By Whose Measure?

My father was a master craftsman, an amazing builder. He worked with Lockheed Martin for sometime building aircraft in the early 70’s. His peers (and likely my mother) thought he was crazy as he left that hard-to-come-by and well-compensated role to pursue construction as a general contractor. My dad might ask, “hard-to-come-by and well-compensated role? by whose measure?”

The early 70’s in the South were still muddled in the language and tactics of Jim Crow. Affirmative action presented opportunities for some. Still, mature men were referred to as boys and darkies among other unpleasantries even in these roles that revealed and relied on their talents and acumen.

Pop knew there were better possibilities and aspired to build something different and greater with his life and for his family.

I remember that Pop always had a large tool box. I would watch and learn as he completed projects, often getting tools when needed. Measurement and testing were critical from start to finish. Straight lines and the right angles made tight structures that continue to stand the test of time.

On many occasions, Pop took me to help shoot new construction sites, preparing to lay the foundation. He would set up and operate his builder’s transit and tell me where to walk and stand with the calibrated grade rod. Hanging from that transit was a string with a pointed brass weight on the end. That string was a plumb line. As the construction began, I would see that transit set up and that plumb line hanging. He would show me that the plumb line was there to assure vertical accuracy. Measurement matters.

Throughout his projects, Pop carried measuring tools on his leather toolbelt--a retractable measuring tape (called a yo-yo), a speed square, a chalk box for marking lines, and a plumb line. He could dangle the plumb line from any wall or column to assure vertical level. Pop was gifted with creative vision, an eye for spatial arrangement, and even for vertical alignment and horizontal leveling. But rather than relying his own eye, he used a different means of measurement for consistency. The measure we use matters.

In this morning’s Amos text, the Lord God showed Amos a vision of a swarm of locusts to come and devour the crops, Amos prayed and the Lord relented. Then the Lord God showed him a second vision of a shower of fire where even the ground water was consumed and the lands devoured. Amos pleaded and God relented again. But Amos knew judgment had to come in some form because God was aggravated by Israel’s behavior.

Then Amos says: “This is what he 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.”

What’s happening?

The Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line. That wall was Israel, which had been built with God’s plumb line— guidance through God’s presence, God’s words, covenants, commandments, and champions.

When God said, “I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel”, God was holding a moral plumb line up to Israel and declaring an end to their attempts to justify their crooked ways through festivals, offerings, and other superficial appeasements.

Israel had been built straight, but, because it was out of line, it would be dismantled.

Where are we out of line with God?

Crazy Book: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms

Amos wanted God’s people to pay attention to their relationship with God and each other. Amos wanted them to get right theologically (that is, to have a right understanding of and relationship to God)—walking humbly with their God—and to get right socially—doing justice, loving mercy, and generally avoiding mistreating our neighbors.

Through Amos, the Lord make clear that the standard, the plumb line is the permanent measure for God’s people.

God said, “I will never again pass them by”, that is, overlook their indiscretions and misbehavior.

After Amos speaks, Amaziah the priest at Bethel complains to the king and tells Amos to go home demanding that Amos not share the truth of what God is saying because it will get in the way of how they wish to live.

Big Idea: God’s plumb line of righteousness might make us uncomfortable, but it will show us where our lives are out of line.

Questions:

As God holds the plumb line to measure the alignment of God’s people, what will God find?

When God asks us, “What do you see?”

Are we willing to see our truth?

Are we willing to make the corrections or will we wait to be corrected by God?

Here’s the good news. God is willing to withhold divine judgment if people repent (Ezekiel 33:14–15) and realign according to God’s plumb line.

What exactly is God’s plumb line?

We hear it from Jesus in Mark 12:28-34.

When scribe (keeper and teacher of the Law of Moses) heard Jesus in discussion with the Sadducees, the scribe asked which commandment is first of all.

Traditionally the scribes spoke of 613 commandments; believing all to be binding, but assuming some carried more weight than others.

They often sought to sum up the whole law in one command. So the scribe asked Jesus which commandment was the first of all--’most important of all’.

Mark 12:29–31 (NRSV)

Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one (unique); you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

This is the plumb line.

Regardless of all the doctrine and diatribes, testaments and traditions you have heard or will hear, Jesus distills the true measure that fulfills all other commandment.

Jesus speaks the simplest plumb line, “Love God and love neighbor.”

This is God’s measure.

It requires a comprehensive, wholehearted, commitment to God from a conscious, personal choice.

God has set THE plumb line. To align our lives with God takes personal volition, personal all-in, nothing-withheld effort

all your heart - all your control center aligned

all your soul - all your self-sconscious life aligned

all you mind - all you thought capacity aligned

and

all your strength - all your physical capacity aligned.

Jesus spoke similarly of the commitment to our neighbors. The second commandment is inseparable from the first. “Love your neighbor as yourself.

The love we have for ourselves must not be self-centered, which is a human tendency. It should be equally expressed toward others.

To love your neighbor as yourself is to want for your neighbor the blessings you want for yourself.

Let me be clear. It is not that you want them to have what you materially desire but that you want them to be blessed as God would bless them regardless of what that looks like.

When they have wild success, you celebrate their wild success just as you would want them to celebrate with you.

Likewise, when our neighbor struggles or is being mistreated, silenced, or disregarded, you stand with and/or speak out with and/or for their benefit.

To love your neighbor as yourself is to selflessly desire, assist, and celebrate what is best for your neighbor measured by God’s plumb line.

Just as God wanted what is best for us so we may fully flourish into God creation, loving our neighbor means loving them as God loves them; loving by God’s standard not our own.

God so loves the world that he gave His only begotten Son for our sake, for our salvation, for our reconciliation with God! That’s a lot of love! and we have that capacity when we are aligned with the true plumb line!

As I read this Amos text, I remembered how my dad showed me the plumb line to make sure a wall or house is properly aligned.

Applying this scripture, God is our plumb line. It is living by God’s measure that assures the rest of our lives are properly aligned.

Just as a builder’s plumb line is not subject to popular opinions, so God’s standards are not subject to the opinions of humankind.

Wise people are those who line up their lives according to God’s plumb line rather than trying to move it to argue and satisfy their own agendas.

AS God holds the plumb line, may we honor God’s will and find ourselves properly aligned by God’s measure. Amen