Amos 7:7-17 (Luke 10:25-37)
Plumb Lines, Measuring Sticks, and Idolatry
James Sledge July
10, 2016
I
recently stumbled upon the website of an innovative, urban, Presbyterian Church
in another city. Its homepage said simply, “Recess. Closed for Sunday Worship:
July 3 & 10,” with a link where you could “Learn More.” There it spoke of “an active pause… essentially, a sabbath for
the system.”[1]
There were online liturgies available, but no church.
I
was intrigued, and so I showed it to a group of colleagues at a pastor lunch a
few weeks ago. One pastor, who shall remain nameless, immediately said, “O how
wonderful to be closed on July 3rd and not to have to worry about worshipping
the flag.”
The
connection to July Fourth had escaped me, perhaps because I’ve never been part
of a church where people in uniform march the flag around during worship. I’m thankful
to live in this country and happy to share my thanks in worship, but hopefully
we never forget that we gather to worship God, that our ultimate allegiance is
to our Lord, Jesus Christ.
I
hope that, but letting other things get between us and God seems to be a
chronic human problem. We don’t usually construct altars or golden calves, but
we have all manner of things we honor, serve, or give loyalty to other than
God. It is not unusual for them to be well ahead of God on our priority lists.
And by definition, whatever sits at the top of the list is our god.
These
gods may be security, wealth, power, nation, family, our political views, or simply
self-indulgence. Regardless of the god, people will try to enlist their religion
for support. People who worship money may say, “God wants you to be rich.”
Racists, homophobes, and Islamophobes imagine a god who hates those they hate. More
subtly, those of us who worship at the altar of consumerism may think of faith
or spirituality as one more item for our shopping carts. Jesus is not our Lord,
our God, but an element of our actual faith, one which promises us happiness
and fulfillment if we have enough of all the right things.
The
theological term for all this is idolatry,
and Presbyterian tradition has long spoken of it as a fundamental human
problem. The Presbyterian Book of Order
includes this line in its list of the key themes of our theology: “The
recognition of the human tendency to idolatry and tyranny, which calls the people
of God to work for the transformation of society by seeking justice and living
in obedience to the Word of God.”[2] People
sometimes imagine that faith is a private, personal thing, but our tradition
never has.
Jesus
didn’t either. After all, Jesus said he came to proclaim the Kingdom of God,
and there’s nothing private or “spiritual” about that. The ways of this kingdom
were a stark contrast to the kingdom of Caesar, and so it’s no surprise that
Jesus eventually drew the ire of Roman authorities.
In
our scripture today, the prophet Amos draws the ire of Israel’s authorities. He
says nasty things about Israel’s rulers right there in the national cathedral. It’s
not like the National Cathedral in DC. It’s more like Westminster Abbey in
England, a place where kings were crowned, a place built by a king. The high
priest is clearly on the payroll, and he orders Amos out, telling him, “Never
again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of
the kingdom."
The
priest’s faux pas, his idolatry, is too obvious. The king’s sanctuary? The
kingdom’s temple? Really? Isn’t it God’s?