things!" But only one thing is needed! And it shall never be taken away.

Amen.