July 15,2018                                Amos                                                  

         As many of you know, a number of years ago, I went on a trip to Ecuador with the youth of the Illinois South Conference. On the first trip I took with that group, we worked on building houses with Habitat for Humanity, and on the second trip, we worked on the foundation and on the walls of a church building.

         Now my grandfather was a bricklayer, when he started out in the construction business, and so it was kind of exciting to learn how to mix the mortar, and to scoop it onto the bricks and to set the bricks into place to build the walls. That first afternoon that we laid brick was more of a practice day, many of the bricks that we laid that day, had to be taken down and redone, because our walls didn’t exactly go straight over or straight up. But by the end of the day, our maestro – master builder, identified a few of us who could lay brick straight – up and across.

        Of course, no one can really put the bricks into place perfectly straight just by eye, so in order to guide those who put the bricks into place, a number of strings are put up, strings attached to a poll that has been leveled that go across the outside of the wall to be built, so that one can see if the bricks are level horizontally, and strings that hang down, so that one can be sure that the bricks are level vertically.

         These strings, particularly the one’s that have a weight on them and hang down are called plumb lines, and they have been used by builders for thousands of years in order to keep walls straight and to lay solid foundations for whatever they are building. That way, buildings won’t fall over or fall down.

         The reason I thought of this experience of laying brick and plumb lines this week, was because of our Old testament reading from the prophet Amos. Amos uses the idea of plumbline, as a way of comparing the building of a wall or house, to the building of a nation. In Amos’ day, Israel’s king has gone after other gods, which is to say the king chosen a set of values that are different from the values of the God of Israel.

         If you read Amos you will find that the kings and princes of Israel of neglected to care for the poor, blaming them for the problems of the nation. You will the kings and princes of Israel plotting on their beds ways to corrupt the justice system, oppress the worker and the farmer, and take advantage of foreigners. In short, they have rejected the God who liberated them from slavery, when they were slaves in the land of Egypt. And now their rejection of God, has resulted in into division, confusion and disarray.

I suppose it’s not hard to imagine what happens when honesty, integrity, faithfulness, compassion, justice and mercy are thrown out the window by our leaders in order to satisfy their greed for wealth and power. So God sends Amos, with a Word for the King. A Word that is meant to serve as a plumbline, to measure whether the king is upright before God. A Word that is meant to lead the nation back to God, and it’s people to choosing God’s will and ways for their lives.

As Christians, our plumb line is the cross of Jesus Christ. You may remember the hymn verse we sing during lent, Before the Cross of Jesus, our lives are judged today. That plumb line reminds us two things, first that the world seeks for us to be dishonest, to be unfaithful, to seek justice for ourselves and not for others, and when we act like this, we crucify our savior and we crucify our lives. Second, it tells us that there is life in honesty, truth, faithfulness, mercy and justice for all. In fact there is not only life, but truth and wisdom and peace for those who seek to live that life. Now that does not mean that we will not face trials or troubles or suffering in our lives, but it does mean we now realize why we face these hardships, and knowing why, we can have the peace and strength to endure them, and to be redeemed from them. And that’s what I think Paul was telling us this morning, when he writes….

         In him (Christ) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight  he (God) has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

         And that is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ!