Amos is the chosen focal point out of today's readings. The Lord stands beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line is his hand and asks Amos "What do you see?" Amos wittily replies…
"a plumb line." Sharp one, that Amos.
A plumb line, for those of us not terrible handy, is a piece of string weighted at the bottom. When you stand and hold the line out (or hang it from something) it will swing briefly and then settle into stillness. When it is still, you have a straight or "true" line from which to build. A wall built "plumb" is strong and does not lean one way of the other. A house lined up with a "true" wall is also built well.
God tells Amos he is setting a plumb line in the midst of God's people…then says "I will never again pass them by." And we are back to judgment as good news. The passage says the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, but in context of the plumb line, this is what happens to make a "true" wall. If you aren't lined up plumb, you must be taken apart and lined up again.
It is not clear in Amos what the plumb line will be. Perhaps God's Commandments, but the text doesn't specify. Now, we are clear that God's plumb line for us is Jesus Christ. We are called to order our lives next to his, in line with his. Jesus provides our plumb.
And God promises not to leave us to our own devices. God is going to be there tearing down what we build wrong, helping us rebuild until we are as "true" as the plumb line. I suppose today's question is whether or not we are open to the rebuilding process, or do we cling so tenaciously to our slant that we build to surprise and horror when everything we plan and organize fails to meet our expectations, cannot hold the weight of life itself.
Perhaps Advent is a season of "settling into stillness" so we can begin to build "true."
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