Readings for Proper 6B:
Amos 7:7-15
July 16, 2006
The Rev. Karen Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino, CA
And the Lord said to Amos: “See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by...” [Amos 7] Today, I would like to talk about plumb lines, prophecy, and developing our moral compass. I will use the reading from the book of Amos as my text.
A plumb line is a cord with a lead weight. The weight holds the cord in an exact vertical to the earth’s surface and thus allows the builder to detect if a wall is out of alignment. In earthquake country (which includes most of the Near East and California), a leaning wall is in danger of falling. For safety reasons, it might be better to destroy and rebuild the wall to ensure that it will not completely fall and crumble in the future. Today, builders have more sophisticated tools than plumb lines to determine the verticality of a wall. But the principle remains the same. In the reading from the prophet Amos, the image of a plumb line is used as a metaphor for pointing out “just how far out of alignment” the people of Israel are with the ethical demands of the faith. God has given the people of Israel “direction” on how to comport themselves as a holy community. The direction in which the people of Israel are to aim is one of justice, generosity, kindness, and faithfulness to God and each other.
However, in the time of Amos (around 750 years before the birth of Christ), the people of Israel were doing just the opposite. The Northern Kingdom of Israel was experiencing a period of relative peace and prosperity. Yet in spite of their prosperity, there were significant abuses in the legal system, tremendous deceit in business interactions, oppression of the poor, people being falsely accused and sold into slavery, partying in the temple precinct, and immoral sexual conduct. It was into this context that Amos (“a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees”) traveled to the Northern Kingdom of Israel to share the word of the Lord. He did not bring good news!
Amos basically tells the people that their moral compass is so broken that God is going to have to start over. God will tear down the wall (i.e. Israel) and begin again. This means that their government will fall, the land will be conquered, many will be killed by the sword, and the rest will be forcibly exiled to another country. Of course, no one wanted to hear this bad news; not the institutional Church and certainly not the government.
In general, most people do not want to be challenged or to have their failings pointed out. Most people want to continue doing what they are doing (even if it is wrong) without guilt or repercussions. They have a tendency to ignore prophetic voices that make them uncomfortable and require a change in lifestyle. And so when people do hear prophetic voices, they often respond by discrediting the messenger, closing their ears, putting their heads in the sand, becoming defensive, or simply justifying the status quo. But the vocation of a prophet is not about making people feel good. It is about discerning God’s will and telling others if and how they are out of alignment with God’s will. Prophets usually have no pension plan because their tenure is often brief.
Amos was eventually run out of town. About 25 years after his prophecy, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians. Many were killed by the sword while others were sold into slavery and exiled from the land. A nations whose morals are out of alignment with God’s will, often do not survive in the long run.
A compass is a device for determining the directions of the earth’s surface by the means of a magnetic needle. It lets you know where you are going. A moral compass also lets you know where you going, whether it is in a life-giving direction or a destructive direction. A moral compass is that inner sense of right and wrong that directs us into making choices based compassion, harmony, and consideration for the other. For Christians, our moral compass is set by the 10 commandments, our baptismal vows, and the teachings of Jesus. Unfortunately for many, their moral compass has lost its needle. They are making decisions that are out of alignment with God’s will. This creates great pain and suffering that is darkening our lives, our families, our society, and the world.
When I googled the words moral compass+lost, I came across pages of articles by politicians, philosophers, sociologist, teachers, reporters, and theologians who all believe that we have lost our moral compass. Many of them believe that the breakdown of character is the #1 crisis in America (both on a personal level and political level). Why has this happened and what are we to do? Here are some insights.
1. There are no absolute standards anymore. You do your thing and I will do mine. Relativism is the belief that there are no absolute truths or standards; that what is right or wrong is relative to the person holding that opinion; that there are no ethical standards that are definitive for all people. This sense of relativism has developed over the last 200 years but coalesced in the 1960’s. *The existential writers such as Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre took our college campuses by storm, arguing that God was dead and that values did not exist and that life has no purpose. For them, the object of life was to overcome nothingness by our own heroic effort. Relativism gave way to extreme tolerance. “In an attempt to be tolerant, we have wiped out all the rules...It is hard these days to find a standard to which we can hold people. Our moral compass gyrates wildly. There is no true north. But history shows us this is not a sustainable trait.” [The Question of Ethics by Charles Colson]
2. For reasons that are complex and not well understood, we seem to be seeing more children whose moral compass is broken. These children do not seem to care about anything other than themselves. These are not only children raised in foster homes but also children from loving families. Gregory Ramey offers some suggestions on helping our children develop a moral compass. It begins with spending time building a trusting relationship with your child in the early years. This bonding takes a lot of time and can not be relegated to someone else. When your child misbehaves, talk to them about the impact that behavior has on others rather than simply punishing the child. Allow your children to experience appropriate guilt. Your child should feel guilty when they do something bad to others. Let your child experience this pain and do not rush in to reassure and try to take away uncomfortable feelings. Finally, talk about moral values and issues. Helping our children develop a moral compass may be one of the most important gifts we can offer them.
3. We need to listen to our prophets and not discount them. Liberals need to listen to conservative prophets who speak about the decline in virtue, narcissism, hedonism, and lack of self-control. Conservatives need to listen to progressive prophets who strive for social justice, peace, and the dignity of every person. The national budget is a moral issue! Instead of becoming defensive when we hear something that we do not agree with, we need to become critical- self-critical that is. We need to carefully analyzing our defensive posture and try to find out if there is any truth in what the prophet might be saying. What do you think Amos would say to us today and would we also run him out of town? Would you invite him to be your rector?
4. We are self-obsessed, so concerned about our own needs, desires, and feelings. We act as if the universe revolves around us. *Self-gratification is the true value system in America today. This destroys our character because it takes away the basis of ethics in society. Self-obsession destroys character because it permits no accountability. People are not held accountable for their actions. “We live in what Saul Bellow calls the Golden Age of Exoneration. Everything is excused because we failed to get proper training as children, because we grew up in dysfunctional families, because of something that has happened to us.” [The Question of Ethics by Charles Colson]
Is there a way out of all this? How do we do the right thing in the face of the mad pursuit of pleasure, the desire for revenge and punishment, the expectations of others, fear, hurt, and unhappiness? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Come follow me.” In Christ, we have been set apart as children of God; people destined to be transformed into his image. We need to move into the sphere of his grace where the power of God can do more than we could ever hope or image. We need to make a commitment to follow our baptismal covenant rather than the path of pleasure and self-obsession. We need to hear the word of God on a regular basis in order to counteract the word of materialism that bombards us every day. We need to practice the spiritual disciplines as a means of moving away from the self into the realm of God who longs for justice, peace, and the dignity of every human being. When we surrender our life to Christ, life does not necessarily become easy. But it does restore our moral compass so that we can make decisions that engender compassion, kindness, generosity, and peace.
Christopher Hoenig tells a story about a time when he worked as a consultant. Under the influence of jet lag, a lack of sleep, and a 14 hour day, he left a stack of sensitive materials in the parking lot. In the middle of the night he woke up and realized his mistake. He was filled with fear, shame and the desire for self-preservation. After hours of deliberation, he came up with a plan. In the morning before anyone could confront him, he walked straight into the office of his client’s CEO, confessed the magnitude of his error and took full responsibility. He asked to take the full blame (not his firm) and to be removed from the job. After a moment of hesitation, the CEO smiled and said he had just displayed the character he wanted working for him and that he would be proud to have Christopher continue on the project.
“O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have the grace and power faithfully to accomplish them, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” [Collect of the Day, BCP 231]
| Updated 7/16/06 |
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