Amos 7:7-15.                      Straight up and down??                                                12/7/15

(7)  This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. {8} And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?" "A plumb line," I replied. Then the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. {9} "The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam." {10} Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: "Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. {11} For this is what Amos is saying: "'Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.'" {12} Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. {13} Don't prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom." {14} Amos answered Amaziah, "I was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. {15} But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

What do you see? What have I got here? A piece of string with a weight at the bottom. Now, what is that all about you might say? What has this got to do with us here today? Well, with this little illustration here, God is making a very serious point. And it is not just something that was for Amos and those of his day. God’s standards are just as relevant to us here in the twenty first century. In fact this message is very real for us here in this country at this time, as well as for me as your pastor.

Now the plumb line was the spirit-level of that day and for much of history. It was the device they used to ensure that the building they were erecting was straight up and down. If not they would pull the building down and start again. The reasons of course are quite obvious: not only do you have a shoddy looking building if its walls are not straight up and down; but can you imagine if you are building a skyscraper today, and at the low levels you are not truly upright, when you get up to high levels you are way off and the building becomes dangerous. So the plumb line and its modern equivalents are very important in the construction industry. Anything less than straight up and down is not acceptable.

Now we can understand the importance of this exactness when it comes to the building industry and the like. In fact if we were the owner/ investor we would be very particular in this regard. We know and expect our buildings to be straight up and down.

Yet I am sure that we all will ‘buck’ when we hear God’s application of this illustration here this morning. How dare he be so critical and exacting when it comes to you and me? In this regard we want to be like Herod’s wife in the Gospel reading, and the church leaders here in this reading. We not only don’t want to hear this message, but we want to get rid of those who might make life uncomfortable by pointing out that we are crooked.

Remember though, that here it is God who is saying that he is holding his ‘plumb line’ up against his people. He is checking to see if we are ‘straight up and down.’ Through his spokesmen he is holding up his plumb line against us and calling us to the truth. Are we living in accord with him and his Word? Are we ‘fair dinkum’? Or are we so far off, that we have to be destroyed? Are we so bent and crooked that we are turned in on ourselves and don’t want to even know that we are in trouble? Are we too, prepared to ‘shoot the messenger’ rather than heed the message? This is serious stuff!

But surely it is not that bad, you might say. Surely that is the extremes. Surely that is not for us today. Surely we, and I in particular as pastor, must focus on the positives. Surely it is not good to speak out against other people’s choices and to decry that which is popular thinking. We are to be open and tolerant. We are to speak encouragingly and please people if we are going to draw them into the Church. We surely are to bend and be all things to all people if we are going to be effective: we need to fit God’s message into the prevailing culture of the time. Yet, what is God saying here: Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people... ; and a little further on: I will spare them no longer.

His rules; his Word; his standards of right and wrong, are the criteria that is being held up in our midst. Here there is no closing a blind eye to shonky practices, or ‘greasing of a few palms’; or having the right positions or knowing the right people; or just being as good as the next bloke. Here there is no twisting God’s Word so that we can fit our church practices into the culture of the day. The line is set, straight up and down.

Yes, that is exactly it; God has set down what is good and right and helpful for us and for our relationship with him; and for our church and what he expects of it; and more and more we are found wanting. It is no longer God and his Word that is our guide to what is good and right, but our culture and our own sinful desires. None of us can stand straight and tall. Without God’s help we are in big trouble.

But that is where the greatest tragedy of all comes. Not only do we not line up, but we have become so self-centred and self orientated that we will not accept that we are sinners to any great extent. The flow on from that is that we do not want to think too much about Jesus and his death on the cross – we do not want the help that is extended to us, for that entails accepting the reality that we do not measure up.

Instead of receiving and living in light of the fact that Jesus has died as punishment for our sin and that he wants to now freely adopt us into his family, as the second reading reminded us of. Instead we still want to live to our own glory and by our own rules. We want to put all the emphasis on ourselves and our own desires and feelings, rather than on him who has saved us. Even in our worship we place all the emphasis on what we do for God and feel about him, rather than on what he has done and does for us. We still want to be the centre of it all.

No, we don’t want God’s help: we don’t want him to straighten us out. We want God to let us go on by and for ourselves. Even in our ‘christianity’ we want to do it our way. We just want him to give us what we want, when we want it.

So all along it would seem that we are seeking to build our own tower. However because we are sinful human beings we can never do it the way that it should be: it will never be straight up and down. In fact it gets to the point that it will crumble. The selfish, self-centred life needs to be demolished, because we can not stand up to God’s plumb line.

The only hope that we have: the only way that we can stand the test, is that we cling to Christ. Only as we hide ourselves in Christ that we can stand. He is the only one who is upright and straight, and he has made it possible for us to stand in his righteousness through his death on the cross and his resurrection. In our baptism he clothes us with himself so that we can now be sons and daughters of God. Now day by day we constantly look to him and trust in him alone. There in Jesus we are enabled to stand straight up and down: that we can go forward with confidence and certainty.

So now Jesus becomes the centre and basis of our lives. He and what he says in his Word becomes what is all important for us. His word and his truth is what we live by and speak; even if it makes us unpopular and means we loose our head. Nothing is to be compromised, even if it means we are called to leave the country. God is all important not what I think or feel. Divine Service week by week is when we gather in his presence so that he can keep us in his shadow: his righteousness, so that we can maintain the upright stance. Here alone we stand: surely we can do no other. Tough as that might be.

So we join with Paul in our second reading from Ephesians 1:3-14.   Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. {4} For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love {5} he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- {6} to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. {7} In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace {8} that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. {9} And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, {10} to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. {11} In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, {12} in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. {13} And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, {14} who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory.

Straight up and down. In Christ the plumb line measures true. To him then be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN.

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish