The First Reading (Amos 7:7-17)

A Sermon by the Rev. J. D. Brown

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Garland, Texas

10 July, 2016, Proper 10, Year C

The First Reading (Amos 7:7-17):

This is what the Lord God showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said,

"See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by;

the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,

`Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile 
away from his land.'"

And Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom."

Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, `Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

"Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.

You say, `Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.'

Therefore thus says the Lord:

`Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, 
and your land shall be parceled out by line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'"

The Sermon:

With disturbing events in the news that began the week, and tragic events that ended it, still fresh in our minds, what word of encouragement is there from God? Well, in his instructions to the prophet Amos, God chooses an interesting metaphor for judgment. He uses a plumb line. Think about that. God uses a plumb line for judgment. I think that should make everyone sit up and take note.

A plumb line is one of the most ancient and simplest tools you can still find in use today. It uses a string and a weight to show you if something is straight or not. I have had some experience using a plumb line to hang wall paper. Hanging wall paper, required you to use a chalk line – essentially plumb line impregnated with colored chalk. You’d hang the plumb to establish a straight line – then snap the string to mark where the first sheet should hang. You needed that reference because the walls and the corners in particular, cannot be trusted to be plumb. If you used an off-plumb corner as your standard – likely as not, your pattern would be askew and look like the dickens when you got finished.

We see lots of actions in the news today that are out of plumb and askew. You hear how some persons are accused of impropriety – and they go through all kinds of histrionics to explain it away or deny it all together - we call that spin. That’s a euphemism for a lie. A lot of word salad gets thrown in the air to distract and disguise the truth that would look pretty damning otherwise. We see political opportunism that leverages tragedy and foments division. “Never let a crisis got to waste” is the mantra – which ignores the fact that fomenting division for political advantage can have deadly consequences.

A plumb line cuts to the chase. Did you lie? Did you break the law? Did you take something that didn’t belong to you? Did you bear false witness about another to promote yourself? A simple yes or no would suffice – but that’s rarely what you hear. Spin your actions anyway you want and then hold it up against a plumb line of truth. What do you see? Usually you see that sheet of wallpaper you hung is crooked and you’ll have to pull it down and start over. The plumb line stubbornly continues to show what is straight and what is not regardless of how we try to rationalize our actions to the contrary.

God chose Amos as his prophet to witness to the Northern Kingdom when it was out of calibration. Notice that Amos was not particularly well qualified to act in this role. He was not a member of the accepted prophetic guild that followed the king around pumping sunshine at him daily and denying that anything was wrong. He was every bit as simple as the plumb line that God had showed him. He was a shepherd and trimmer of sycamore trees – not someone particularly well suited to advise the king, which he freely admitted – but he was armed with the simple truth. Israel is out of calibration and God is not amused.

The prophet Amaziah, the head of the prophetic guild of the kingly court, was essentially acting as press secretary, denying Amos’s charge. This preposterous claim that Israel was out of calibration goes against everything the prophetic guild of Israel has been telling the king. The advice of Amos was not up to the high standards of the court. It comes from unapproved sources, from outside Israel; from the kingdom of Judah of all places…from the South, no less! This is just a partisan motivated attack against the realm. That might have been the first recorded instance of the spin cycle at work.

It may not be very hard for some of you to come up with a modern day examples of a public personalities denying the plumb truth or promoting a plumb lie. As much as that might be satisfying to some of you, to dig more deeply into that, I think this business of changing the world and bringing it back into calibration starts a bit more locally. To change the world, you need to change hearts – and the obvious place to start is with your own. So let us, as Jesus suggested, look at taking the log out of our eye before pointing out the mote in another’s. What do suppose is our plumb line, and how do we measure up?

Our obligation as Christians; the oath we swear before God and our neighbors, is found in our Baptismal covenant. It requires us to take some concrete and measurable actions. That is our plumb line and the standard against we will be judged as Christians. What does the Baptismal covenant say we promise to do?

Will you continue in the apostles teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread and the prayers? Sounds to me like you promised to read scripture, engage in community of faith, receive Communion and pray. If you wanted to keep objective score, our average attendance is around half that of the total membership – and for some reason, it drops to less than half that during the summer. So how do you think we’re doing so far?

Will you continue to persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? Let’s just say that the number of auricular confessions I have heard in the past 9 years – is significantly smaller than the number of those enrolled – smaller even than our attendance, which is why we include the general confession in our worship – to make sure no one falls through the cracks. But whether you are intentional about repentance or not, as we pray the general confession today - I think it would be a wonderful time to consider how our particular efforts in this area fall short of the plumb line.

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? We have 20 faithful missionaries who returned in the wee hours of yesterday evening after dedicating a week to doing just that, but what about the rest of you? When was the last time you shared your faith at work, at a social gathering, at school? When is the last time you issued a simple invitation to come and join us here. If you can’t remember – it’s been long over-due.

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons – even those who aren’t going to vote like you in the coming election – loving them as yourself? Put all the Jesus fish on your car you want, you will not cover up the fact that you are an impatient driver. Wear all the Christian jewelry you care to, say “have a blessed day” to everyone you run into at the grocery store – but act impatient waiting in line, complain about the service of a waitress - someone maybe working two or three jobs, get huffy with the customer service person or the receptionist who is doing their best and then tell me where the plumb line falls in regard to your Christian faith.

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people – and respect the dignity of every human being? Do you wait for opportunities to let our firefighters and police know that you support them – or do you actively seek out ways to show them that you do – that you grieve their loss with them? Have you taken advantage of the ministry at Austin Street to serve those less fortunate than you? Have you gone out of your way to be nice to a stranger?

So consider that list as your Christian plumb line. How’d you do? Are you happy with your score?

Amaziah didn’t do so well. He denies the truth to his peril, and Amos goes into a really long list of unpleasant things that await those who can’t seem to decipher a plumb line. Is that what awaits us? I don’t think God has forgotten how to swing the judgment stick since then – but if the prophets show us anything, they show us that God is not only unhappy with us, but he also patient with us. God has more than one speed setting. The prophets were sent to remind us that God places an extremely high value on justice, but he also judges with mercy.

While the sentence pronounced on Amaziah bodes his destruction, it does not convey to all concerned. Amos ends his book with the promise of salvation and the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom. God tells us “I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old.” There is an offer of repentance given to Israel and the hope of redemption. The one who will be raised is our Lord and Savior – who came not because we were perfectly aligned – not because we were without sin, but because we were out of calibration and helpless in our sin.

In the service of Baptism, after each action we are charged with doing, our response is NOT “I will” do these things. Recognizing our fallen nature, we say, “I will with God’s help”. Hearing the words of the prophet, knowing we are out of calibration, and that God has sent us a savior to reunite us with him, do we seek that help or not? Do we choose the path that leads to condemnation and judgment or take up the offer of mercy and hope? Do we repent with the assurance of forgiveness – or do we deny the truth of our sin? Well, I guess that depends on what the plumb line says to you and what you think you should do about it. Amen.