7
Pentecost Cycle b proper 10 July 12, 2015
Amos 7:7-15
Psalm 85:8-13
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:14-29
A plumb line is tool used to establish a straight vertical line much like water is used in a level to establish a horizontal line. A mason uses a plumb line to make sure that a brick wall is not leaning. A plumb line is a simple tool; a string with a weight. The string is held up and when the weight stands still at the lowest point of the pendulum swing, a vertically certain line is established to become the measurement of anything that is compared with this line.
So the word plumb has come to mean certain or sure as when we are sure in questioning the sanity of someone by saying "he was plumb loco, or plumb crazy."
The prophets of old were regarded by the misbehaving general populace to be plumb crazy. Why? The prophets had this sense that the commonly accepted behaviors of people were wrong and doubly wrong because people could not see that they were wrong. The prophets had a vision of what needed to be corrected and they usually did not have political authority to make those correction. They had to speak from the point of a higher authority and so they spoke as oracles of God. They believed their higher standard was like the top of the plumb line held in the pinched fingers of God and the line had a weight on the bottom among the human community. And the weight came full stop and created a vertical straight line expressed by the covenant which God had with the human community. The covenant was expressed in the "plumb" and certain behavior for right living as expressed in the 10 commandments and other laws of justice.
The prophet Amos found that the people with whom he lived were out of plumb. God gave Amos a vision of the plumb line. The moral and spiritual walls of his people had come to have a great lean and like Humpty Dumpty, they were going to have a great fall. Amos was called to bring them back into a vertically straight standard. But the people had gotten used to the leaning walls, and like the leaning tower of Pisa, they made their leaning walls into their everyday tourist attractions. But a leaning wall will eventually lead to damage and destruction. A people who have fallen out of a "plumb" relationship with God will eventually do harm to themselves and each other and so the unpopular prophets of "plumbness" have been sent to people to remind people of the higher calling of their creation which they have forgotten to their own detriment. Injustice is out of plumb with God best plan for this world. The evolution of humanity into the actual practice of justice is perhaps the greatest evolution which could ever happen. Just think about how long this world has lived tolerating slavery, subjugation of women, the mistreatment and non-recognition of gay persons and the failure to aid full participation of people with impairment in our societies. For thousands of years we have been living among the leaning walls of injustice and we would have continue to live that way if the prophets had not come and said, "hey guys, here's the plumb line of justice; don't you know your moral practice is leaning and leaning in the direction of cruelty?" What would the world do without our "plumb" crazy prophets who have called us back to the obviousness of human justice and compassion? What would this world be without Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos? Without John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul the Apostle, or St. Francis, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Mahatma Gandhi, Caesar Chavez, or Harvey Milk? These "plumb" crazy prophets were not all perfect but what they were perfect about was the obviousness, the plumbness of some basic dignity of people which was not being recognized or practiced.
John the Baptist came as a prophet who was regarded by many to be "Plumb Crazy." He even dressed and acted the part. He wore a camel hair garment and he lived in the wild, ate locusts and honey and he was alone with God to discern what humanity was supposed to be in their behaviors. John the Baptist was the plumb line which God dropped out of heaven to show people how to bring their lives back into vertical uprightness with God. As wild as John looked, we can be certain of his cleanliness because he was often baptizing others in the waters of the Jordan River and asking people to take a public stand for their willingness to amend their lives and bring them back into alignment with recommended plumb rules of God for human behavior.
John the Baptist was like many prophets, he spoke the truth to the powerful and the powerful are not often amused to be ask to correct their behaviors. Often the powerful and wealthy believe that they hold the plumb line and they just move the plumb line to fit their own wishes and expect people to follow their lead. When prophets reveal the plumb obviousness of justice, those who do not practice such justice get angry. John the Baptist spoke out against the practices of Herod and as a result, he was imprisoned and he was killed in a most cruel way as a way of fulfilling a trivial party favor of his step-daughter who was manipulated by the retaliating Herodias.
Sometimes in life we cannot recognize what is plumb; we cannot recognize what should be obvious in the practice of love and justice in our world.
I believe that the Gospel of Christ means that we are always in the process of evolution towards the obviousness of justice and compassion. One of reasons that today it seems like injustice prevails is because people are now crying out more loudly about what is wrong. Modern media can broadcast hurt around the world in a second and bring cruelty to our attention.
The writer to the Ephesian church wrote about being in Christ. Being Christians means that we live a parallel existence; we live a heavenly life even while our feet are firmly upon the earth. In our heavenly life we experience salvation; salvation is health and it is dignity and justice which best expresses the meaning of salvation in our lives.
