Listen to Sermon
Pastor Tom Johnson, July 15, 2018
Amos is an unusual prophet. He was a shepherd of sheep and also grew figs presumably from his grove of fig trees. God called this humble farmer to be a prophet. He is the one who called God’s people and leaders to “Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an everlasting stream” (5:24). But what is justice anyway? Isn’t it relative? And how do we measure righteousness? In our text, God gives Amos a clear vision of how he calls us to account for our actions good or bad.
The Lord stands next to a wall with a plumb line in his hand. A plumb line is a string with a weight on the end of it. Gravity pulls the weight down. The string tightens and creates a straight line. The line is not only straight, it is pointing directly up and down. There is no tilt or curve to that line. Masons in Egypt and throughout the ancient world used these plumb lines to build magnificent structures that have stayed upright for thousands of years. The stones are put upon another to ensure it’s tilt does lead to its demise. God is holding a plumb line up against various structures in Israel: temples that housed idols, the temple in Jerusalem and synagogues, and King Jeroboam’s palace.
And what did the plumb line reveal? All their buildings had crooked walls. None of them are structurally sound. They are all doomed to eventually crumble and fall. Of course, the buildings are just buildings. The real crookedness are the hearts of God’s people. There are three areas that these buildings represent: greed, idolatry, and exploitation of the poor. They were not worshiping God. They worshiped wealth, false gods, and were not fair or kind to the poor. That vertical line to God is the standard: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods.” They were called to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. This is the great commandment: to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength (Deut 6:5). This means to put our relationship with God as our first priority. God’s people were not doing that. The second commandment is just like it: to love our neighbor as ourselves (Lev 19:18). Instead they cheated people, were overcome by corruption, and treated the poor with contempt. And the corruption went all the way to the top—even to King Jeroboam’s administration.
But as we see in our Scripture this morning. Those who misuse and abuse their power do not want to be called to account. King Jeroboam and his puppet prophet Amaziah tell Amos to exile himself and take his unpopular message with him. King Herod arrests John the Baptist because calls him out on his immoral behavior. Herod beheads John because he is too much of a coward to stand up to his own family before his dinner guests. Getting angry at prophets for their message does not make any sense. It is just as irrational for us to get angry at a plumb line for revealing our crooked walls. Or getting furious at a scale because we do not like how much it says we weigh. Or breaking a ruler over our knee because we do not like how tall it says we are. It is no fun realizing that we are all sinners and fall short of the glory and righteousness of God. We already confessed together in the service that we are sinful and unclean. We have sinned by our thoughts, words, and deeds. By what we have done and what we have left undone.
We have not loved God with our whole hearts or loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not measured up. Our whole being has not met the standard of God’s righteousness. That is what sin is—to miss the mark—the perfect and holy standard of godly and righteous lives. We cannot get angry at the plumb line. The plumb line is the Word of God. It is what calls us to account and calls us to fulfill God’s perfect law. We do not measure up as individuals, as a congregation, as a church body, and as a nation. We only have ourselves to blame.
Later in the book of Amos, God promises to raise the house of David up again (9:11), restore the land to God’s people, and make them a righteous people. The house of David will have straight walls because of God’s promise to send his Messiah, the son of David—who we know to be Jesus Christ. He is the plumb line. He will reveal God’s perfect righteousness through his life, teaching, healing, and kindness to the poor, outcast, and sinners. Jesus is the standard for how our lives should be. He does not just command us, he shows us the way—he who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Jesus also spoke truth to power. He confronted the sins of individuals and of the nation. Jesus and his family knew what being victims of authority who abused their power. They went into exile when he was a young child with his family and was a refugee in Egypt. Jesus also was arrested and killed upon a Roman cross. And it is through that strait beam of wood vertically pointing to heaven reminding us of our sins against God; and the other beam horizontally pointing to ourselves reminding us of our sins against one another. It is through the plumb line of the Cross that all our sins were paid for in full. He measures up for us.
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