Five miles south of Bethlehem, in the nation of Judah, sat a tiny village called Tekoa. Tekoa sat at the base of a small hill upon which sheep and goats would graze.
Amos was a herder of sheep and goats from that village of Tekoa. His days were quiet. Calm. Peaceful.
But one day the Lord said to Amos: “Get up! It’s time to leave this place!” (If you remember last week’s sermon, you know God has a way of telling people to get up and get going. Last week, it was Jesus telling the disciples to get up and go. This week, it’s God telling Amos to get up and go…)
God told Amos to leave Judah and the quiet village of Tekoa, and travel north to the kingdom of Israel. There, God wanted Amos to prophecy to the kingdom of Israel, to speak truth to a nation that had strayed from God’s ways.
Why did God call a lowly shepherd from Judah to go preach in Israel? Wasn’t there anyone in Israel who could speak truth to the rulers of that nation?
Apparently not.
All the priests and other religious leaders in Israel enjoyed a certain level of power and prestige, which came from their close association with Israel’s king, Jeroboam. The religious leaders were preaching a version of the faith that perverted the teachings of God, twisting those teachings into something they were not, so that they could justify the injustice that characterized King Jeroboam’s reign.
To preach against the king would be to bite the hand that feeds you. No one in Israel would do that.
So God called Amos, to come up from the south, from the land of Judah, and preach truth to Israel, to preach truth to King Jeroboam, and to preach truth to the religious leaders who should have known better.
What, exactly, was it that God was so upset about? How, exactly, had King Jeroboam strayed from the truth?
According to Amos, the king and those aligned with him were “delivering up entire communities, denying compassion, and rejecting the Lord’s teachings.”
In chapter three, we read that they “sold the innocent for silver, and those in need for a pair of sandals. They crush the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth and push the afflicted out of the way.”
In chapter four, we read that the king and those aligned with him cheat the weak and crush the needy.
In chapter five, we read that they turn justice into poison, and throw righteousness to the ground… and they reject the one who comes speaking the truth...
Amos says to them: “You crush the weak! You tax their grain! You have built houses of carved stone but you won't live in them!... You afflict the righteous; you take money on the side; you turn away the poor who seek help!”
Also in chapter five, Amos proclaims this word of the Lord. The Lord says: "I hate, I reject your festivals. I don't enjoy your joyous assemblies. If you bring me your offerings and your gifts, they won’t make me happy… Take away the noise of your songs. I won't listen to the melody of your harps. Instead, let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream!"
God is fed up with the hypocrisy of those who attend worship, with those who attend national days of prayer, then go out and deny justice to the poor and compassion to the needy. God is done with all those who offer up “thoughts and prayers” to the evil in the land, but refuse to do anything to combat that evil...
In chapter six, Amos proclaims: “Doom to those who ignore the evil day and make violent rule draw near: who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on their couches, eat lambs from the flock, and bull calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and, like David, compose tunes on musical instruments; who drink bowls of wine, put the best of oils on themselves,... but who aren’t grieved over the ruin of Joseph!”
These are the ones who, if they were alive today, would have the latest contemporary Christian praise songs on their playlist, and who would attend worship wearing the latest hipster fashion, but aren’t concerned at all with black lives, or immigrant lives, or poor lives, or transgender lives, or any lives other than their own. They sing their songs of praise, but do little to establish justice in the land.
In chapter eight, Amos says “Hear this, you who trample on the needy and destroy the poor of the land, who cheat the poor with false scales, in order to buy the needy for silver and the helpless for sandals, and sell garbage as grain… The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget what [you] have done.”
At one point, the Lord shows Amos a vision. This is the passage we heard this morning. In that vision Amos sees God standing by a wall, holding a plumb line.
A plumb line is a long string with a weight at the end of it. A builder building a house would hold that plumb line up, with the weight hanging down at the bottom, and once it stopped swaying, that line would show true vertical.
The plumb line was a tool that allowed the builder to build his wall perfectly straight. If the wall was not straight, if it was crooked or if it leaned, then the structural integrity would be compromised, and the building would be in danger of collapsing.
