2nd Week of Advent: Good News of Judgment

Amos 7:1-9

Then the LORD said,
“See, I am setting a plumb line
   in the middle of my people Israel. 

A plumb line was a line with a weight at the end of it. The line, of course, would hang straight down. So if you were building a wall that was leaning. The wall touching the plumb line would warn you that your wall wasn’t straight.

In today’s passage from the prophet Amos, God threatens disastrous punishment twice on Israel. Twice, Amos pleads on Israel’s behalf. And twice, God relents. But at some point, if you ignore the plumb line and keep building an unstable wall, it’s bound to fall, whether God relents or not.

Advent is not a time to wait in fear for God’s judgment. It is a time to let God’s plumb line take the measure of our lives, and trust in God’s power to forgive and heal. What is not straight, in our personal lives, in our churches, in our world? Advent is not a time to ignore the judgment of the plumb line, but to face it in hope.