Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Good Morning Friends,

In today’s scripture we read about Amos, a compassionate shepherd who cared enough to confront those who were leading Israel down the wrong path. He writes about truth speaking to power.  The setting is about 760 years before Christ… around the time of the start of the Roman Empire.  Israel was at the height of its material power and prosperity. But it was also a time of social injustice, corruption and moral decay in Israel. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. Well in this setting Amos denounced this destructive behavior, calling people to be restored to a proper relationship with the Lord. It is a call to revival. It is a call to stop building faulty towers and following false gods.  And as you might expect his message of repentance, like that of John the Baptist, was not popular, his forecast was grim and yet he remained obedient and loyal to the Lord.  Amos wanted God to be the priority for the people. He wanted them to build on a firm foundation and walk a straight path and build a straight wall. So today we ask a relevant question for a society that needs to hear Amos’ message even as we contemplate how we measure up. Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Scripture: Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Amos 5:24 (NIV)

This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “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.” 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.’ “Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.” Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'”

Amos 7:7-17 (NRSV)

Message: Our text this morning finds Amos, a shepherd from Tekoa, a harsh wilderness area from south Judah, called to speak God’s prophetic word to the people of northern Israel. Amos was a blue-collar worker coming to a white-collar society. Prosperity does not always mean that God approves of what is going on. Gold for Him is just pavement. So when we look at how we measure up, when we use God’s plumb line of love and faith to build a firm foundation for our life, when we have Christ as the cornerstone… how we use things of worldly value becomes a test of our character…a test of how we measure up to His standard. The plumb line becomes the Word made flesh in the life of Jesus and we have to choose to follow a straight path…to build our lives on truth or worldly power. So friends, do I really need to tell you that we must choose Jesus. Surely you know that all other measurements lead to destruction. Friends, we are to be built God tough. We are built on a firm foundation and Jesus is that foundation. So lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim, lift high His gracious name…let this be your standard for building. Friends, I do not need to ask you to hold the plumb line up to measure your life. You already know how you would line up with the plumb line of the perfect life of Jesus Christ. But I will ask if you are desperate enough to take your crumbled, cracked and crooked walls to God so you can be set straight. Amos wanted Israel to measure up to what would be revealed as the righteous love in Jesus. Jesus is not only the cornerstone but the plumb line. Believe it.

Pray we realize that our prosperity is not the same as righteousness.
Pray that we see and respond to life’s situations from God’s point of reference…that we stay calm, faithful and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life…embracing the process as His purpose, even as He reaches out to us with His grace and love from the cross. Pray that we put away our doubts and fears. Pray that we stand on truth, live by faith and believe that God will finish what He has started in us.
Pray we are aware. Pray we repent. Pray we have a dream. Pray we fight for truth. Pray we fight for justice. Pray we fight for God’s way of love. Pray we realize it is about God, not ourselves. Pray we realize that our freedom is bound up in the freedom of others. Pray we not be imposters claiming to be something we are not. Pray we realize that our job is never to give the appearance of impropriety but focus on the joy of life realizing that God values the perfecting of our faith.

Blessings,