“DELIVERING THE VULNERABLE”

1          A JUST SOCIETY?

1.1       Your Faith, Your Voice, Your Vote

One would have to be living under a log

not to know that recent weeks have been one of political turmoil

and that we have a Federal election still to come down the track.

Already our Uniting Church Assembly has released a booklet

for “A Just Society” subtitled,

“Your Faith, Your Voice, Your Vote”.

I presume copies would be available here.

1.2       God lays it on the line (Ps 82:1f)

However, it is not my place to repeat this here

but to affirm that what we believe, what we say, and how we act

is always under God’s supervision.

This hits us when we read our lectionary Psalm 82.

God strides into the divine council and lays it on the line.

“How long will you judge unjustly

and show partiality to the wicked?” (v2)

2          GOD’S PSALM OF INJUSTICE (Ps 82)

2.1       Unfairness of the Filthy Rich

We do well to keep complaining about the unfairness

in what happens around us.

It is always uphill to maintain services for those who need it most

yet a rich man can walk in, demand a casino, and get it.

It seems that if jobs are to be had,

the filthy rich must become filthier and richer still.

2.2       Giving Justice to the vulnerable (Ps 82:3)

In life’s stark realities, it’s so easy to lose sight that God remains on the side of those who get the short end of the deal.

Psalm 82 continues,

“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;

maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.” (v3)

In all the deals done these are the ones who pay through the nose.

If you have a disability (like my daughter),

if your father leaves home (like mine did),

if you cannot cope with all the demands of today’s life,

if you cannot make the basic ends meet,

God is still on your side calling out for a fair go for you.

2.3       Delivering the vulnerable (Ps 82:4)

God calls out,

“Rescue the weak and the needy;

deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (v4)

Not only are the rest of us called to provide justice

but to take those active steps to help deliver the vulnerable

from whoever seeks to make money out of their vulnerability.

3          NOT A PROPHET AMOS (Amos 7:7-17)

3.1       On the level?

A simple herdsman who dresses sycamore trees on the side

shows the way.

Amos sees God travelling around with a surveyor’s plumb-line

measuring Israel to test its uprightness.

My local hardware store does not store plumb-lines

so I bought this spirit-level instead.

It does the job well.

It can test whether walls are straight and upright.

It can tell us whether tables are on the level.

3.2       What does God show us?

God goes around today to test to see

whether the world we occupy is on the level and whether it is upright.

What does he show us?

What does he want us to do about it?

4          PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN (Lk 10:25-37)

4.1       The Great Commandment (Lk 10:27)

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is known to us like the back of our hand.

It stems from the Great Commandment to

“love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and our neighbour as ourselves.” (v27)

We can rattle this off word perfect like we did in Sunday School,

both the Commandment and the Parable.

I remember being part of acting the story out in Junior Class.

That’s not the point.

4.2       Not being seen dead with?

Jesus makes it harder.

He creates a scene where muggers have done their sordid work,

leaving the poor victim to bleed to death.

Two respectable citizens you’d want to know see him and leave him there.

Think of a type of person you wouldn’t be seen dead with.

This person comes by and becomes the very one

who delivers the still vulnerable from his fate.

O, the humiliation of being abandoned by the ones you look up to

and rescued by the very one you’d despise!

When you’re half-dead,

you are saved by the one you wouldn’t be seen dead with.

The irony of it all.

5          TAKING HIS SPIRIT-LEVEL HOME

5.1       Whistle-blowers not respectable?

Yet, this is how it has to turn out.

In the Book of Amos, you would have expected Amaziah, the priest of Bethel to be the one to turn to,

not this scruffy herder of cows to see the situation for what it is.

Yet, too often particularly in recent times

the Church has been depicted as the predator of the vulnerable

and we have a Royal Commission because of it.

And too often we, the Church have not risked the way of Jesus

to side with those getting life’s raw deal

because we know only too well what happens to whistle-blowers.

While tending the traveller’s wounds, the Samaritan left himself vulnerable

to any muggers still lurking in the shadows.

He delayed his own journey and put himself out of pocket to deliver

the traveller to where he could be healed and restored to life.

5.2       God strides into our comfort zone

Ahh, yes, this is where we have to go

and there will be many unexpected ways for us to go about it.

The decisions we make come to us

according to where we are what we see and what we hear.

God strides into our comfort zone with his spirit level

so that we can echo the psalmist’s conclusion,

“Arise, O God, judge the earth,

for to you belong all the nations.”(v6)

Let us take his spirit level home with us to provide His justice

and deliver the vulnerable.