Each week we carefully curate a collection of poems that resonate with the lectionary readings for that week (Narrative Lectionary and Revised Common Lectionary).
*** Revised Common Lectionary ***
Lectionary Reading:
Amos 7:7-15
CLASSIC POEM:
He Stood with a Plumb Line
William Bryant
Over Jerusalem’s ramparts
Tekoa’s herdsman saw
The shadow of God’s almighty hand,
With the symbol of perfect law;
His right hand upheld the plumb line,
Which measures each break and flaw.
See how he measures the nation–
The priests, the prophets, the kings;
Where is the grand uprightness
Of which the poet sings?
Where the simple truthful living —
The holy imaginings?
He measures each law and tradition,
Each custom of home and store;
Each habit of field and vineyard,
Each dweller on mount and shore —
That true, unwavering plumb line
Searches each heart to the core.
But is Jerusalem only
Thus tried by the Lord’s plumb line?
Will it find no flaws and bendings
In your life, my brother and mine?
Is it strange that man should tremble
Under this test divine?
He tries our civilization,
Our boasted customs and laws;
He tries all our institutions
By a test that reveals all flaws:
That shows not only the evils,
But unmasks the vital cause.
Will our churches bear the plumb line?
Are they liberal, pure and true?
Are you giving that love to others
Which the Lord has given to you?
Will my life stand the test that tries me,
And searches me through and through?
Ah but not nations and churches
Alone must endure the test.
Am I, and are you, my brother,
Giving God our very best?
Is our chief desire and longing
That other’s through us be blest?
O searching and awful plumb line
In Thy hand O God of might!
Will no one come to the rescue,
And make us, like Thee upright?
Is there no fountain of cleansing,
Where our souls may be made white?
Yes! for the God of the plumb line,
The God of the awful test,
Is the God who pities and saves us —
The Father who loves us best;
Who removes all our dark transgressions
Far as the east from the west.
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
CONTEMPORARY POEM:
Plumb Line
Mark Wagenaar
SNIPPET:
The plumber’s flashlight shines on the meniscus
of water atop the drain’s face, blank obsidian
to full moon in an instant, moon for a drunken
cricket to drown in…
…
[ READ THE FULL POEM ]
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