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One of my favorite descriptions of God is “architect of the universe”. I just imagine God sitting as his drawing desk, protractor, and pencil in hand, intricately measuring and designing a far-off planet for His good pleasure. In this weekend’s reading from Amos, we hear about God using a plumb line as a way to measure their faithfulness to him. If you didn’t know, a plumb line historically been used to survey property and boundary lines. 

The days of Amos were not unlike our day today. The time in which Amos was living (8th century B.C.) was a time of great power and prestige for the Kingdom of Israel, but this wealth and power also led to great iniquity and division between the urban elite and the rural villages. Amos’ most famous saying is 5:24, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos was a small-time farmer who didn’t regard himself as a prophet but was instructed by God to prophesy to the Kingdom of Israel. Indeed, chapter 7 ends, “Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.” By the end of the 8th century BC, Israel would be conquered by the Assyrians. 

This is not the way God originally designed His creation, warring, conquering, iniquity, and division. The blueprint God has for us might seem daunting or unreachable. While He commands us “to be holy as I am holy” (Leviticus 21:8; Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 1:16) we know we fall short. But we have a plumb line. We have the blueprint. We have a way, when He picks us up after we fall, to follow the straight and narrow. Fulfilled in Jesus Christ and written in Holy Scripture, the Word of God speaks to us today like it did to Amos those many centuries ago, continually designing and forming us into a new creation.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Zach