CProp10; Amos 7:8-17; Psalm 82; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37

July 15, 2007

I suppose you might wonder what this little rock

hanging from some twine is all about.

Well, about 12 years ago I attended a conference for clergy

put on by the national church.

It was for clergy in their first five years of ordained ministry,

a kind of check-up to help us take stock of our ministries and our lives.

At some point they had us go out on a hike and bring back a small rock.

Then they had us tie the twine around it.

Then for the rest of the day, we talked about plumblines.

A plumbline –

A plummet – of metal, stone, clay – and a line.

A simple weight hung from a line

in biblical times, used, say, in the building of a wall

to ensure that it was vertical -

Without a tilt – this way or that (leaning L to R and forward/backward).

The plumbline is mentioned several times in the bible.

It is mentioned in building new walls

and in determining the parts of walls

that needed to be demolished and repaired.

This second use is the use Yahweh is making of his plumbline,

as the prophet Amos describes God holding a plumbline to a wall.

The wall represents Israel.

Israel had been built correctly

but now it was out of line and must be torn down and rebuilt.

Demolition also requires planning and measuring. [Lam 2:8]

So, you get the gist of the conference.

It was time to take stock of the lives we were building.

What was level and true?

What had gotten out of line

and needed to be torn down and rebuilt?

The first thing we needed to test was what our plumblines were.

What were we using as the plumblines in our lives?

Were we measuring our ministries by what we were giving to

prayer, study of scripture, and tending the needs of our churches?

Or were we testing our ministries by the size of our church or our stipends?

Were we testing our personal lives by

how we were loving our families and keeping a good balance?

Or how well our spouses and children fit into our ministries

and made us look good?

So, the first question before we ever begin to test the wall

is – what is our plumbline?

The prophet Isaiah described the plumbline of the Lord…

what God uses for a plumbline.

Justice was its line and righteousness its plummet.

Paul offered a plumbline in the very opening of his letter to the Colossians.

To lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to God:

In other words…Love God with all your soul.

To be filled with the knowledge of God’s will

in all spiritual wisdom and understanding:

Love God with all your mind.

To bear fruit in every good work,

your strength coming from God’s glorious power:

Love God with all your might.

To have patient endurance in difficult times

and giving joyful thanks to the Father:

Love God with all your heart.

God looks for his people to seek justice and to live in right-relationships.

We are pointed to a plumbline that measures how our lives are lived in loving God.

And so, a lawyer once asked Jesus

What should the plumbline of my life be?

What is it that will save me from darkness?

and transfer me into God’s kingdom?

In the lawyer’s words,

What am I to do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus helps him figure it out for himself

And his answer to his own question is:

Love God with all your heart, your soul, your might, your mind.

Love your neighbor as your self.

That’s a good plumbline, rabbi,

but what is exactly meant by ‘neighbor’?

A neighbor is someone who lives in your neighborhood, right?

Someone you share your vegetables with in the summer

and your fruit cake with at Christmas.

A neighbor watches over your house

and collects your mail and newspapers for you when you’re out of town.

A good neighbor keeps their house and yard presentable

and doesn’t play loud music late at night.

Good neighbors are people who live near each other and help each other out.

And so Jesus tells the story of the three men walking down a road

who see the beaten, half-dead victim of a roadside robbery.

The priest sees the victim, crosses over to the far side of the road

and keeps going.

A levite coming along does the same thing.

How could they?

Well, their plumbline told them to.

They both were closely associated with the very heart of Jewish life

– the worship of Yahweh in the Temple.

To touch the dead or almost dead would compromise their cleanliness

and defile the sacred worship.

And then the Samaritan, a man of Samaria,

a region and a people that Jews disdained.

A people, once Jews, once part of the good wall that Yahweh had built

but who had gone wrong, given up the true worship of God.

A people whose life and worship was a travesty against God.

A part of the wall that might as well be demolished.

A Samaritan sees the dying man and stops

and goes to great lengths to see to the man’s care.

Who is the true neighbor?

Not the one who uses one plumbline in relationship to God

and another completely different plumbline in relation to people.

Not one who would ever get so out of plumb

As to think that in order to love God

means to withhold love from people.

Part of Jesus’ story is that there is one plumbline and only one

that we are to live by that guides all other lesser ones.

If the plumbline is love of God and love of neighbor,

then it is not human pretenses or positions or proximity

that determine who we are to love.

It is the command to love that is to rule us, keep us in line,

in plumb with God and with our true selves.

And through his example of the Good Samaritan’s correct plumbline

Jesus is clear:

The command to love, the greatest commandment of all,

is the perfect and dependable plumbline

Jesus’ command to love

and his unfailing use of that plumbline in his earthly life

gives us something to go on

and Jesus himself becomes the plumbline for us.

Again, from Paul’s letter:

Christ himself is before all things

And in him all things hold together.

In him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

And through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things.

[vs 17-20]

God was pleased to get all things in line with God’s self thru Christ.

It’s good to get our plumblines out occasionally

To test how we are living our lives.

When we say the general confession together in a few minutes

We will hear the plumbline right in the center of our words:

We have not loved you with all our hearts.

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

When we use the best plumbline,

God is able to work in our hearts, souls, minds and strength

to get us in line!