Fit to Plumb

7th Sunday after Pentecost

Today's Readings: Amos 7:7-15, Psalm 85:8-13, Mark 6:14-29

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

What a rollercoaster of emotions we just went on with our three texts this morning. First we hear Amos’ prophecy that destruction and exile are coming to Israel, then we praise the Lord in trust of prosperity, and finally we are served the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Whew! What threads can we possibly link between these passages? Perhaps the question asked (by at least two out of the three) is ‘How will you respond to the prophet in your midst?’

Our reading’s started today with Amos’ vision of God holding up a plumb line to God’s people, Israel. At first I was really confused by this, but then I found out what a plumb line is! A plumb line is a tool used in construction to see whether or not a wall is straight. So Amos has a vision that God is holding up a plumb line to God’s children to show them they are tremendously off kilter (the wall is NOT straight)! Therefore God’s wrath is coming and will lay waste to all that has been built off plumb.

Amos tells this vision to Amaziah, the high priest of Israel’s king, Jeroboam. Amos, filled by the Spirit, has been called to speak truth to power and, as we know all too well, this doesn’t go very well. Amaziah reports to the king that Amos has committed treason by daring to speak up about the ways in which Israel has strayed from God’s path. Israel, he says, “is not able to bear all his words.” Therefore, Amos must be silenced and exiled. Ah, truth can be such a terrible thing to hear. We don’t want to hear the truth because we indeed can’t always handle the truth. But God is nothing BUT Truth and therefore to be a Christian is to have the courage to live in the Truth, no matter how hard it can be and no matter how badly we wish to resist.

This story in Amos can make God sound angry and terrifying and out for blood, but actually God’s anger comes out of love for God’s people. God created us and therefore we all have a straight and sturdy foundation, fit to plumb! But over time we have crumbled and when God holds up that plumb line to our world, we are no longer plumb. Does this make God angry? Sure! Does this mean God gives up on us? NO! God says, “I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel and I will never again pass them by.” God was than and is still now in our midst.

God is present in the world and judgment is a consequence for God’s presence. God’s judgment won’t allow us to completely destroy ourselves. God’s judgment may desolate and lay to waste to the world as we know it, but only to allow us to try again; to be transformed; to live up to what we were created to be. I don’t think God asks us or any of the ancient prophets to speak such devastating truths because God wants to destroy us, but because God knows that we can do better; God made us for better. I like this quote from Clare, a Franciscan, “Christ is a mirror in which we can gaze on our true selves, so that we can see clearly those aspects of our lives that are out of plumb and repent, while seeing the true angle and dimension to which we are called.” Christ is a mirror in which we can gaze upon ourselves, yes, but God is personal and universal; Christ is a mirror in which humanity gazes upon itself. Prophets call communities, societies, the whole world to see in Christ’s mirror aspects of life which are out of plumb and call for transformation.

In Israel at the time of Amos’s prophecy the poor were being trampled. The Israelites were not caring for one another; they were just looking out for themselves and their own prosperity.. and hasn’t that been the story of all humanity? Rarely have there been societies which are truly built for community and equality. Despite God’s best efforts, we can’t seem to organize ourselves without hierarchy; and especially in societies like ours in America, without greed or prejudice. Rabbi Abraham Heschel says, God’s message through the prophets was clear, “If no one else will stand for the victims of human cruelty, the Lord will!” In a world that plays the game of the survival of the fittest, God comes to those who are left out, cast out, over looked, and downtrodden.

But this God of the underdog doesn’t just meet the oppressed where they are, but rises up prophets out of their midst! Amos was but a herdsman, a dresser of sycamore trees. John the Baptist was a nomad who lived in the wilderness, wore camel’s hair and ate locust and honey. Jesus himself was but a poor carpenter from the boondock town of Nazareth. THIS is how God chooses to speak and be revealed! These are the prophets sent into our off kilter world to remind us who we are and who’s we are; not that we will be put to death for our sins, but so that we might repent, turn from our old ways, and be transformed into the Beloved Community.

Amos, John the Baptist, Jesus, and all the prophets spoke truth to power, gave voice to the voiceless, and insisted that we do not forget who truly has authority in this world. These powerful stories, however, are also reminders of what can happen when we speak up. Do you remember the question I asked at the beginning? These scriptures force us to ponder ‘How will you respond to the prophet in your midst?’Amaziah told the king Amos should be exiled. John the Baptist was beheaded by King Herod. Jesus and all of his disciples were murdered by Rome. Many ‘prophets’ have spoken and died since then; we often call them martyrs. But they really were just ordinary people like you and me whose eyes were open to see the world through God’s eyes and speak up where they saw discrepancies in their time. Do not be fooled, prophets still exist and are still loosing their lives for God’s Truth. ‘How will you respond to the prophet in your midst?’

Prophets speak God’s truth to us: that God refuses to watch some of God’s children prosper while the majority are left to suffer and die, when God created ALL equal, worthy, and clothed in dignity and righteousness. God loves us SO much that God holds us accountable. If we confess to believe in God who created all that is, seen and unseen, and in Christ who died and was raised again to redeem the ENTIRE world.. how then will we respond to the prophet in our midst crying out that something is not right? Or rather, how then will WE respond with our OWN prophetic voice when we see the differences between our world and God’s will?

We have an undying hope that leads us on because we worship a living God who is using us to transform the world! You were created for so much more than the reality of the world we live in today. As Christians, we speak God’s word to the world because of what we know the world can be.. A better world IS possible BECAUSE God is a loving God and Christ is in our midst, transforming the world with every breath we take. How, then, will we respond to the prophet in our midst? How, then, will we use our prophetic voice to announce the kingdom of God at hand?

Amen.