Measuring Up

A sermon for July 16, 2006

Amos 7:7-15 and Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

There is a story about a stern-looking, simply dressed man standing on the street corner in Chicago. As pedestrians hurried by, he would solemnly raise his right arm, point a finger at a passerby and shout, "Guilty!" Then without changing expressions, he would stand stiffly for a few minutes, and then repeat the process with another passerby. "Guilty!" This had a strange effect on the crowd passing by. They would stare, look away, look at each other, back at the man, and then hurry away. After being pointed out and pronounced, "Guilty!" one man turned to his companion and said, "But how did he know?"

After the time of King David and King Solomon, the kingdom they established and ruled was divided in two. Our prophet Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah, but he had gone to Israel to prophesy. I think the effect Amos had on the Northern Kingdom of Israel must have been similar to the man in Chicago. In effect, he was pronouncing the people of Israel "guilty'.

I don't know if you know how books of the prophets got selected for inclusion in the Bible. Basically, if the prophecies were deemed to have been true, then the book was included. According to the first verse of the Book of Amos, he prophesied two years before the earthquake. Amos was prophesying against Israel and the earthquake was seen as the result of God's judgment.

In today’s lesson, Amos starts off talking about a plumb line. This is the third of the five visions of judgment that God gives to Amos. In the first two visions, Amos pleads with God not to destroy Israel and God relents both times. In this third vision, God says that he is through giving 'another chance.' That's what he means when he says, "I will not pass them by..." Now he is going to use a plumb line to measure the 'straightness' of his people. And God will bring judgment against those who do not measure up.

The first time I read this, I didn't have any idea what a plumb line was. In case you don't know either, a very simple plumb line can be made with a piece string and a lead weight. The weight makes the string hang perfectly straight downward. It is used to build and determine if a wall stands straight. It's very important for a wall to be straight if it is to be used as a part of a house. If it leans too far either way, in or out, the house will not stand. There is a delicate balance called for.

So God uses this plumb line to measure his people and they are coming up - not only short - but crooked. They had been behaving in ways that were displeasing to God. These ways ranged from unfair business practices to idolatrous worship, to using God's favor for personal gain. And God is telling Amos, go call my people back. Tell them what will happen if they do not alter their ways. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that God has sent prophets to call his people back from sin.

Amaziah, the priest at the temple, takes Amos to task. "Go away from here. The land cannot stand your prophecies. Go prophesy in Judah where you came from." Amaziah is making an assumption here that Amos is a normal (or professional) prophet who makes his living going around prophesying - that people pay him to do this. But Amos tells him, "I am not a prophet or a prophet's son." In other words he says, "I was not raised or trained for this. I did not inherit a prophet's mantle" (You might remember that Elisha was selected and trained as a prophet by Elijah and inherited his mantle when Elijah was taken up in the whirlwind.)

But poor old Amos was a tender of the flock - a shepherd, if you will - maybe even the owner of the flock... And he was a dresser of sycamore fig trees. Amos had a good job, he was satisfied with his life. He didn't want to get up, go to another country, and make people mad at him. But

when God calls you, it's hard to resist. God can be very insistent... So Amos goes to the Northern Kingdom.

God has pretty stringent expectations of the people who call on his name. He expects them to behave in certain ways - most certainly in ways that are above the norm. You know, these days we get to talking about how much God does for us, and God is love, and God will forgive everything...

Well, these things are true, God does more for us that we can ask or imagine... And yes, God is love and He loves his creation even beyond our wildest imagination... And yes, God can - and will - forgive us our sins... if we ask him, if we acknowledge our sins and ask forgiveness... and if we truly repent and intend to lead a new life.

Part of the problem today is that people refuse to acknowledge their sins saying, “well it’s not really a sin…” or “everyone is doing …” or “it’s not my fault…” Others have a tendency to rank their sins, “well, maybe it is a sin, but look at Joe, his sin is much greater…” or “well, if Tom does it then how bad can it be?...” or “at least I don’t do such and such….”

