READING:
Amos 7:7–17

God’s Plumb-Line in a Tilted World

She sat alone on the pavement outside the Swedish Parliament, a simple hand-painted placard beside her: Skolstrejk för klimatet – School Strike for Climate. No sound system. No platform. No shouting. Just a teenage girl, small and still, in a world that never stops moving. At 16, Greta Thunberg wasn’t demanding attention. She was making space for truth. She didn’t yell; she held silence like a mirror. And somehow, in that silence, everything else grew louder: our compromises, our excuses, our imbalance.

Greta became a plumb-line.

A plumb line

A plumb-line itself is a simple tool. You might have used one if you’ve ever done any decorating. It’s just a weighted string that shows whether a wall is straight or leaning—a must-have if you’re wallpapering an older house. But in today’s Bible reading, the plumb-line isn’t for DIY. It’s a tool in the hands of a prophet. A way to measure what is true, and help people realign their lives with the justice of God.

In Amos 7, God is pictured standing beside a wall, plumb-line in hand. And God says to Amos, “I am setting a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel.” It’s a startling image: God measuring not religious devotion, but social structure. Not private piety, but public justice.

The vision

And what does the divine line reveal? A nation out of alignment. A people claiming God but neglecting the poor. A religious elite blessing kings while the kingdom crumbles.

It’s an uncomfortable vision—especially for those inside the temple. Because the message isn’t for outsiders. It’s for insiders. For the people at Bethel. The ones in charge. The ones who sing the right songs but have gone deaf to the cries of the vulnerable.

No prophet but a herdsman

Amos, as we learn, wasn’t a career prophet. “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son,” he says. “I am a herdsman, a dresser of sycomore trees.” He comes from the edges—from the fields, not the palace. His hands smell of earth, not incense. He doesn’t prophesy for profit or applause. He speaks because he cannot stay silent.

And for that, Amaziah, the royal priest, tells him to go home.

“You’re upsetting things. Take your doom-saying back to Judah.
This is the king’s sanctuary.
This is a place for stability, not disruption.”

But the plumb-line doesn’t ask permission.

Greta Thunberg, too, didn’t come from power or prestige. She wasn’t part of the environmental establishment or some global NGO. She was a teenager with autism, skipping school with a cardboard sign. But her presence—quiet, determined, inconvenient—became a kind of judgment. She didn’t need to raise her voice. Her being there was enough.

Like Amos, she exposed a system built askew. Where leaders offered delay instead of action. Where hope was packaged in promises while the earth burned. Like Amos, she provoked discomfort—so some dismissed her, mocked her, or told her to be quiet. Amaziahs, all of them.

But prophets don’t stop speaking just because their voice is unwelcome.

Amos shows us that God does not always work through authorised channels. Sometimes God speaks through herdsmen and teenagers. Through whistle-blowers and those who grieve in public. Through survivors, scientists, and mothers with nothing left to lose.

Are we listening ?

The question is: are we listening?

At the heart of Amos 7 is a tension we know all too well: the tension between comfort and conviction. We want our holy places to be sanctuaries—not sites of disruption. But sometimes God unsettles the sanctuary because the world outside is on fire.

A plumb-line doesn’t lie. It doesn’t shout or threaten. It just shows: this is where truth falls. And everything out of line must either be corrected—or it will fall on its own.

A plumb line for today

So what are our plumb-lines today? What might God be holding up to us?

Perhaps it’s a plumb-line stretched across our economic systems. With God’s help, we might bravely ask: do our systems serve the poor, or protect the powerful? In a world where the gap between rich and poor continues to grow—where some hoard wealth while others queue at food banks—can we truly say we are aligned with the justice of God?

Or perhaps the plumb-line appears as we confront the needs of our world. In the face of ecological collapse, do our lives align with the rhythms of the earth—or are we complicit in its destruction? We speak of stewardship, but continue to live in ways that exhaust the planet. The plumb-line hangs not only over our industries, but over our homes, our habits, our consumption.

Then there’s truth-telling. Are we committed to truth even when it costs us comfort or reputation? Or are we more inclined to protect institutions and traditions, even when they wound? God’s plumb-line is not afraid of exposure. It seeks alignment not with image, but with integrity. And the invitation, always, is to return to what is true.

This is why Amos still matters. This is why Greta matters. Because they both remind us that holiness is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of integrity. Holiness is a wall built true.

The Good news

And here’s the good news: God doesn’t measure to condemn. God measures to save. The plumb-line is not about punishment—it’s about rebuilding. It is an invitation. An intervention. A call to repentance—not just from personal sin, but from structural wrong.

We are here to live differently. To point not to ourselves, but to Christ—the one who aligned his life with the will of God, even unto death. The one who spoke against power but loved the powerful. The one who embraced the poor and exposed the lies we’ve built our world on.

So maybe today we’re called to stop defending walls that are already crumbling. Maybe we’re called to become builders of something straighter, something truer. A community that lines up with love. A sanctuary that still speaks out. A church that knows when to sit quietly with a sign—and when to speak words that may not be safe, but are true.

Let justice roll down like waters, said Amos.
Let a young girl sit down and change the world.
Let the Church be brave enough to listen.
And may each of us ask, with trembling honesty:
Where do I need to realign my life…
with God’s plumb-line?