In Jesus Holy Name July 14, 2024
Text: Mark 6:14 & Amos 7:8b Pentecost VIII Redeemer
“Warnings & Consequences of A Plumb Line”
I imagine the Old Testament prophet Amos would agree with the title of this message.
Let me tell you about Amos. Amos was a shepherd from the wilderness area of southern Judah. He was called by God to give warning to the people of the ten northern tribes. Now, before he ever opened his mouth Amos had two strikes against him: first, he was a blue-collar preacher speaking to a white-collar congregation.
Second, Amos didn't have the proper credentials for a prophet, the official pedigree that the people preferred. You see, the people to whom Amos was preaching were having a grand time; they thought they were doing just fine, and they were content with things just the way they were.
Their king, Jeroboam, would reign for 41 years. (add a bit of history on how he came to power and God’s promise to him) refer to map in bulletin
During that time, the powerful people had prospered; a new class of wealth had come to prominence. For some, life was good. But to God, everything was overshadowed by some serious sin. True, the rich had gotten richer, but the poor had been oppressed. Even worse, the king did that which was "evil in the sight of the Lord" (2 Kings 14:24).
As countless governments have done, still do, the king tried to cement the people's loyalty to him by promoting his own religion, denying the truth of the Bible. The king encouraged the people to worship Baal, a party god, a pleasure god, a deity of sensual sacrifice. Don’t worry about the Commandments, they were meant for a by gone age.
Amazingly, instead of immediate punishment… God sent Amos to set the people straight. "Seek Me and live" was God's call to repentance. God's words of warning were quickly countered by the local prophets who were content with the status quo. Their calming comments were supported by the government which said if things are so bad; and God is so mad, why hasn't He punished us before now? You see, the job of a prophet would be made easier if God stepped on sin right away. At any rate, Amos went unheard.
That's when God gave him a vision. The vision showed God standing on a wall... a stone wall, representing His disobedient people. In this vision, God asked Amos, "What do you see?" Amos said I see "a plumb line." A plumb line was a weight at the end of a cord used by builders to check that a wall was straight and solid.
In this vision, the plumb line represented God's commandments. Knowing that the people were ignoring Him, the Lord warned: "Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them." It was God's way of saying: I've been forgiving in the past, but no more.
The time is coming when the people will be punished; the day of reckoning is just around the corner; my grace is at an end. The vision of God's plumb line said the wall of God's people is way out of whack, and the wall is going to come down.
In verse nine the Lord got specific as to what that would mean. He said: The sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. I will rise with the sword against the house of the king. And His warnings of destruction upon an unrepentant people soon became a reality. (in 722 B.C. the Assyrians conquered the ten tribes)
Thoughts from Ken Klaas Lutheran Hour Amos 7 #73-44
In our gospel lesson we find that another King and those around him were also quite comfortable with their present circumstance. Yes, Herod had been warned. He had heard the words of John the Baptizer…condemning his behavior….Herod liked to listen to John; but Herodias did not. She wanted John killed for opposing their “immoral decisions.” Herodias, liked her present situation…. And she, like those to whom Amos proclaimed God’s coming judgment, was not concerned about the coming eternal judgment of God.
So what was the king's outrageous sin? The ruler of Galilee, Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, like many people, found himself falling in love. But Herod's love was complicated by a few difficulties. First, Herod was already married - married to a princess whose father was understandably put out when his daughter was cast off like a worn-out, old shoe and sent back home to her father.
The other difficulty, for Herod and his new love, was the fact that she was both his niece and she was currently married to his brother, Philip. Talk about crazy family dynamics! You might rightly understand that the Lord took a dim view of Herod's double incest.
Never a person to mince words, John the Baptist was no shy wallflower. He preached repentance from sin. He thoroughly and repeatedly condemned the ruler's immoral relationship. For his efforts John found himself locked away in the high security fortress-prison. Even though Herod had been blinded by love, he still had enough vision to know the Lord frowns upon monarchs who mess with His men of prophecy. Prison kept John’s voice quiet and the problem out of the papers.
