Grace and peace be yours from God our Sovereign, and from our Lord and savior,
Jesus the Christ, and from the Holy Spirit. Amen.
True accountability to one another is the basis of reconciliation and community.
In the Hebrew scripture lesson for today, Ezekiel understands that he is to be a
messenger for the nation, pointing out to them the failure of their ways. The key
phrase in this text is “house of Israel.” From a faith perspective they were a corporate
personality. This is very similar to the Christian perspective of being the Body of
Christ.
Whether one is speaking of the House of Israel or the Body of Christ, the goal is that
we corporately turn from our sins and be reconciled to one another. But there can be
no reconciliation if there is no accountability to one another.
The ancients knew this. This is why Ezekiel is told that if he fails to point out the errors
of the people, calling them back to a covenant community, then the sins of the people
will be held against him. If he fails in his task as messenger and sentinel, he will be
held accountable for the nation’s fate.
Ezekiel is called to be accountable to the House of Israel. Now, as we all know, it is a
risky thing to call one another to accountability, to speak truth to one another. One
risks disturbing the thin veneer of civility that pretends to be real mutuality and caring.
We as individuals, and corporately as people of faith, fail to speak truth
to one another about life in the hopes that there will be no turmoil, no
upset. We fail to hold one another accountable to live out the ethics and
values we confess to hold. We go on our merry way with all of our codependent behaviors, pretending that everything is all right, ignoring the
elephant in the living room.
Sure there are bad people out there, but they have nothing to do with me, and I have
nothing to do with them. It’s not my problem. That’s what we hire the cops for.
But what if we were to take both the Hebrew and Christian the scriptures seriously?
What if we saw ourselves as a corporate entity, members of the same household,
intimately related to each other, called to be reconciled to the whole?
This week the NFL begins its new season. However this year it is doing so in the light
of a newly announced policy regarding players involved in domestic violence.
Right off the bat, most of us would ask what does that have to do with me? As if I have
no responsibility for that issue. But if we are a community, then there is an
interrelatedness between us.
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The reality is we are a culture of violence, and we are a culture of male dominance.
And as long as we fail to address these issues corporately, and as long as we fail to
see how our own attitudes and actions contribute to the problem, there will never be
any real solution.
We like our sports violent. We applaud and reward aggressiveness on the field. Do
we really believe that when that is your focus as a people, there is simply a switch that
players turn off when you leave the field of play? We like competition, and we love to
win.
The world of sports is full of male domination. How many of us have heard the phrase
you hit or you throw like a girl. A phrase that is not intended to validate female
athleticism, but to denigrate it.
Are you aware that when a favored team is involved in an upset victory, the level of
domestic violence in the homes of fans spikes.
The greatest myth of our time is that violence will fix our problems. Yet all too often we
turn a blind eye towards it, pretending that we ourselves are not part of the problem.
That is, until we go to the next movie, or read the next novel, or turn on the TV for our
fix. …. we are a wholly comprised culture that can’t even imagine the existence of any
althernatives. Why? Because violence is entertaining, exhilarating, and …. It gives
many of us meaning as we identitfy with the winning side.
Another example of our corporate blind eye against violence.
Last week a nine year old girl accidentally shot and killed a gun range shooting
instructor, Charels Vacca. The girl was shooting an Uzi. What nation in its right mind
thinks its okay for a nine year old girl to be learning how to shoot an Uzi. But under the
banner of individualism, we pretend that we have no say in such matters.
And while we might shrink in horror from that story, we continue to escalate the
availability of weapons and violent behavior in our cities. In the last decade “police
departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000
ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision
equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.”
And if they have them, they will use them. All to maintain law and order. Or keep the
peace.
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We are adrenaline junkies. It is difficult to not be enculturated into this world of
violence. But as long as we individually remain free from domestic abuse, or as long
as we don’t use violence against another individual, we excuse ourselves of any
responsibility.
How can we be reconciled to one another if we fail to acknowledge our own part in the
pathology of violence? Or how can we be reconciled in terms of racial identity unless
we acknowledge our own history of racist behavior as a nation?
Behind the gospel lesson for today is the desire that is expressed in the Hebrew
Scriptures. Yahweh says: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the
wicked turn from their ways and live…”
That same hope is reiterated in the psalm for today.
Incline my heart to your decrees and not to unjust gain:
Turn my eyes from beholding falsehood, give me life in your way.
It continues with Paul’s message in Romans. “Let us then lay aside the works of
darkness and put on the armor of light …”
And the Gospel text is all about accountability and reconciliation. And where there is
true accountability there is the promise of true community.
Imagine a world where discussions of violence, or racism, or economic justice for all
people were the norm. Imagine how that might lead to true community and
neighborliness. Imagine a world where the only topic worthy of discussion was the
elephant in the room. Then it not be a thin veneer of civility that holds us together in a
tenuous peace in a world of violence but rather the hard work of mutual accountability
and shared responsibility that binds us together as true community, where justice and
righteousness prevail. Amen
Let us pray:
Almighty God, You have called us to community, you have gathered us to be the body
of Christ, and a light to the nations. Open our hearts, and loosen our tongues that we
might address the elephant in our living room and acknowledge our culpability in the
problems of our society, thereby opening the pathway to true community. Amen.
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