But if we do acknowledge our sins and receive forgiveness, remember that it doesn't necessarily mean that we don't have to pay the price for our sins. The people of Israel were living in sin. In this lesson we see Amos prophesying against 'the sanctuaries of Israel' and against the king, Jeroboam. Amaziah tells Amos to go and "never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom." On the surface that sounds okay, but look, Bethel means "house of God" - Beth (house) and El (God). Note that Amaziah said it was the king's sanctuary - not God's - and that it is a temple of the kingdom - not of God. The king and the temple no longer promoted God, or preached God's word, or reached out to God's people. They follow the 'party-line of the kingdom and preach what the King wants to hear.

The current conflict in the Middle East is probably a prime example of this. A couple of days ago, I was in conversation with a parishioner and she indicated that she didn’t think it did any good to pray for peace in Jerusalem. And I countered, that was okay, we were simply called to be faithful to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I look at the modern day conflict and I have great compassion for the people of that region – the innocent and the Christians who are caught

in the middle.. The conflict is nothing new – it has its roots in the Exodus when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and Joshua led them into the Promised Land. And the conflict reeks of Old Testament mentality. They’ve reverted back past the ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ paradigm. Lebanon reminds me of my kids when they used to get into arguments – “it all started when he hit me back.”

Israel blames Lebanon for not controlling Hezbollah, but the truth is that the Hezbollah is so imbedded in the Lebanese culture and government and so influential and beneficial that they really don’t want to do anything to upset them. We see some of the blame game from Genesis 1 coming to play – “it’s not my fault.”

But all of this conflict comes out of that Old Testament model. We can’t really begin to understand the mentality or all the nuances involved, but because of perceived injustices, hardened hearts, and inflated egos, innocent people are suffering. The opposing forces both have an incomplete view of God. They forget that they are all made in the image of God – and so is their opponent.. Their view does not include the forgiveness and grace that is made manifest in Jesus Christ. Amos would have a field day prophesying there today.

The priest Amaziah saw Amos as subversive and rebellious. Or what I learned in seminary to call "countercultural". All the way through, followers of Yahweh have been countercultural, beginning with Abraham (who picks up all his belongings and all his family and moves to a new land) and going on even through today. Jesus was killed for being countercultural.

Last week we saw Jesus send out the disciples two by two to preach the gospel, heal the sick and with power to drive out demons. They had been sent out even as Amos had been sent out by God. In today’s gospel we find the disciples coming back from their journeys. They are excited and I can just see them jostling around each other trying to be first to tell Jesus everything that happened. And if they are like a lot of people I know, they were probably trying to “one-up” the last tale told.

And Jesus tells them, “come away to a deserted place all by ourselves and rest a while.” This is a common pattern for Jesus – after a period of intense ministry, he retreats to refresh and renew his spirit. We see that first in Mark 1:35.

Today’s gospel lesson is a split reading. We will consider the parts between over the next two weeks – they are the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on water. But today’s split reading gives us an idea of what was going on in Jesus’ ministry. He doesn’t stay in one place, but he is constantly on the move. He want to reach as many people as possible. In chapters 5 and 6, Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee four times. And where ever he goes, the crowds follow him and gather around him and bring to him all who are sick and infirmed. As some might say, “no rest for the weary.” But Jesus cares about his disciples and the crossing of the sea was, at least in part, to get away from the crowds. Notice that Jesus sees the crowd that has gone on before them and he has compassion on them because “they are like sheep without a shepherd.” Where ever Jesus went, he had compassion on the people – on the plight of the people. Jesus taught that God is present and God cares what happens to us.

The good news is that God is still among us. And Jesus, after sending out his disciples, encouraged them to balance their lives between ministry and refreshment. Jesus calls us to the same thing – to balance our lives between reaching out to others in the world around us and returning to him for strength and encouragement.

Amos' call is to bring us back into focus about what is really important in life; to remind us that we are not sufficient unto ourselves. We are made in God's image and that means we are partners with God in this life and we need to take that partnership seriously, because God has set a plumb line among us and he is measuring us against that plumb line. We are to stand straight and tall, reaching out,

not only to give help, but to receive help when we need it,

not only to work in the vineyard, but to rest when our time comes,

and to measure up to God's call in our lives, just as Amos measured up to the call in his life.

Please feel free to comment. Send an email to me at nan@doerrworks.com