Comforted by the knowledge that his arrest of the Baptizer had effectively taken his criticism off the streets and away from the ears of the people, Herod was content. There was no need for him to do anything more. John would simply stay imprisoned until he died, or he shut up. That was Herod's plan. It was a good plan, and it might have worked if Herod had not, at his birthday party, when over come by wine and an erotic dance performed by Herodias’s daughter, Herod promised the teenager anything she wanted. Even half his kingdom.
Do you think Herodias felt embarrassed by the words of God’s truth that came through the voice of John? No, that’s why she requested the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod was distressed but he gave in to peer pressure.
Shortly after John's body had been buried, reports began to make their way to the palace and Herod's ear. These were stories about a Man who, like John, was preaching with authority; stories about an individual who, like John, was calling people to repentance and the kingdom of heaven; stories about a Person who was giving sight to the blind, mobility to the lame, and bringing the dead back to life.
People in the palace wanted to know who the new preacher from Galilee was. Different suggestions were put forward. Some thought: "It's John the Baptizer who had been raised from the dead." That idea worried Herod, who had a guilty conscience. He knew his acts were wrong and they hung around his neck like an albatross. He thought Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead. But he failed to investigate the real Jesus.
Mark “through Herod” is asking the reader the same question which the disciples, the man on the street and in the palace of Herod must answer. He finds himself in a difficult situation. He has made an oath which according to the cultural and legal customs of the time he must keep. But keeping the oath means killing a man of God. Herod gave in to peer pressure, and put aside moral truth for the convenience of the moment.
How do you and I answer the “moral” questions that confront us? How do we find answers to the problems in life?
The first lesson: When you find yourself in a puzzling moral dilemma it is a wise thing to look at what got you in the dilemma in the first place. What warning did you not heed? King Herod's problem is that he did not heed the original warning.
The second lesson: Promises made in haste create great waste. A great example of this can be found in the words of George W. Bush’s campaign promise, "Read my lips, no new taxes." It was a great line at the moment and helped in his election, but it was his undoing in his reelection campaign because he broke that promise.
Promises and decisions made in haste will bring down empires, topple kings, destroy businesses, ruin marriages, cripple lives, drive wedges between us and our children. A nation will suffer.
This brings us to our third and final lesson: pressures in life can affect good judgment. It doesn't matter your station in life. All of us experience pressures and they come at us every day. And these pressures will influence the decisions you make. Do you have a “core” set of values that will influence your decisions. If you do not have a “core” set of values your life decisions will be like a kite in the wind.
Do not disregard the commandments of God. They are a plumb line to keep our life decisions straight. All of us, every one of us, because of our sinful natures, are dead people walking. We have all sinned against God; we have all strayed from His plan of perfection and we all stand condemned. We are dead people walking.
God's plumb line and sentence of condemnation has been passed; and it will be carried out. When? I don't know. Today? Before the end of this calendar year? Possibly. The day of God's patience will, along with your earthly life, come to an end.
So that God's judgment day plumb line might find you acceptable, God's Son, Jesus, paid the price our disobedience. Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, Jesus entered this world. True man so He would be one of us, true God, so He could defeat sin, death, and devil; Jesus spent His entire life waging the battle for our salvation.
When the devil tried to detour Jesus from the path to the cross; when Satan held out another route, an easier route, a less painful route, Jesus said, "No." Jesus was always about His Father's business, Jesus invested His life in our salvation He walked the painful path to the cross and purchased our redemption. We have been forgiven and are expected to live out God’s values in our culture.
Our nation and our lives are in the throws of a moral crisis regarding God’s plumb line of values. There are always pressures that come into our lives at work, and the lives of our leaders to lie a little here, cheat a little there, disregard the commandments. But these are the plumb line for our security and safety.
May God grant each of us the ability to keep in “step with His Holy Spirit.”
