The True Guide

Fr. Tim Nunez

The opening of this scene from Amos is funny to me. “The Lord held up a plumb line and asked me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, ‘A plumb line.’” But it doesn’t stay funny. Amos is a prophet, but his timing is a bit different from many. We expect God to speak a harsh word when the people are failing, running after false idols and so on. Then, when things aren’t going well, we expect God to guide the people to repentance and when they do repent to regain prosperity.

So imagine a field hand from Immokalee heading going into the New York Stock Exchange to tell them the robust and record stock market will crash and they are all going to jail. How long would you expect before they call security?

Amos was an unlikely prophet. You may recall that after its first three kings, Saul, David and Solomon, Solomon’s sons fought and split Israel into two kingdoms. Jeroboam ruled the northern kingdom of Israel and Rehoboam ruled the southern kingdom of Judah. The king in today’s passage is Jeroboam II, about 150 years later, and he rules the northern kingdom of Israel. Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah (near Immokalee.)

Amos was an uneducated man, a dresser of Sycamores. That refers to the Sycamore fig, which is edible but generally only eaten by people who are desperate for food.  Most often it is given to livestock. Even so, to get the fruit to ripen quickly, each must have a small slit cut into its thick skin. This allows a small wasp to come and lay eggs in it.  The wasp’s larvae tenderize the fruit. The wasp also pollinates the trees for new fruit. As a dresser of figs, splitting that fruit was a significant part of Amos’ job, which may have also involved tending the trees generally. He’s a field hand.

In any case, he’s not steeped in theology. This stands as one of the many examples in scripture where God chooses a most unlikely leader or messenger, be it the stuttering Moses, the runt Gideon or a handful of Galilean fishermen.

And it is an unlikely time. We tend to associate material prosperity with God’s blessing, which may be true, but there is also a continuous seduction in that to relax our attention to God and godly living. Contentment is at once a goal of faith but commonly undermines it. When Amos speaks the Lord’s harsh word of judgment in the time of prosperity, it is not well received. The main issues are the disregard and mistreatment of the poor and the establishment of rival temples at Bethel and Dan.

Instead of inspiring repentance, Amos is told by a priest of the temple at Bethel to go home. Amos won’t back down.

We should remember that there were very likely a lot of people who voiced opinions and even oracles about and against whatever was going on, just as we have today. Amos is remembered because his bore out. There was soon a major earthquake and the Assyrians would conquer them a few years later.

And so the lesson is to get straight with God, to remember his word as it relates to our conduct, including our regard for the poor. Note that God chose a man from the southern kingdom to remind them of the centrality of worship at The Temple, not just any temple. Note that God chose a field hand to speak this particular word of justice for the lowly.

Now if we stopped there, we would find ourselves consistent with the preaching of all the prophets up through John the Baptist. Repent and return to the Lord, in season and out of season, in good times as well as hard times. That is a vitally important part of our faith. We stand in continuous reference to the plumb line of God’s Word. We find in today’s Gospel, John’s life and ministry came to a hard end while the truth of his preaching remains.

But we don’t stop there. While Jesus’ life also came to a hard end, it didn’t end. The power of the cross and Christ’s Resurrection opens the litany of blessings that Paul shares in his opening of his letter to the Ephesians.

And when Christians say “God’s Word” we include his Word written in the Bible, the detailed language as well as the spirit of it. But above that we hold to his Word as made manifest in the person of Jesus Christ. Our obedience is borne out of the grace and love Jesus poured out for all God’s people on the cross. We want to be straight with the person of Jesus in all that we say and do, and to be continuously growing in his direction, straight and true.

How important is this? Thanks to the wildly creative and comprehensive talents of Christopher and Tiana Maslanka and even their 6-year-old daughter Lilianani, and a large team of volunteers, our Vacation Bible School shared the Word of God with over 55 elementary school-aged children this week, a holiday week. They used puppets and music and memorization and games and crafts and food to impart the depths of Psalm 23, to bring them to know Jesus as our shepherd-king.

Note what I said. We do all these things to help them learn about Jesus, but the goal is to help them to know Jesus, to know their shepherd, to know his voice, to have his blessing and protection when times are hard and to be guided by him on the paths of righteousness in good times as well as hard times. And when we fail, when we fall, to trust that he is with us. I had to look those kids in the eye and assure them that would be true even in the valley of the shadow of death. I’ve got to look you in the eye and remind you of Christ’s presence among us and the power of the Holy Spirit, “…this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:14)

Amen!