God says to Amos: “I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. It is time to see how the nation measures up…
“And I see that the walls are not straight. I see that they lean, they’re crooked. They stray from what is true. And the whole thing will come tumbling down. The whole nation will come tumbling down, because its leaders have strayed from my truth.”
And Amos went around Israel, proclaiming his vision. I’m sure he carried an actual plumb line with him, so he could hold it up while describing how the nation had strayed from what is true. He went around, calling for the nation’s leaders to return to truth, to return to God’s teachings, to return to practicing justice and compassion and equality…
Amos would hold up the plumb line and list the sins of the king, and the sins of the leaders aligned with him.
Amos would hold up the plumb line and point out how they have neglected to show hospitality to the stranger, neglected to show compassion to the poor, neglected to show concern for the weak, neglected to provide justice for the oppressed.
A priest named Amaziah reported to King Jeroboam what Amos was doing. Amaziah the priest accused Amos of plotting against the king and of being an enemy to the kingdom.
Amaziah the priest said that Amos was full of lies, that Amos proclaimed a fake truth. Amaziah the priest told Amos to go back to Judah.
And Amos said “I’d love to go back to Judah! I’m just a humble shepherd, after all. But God told me to get up and leave Judah, and come up here to Israel and proclaim God’s truth - the truth you have ignored, the truth you have perverted, the truth you have corrupted and made into something that is so far from actual truth, yet you pretend that it is true, that it is right, that it is what God wants.
“But this is not what God wants. God wants justice! God wants compassion! God wants mercy and hospitality! And God sent me to proclaim this message, and I cannot refuse to proclaim what God compels me to proclaim.”
The story and the words of Amos have never been more needed than they are today. So many leaders who claim to be Christian have strayed so far from the truth, and the metaphorical buildings which they have erected are in danger of collapsing.
Our society is in danger of collapsing.
Amos, and all the prophets, and Jesus, too, speak of welcoming the stranger, loving the neighbor, showing hospitality to immigrants, defending the weak, caring for the poor…
This is the heart and core of our Christian faith! This is the plumb line by which we measure our behavior as Christians.
Yet so many who claim to be Christian make the Christian faith about something else, and too many Christian leaders and priests and pastors align themselves with rulers who do the exact opposite of what the gospel demands of us.
They claim to be pro-life, yet deal in ways of death.
They claim to be pro-family, yet defend policies that separate families.
They claim to be pro-truth, but they deal in lies.
But the real truth is found in the gospel.
The real truth is found in the writings of the prophets - prophets like Amos, who speaks of letting justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.
Prophets like Micah, who speaks of seeking justice, showing love and kindness, and walking humbly with God.
The real truth is found in the teachings of Jesus - which are summarized in the Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are those who make peace,” he said. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right. Blessed are those who show compassion…. Love your neighbor - and every person, even the one you hate, is your neighbor… Bear good fruit.”
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also said: “Not everybody who speaks my name and calls me ‘Lord’ will enter God’s kingdom; only those who actually do what the gospel requires will enter and live there.”
The plumb line is being held up in our midst, and our society and our nation have been found to be way out of alignment.
But there is hope.
There is a resistance movement, working to restore integrity, working to bring us back into alignment with God’s truth. There’s the Poor People’s campaign, led by William Barber. (Do yourself a favor, and watch the livestream when he preaches at General Assembly next week.)...
There is the work of our own Disciples of Christ, working to bring justice through so many ministries such as our Reconciliation Ministry, Global Ministries, Week of Compassion, and more.
There is the camping ministry at Loch Leven that our church and the other churches of our region sponsor, and similar camps throughout our denomination and many others, teaching the ways of Jesus to new generations of Disciples.
There are even rising politicians trying to make a change, in congress and elsewhere, though the odds are stacked against them. But we can help them. We can learn about which ones support causes of justice and equality, and show them support.
And God will not ignore all these efforts to bring justice and reconciliation and hope to the world. At the end of the book of Amos, God says: “I will improve the circumstances of my people. They will rebuild the ruined cities of this nation. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine. They will make gardens and eat their fruit.”
And the kingdom of God will be established in our land, in Long Beach, in the U.S.A., and throughout the world, in our lifetime, by the grace and the power of God working in us.
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