The Plumb Line
Look at the plumb line. What do we see? The plumb line is meant for us. It’s used, among other things, to build city walls and important buildings like temples to make certain the walls are vertical. To make sure they are true. It is the simplest of devices. And yet, in the hands of the Lord God and his prophets, it becomes a metaphor for the health of the life of the community. In this case, in Amos chapter 7, we are talking about Israel. Not as we think of it today, or even in the time of Jesus. For eight centuries before Jesus Israel was divided into a northern kingdom, Israel, and a southern kingdom, Judah, later Judea. The cultic center for Israel was the temple at Bethel. The cultic center for Judah was the temple in Jerusalem. (Amos 7:7-15)
The Lord God is sending Amos to deliver some bad news: Bethel and Israel is about to be dismantled. Why? First of all, they are using the temple at Bethel to worship idols and other gods. The second and more important charge is rampant economic and social inequality. It is Amos, after all, who earlier writes that the king and leadership in Bethel “sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals—they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth”; they “who oppress the poor, who crush the needy” (Amos 2:6-7; 4:1).
We misunderstand the role of the prophetic voices in the Bible. They are not predictive, as some would assert. Nor do these voices seek to scold, nag, or act self-righteous about social justice. These poetic voices simply hold up a mirror before God’s people. Or, a plumb line. To help us to see if we have been true to God’s desire for us to be a community of love.
All the prophetic voices of the eighth and sixth century (BCE) prophets write in Hebrew poetry. Thus, metaphors like the plumb line abound. The plumb line reveals that there are consequences for the economic and social inequality: YHWH will allow the establishment at Bethel to be dismantled. It’s no wonder that Amos tries to shirk his assignment, crying, “I am no prophet, nor am I a prophet’s son. I am a dresser of sycamore trees!” The Lord God will have none of it. “Go and prophesy to my people Israel…then run for you life down to Judah!” The basic offense is that there is no love of neighbor, which is meant, according to the Lord God, to include the poor, widows, orphans and resident aliens.
But God’s word does not end with judgment and the unimaginable dismantling of the present world. The prophetic voice also issues a second impossibility: after Bethel is destroyed and the people carried off into captivity, God will one day bring them home and resettle them in safety.
Eight centuries later, John the baptizer learns how dangerous it can be as God’s prophetic voice. After calling all of Judea and Jerusalem to a ritual bathing to repent and turn back from continued rampant economic and social inequality, and accommodating the cult of Caesar’s Rome which recognizes Caesar as God, John is put in prison by Herod, Caesar’s appointed king of the Jews. Yet, we are told that Herod is intrigued by John. But Herod has married his brother’s wife, Herodias, and John repeatedly warms Herod that this is not lawful. This violates the commandments and the love of neighbor, in this case your brother!
Herodias, thinks John’s railing against the empire is one thing, but interfering in her personal life goes too far. She has a grudge against John and wants to kill him. At Herod’s birthday banquet, her daughter performs a beguiling dance. Herod is so pleased he tells her, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.” Herodias tells her, “Ask for John’s head.” The young girl takes it one step further, asking not only for John’s head, but to have served on a platter. Right now. All this takes place while Jesus and his disciples are calling people to love God, love neighbor, and in your spare time, love your enemies as well. After John’s execution, Herod wonders if Jesus is John back from the dead? God’s prophetic voice will not be silenced. (Mark 6:14-29)
Madeleine L’Engle, author of children’s books, memoirs, novels,
and plays, was also a poet. Like the prophets, her poetry is like the plumb
line: it invites us all to wrestle with just how faithful we are to God’s dream
that we love God, love our neighbors, and love our enemies as well.
Lines Scribbled on an Envelope While Riding The 104
Broadway Bus:
There is too much pain
I cannot understand
I cannot pray
I cannot pray for all the little
ones with bellies bloated by starvation in India;
for all the angry Africans striving
to be separate in a world struggling for wholeness;
for all the young Chinese men and
women taught that hatred and killing are good and compassion evil;
or even all the frightened people
in my own city looking for truth in pot or acid.
Here I am
and the ugly man with beery breath
beside me reminds me that it is not my prayers
that waken your concern, my Lord;
my prayers, my intercessions are
not to ask for your love
for all your lost and lonely
ones,
your sick and sinning souls,
but mine, my love, my acceptance of
your love.
Your love for the woman sticking
her umbrella and her expensive parcels
into my ribs and snarling, " Why don't you watch where you're
going? "
Your love for the long-haired,
gum-chewing boy who shoves the old lady aside
to grab a seat,
Your love for me, too, too tired to
look with love,
too tired to look at Love, at you,
in every person on the bus.
Expand my love, Lord, so I can help
to bear the pain,
help your love move my love into
the tired prostitute with false eyelashes
and bunioned feet,
the corrupt policeman with his hand
open for graft,
the addict, the derelict, the woman
in the mink coat and discontented mouth,
the high school girl with heavy
books and frightened eyes.
Help me through these scandalous
particulars
to understand
your love.
Help me to pray [i]
Again, we need to look at the plum line. What do we see? In
our community? In our country? In our hearts? Have we been true to the will of
God? May the Lord God of Amos and John and Jesus help us all to pray that we
might all return to a life that loves God, loves all neighbors, and loves our
enemies as well. Amen.
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