When I was working, I often chuckled to myself at some of the ridiculous buzzwords and phrases used in the corporate world. To me, these words often obscured ideas that would have been better expressed in plain language. More seriously, the legal world seems to have a language all of its own, as do other professions. When I became a school governor, I discovered the horror of all the acronyms used.
Recent reports have highlighted a growing awareness that those who use these ‘special phrases’ most often are sometimes the people who achieve the least. They can be impractical and ill-equipped for real day-to-day problem-solving. Rhetoric and delivery are not necessarily the same thing.
Amos 7:1-9 is a passage about judgement and the effect of intercession within God’s forgiving nature. After two judgements have been threatened, Amos relays God’s illustration of a plumb line being used to measure the genuineness of the people. This is not quite the same as the problem created by a cloud of complex language, and yet the gift of plain speaking is often also the gift of exposing truth.
In our life of faith, we may use language that is opaque to outsiders. In corporate worship, we may use words and phrases that new worshippers have no hope of understanding on first hearing. What use is that?
For example, if we speak of being ‘washed in the blood’ or ask people to pray for ‘travelling mercies’, long-time churchgoers may understand at once, but a newcomer may be left puzzled or even unsettled. In the same way, phrases such as ‘opening your heart to the Lord’ may mean a great deal to believers, yet sound strange to someone hearing them for the first time, with connotations of a medical emergency.
We need a linguistic plumb line to cut through the fog of mystery, to pay no heed to spin, and not to reward eloquence for its own sake. We need a linguistic plumb line that simply shows the truth.
We should not need to explain the meaning of the words we use when we are professing faith and talking about Jesus. The simple words of the Good Friday hymn There Is a Green Hill Far Away put it clearly: ‘he died to make us good’ so that ‘we might go at last to heaven’. Amos wanted his hearers to find God’s love, not his judgement, and the plumb line is a way of knowing how we measure up.
A prayer
Lord, give me grace to speak simply and truthfully, with words that point clearly to you. Strip away what is empty or confusing, and help me live and speak with honesty, love, and humility. Measure my heart by your truth and lead me always into your mercy. Amen.