First Reading: Amos 7:7-15
7This is what {the Lord God } showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; 9the 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.” 10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11For thus Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’” 12And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.” 14Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”
Psalm 85:1-13
1You have been gracious to your land, O Lord, you have restored the good fortune of Jacob. 2You have forgiven the iniquity of your people and blotted out all their sins. 3You have withdrawn all your fury and turned yourself from your wrathful indignation. 4Restore us then, O God our Savior; let your anger depart from us. 5Will you be displeased with us forever? will you prolong your anger from age to age? 6Will you not give us life again, that your people may rejoice in you? 7Show us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. 8I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, for he is speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him. 9Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. 10Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. 11Truth shall spring up from the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. 12The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, and our land will yield its increase. 13Righteousness shall go before him, and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.
Second Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Gospel: Mark 6:14-29
14King Herod heard of {Jesus’ works}, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” 17For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. 18For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, 20for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. 21But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22For when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” 23And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” 24And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” 25And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 27And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison 28and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. 29When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Plumb Line Prophecy
Not that I’m the touristy type, or one who likes to go to museums, but I do enjoy the occasional tourist attraction. I’ve been to several Air and Space museums as well as other such attractions. I’m especially fond of those places that are odd and not well known. Not being one who likes big cities, I usually focus my attention on the odd, the unusual, and attractions in the out of the way places. As I was preparing for today, I came across one place, that despite its location in Washington DC, I’d like to visit, the Federal Bureau of Standards offices.
The Federal Bureau of Standards offices is where something very important is stored, something that impacts our lives every single day. I’m sure many of us here have purchased materials for a new project. The reason I say this, is that when you did, most likely you purchased these supplies by the inch, the foot, or by the yard. Or, when you stopped to buy fuel for your car or truck, you purchased it at a certain price per gallon. These are things we grew up with and take for granted. But have you ever stopped and asked, exactly what constitutes an inch, a foot, a yard, a gallon, a liter, a millimeter, or a milligram?
All these are nationally accepted standards of measurement, the perfect example of which is stored intact at the Federal Bureau of Standards in our nation’s capital. Every weight and measure we use finds its final proof in those offices, and all are judged by the perfect measurements that are stored under protection there. Truck scales, fuel pumps, and all commercial devices for weights and measures are certified by instruments calibrated to these perfect measurements. One could say that everything by which we measure things must first measure up to these exacting standards.
God’s prophet Amos didn’t come from the capital city. He wasn’t a member of the ruling or religious class. He wasn’t a respected trader or merchant. Rather he was a simple farmer. As we read in in our First lesson for today, he was a herdsman and fig grower from the farm country south of Judah. Despite his modest status in life, he did know a false measurement when he saw one. The nation of Israel, or the Northern 10 Tribes were intoxicated with optimism — but it was optimism that was based on false standards. The people were happy. They had plenty of money, nice homes, beds carved of ivory, and lives of leisure. Business was booming and national trade boundaries, while being threatened by Assyria, were expanding, but it was all a façade based on false confidence. Behind it, there was spiritual rot at the nation’s heart.
Spiritually and morally the people of Israel were rotting away at the center. The people had abandoned the true worship of God and had turned to idol worship. Amos wasn’t fooled by the façade of their lip-service spirituality, he could see their hypocrisy. He knew counterfeit spirituality from the real thing. God called Amos to take the message of impending judgment to the nation’s capital. It was a challenging assignment for a country preacher from the south, but one he willingly accepted. Time after time in his prophecy, he told the Israelites how they were measuring life and success by false standards. He warned them about the consequences of not returning to that which has validity, but the people paid no heed. It’s no wonder he wasn’t popular.
God gave Amos a total of six visions of judgment in chapters 7-9. Starting at the beginning of chapter 7, Amos sees the first vision, a swarm of locusts that come to devour Israel’s crops unless the people returned to their religious roots. In the second, fire would come and leave their beautiful cities lying in rubble. In each case the people were unmoved by the message. Amos didn’t like to be the bearer of bad news, who does? He even begged God to relent and spare the people (7:2-3). God heard him and held back the judgment of locusts and fire. Next, God came with another vision and prophecy for Amos to share.
