When I was in college, I joined in on a few fall and spring
break service trips. Our college had an ongoing relationship with the folks who
ran Habitat for Humanity in Columbia, South Carolina, so that’s often where we
traveled for the week. We loaded into 15-passenger vans and trundled down the
highway from Salem, Virginia, for a week of waking up early, and getting dirty,
and tool belts, and new friends, and good food, and fulfilling conversations.
At least once the week of our break coincided with a “blitz
build” where five or six houses were put up in the span of a week. Foundations
were poured, pre-framed timbers nailed together, trusses were raised, and
shingles were laid. There were volunteers everywhere – bright-eyed college
students like us, retired guys with paint-stained jeans, older ladies serving
lunch with a smile, the families who would soon inhabit each of these homes,
and, most impressively, the post-workday construction crews, who slapped down shingles like I have never seen before or since.
On one particular day, our group fussed around with
different odd jobs. We unloaded and put away supplies, painted the storage trailer,
and were tasked with building a long set of shelves along the back side of the
trailer with scrap pieces of lumber. There were four or five of us working on
this, with no plans or direction but plenty of wood and nails and tools at our
disposal.
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| Working on that shelf... |
It started out alright. We worked together to decide what to
do, and picked out two-by-fours to cut down to the sizes we needed. The shelves
would be about eight feet long, and open, perfect for stacking extra pieces of
lumber. We grabbed our hammers and got to work.
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| Sort of coming together... |
At least an hour later we stepped back to survey our
progress. We had assembled four ladder-looking pieces that could be attached to
create the long shelf, each spaced about two feet apart. Only, when we held
them in place, nothing lined up. Precision had not been the name of the game. Our
response? More nails. We were determined to beat that thing into submission. We
stacked spare pieces of wood on the muddy ground under the legs of the
shelf, raising some of the sections as we all looked on from different angles,
growing more and more frustrated at what had seemed at the beginning to be a
simple task.
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| Improvising. And nails, lots of nails. |
Man, that was an ugly shelf. Where had we gone wrong? We
were by no means experts at carpentry, but it seemed easy enough, and we had
all sorts of tools at our disposal. But, while we may have used hammers and saws
and tape measures, we neglected to use one very important tool: a level. It
wasn’t enough to eyeball our work and say, “Looks good enough, nail it in
place!” We needed to use a level, needed to catch that little bubble between
the lines to make sure the pieces were square, and ensure that everything would
match up. If we had used a level, our shelf may not have looked any prettier,
but it certainly would have functioned better!
In our reading from Amos, the prophet warns the people of
the northern kingdom of Israel of the coming judgment if they do not change
their ways. Amos has a series of visions, in which God gives the message that the
people need to return to God and God’s way of doing things before God’s
patience is exhausted.
In the third of four visions, Amos sees the Lord standing
beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. A plumb
line is a kind of level, a string with a weight tied at the bottom. It is used
in building walls and other structures, to make sure everything is perfectly
vertical, or “plumb”, and not leaning to one side or the other.
So the Lord says to Amos, “What do you see?” And Amos says, “A
plumb line.” Then the Lord says, “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.”
The Lord sets a plumb line in the midst of God’s people
Israel, and the results are not good. The people are not upright. They fail to
measure up to God’s way of justice, obedience, and love. They go through the
motions of worshipping God, offering sacrifices and singing praise. But, all
the while they ignore God’s call for justice and righteousness. They oppress
and abuse the poor. They ignore the afflicted and take advantage of the
powerless. God sends plenty of warnings, plenty of reminders that they are
called to a better way. Still the people do not respond, and when the plumb
line is hung in the midst of them, they are found wanting.
God’s scathing indictment of the people and their actions sounds
uncomfortably close to home for us. In more ways than one, we also oppress the
poor and ignore the afflicted, citing our work ethic or other reasons why we
deserve everything we have. We, too, are guilty of going through the motions,
of claiming our Christianity and spending time worshiping God only when it is
beneficial and convenient.
God’s plumb line has been held up to us, too, and the
results are not good. We are not upright. We fail to measure up to God’s way of
justice, obedience, and love. What can we do?
We know, of course, that for our salvation we can never
measure up. Our own efforts are useless as we try to stand upright before God. Our
attempts to be a good person so that we might earn our way to heaven will
always fail. We are not saved by our works – and this is good news! Indeed, we
have already been saved through the faithfulness of Christ. We receive the gift
of salvation not by being a good person, but by God’s grace alone.
And, having been saved, in our daily lives we make choices
about our actions and attitudes toward God and toward others. The plumb line
that measures our actions is woven and weighted by what Jesus calls the two greatest
commandments – love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and
strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. In reference to this plumb line, how
do we measure up? Do we seek justice for those who are oppressed? Do we care
for the poor and afflicted by spending our time and money on their behalf? Do
we love God with our whole selves?
Thinking back to my ugly shelf, I know that, had
circumstances been different, things would have gone more smoothly. If only we had
an experienced person working with us, that person surely would have known to use a
level! He or she would make sure that everything was squared up, and would have
guided us in our work. Yes, a helper and guide would have made all the
difference.
The same is true for our daily lives. We need to be reminded
that God’s plumb line is hanging in our midst. We need encouragement to make
choices that will measure up to God’s vision for our life together. We need
help to repent when we don’t make the right choices.
The good news is that we have just such a helper and guide! In
baptism we have received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always with us,
guiding us through the decisions we make every day. The Holy Spirit holds up
the plumb line, so that we can see how each possible course of action measures
up – do my words build up, or tear down? Am I being generous, or fearful? Am I
trusting God, or trusting myself? The Holy Spirit nudges us toward repentance when
our choices do harm rather than good. Nudges us toward repentance when we willfully lean away from the
plumb line God has set in our midst. As we seek to love God with all our heart,
soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we are
never alone. For this gift of grace we say thanks be to God. Amen.
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