Proper 10 B                                                                             Amos 7:7-15
July 16, 2006                                                                           Psalm 85:7-13
St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church                              Ephesians 1:1-14
The Rev. Linda McCloud                                                        Mark 6:7-13 

Mercy, Truth and Peace             

Last week, we talked about prophets not being welcome in their home towns.  Today’s reading from Amos gives the strong impression that prophets are not welcome anywhere at all.  Prophets – people who speak for God -- seem to just get on other people’s nerves.  How do you tell a real prophet from a false prophet?  For one thing, a real prophet did not want the job in the first place.  Real prophets were just rolling along in their other profession, whatever that was, and they were fine the way they were — almost.  But something was eating at them.  They heard God calling their name.  They heard God saying, “Go.”   

The twelve Apostles had a prophetic mission of sorts.  Jesus had called them from their other professions.  They were all second-career ministers.  They followed the orders of Jesus as they went out and preached repentance in the countryside. Apparently, some people welcomed them, because they were able to do their job of exorcisms and healings. 

Amos fits the description of a true prophet.  He did not come from a long line of prophets.  He was a farmer and a herdsman.  He had a life.  It was as much of a shock to Amos as it was to everyone else that he was a prophet.  Amos was sent to a foreign country, so to speak, to do his prophesying.  This was hazardous to his health.  We all know what happens to messengers who bear bad news. 

As a little background information, Israel and Judah were not exactly getting along during this time.  In about 1000 BC to 960 BC, King David had fought battles and wars, expanding the physical territory of Israel.  David’s son Solomon, whose mother was Bathsheba, kept the peace in a united kingdom where all twelve tribes of Israel got along pretty well, except for a few minor issues.  For one thing, Solomon conscripted the citizens into forced labor for months at a time while Solomon lived in untold luxury.  At least, he built them their first Temple.  The kingdom of Israel split after the death of King Solomon.   

When King Solomon died, Rehoboam the rebel and Jeroboam I, son of Solomon, divided the kingdom into “Northern” and “Southern” respectively.  Does that sound familiar?  That was in about 930 BC, and it was never again reunited.  The Southern kingdom consisting of two tribes was called Judah, whose capitol was Jerusalem.  The Northern kingdom consisting of ten tribes was called Israel, whose capitol was Samaria.   

The prophet Amos was from the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  His home was in Tekoa, which was about ten miles out from Jerusalem.  God sent Amos to the Northern Kingdom of Israel to warn them that their doom and destruction were imminent.  See the problem?  But Amos was only doing his job.   

Prophets seemed to have some strange tools with which to work.  For Amos, it was a plumb line.  Do carpenters and builders still use plumb lines?  My dear old dad used plumb lines to make absolutely sure that the foundation joints were straight when he was building a house.  If I recall correctly the plumb line is a very simple tool.  It consists of a lead weight or “plumb bob” at the end of a heavy nylon cord or string.  Dad would coat the string in a special blue chalk dust.  Then he would attach the top of the string to the place he wanted to examine – which was usually the corner of a concrete block foundation or a basement wall.  He would drop the plumb bob from that point and give the string a little snap.  The string would leave a chalk marking on the wall.  Dad could determine from that marking whether the wall was lined up straight.  The issue at hand was that the foundation was so important.  If the foundation was not square, the whole house would be out of kilter, sort of like the leaning tower of Pisa.   

When Amos says that God is setting a plumb line in the midst of his people Israel, that could be taken to mean that God was checking to see whether they were measuring up to the standards that God had set for them.  God would give his people someone who would set such an example of behavior that they would never have another question as to what God expected.  Eventually, this person would be Jesus Christ.  Jesus would be the foundation on which the Church would be built.  That foundation would be perfect.  But in Amos’ day, the Israelites would have to start by getting rid of the “high places.”  “High places” generally refers to an altar set up for the worship of idols.  It would be on a hill or in a grove of trees.  Idol worship is one of the primary sins that led to the downfall of Israel.  

Another cause of their downfall was ill treatment of the poor.  There was a great social and economic gulf between the very rich and the very poor.  I saw a quote from a rock star last week that said, “What can we do to make poverty history?”  This is a question that has haunted every generation.  

For the Israelites of Amos’ day, true repentance would have consisted of diminishing the gulf between the rich and poor, and of treating everyone with respect.  Amos pointed this out to them and simply told them the truth.  Amos sent word to King Jeroboam II that if they did not try to measure up to God’s standards, which would have begun with the Ten Commandments, Israel would be swallowed up by another kingdom.  This was in approximately 746 BC.  Twenty-two years later, their worst nightmare came to pass.  Israel and its capitol Samaria fell to the Assyrians.  By that time, Amos had done his job as a prophet.  He had long since gone back to being a herdsman and dresser of sycamore fruit. 

What would it have taken for the people of Israel to measure up and to not be off kilter with the plumb line?  Our Psalm gives us a beautiful illustration:  “Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”  In other words, mercy and truth, righteousness and peace have a direct connection.  We will have peace in our hearts when we are upright in our dealings.  Jesus is the plumb line by which all uprightness is measured.  We always need to compare our lives with Jesus and his teachings.  When we do this, we will only be doing our jobs as Christians. 

When we are only doing our jobs, we interact with the people of Moultrie and Colquitt County and other places in our sphere of influence.  We could begin to think of this church as a ministry center from which all of us go out into this community.  This would continue to bring praise and glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the measuring line for the whole world.