Living in the Spirit

July 6, 2021

Scripture Reading: Amos 7:7-15
This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumbline.’ Then the Lord said,
‘See, I am setting a plumbline
   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.’

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,
“Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
   and Israel must go into exile
   away from his land.”‘
And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.’

Then Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

Amos’s description of the plumbline to illustrate how God sets the standards for our wholeness and well-being is very meaningful. Since early childhood, I have understood that if I did not stack my blocks in correct alignment, they would eventually fall. Common sense readily perceived by a child, however, often differs from our desires. Humans tend to what to have their cake and eat it, too. Amos was expelled from Israel because his warnings went against the leaders’ wishes.

When we read about idol worship in the Hebrew Bible, we envision people bowing down to statutes they have created, like the golden calf the Israelites built because Moses stayed on the mountain too long. I was shocked when I saw an actual golden calf made for a political rally on TV last year. I never knew what its purpose was. Unfortunately, the idols of our time are not usually that easy to identify. The more I search for the roots of evil in our world today, the more I see the truth in 1 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. They indeed may pierce themselves with pain, but the worst part of greed is it cannot exist without hurting others, too. Greed is the root of slavery and our unwillingness to increase the minimum wage to a living wage. Each time we ignore the plumbline of God’s righteousness, we move out of sync with it, and it will eventually suffer the consequences.

Prayer: Lord, help us see greed wherever it is invading our world. Grant us the courage to turn away from it as we work for a world that follows your righteousness and justice. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.