“Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” – Amos 7:8
I’m always hesitant to bring up things that originate from the larger Christian world that I consider bad ideas. There used to be a never ending stream of dumb ideas floating over from Evangelicalism. Even that term I don’t exactly like because it doesn’t really describe that movement or the churches that they form. There really is no consistent theology believed, taught or confessed. It varies church to church and pastor to pastor although most of it is vaguely Baptist. I like the historian Miles Smith’s term, Folk Religion. There is a core of general doctrine, but more important are the feelings and practices. And those practices are ever changing and morphing as the folk themselves change. That is both the power and the danger. American Evangelicalism is often able to meet the moment and a folk practice can spread rapidly, but it can also spread terrible ideas just as fast.
One of those ideas goes by the name “Faith Deconstruction.” The general idea behind it I believe is a healthy one. Over the last 50 years in this folk religion evangelicalism there have been lots of practices and beliefs that have attached themselves and even moved into central identity roles. The original faith deconstructionists undertook to examine some of those practices and beliefs and be more discriminating if they deserved a central place. I’d take that general idea has something of what Paul would mean by “examine yourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5)” or “work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).” We should take note of our faith and practice. Satan is tricky and our hearts are idol factories. But folk religion is and was a terrible basis to do that from. Being concerned primarily with personal feelings and practices, it had no “plumb line”. Or the only plumb line was the individual heart. And so faith deconstruction, which has spawned an entire genre of memoirs about it, became not a healthy spiritual practice, but a method often to ditch the faith all together, or to re-craft the faith into exactly what our sinful hearts desire.
This is exactly where folk religion/evangelicalism needs its confessional spine like the Lutheran Church. In our Old Testament Reading for the day (Amos 7:7-15), God tells the prophet Amos what he is doing with the Northern Kingdom of Israel. “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel (Amos 7:8).” And what is the purpose of a plumb line? It is to see if the wall constructed is straight. Is what has been built, built square, built to last? Or is it crooked and destined to fall? In Israel’s case it is all destined to be taken down. “The high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste (Amos 7:9).” What the folk religion of Israel had built was crooked and needed to be deconstructed in a radical way. But the question for us is: What is the plumb line?
The answer is first the scriptures. If someone says search your heart in spiritual matters, that is bad advice. In spiritual things, in the things of God, you start with the Word of God. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you (Micah 6:8).” Resting under the authority of Scripture the church through the ages has found certain expressions of the faith to be wholly consistent with the scriptures. The creeds which we confess and the Small Catechism fall into that category. We believe, teach and confess them because they are a right understanding. To faith deconstruct one needs a plumb line. And we have been given one. Although we often disdain it. Just as Amaziah the priest and Jeroboam the King said to Amos when he held up the plumb line of God. “Seer, go, flee to Judah, and eat there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the King’s sanctuary and it is a temple of the Kingdom (Amos 7:12).” We often prefer our sanctuary and our temple, the King’s sanctuary and temple, our folk religion over the religion of Jesus.
But we don’t get rid of God and his plumb line so easily. Amos’ reply to the High Priest and King, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ (Amos 7:14-15)” The word of God, that plumb line, has a way of sticking around. And God is not embarrassed to have his humble witnesses. Amos might never get a book contract for his memoir, but he has a plumb line. And what is not straight shall come down.