The first two threats took the form of utter ruin through an unstoppable disaster, an act of God. The third vision Amos had, wasn’t so much a judgment as it was a measurement of where they were spiritually. God said He would set a plumb line to demonstrate the spiritual state of the nation. In verse 8 we read, “I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel” (Amos 7:8). Now for a lot of folks today, the question you’re asking is, what is a plumb line? In the age of lasers, a plumb line isn’t something we use much today.
A plumb line is a weight suspended from a string for fixing or measuring vertical deflection. Growing up with a father who was a contractor, anytime we were putting up walls, dad would ask two questions, is it plumb, and is it square. Is the wall at the correct angle in reference to the next wall, square, and is the wall straight top to bottom, plumb. A plumb line is a test to tell whether a wall is really true or not. Today we use levels and laser levels to perform this task, however, a level and a laser can be knocked out of alignment. When a builder needs to be absolutely certain of his work, he’ll use a plumb line to see if it’s true to the vertical.
A plumb line’s greatest strength is that it never fails. It’s as certain as the law of gravity by which it works. This spiritual plumb line God is setting would measure whether or not the Israelites were truly upright. It would measure their true depth of commitment to God and expose just how shallow they really were. God’s plumb line would make it evident to Israel just how far they had deviated from righteousness.
When was the last time you paid attention to polls other than who’s ahead in the presidential race? Oftentimes, we read that America is a very spiritual nation. We even brag about it on our currency: “In God we trust.” We hear cliches about spirituality and about God on the television talk shows, but have we ever stopped to ask ourselves which god they mean? In America we speak of God when we pledge allegiance, and we speak to God when we get into trouble, or when we want to impress the masses. But, how much of it is legitimate? How much has validity? How much has depth?
How is it that while the polls show the number of “born-again Christians” increasing, morality in America is at an all-time low? Are we not, in reality, a nation that is morally and spiritually adrift? I forward that, in many ways we reflect eighth century B.C. Israel. We are economically prosperous. We have more money than almost any nation in history. The worst of our houses are luxurious by standards in many other countries. Militarily, we’re strong and secure. We live lives of luxury and leisure, but our commitment to God is too often casual and half-hearted at best. How is it they describe us overseas? “In America, Christianity is 3,000 miles wide and a half-inch deep!” We’re not at all what we like to think we are.
We’re out of plumb with God’s design for us. The words of another ancient prophet need to be sounded again in America: When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors … a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant — and when you have eaten your fill, take care that you do not forget the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:10-12). Sadly, a good many of our churches today are leaning out of plumb as well.
The theology being taught is shallow at best, and the sermons being preached are more concerned with the social gospel than the true gospel, and are written so as to not be offensive. Their preaches will speak out against social issues, but only those issues that do not offend the people of power in their congregations. Speaking to this trend, one of the pastors shared that he heard about one preacher who apologized to a prominent person in their congregation by saying, “Well, had I known you might be here today I can assure you I would have never said what I did.” This apology reminds me of those television and movie disclaimers that say, “Any resemblance to persons alive or dead is purely coincidental.”
Ecclesiastical success often is judged by all the wrong standards, and we strive for warped goals. We worry about temporary prosperity symbols and seek them over that which is eternal. God calls us to repentance, beginning not in the White House but in the church house: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). Remember the message Jesus sent with the disciples in last Sunday’s gospel reading, it was a call to repentance. It’s a message we don’t hear enough today!
To say the least, Amos was far from the run-of-the-mill preachers of his time! There was a reason why God had to reach down into the countryside to raise up a prophet for the capital city. God had to go outside the established religious leadership because the local priests and prophets were hypocrites, wimpish, and ineffective. Notice, for example, Amaziah, the chief priest of Bethel. Bethel of course means “God’s house.” Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam II 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’” (Amos 7:10-11).
