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In his comments about today’s scripture, Dr. David Garber draws from art. He quotes from a memorable scene. 

“You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting,” mocks Prince Adhemar, as he admonishes William, a young squire posing as a knight in the 2001 movie adaptation of Chaucer’s “A Knight’s Tale.”

But when young William defeats the cocky Prince Adhemar in the final jousting contest, the tables are turned. He and his friends repeat these words back to the fallen knight. “You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting.” 

Maybe the mouthy prince wasn’t as good at doing as he thought he was. Maybe he didn’t know who he was as well as he thought.

In Amos 7: 7-15, God sends the prophet in part to help the people of Israel see more clearly who they are and who they aren’t. They have been part of what the Old Testament made clear was a chosen people, a holy nation. At least that was God’s intent originally. 

Now, God has weighed and measured them. Or, to use Amos’ vision and words, they are found not to be square with God’s plumb line. 

Last weekend’s violent attack on a former U.S. president is fresh on most of our minds. I found the whole experience to be surreal and horrifying. Regardless of party affiliation or personal opinions, surely we must agree as civilized humans that this is not the way to respond to differences. 

Violence is never an acceptable reaction to ethnic, ideological, cultural, or religious differences. Is it possible we could agree on that? We have democracy in place in America precisely to give us a system to work out these differences. 

Sometimes, the elections or policy votes go your way or mine. We could go through a season or chapter where we feel like our side has racked up a series of defeats. But that’s our system. In a civilized society, we get ready and prepare to vote on another day. 

I fear we’ve largely lost touch with the civilized side that America says she stands for. Like some of the leaders heard from the prophets, we have begun to set our own way and confuse that with religion. I fear that we have become addicted to war, violence, and conflict as the first and now preferred choice when differences arise. 

Amos had a difficult job. He was a “come here” up in Israel’s northern kingdom. As a prophet, he also was an outsider. 

You see, the king of Israel had insulated himself from unwanted opinions. He had professional prophets at the royal synagogue. They were an easier audience if he ever wanted to try to get a spiritual blessing for a notion that might not otherwise square with God. 

This arrangement should remind us of one historically Baptist principle. The alignment of government and religion is always a perilous one. I realize some of you will disagree with that. But history bears this out, and so does over four hundred years of Baptist belief. 

Let me be clear, in light of recent events, we as a nation have become so numb to violence that we hardly notice shootings anymore unless they involve a high political leader. If God sent an Amos to truly prophesy among us today, he might insist that we are on the wrong side collectively from God’s plumb line. We have been weighed and measured and found to be lacking. 

If you and I truly desire peace, we have to do something. If you and I truly desire goodness and justice, we have to do something. If you and I truly want civility and democracy, then we must understand that it all begins with us. 

Words without action are empty. Intents without follow-up are shallow. Principles without consistency are omissions. I believe it is high time for us to stop saying that our nation is out of whack, but there’s nothing we can do about it. 

Have you supported a system that has only made things more violent and less civilized? Do you say you want integrity but then participate in spreading untruths? 

If you have prayed lately and asked God when that very God is going to do something to fix our nation, then consider this. If you listen, God’s reply just might be, “Funny. I was about to ask you the very same thing.”

DR. CHARLES QUALLS is senior pastor at Franklin Baptist Church. Contact him at 757-562-5135.