You and I are called to be "plumb" crazy prophets today when we see the leaning walls of injustice in this world. We are to hold the straight vertical line of the meaning of justice in each and every situation of our lives. May God give us the wisdom, the grace and the strength to be "plumb" crazy prophets of justice today. Amen.
So the word plumb has come to mean certain or sure as when we are sure in questioning the sanity of someone by saying "he was plumb loco, or plumb crazy."
The prophets of old were regarded by the misbehaving general populace to be plumb crazy. Why? The prophets had this sense that the commonly accepted behaviors of people were wrong and doubly wrong because people could not see that they were wrong. The prophets had a vision of what needed to be corrected and they usually did not have political authority to make those correction. They had to speak from the point of a higher authority and so they spoke as oracles of God. They believed their higher standard was like the top of the plumb line held in the pinched fingers of God and the line had a weight on the bottom among the human community. And the weight came full stop and created a vertical straight line expressed by the covenant which God had with the human community. The covenant was expressed in the "plumb" and certain behavior for right living as expressed in the 10 commandments and other laws of justice.
The prophet Amos found that the people with whom he lived were out of plumb. God gave Amos a vision of the plumb line. The moral and spiritual walls of his people had come to have a great lean and like Humpty Dumpty, they were going to have a great fall. Amos was called to bring them back into a vertically straight standard. But the people had gotten used to the leaning walls, and like the leaning tower of Pisa, they made their leaning walls into their everyday tourist attractions. But a leaning wall will eventually lead to damage and destruction. A people who have fallen out of a "plumb" relationship with God will eventually do harm to themselves and each other and so the unpopular prophets of "plumbness" have been sent to people to remind people of the higher calling of their creation which they have forgotten to their own detriment. Injustice is out of plumb with God best plan for this world. The evolution of humanity into the actual practice of justice is perhaps the greatest evolution which could ever happen. Just think about how long this world has lived tolerating slavery, subjugation of women, the mistreatment and non-recognition of gay persons and the failure to aid full participation of people with impairment in our societies. For thousands of years we have been living among the leaning walls of injustice and we would have continue to live that way if the prophets had not come and said, "hey guys, here's the plumb line of justice; don't you know your moral practice is leaning and leaning in the direction of cruelty?" What would the world do without our "plumb" crazy prophets who have called us back to the obviousness of human justice and compassion? What would this world be without Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos? Without John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul the Apostle, or St. Francis, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Mahatma Gandhi, Caesar Chavez, or Harvey Milk? These "plumb" crazy prophets were not all perfect but what they were perfect about was the obviousness, the plumbness of some basic dignity of people which was not being recognized or practiced.
John the Baptist came as a prophet who was regarded by many to be "Plumb Crazy." He even dressed and acted the part. He wore a camel hair garment and he lived in the wild, ate locusts and honey and he was alone with God to discern what humanity was supposed to be in their behaviors. John the Baptist was the plumb line which God dropped out of heaven to show people how to bring their lives back into vertical uprightness with God. As wild as John looked, we can be certain of his cleanliness because he was often baptizing others in the waters of the Jordan River and asking people to take a public stand for their willingness to amend their lives and bring them back into alignment with recommended plumb rules of God for human behavior.
John the Baptist was like many prophets, he spoke the truth to the powerful and the powerful are not often amused to be ask to correct their behaviors. Often the powerful and wealthy believe that they hold the plumb line and they just move the plumb line to fit their own wishes and expect people to follow their lead. When prophets reveal the plumb obviousness of justice, those who do not practice such justice get angry. John the Baptist spoke out against the practices of Herod and as a result, he was imprisoned and he was killed in a most cruel way as a way of fulfilling a trivial party favor of his step-daughter who was manipulated by the retaliating Herodias.
Sometimes in life we cannot recognize what is plumb; we cannot recognize what should be obvious in the practice of love and justice in our world.
I believe that the Gospel of Christ means that we are always in the process of evolution towards the obviousness of justice and compassion. One of reasons that today it seems like injustice prevails is because people are now crying out more loudly about what is wrong. Modern media can broadcast hurt around the world in a second and bring cruelty to our attention.
The writer to the Ephesian church wrote about being in Christ. Being Christians means that we live a parallel existence; we live a heavenly life even while our feet are firmly upon the earth. In our heavenly life we experience salvation; salvation is health and it is dignity and justice which best expresses the meaning of salvation in our lives.
You and I are called to be "plumb" crazy prophets today when we see the leaning walls of injustice in this world. We are to hold the straight vertical line of the meaning of justice in each and every situation of our lives. May God give us the wisdom, the grace and the strength to be "plumb" crazy prophets of justice today. Amen.