Amaziah had lost all interest in hearing God’s word. By the time of Amos, he had sold his soul to the idols of this world and to a wicked King Jeroboam II, one of the cruelest leaders in Israel’s history. Jeroboam II held the throne for more than forty years and was credited with the wave of economic and military prosperity Israel enjoyed while he was in power. Amaziah, whose name means “God is strong,” had forgotten the message that was in his name.
Lacking the intestinal fortitude to speak out against Jeroboam’s cruelty and interested only in maintaining his position, he did more than simply stay silent. He became a traitor against God’s servant Amos. He twisted what Amos said and reported to the king what was, in fact, a lie. What is it they say? “The first casualty in every war is truth.” It’s amazing how we can misquote and reshape the words of another when we feel a need to save our own positions. Next Amaziah came to confront Amos in the name of the king — interestingly, Scripture doesn’t record an actual meeting between Amaziah and the king. “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’” (Amos 7:12-13). However, what Amaziah didn’t count on was that Amos wouldn’t go away.
Whether or not Amaziah had a commission from the king to run Amos off, we don’t know. This, however, we do know: Amos had a commission from the King of kings. “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’” (Amos 7:14-17). This was one major difference between Amaziah and Amos.
Amaziah pursued position, Amos followed God’s command. “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.’” There’s another significant difference as well: Amaziah pursued his own agenda. He was concerned about his position. Amos pursued God’s agenda. “The Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’” The focus of Amos’s message was God, not himself.
St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, reminds us, “We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5). Paul was telling the Corinthians that the focus of preaching is Christ, not himself. When we share God’s good news, we’re called to tell people who Christ is and what He’s done in our behalf. The gospel message itself has nothing to do with us. Jesus came to earth because God loved us. He died on the cross for us. He rose again and conquered death. In the words of another prophet of God, John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Our message needs to focus on God’s Son, Jesus, and His love and grace freely given.
As you examine this passage, you’ll find something else interesting; Amos wasn’t a preacher, but a layman. As far as we know, he wasn’t from the Tribe of Levi, nor was he from a priestly family. By Amaziah’s standards of measurement, Amos didn’t square with the religious community of his day. However, when you look at the Bible as a whole, isn’t it amazing how many times in Scripture, and in the history of the church, that God bypasses the clergy and raises up a layperson when He has an important task to do.
Amos the herdsman stands in the company of David the young shepherd, Rahab the harlot, Nehemiah the wine steward, Charles Finney the lawyer, Martin Luther the law student, and thousands of other people the world calls “ordinary.” With God there are no “ordinary” people. Each of us were called in baptism to go and make disciples. Luther called this the priesthood of all believers.
We’ve all met people like Amaziah, those outwardly religious types who sell their souls to climb the ladders of power, prestige, and pride. Often such people wear the external robes of righteousness that make them look like true followers of Jesus. They learn the language of faith and twist it to suit their self-centered purposes. The problem is, they don’t have a deep and lasting relationship with God through His Son, Jesus.
Today, there are far too many Amaziahs in our churches and not enough Amos’. They relish positions of visibility and leadership, but they don’t know the One who is the King and Head of the church and who went to the cross to redeem us and to reconcile us to the Father. Perhaps God leaves them among us to remind us how even the mighty are susceptible to falling when they fail to measure themselves daily against God’s plumb line.
Thankfully we also know people like Amos, dedicated servants of God called with a holy passion and an urgency to do His work despite the cost, and speak the truth for God, who has a plumb line for us. For them, Paul’s words hold true: “If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission” (1 Corinthians 9:16-17). Today God still has a plumb line. His plumb line for us is Jesus, the only unfailingly true and perfect One who ever lived.
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, and in Him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through Him and for Him. He himself is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him God was pleased to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:15-20).
Jesus knows well the depth to which we’re willing to go for God and the straightness of our walk with Him. He is the Cornerstone of the church and the Master Architect of the universe. It is He who builds character within us and He alone who made the sacrifice that was necessary to straighten us out when we fall out of square and plumb with God. He is the true and perfect measure of what it means to live a life pleasing to God. With our Old Testament reading before us, by what do you measure success? And how does that measure stack up to the true measure of righteousness, Jesus?
Amen