Sermon for July 14, 2024: Plumb based upon Amos 7:7-15

Amos 7:7-15This 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.’

Amaziah Complains to the KingThen Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the very centre 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 sycomore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

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     It is challenging to write a sermon while the news rolls in of what looks to be an assassination attempt of the former President while he is on the campaign trail. Political violence is not new in our country, unfortunately. Most of the adults in the room were alive when someone tried to assassinate Pres. Reagan. Many remember the assassinations of Pres. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. Gabby Giffords was attacked while she was meeting with constituents in her home state of Arizona in 2011. A group of men plotted to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer just four years ago.  Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was attacked in their home just two years ago.

     We might even remember the attempted assassination of Teddy Roosevelt while he was campaigning in 1912. Professor Marcelius Braxton notes that Roosevelt was shot before his speech, ordered that his shooter not be lynched when he was immediately captured, and went on to give his speech with a bullet in his chest. He survived, carrying that bullet in his chest the rest of his life, but lost that election. Presidents Mckinley and Lincoln were not so lucky, both succumbing to injuries from assassins.

     Political violence is not new to our country. I barely scratched the surface by describing attacks on well-known politicians and activists. Attacks on union organizers, kids integrating schools, houses of worship, and people registering community members to vote are political violence, too, and have long shaped our shared lives as Americans. And yet, just because something happens regularly, that doesn’t make it right. Just because political violence continues to be a reality with which we much contend, that doesn’t make it an appropriate part of our political process. Even as our history shows us groups and individuals willing to deploy violence to shape our political process, if our goal is to have functioning democracy, we cannot rely on political violence to govern.

     The violence of last night could easily beget more violence in retaliation. Some people will benefit from violence. In a letter sent out last night, Common Ground USA, an organization that, among many things, works to address political violence, pointed out that those who deploy political violence want to “inflame tensions, sow chaos, and drive escalation of further violence.” That violence does not benefit humanity or, frankly, the world. That violence has not yet happened though. And, we do not have to let it.

     Here is what Common Ground USA reminds us. First, we have a choice. Each of us individually and all of us collectively. We can choose to pursue a shared political life with no tolerance for threats of violence, for harassment, and for violence towards activists and politicians. We can opt to develop the skills and relationships to make sure that our public spaces are safe enough for all American to gather, speak, and organize politically. They’ve got something called “The Peacemaker’s Toolkit” that I’ll share with the church in our Newsy Note. They offer up a definition of peace as “the presence of justice, belonging, and fellowship.” This is a peace that we can build, not something that just blooms out of thin air.

     When Common Ground USA talks about peace, they also note that this peace they believe we can cultivate usually has what they call “vital signs”:

• Safety- how safe do people feel in a community and what makes people feel safe
• Personal power- do people believe that they have the ability to create positive change in the community and are they taking steps to create those changes
• Unity- how much do people trust each other? Especially across difference? Do people feel polarized? Do some people feel like another group is a threat to their ability to be a part of the community?
• Trust in leaders- do people feel like their leaders and institutions actually take all people’s needs into account while making decisions? 

     We can cultivate peace by being attentive to each of these vital signs. And, each of the vital signs impacts the others. People with low trust in leaders often feel like they have little ability to create positive change. People who don’t trust their neighbors don’t feel safe and don’t make the community safe for other people.
We’ve spent several Sundays this summer talking about prophets. Today’s scripture introduces yet another. Amos, like other prophets, was called up during a time of conflict in the nation, though it wasn’t a time of war per se. It was a time of deepening inequality. The book of Amos is addressing two significant culture issues of this era: 1) the increasing wealth of the elite of the both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah that was being built on systems of mistreatment of poor people and 2) the looming threat of Assyria, which was itching to build up their own empire.

     What is likely of most use to us today is that Amos understands that faith in God not just to be about an individual person’s religious commitments, but about an entire community’s ethical behavior. Gregory Mobley, in his introduction to Amos, puts it this way: Israel’s covenant with God did not provide it with a special privilege to do whatever they wanted. The nation was required to live up to an ethical standard of justice and righteousness. In her commentary on this passage, Elaine James says, “God’s love demands righteousness, and breaches of God’s call to justice and love cause God grief.” Today’s reading is from one of Amos’ visions where he believes God is deeply aggrieved and ready to punish the nation. God says to Amos, “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.”

     A plumb line is a tool that builders have used for literally thousands of years to make sure that what they are building is aligned properly so that it can be strong and stable. In Amos’ vision, God clearly states that the nation is out of alignment. What is also clear, perhaps not in today’s reading, but in other parts of Amos, is that it is possible to realign a nation, to become plumb, once again, with God’s priorities. As I observe a different nation out of plumb, I think the Peacemaker’s Toolkit could be actually be of use to those of us interested in realigning ourselves with love and justice as God demands. It’s not the only set of tools available to us, but it is a good one.

     At the time that I finished this sermon, the former president seems to have minor injuries from a ricochet of glass. He was well cared for by the team who ushered him off the stage. One rally attendee has been killed. Let us pray for the ones who mourn their loss. And, two more attendees were significantly wounded. Let us pray for their healing as well. I haven’t yet seen verified the identity of the shooter, who was also killed. Mostly, though, today, I hope that we can remember that we are not without power or without choices about how to respond to the violence that it out of step with our values. We may not totally be sure of our next steps, but we have instructions from God and a vision of peace that can draw us towards plumb once again. May God’s Spirit guide us in building a peaceful kindom of justice, belonging, and fellowship.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
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Marcelius Braxton: https://x.com/Marcelius_B/status/1812289008476553431
The information from Common Ground USA: https://www.sfcg.org/news/statement-on-violence-against-former-president-donald-trump-in-pennsylvania/

Elaine James: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-15-2/commentary-on-amos-77-15-4
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Gregory Mobley’s introduction to Amos in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)